View Poll Results: Which blade?

Voters
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  • Survive! Knives GSO 4.7 or 4.5

    0 0%
  • Bradford Guardian 5.5

    1 7.14%
  • Benchmade Leuku

    1 7.14%
  • Other (please list)

    8 57.14%
  • You’re crazy for spending that cash to make a campfire

    4 28.57%
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Thread: Help me spend money on a camp knife

  1. #11
    banana republican blues's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Blue Ridge Mtns
    Quote Originally Posted by TOTS View Post
    I’ve been thinking about that. I’m very unfamiliar with hatchets and tend to shy away as I’ve never really used them. I don’t see how they would split small logs without batoning. And mentally, I have the idea that a solid knife can hatchet, but a hatchet can’t knife… Admittedly though, I’m pretty ignorant of them, skill-wise.

    See below re Moras.







    Honestly, I can get by with most any of my knives from Moras to Carothers...or my small Gransfors Bruks mini hatchet.
    There's nothing civil about this war.

    Read: Harrison Bergeron

  2. #12
    banana republican blues's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Blue Ridge Mtns
    Quote Originally Posted by TOTS View Post
    You know, I just read the Carothers recommendation on the Benchmade Anonimous thread from a while back. They have absolutely nothing in stock and, as much as you point me to bladeforums, I have yet to register. I have read a lot of their reviews though. I definitely saw what you mean about the reputation. It seems to mainly be the difficulty in filling orders in a timely fashion. They recently became a manufacturer and, purportedly, are filling pre-orders in months. Seems like they are figuring it out.
    Their (Survive) issues have been going on for years. One guy just got his order filled after six years. Others are still waiting. You can buy in the secondary market, but honestly, there's a ton of good knives that are not very expensive that will get the job done.
    There's nothing civil about this war.

    Read: Harrison Bergeron

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by TOTS View Post
    We mainly tent camp and the primary use would be for processing kindling for starting fires.
    You're talking about the top end of what knife will do well, but it's the bottom end of what a hatchet or an axe will do well.

    Mission drives the gear train. Moras cover everything you'd need a knife to do. Maybe it's time to get a copy of https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boo...art/1100281778 and find a new solution to the problem.

    I thought that I knew edged tools but Kephart led me back to the ancient ways. I've also watched a ton of YouTube videos that have changed how I approach the hatchet and the axe. If you choke on up the haft and change your grip, either will do far more knife chores than you'd think. I've even used one as a can opener.


    Okie John
    “The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
    "Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by TOTS View Post
    Am I crazy for spending $250 to split some wood to start fires? I currently only have a tactical style 4.5 inch and three Moras. Should I just use the Moras as disposable and spend the cash on an AR?

    Kinda…


    Just get a hatchet, it can be a cheap beater or whatever tickles your want. Many people like to boast about their knives and hatchets/axes they have but they all do the same thing. You won’t notice a difference unless you are a true woodsman and use these tools everyday.. Chopping and splitting wood is an easy task with the right tools.

    Honestly figure out what kinda of performance you want for a knife. Then find those makers that kinda have the same features in mind with their designs. But all that to say you would be best served with a hatchet over a knife doing hatchet type tasks.


    Edit just saw Okie post above after I posted and concur with his reasoning.
    Last edited by EVP; 09-12-2022 at 10:49 PM.

  5. #15
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Gotham Adjacent
    I say let your inner warrior out and go full tomahawk.

    Plus, when you're done chopping up kindling and firewood, you can practice your tomahawk throwing...


  6. #16
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    the Deep South
    Something by L.T. Wright would be in the upper end if your price range. I have no experience with the brand, but if I wanted to spend that much, that is where I would look first.

    Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

  7. #17
    Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Location
    Almost Heaven
    https://www.varusteleka.com/en/produ...on-steel/63759

    Either the 200mm or 240mm Skrama. Can baton wood or peel a potato, if you can break one you’re a beast.
    My wife uses a 200mm to peel bark off of trees as a forest pathologist and she hasn’t managed to dull hers in two years of use.

  8. #18
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    In the desert, looking for water.
    A $30 Estwing hatchet is a better kindling splitter than most knives. A good hatchet and a basic fixed blade knife (Mora with Sandvik steel, for example), plus a Victorinox SAK with the small wood saw, when applied with skill will handle any fire making or tending chores you can come up with. Not tree felling, but that isn’t what you’re talking about.

    If you really need to spend some money on your kindling splitting, a Ganfors-Bruks axe or hatchet would be where I would point you.

  9. #19
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Gotham Adjacent
    Okay for real for real for a moment. I have always been a fan of the Tom Brown Tracker design. A knife that really can be used for a variety of tasks. Boker makes a variant designed by Dave Wenger - in the "Mini" size (5.5" blade) and street price is a hundred bucks. https://www.knifecenter.com/item/BO0...s-kydex-sheath

    The Tracker is really an interesting knife design and sitting around a fire pit is a good way to practice with the knife and learn how it can be used: https://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/sur...nifeManual.pdf

  10. #20
    I’ve kinda discounted the Esee products as I’m not spending $150+ and ending up with 1095
    Regarding 1095: With the advent of the super steels, I get it. Especially CPM 3V for utility purposes. Just a thought, though. I was not a fan of anything that wasn't stainless until I received a TOPS Brothers of Bushcraft Fieldcraft knife as a gift, which has the uncoated 1095 blade. I went through the entire 2021 "One Knife Challenge" with it on Bushcraft USA. It is now my favorite knife. We did tasks from trap setting, carving, processing firewood, tinder processing, to starting a fire with a ferro rod and friction fire. (the knife has a bow drill socket in the handle) I even built a Kochanski super shelter and spent the night in it at 10000 feet during a hailstorm. I used the TOPS BOB to do all of the woodwork to construct the frame, process the wood, and start the fire. I have cleaned fish and small animals with it.

    When it came to ease of sharpening, and the ability to throw a shower of sparks off of a ferro rod, I was really glad I had a 1095 blade. The TOPS BOB is a tank of a tool, and would handle the tasks you describe with ease. My point is that I wouldn't rule out a knife that fits your needs just because it is 1095, as it has its own set of advantages in the field. Then again, I live in a dry climate.

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