4 Inches an Adequate Woods Knife?

Blue Sky said:
The one thing big knives excel at over small knives is chopping. If you find yourself needing to chop often, big is the better choice, otherwise it isn't.
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My take is similar to others that if chopping is something I'll be doing a fair of, I'd prefer an axe or hatchet in addition to a 4ish" blade. Out of curiousity, do most of you guys who regularly carry larger choppers also carry an axe/hatchet?
 
kgd said:
Personally, I find a 3" blade on its own often wanting in terms of length. Usually, that is for batoning and prepping a hearth for bowdril. A four inch works great. I think, however, that 5" is the sweet spot. A long while back, when Bryan Breeden just started coming around these parts and introducing his pathfinder model he made the statement about 5" blades. "You can reach to the bottom of a peanut butter jar with a 5" blade, a 4 incher will get your knuckles full of peanut butter touching the rim". Genius! Yes, that is very, berry true!

Actually, contemplating this week, I think my Breeden Pathfinder, with its 5" but slender blade and 1/8" thickness is the most versatile knife in my collection. Big enough to do big boy things and small enough to be less noticable. Shucks, I can live with 4", but the simple facts are, if you measure a 5" blade and then you measure a 4" blade and you take the difference between the two, you have 1" remainder ;) Well them is the facts!
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I agree with this. I have a ton of knives in the 3-6" range, but my Fallkniven S1 has been the best handling in terms of length, feel , and usability. It's sort of a compromise size. Not too big, not too small, not too heavy, not too light. Kind of like a jack-of-all-trades thing. I'd rather go down to a 4" from there, than go up to a 6". I used to think the other way around , but realized smaller knives are just handier.
 
Cpl Punishment said:
Now analyze what you are really doing. Are you just going for a hike? You probably don't need any knife.
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Hell, I don't walk out into my back yard without a knife :)


If all goes well and according to plan a 4 inch knife is more than adequate for pretty much anything you'll need or even want (as long as you're not like B5) to do in the woods. However if things don't go well and you need to quickly make a littler to carry someone on or need heavier structural members for an improvised shelter you might want to learn a trick or two about how to make that 4 inch knife really earn it's keep. It can be done pretty easily most of the time if you know the right techniques though.
 
4" is plenty. There are thousands of 4" knives on the market and you can spend as much or as little as you want. A Mora or a Buck 102 will do what needs doing, costs very little, doesn't weigh much and will take up very little space. Add an SAK with a saw blade and you're pretty much covered.

Don't get me wrong, I like big knives and I keep one in the car 'just in case', but the little ones get more action.
 
flipe8 said:
My take is similar to others that if chopping is something I'll be doing a fair of, I'd prefer an axe or hatchet in addition to a 4ish" blade. Out of curiousity, do most of you guys who regularly carry larger choppers also carry an axe/hatchet?
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I agree with you, my preference for most chopping chores is also a hatchet or axe. Though in the spirit of the OP, I wanted my response to be kept within the constraint of the "big knife/small knife" question (not that I think 4" is small, actually). "Big knife or axe" is another topic entirely, and one that generates much lively debate around here, that's for sure. :D
 
I don't carry a chopper in most cases. A good 4" fixed blade is very flexible in the outdoors. If I think I need a chopper, I'll probably take along an axe or stiff machete. Frankly though, I don't do much chopping. I take a saw.
 
kgd said:
Personally, I find a 3" blade on its own often wanting in terms of length. Usually, that is for batoning and prepping a hearth for bowdril. A four inch works great. I think, however, that 5" is the sweet spot. A long while back, when Bryan Breeden just started coming around these parts and introducing his pathfinder model he made the statement about 5" blades. "You can reach to the bottom of a peanut butter jar with a 5" blade, a 4 incher will get your knuckles full of peanut butter touching the rim". Genius! Yes, that is very, berry true!

Actually, contemplating this week, I think my Breeden Pathfinder, with its 5" but slender blade and 1/8" thickness is the most versatile knife in my collection. Big enough to do big boy things and small enough to be less noticable. Shucks, I can live with 4", but the simple facts are, if you measure a 5" blade and then you measure a 4" blade and you take the difference between the two, you have 1" remainder ;) Well them is the facts!
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Words of wisdom to be remembered. I'll have to remember that one.
 
flipe8 said:
My take is similar to others that if chopping is something I'll be doing a fair of, I'd prefer an axe or hatchet in addition to a 4ish" blade. Out of curiousity, do most of you guys who regularly carry larger choppers also carry an axe/hatchet?
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Kind of.
Depends on if you call a tomahawk a hatchet.

