Benchmade Bushcrafter vs. Spyder Co Bushcraft


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I love the 162. It has a heft to it. It is extremely well designed. The handle begs to be choked up on. I have large glove hands. The fit and finish were on par or better than expected for the price. It came out of the box quite sharp. A slight bit of the bur was still on the edge. I have run into the "issue" that the blade cuts into the welt. I had this same issue on a 2002 ka bar usmc. It never really caused a serious problem. So I'm going to let it play out. The sheath holds the knife snugly. The high ride of the sheath is quite nice when seated squatting or riding in a vehicle. The dangled d ring issue I heard mentioned isn't one if you take two seconds to tape it or just tuck it behind as I do when looping your belt. The steel, my first supersteel, is leaps and bounds above Scandinavian stainless and 10xx steels I am used to. It carves very well and handles cooking chores at camp like a dream. The high grind allows it to operate like a much thinner knife. I was on the fence as I spend a lot of time in the forest and wanted a knife that could handle my use. I am glad I pulled the trigger and have no regrets. I have tried the knife without the insert, it absolutely fixes the welt cutting problem, and my sheath is still tight, but due to it not having amounted to an actual problem with the ka bar am just going with it as is. In my opinion if you want a bushcraft knife that shines at more than one task this is the knife for you.
 
My 162 bush crafter has far outstripped my expectations. Not a single hotspot (I find the handle extremely comfortable) and Benchmade nailed the heat treat on the S30V. Mine's hacked and batonned a ton of dead dry lodgepole pine with only minor fixable edge damage. My only qualm is the leather sheath, I had to replace it with the benchmade kydex as I found the deer hide too floppy for heavy brush walking (I was walking 4+ km through thorns and brush for work and didn't have time to worry about losing my knife), but for general hunting and bush use I would find the leather sheath perfectly adequate.
 
Aj35 I have the Benchmade. Went to one of two mega outdoor stores in Ontario and tried many knives in my hand. The 162 felt so much better in my hand than all the rest. The steel holds an edge far longer than carbon steel. I just looked at the Spyderco version, it has the silly hole in the blade but looks OK. The rivets in the sheath will rust. That much money for a carbon steel knife with a simple Scandi grind seems crazy. You can buy Scandanavian knives like that for $40. I bought my son one for his canoe trips because he looses everything! He brought it back blunt and very rusty despite a black anti rust coating. Not having a rusting knife is wonderful.
The edge retention in a bush knife is crucial, you don't have time to sharpen every day. The 162 is a little thicker than it needs to be for it's size and the sheath is only adequate. I have a larger D2 blade that is thinner but very tough, it's edge retention in the bush is only OK, the 162 is far better.
There are plenty of beautiful knives with gorgeous sheaths in exotic steels but there is usually something wrong like crazy thick, wrong grind etc. When they get it almost right the price is crazy and it's on back order so it's not real.
I say get the crucible steel unless Spyderco will take $100 for that knife and you want to sharpen in everyday in the bush.
 
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