4-6" double edge belt dagger

C

CanDo

Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
913
Hey guys,

It's been years since I've been here, and it's fun to be back.

I'm looking for a dagger with a 4-6 inch blade, double edged, to live permanently on my fighting belt. The idea is to have a knife that I can use to get out of a bind if tackled or pinned against a wall. In every day life, I use a Shivworks Clinch Pick, but I'm looking for something beefier for the dedicated gun belt.

Benchmade 133 Infidel looks great, but they don't seem to make it any more. The Winkler CxC dagger looks awesome, but it's over my budget. I use Riffe Wrangler knives for spearfishing, and they would actually work alright for this purpose. Something with a wider blade might be easier to slash and claw with though.

Let me know if you have any suggestions in the < $200 range. I've seen all the Cold Steel stuff in this genre, and I don't care for them. The Counter Tac series has a weird, asymmetrical grind and tiny handles. The Wasp has a great handle, but the blade is long and has a terrible grind on it. It might be good if I re-did the grind.

I want a full size, flat handle. 2 straight edges, razor sharp. Open to buying something used. Carbon steel is fine.

Thanks for any suggestions!



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I know you don't like Cold Steel, but check out the Drop Forged Boot Knife, they make that pattern right. It's a real nice knife. Also the Gerber idea is good, and the Mk I is still pretty affordable. Aitor makes a good MK I style as their Botero model, but it's hard to find the double plain edged version). Also in the Ek made and makes some stuff that might strike your fancy.
 
How would you feel about something rare and vintage, but within your price range?

There is currently a Kershaw Special Agent model 1002 boot knife for sale for $195. Unfortunately it would probably be a violation of the rules here if I told you where you could buy it. But if you Google "Rare Vintage Model 1002 Special Agent" you should see it. It doesn't have flat handles though.

And to echo what hhmoore posted, I see that there is currently a Gerber Mark 1 35th Anniversary limited edition boot knife currently up for auction, starting price is not much more than your price range. If I were looking for a short/medium length dagger like you described, I'd consider that one. Unlike the older Gerber Mark 1's, the anniversary edition has a full-tang, integral guards, and flat G10 handles. I'm very surprised to see it priced so low.
 
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If you get tackled or pinned against a wall, getting a 6" dagger off your "fighting belt" is going to be problematical at best, and may end up with you getting "pinned" to the wall.....What exactly is a "fighting belt" anyway? Inquiring minds and all that.....
 
killgar said:
to echo what hhmoore posted, I see that there is currently a Gerber Mark 1 35th Anniversary limited edition boot knife currently up for auction, starting price is not much more than your price range. If I were looking for a short/medium length dagger like you described, I'd consider that one. Unlike the older Gerber Mark 1's, the anniversary edition has a full-tang, integral guards, and flat G10 handles. I'm very surprised to see it priced so low.
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That is the lowest price 35th anniversary available... It's almost enough to convince me to sell mine (bought new at release)
 
hhmoore said:
That is the lowest price 35th anniversary available... It's almost enough to convince me to sell mine (bought new at release)
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I've seen them sell for more.

Limited edition. Discontinued. Rarely up for sale. I would expect them to sell for more than the original price.

I Google them every once in awhile. It's a knife that I seriously considered buying when they came out, though I never pulled the trigger. But I have a habit of occasionally looking up "the ones that got away" just out of curiosity ;).
 
I remember the original price, lol...and the price of the one I referenced isn't quite enough to get me to part with mine. It is, however, probably the lowest the OP will encounter for that particular version of the Mark 1.
Being a dagger fan, I somewhat regret only purchasing one of the Anniversary Editions.

Now, if the OP wants to up his game, I might just have a couple of custom daggers sitting on my desk... and the one I linked earlier probably won't be available much longer, because I'm just not that strong
 
Flat Rock Forge has one they call the MK1 which is in your price range and comes with a kydex sheath.
 
Hey guys, this is great info.

The MK1 is one handsome blade.

I'm glad T tltt mentioned the CS Boot Knife even after I said I'd seen all their stuff. When I first looked, I wrote off that knife because I was looking for a knife that came with a handle. But after searching longer, the idea of buying a $42 knife and then just adding some scales and/or a fiber wrap sounds like a good way to go. For the price, I could buy 3 or 4 of them. I could take the edges completely off of one to turn it into a trainer. I could use the extra $$ to make a nice sheath. I bought one and will see how it feels.

R rpn , Flat Rock Forge looks like they make knives with great steel at reasonable prices. Their Mk1 looks awesome. I sent an e-mail asking what the sheath looks like.

