Bark River under the direction of Mike Stewart has grown awesomely in the past few years. Their success is due to two reasons as I see it…excellent knife design by Mike and the wise use of the best steels, A2 being among the best carbon steels around IMHO.
I have two BRK with this fine steel, the Bravo 1 which was designed by Mike for the Marine Corp chaps who infiltrate beyond enemy lines to gather intelligence. They wanted a survival knife that was strong, took a great edge with good edge retention, easy to sharpen in the field and when necessary, to use as a tactical knife. Bravo 1 was the outcome of the competition…A2 was the steel that impressed the Marines and had all the characteristics they were looking for.
The Gunny is a smaller version of the Bravo 1, but not significantly smaller…to my mind it may be an even more useful knife for most chores, while its big brother may do a better job of heavy jobs like batoning.
In any case the A2 steel is an excellent, all around metal and next to 3G is my favourite.
![](http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4111/5017879651_3956f10be1_z.jpg)
The Bravo 1 is next to last on the right and the Guny is the one next to it.
A2 is a very desirable steel IMHO.It is an air hardening steel rather than one requiring quenching in oil or water.It is considered a general purpose steel.
The components are 1.0% Carbon, 1.0% Magnesium, 5.0% Chromium, 0.3% Nickel, 1.0% Molybdenum, 0.15รขโฌโ0.50% Vanadium.
Cheers
Leo