I like this duo:
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Maybe a better way to put it is I like to carry one thing with a short edge, and one thing with a long edge.
 
The main knife I use is my Buck Alpha hunter. It's about 4 inches.
It's soon to be replaced with a Hatchula if " someone";) will get moving. Ahem.:p
I like a blade around 6-7 inches as an EDC.the Alpha has been a good knife but a tad short for my needs.It's all I had on me yesterday to fillet a 8 lb snook and it wasn't enough.
 
Space Plumber said:
Some people say for general outdoors/survival use, a 4 inch knife is all you need and anything larger is just extra weight. Does anyone think a 4 inch knife can generally do everything a larger knife could do reasonably well?
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Yes. But it depends on what you normally use a knife for. If you like larger, bigger or huge knives, you can likely find some task they excell at. If you like smaller knives, you can tailor your tasks to that size. There is no "one-size-does-it-all" knife. Just as there is no hammer that does it all.
 
It depends a lot on the environment. For example, down in the tropics a long blade like a machete would come in handy.

I live in PA and when I was in a CAP ground search and rescue unit I found that I did not need anything larger than a USAF survival knife (5" blade), which after awhile I replaced with a Schrade LB7 Bearpaw lockback (comparable to a Buck 110).
Our unit carried a machete and a hatchet or saw, but neither got all that much use.

The knife I got the most use from was my Victorinox Pioneer.
 
If I could only have one, I'd pick something in the range of a Falkniven A1. 5-6" long, .25" thick, convex edge allows for fine cutting, blade thickness makes it a decent chopper, length gives me more confidence in it as a defensive weapon.
 
I'm one of those that doesn't care what someone else carries. It's their choice and none of my business, as long as they know how to use their tool of choice.
Tool choice (for me) always leads to the issue of safety, axes are by far the most dangerous woods tool, especially if the user is inexperienced. When I am asked by someone new to the whole scene what tools (sharps) to bring, I suggest a large and small blade. Small for 99% of tasks and large to baton, not chop. Chopping is an inherently more dangerous activity. Ultimately a saw is safest, but requires more energy than an axe or knife.

Just my $.02.
 
What I've noticed in my knife collection is that the shorter the blade is the more often I end up carrying it. This has been so obvious to me that I no longer own any knife with a blade longer than 5". In about 90% of my woods excursions I prefer a knife with a 4" blade.
 
I"ve always thought that guys who buy $300+ knives for chopping didn't pay attention in either Physics or Economics.
 
flipe8 said:
My take is similar to others that if chopping is something I'll be doing a fair of, I'd prefer an axe or hatchet in addition to a 4ish" blade. Out of curiousity, do most of you guys who regularly carry larger choppers also carry an axe/hatchet?
Click to expand...

I take a full compliment, a machete, a tomahawk, a RC-5, my Koyote Leuku, Kabar Warthog Folder, a HEST and usually a mora or something along those lines in the pack
 
If I could take only one knife for 2 weeks camping then I would take my BK-7 and do everything with that.

Luckily I can take more than one knife so I weigh up my options and take what I think will be useful. I have a couple of Mora knives that are around 4" and I would always take at least one of them because they are incredibly useful for bushcraft tasks. I also have an Endura 4 that I will definitely take next time now that I have converted it to a scandi grind. I will always take my SAK & my LM Wave too - they give me a large variety of useful tools that even if I don't need I still like to have available (saw, file, scissors, screwdrivers, can opener, bottle opener, pliers, etc). Choppers & batoners are also useful and I'll take one or 2 if I plan to use them - axe, saw, machete, kukri or whatever your preference is, it can be good to have one of them.

There are plenty of opinions, but for more than a day hike I really don't like having only one 4" knife & nothing else. To me a minimal load out would be SAK + Mora + something bigger*

* could be Machete, axe, saw, kukri, big knife or at least something as big as a BK-7 if travelling light. Choose what suits the environment.

I can't see a 4 inch knife handling the tasks that you need an axe or big knife for - but it is definitely a useful sized knife to bring. If you don't need to chop or baton then quite possibly a 4 inch knife is enough to handle what you need - for light tasks even a 4 inch folder is probably enough. Maybe my scandi Endura would be all I need in many situations, but for 3+ days camping I would always take more than that.
 
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