I recently traded out my Bravo 1 and Mikro Slither piggyback set up for this Beautiful Bark River Aurora. The primary reason I made the trade was to reduce a little bit of pack weight and to go with something a bit more traditional. As with all of the Bark River knives I have owned, the Aurora was shaving sharp out of the box and is very easy to keep that way with the wicked convex grind. The BRK&T Aurora has a slightly longer blade, about a quarter of an inch and is thinner than the Bravo 1. The complete specs of the Aurora are:

Overall Length: 9.5 inches
Blade Length: 4.5 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.170 inches
Blade Steel: A2 tool steel
Hardness: 58-59 rc
Weight: 6 ounces
Grind: Full convex grind

I’m a big fan of the “Bushcraft” style knife and the Aurora is just that, plain and simple. Mike Stewart field tested prototypes for over a year before settling on the final Aurora design. It was launched in 2006 and has been Bark River’s flagship larger woods knife since it was introduced, but I think the Bravo 1 will hold that spot very soon. The demand for the Bravo 1 is extremely high and “fill in” production runs and dealer restocking has been constant and consistant this year. Besides saving a bit of pack weight, the Aurora I happened to get has one of the most beautiful burl handles available and Bark River calls it “Big Leaf Maple Burl”. Granted, it’s much harder to locate when I put the knife down than my blaze orange Bravo 1 was, it was a trade I could not turn down.

I didn’t get a whole bunch of use out of the BRK&T Aurora on my last outing, but it did save me from getting rained on. In a pinch I cut out a bunch of tent stakes and cut numerous amounts of cordage to set up a make shift tarp shelter to save the family from a massive down pour. The bushcraft style pouch sheath made it really easy to make a cut, sheath the knife, un-sheath, cut and repeat multiple times to get the job done quickly and efficiently. With the leather sheath for my Bravo 1, it would have taken twice as long to do the same job just based on the differences between the Sharpshooter sheaths. The Aurora sheath hangs a bit lower on the belt compared to the Bravo 1 leather sheath and was more comfortable in my opinion, I didn’t miss the digging into my side while sporting my Bravo 1. The Handle on the Bark River Aurora is a bit longer that the bravo and is really comfortable to hold and use for an extended period of time and I didn’t notice any slip in my grip while using it, even when it was wet. I do miss the thumb ramp of the Bravo 1 (some people like it, some people hate it), I think a small thumb ramp provides a bit more grip to really get the “umph” you need when performing certain tasks.

I will be completing a much more detailed review when I have a chance to really put the Aurora to use and this is more of a first impressions write up. In my opinion the best thing about the Aurora is that it’s made by Bark River Knife and Tool and has one of the best warranties in the knife world, accompanied by the best customer service of any company, anywhere. You really can not go wrong with any of the BRK&T products, they are crafted with excellence, reasonably priced and they will not let you down.