A Arathol , my belt is a heavy/stiff nylon belt with a fast cobra buckle. It stays loaded with rifle & handgun mags, tourniquets, and FAK. It can be used with or without the inner belt. In an emergency, it can be thrown on without the inner belt and without going through any belt loops.

www.bluealphabelts.com

Standard 1.75" Battle Belt | Tactical/War Belt | Blue Alpha

Highly functional load-bearing utility belt. Load it up with an OWB holster, mag carriers, pouches, and whatever else you need.
www.bluealphabelts.com www.bluealphabelts.com

So if I were fighting with a handgun and it goes down, the knife is ready to go.

Yeah, 6" is at the upper end of what I'd consider to be deployable during a fight, and I think 5" is my actual upper limit, but I didn't want to miss out on a recommendation just because the blade is 5.1" long. It depends a lot on both the sheath design and how you have the sheath mounted. A big consideration for me is whether the sheath lets you get 100% grip on the knife before drawing it, and I figure I may need a custom kydex sheath. It's going to be easier to draw it in a confined space sideways or slightly downwards than straight up. It'll go sideways on the front of my belt, so that it can be drawn with either hand (normal grip non-dominant side, reverse grip on dominant side).

My top choice right now is the CS Boot Knife (5"). A punching dagger would be a top choice too, except that by the time I'd reach for this knife, I'd be likely to be headed into a grappling situation, where I want to be able to grapple with an edge (e.g. if you have an arm thrown around the body/neck/leg/arm, be able to slice it with pull strokes), which you can't do with a punch dagger.

I am comfortable drawing my Riffe 4.5" dive knives from a belt which is a kind of similar situation (being underwater, only having 1 breath of air, and caught up in a line or net). I dive with two identical Riffe knives, both vertical, one on each hip on my dive belt. They are awesome for diving and stabbing fish.

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I bought a CS Counter Tac 1. When I hold it side-by-side with the Riffe, the basic blade shape of the Counter Tac is a lot more confidence inspiring for fighting. That wider blade is going to make it easier to slice across a calf muscle, the tendons behind the knee, slice across an artery in the neck, etc.

Unfortunately, I hate the handle on the CT1. It's this tiny, rounded thing that sits in your hand a little differently each time you pick it up, and it's prone to rotating. (The Riffe grip is awesome. Big & rectangular.). And the grind on the CT1 is very strange; it's hollow ground on one side, so the cutting edge is actually pointed 45 degrees off axis. So it's getting returned.

At a glance, it seems the drop forged boot knife has the same blade shape as the CT1, except with a much better grind. I'll need to add a handle and probably get a custom sheath made, but it will still be cheaper than most options, and I'll get exactly what I want.
 
Hmmmmm......Ok then.......just who is it we are fighting that we need to throw on our Bat utility belt first? What sort of emergency? Will an intruder in the middle of the night wait until you put it on before confronting you?
I don't think I get the purpose here.....
 
Arathol said:
Hmmmmm......Ok then.......just who is it we are fighting that we need to throw on our Bat utility belt first? What sort of emergency? Will an intruder in the middle of the night wait until you put it on before confronting you?
I don't think I get the purpose here.....
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I bought the belt first as a training tool. I do all of my shooting on BLM land. When I'm out there for the day, I get a lot more productivity out of having mags on my belt, and loose ammo to reload the mags on my belt, as well pouches for ear/eye pro, shit to hang up targets, adjust sights, etc. That lets me move through the terrain to various shooting positions without always having to tap "home base" to get things squared away. So I got sick of threading that crap through a conventional belt when I arrived and then undoing it when I left. So now I just have 1 belt that I can throw on / take off very easily. Out shooting / roaming through wilderness for the day, having a FAK makes sense, so that's how 90% of the belt got made. Now, a fighting knife is honestly going to be the least useful thing on the belt for me, but having a sharp fixed blade on hand is always handy, and it completes what the belt has turned into.

In my case, the chance of needing to fight with this knife is close to 0%. In a typical home invasion, I'd just have one gun and the ammo already in it. That said, if I had an extra 30 seconds before being involved in a gun fight, would I want tourniquets and spare mags ready? Fuck yeah. I've been in a home when I can hear it taking time for the guy to break in. I've been in a situation where a psychopath was taking his time picking a fight, dipping in and out of visual contact. Not every situation involves waking up in the middle of the night with a bad guy on top of you.
 
Ok, so if thats a grab and go thing, I'd rather have something a bit more useful taking up that space. Esee-5 maybe or the like.
 
I carry a MK1 by Flat Rock IWB with a Ulticlip 3.3 it’s great for that wearing jeans but don’t see it working great on 2” or 2.25” duty belt. I would recommend a ESEE 5 or 6.
 
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