Best knife for camping/hiking/survival

Chaos480 said:
What are your guys opinions on the Kabar BK5?
Is it better than BK7 or BK9?

And for skinning a deer (or other similar uses) what knife would you prefer using:
BK5
BK7
BK9
BK16
BK17
A knife from my list
or the MORA knife?
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I've used the (original) BK-11 to skin and butcher a deer and it performed well.
 
BK-7 or BK-9. The BK-9 will chop better. I like the Condor Hudson Bay but I find the handle to be too thin. I would punt on the Schrades unless the price is really important. You can get a better knife in the Becker line.

I always carry a 111mm SAK with me and guess what...? It cuts 90% of everything I ever want to cut. The Mora should handle the rest, except for chopping.
 
Given your environment, weather/atmosphere and budget restrictions and balancing your wants with (imho) your actual needs, I'd suggest a 2-tool approach:

1) Condor Rodan - if you *really* want a slightly larger knife (designed by our very own Joe Flowers) for ~$38
2) a folding garden pruning saw of some flavor (Bahco are well regarded)

if you added a few dollars to your budget, I'd UPGRADE the saw to a Bob Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" - it is the absolute best compact saw I've seen/used in 30+ years of playing around in forests backpacking/hiking/hunting.

A saw will help you gather wood far more efficiently, safely and easily than any chopping tool. The 30" Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" is what I have and is my favorite, but a good gardening/pruning folding saw can also accomplish wood processing tasks with aplomb.

I've not used a Condor Rodan, but it is well regarded by at least Joe Flowers as well as another prolific poster here "FortyTwoBlades". It has a 5 1/4" long by 3/16ths thick 1075 steel blade which is plenty adequate for the uses you've specified.

The Mora will do a whole lot more than most would otherwise think... I'm a sharpened-prybar kinda guy, but I carry my lightweight Mora Companion everywhere...

For most years of my climbing, backpacking, hiking, etc I carried no more than my trusty Swiss Army Knife "Huntsman" and it served me well. Later, I picked up a Leatherman "Wave" and it replaced the Huntsman for backcountry duty because it was a good tool.

Nowadays when I'm not gaining/loosing 5,000' of elevation (I live/play in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains), I can "splurge" on weight with my heavier knife and Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" (I trim weight in other areas...).

HTH....
 
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TravisH said:
The 'king' on your list is the Becker BK9.

But, as an "ax replacement", you should also consider the Becker BK4 Machax. Excellent chopper and currently 'on sale' at one of BF's supporting dealers - www.coyleoutdoors.com
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FWIW, this vendor currently has the BK15 on sale for $47.

My personal tools of choice for backpacking include some combination of the following:

- Victorinox Fieldmaster or Leatherman PS4 (I like having the scissors.), 2 to 3 oz.

- Silky Super Accel or Ultra Accel with spare blade, about 8 oz. This handles all the wood processing for me except fuzz sticks, but saw dust can be caught and used for tinder as well.

- BRKT Lil' Canadian (same uses as the OP's Mora), 4 oz. (Sometimes it's a slightly heavier 4 to 5.5 inch fixed blade. I swap it up often, but the BRKT is what I used on every trip over three days this fall.)

- a Spyderco folder (Endura, Delica, Native, Pacific, Cara Cara, Meadowlark), 3 oz.

If I feel I need/want something bigger for some reason, I'll take a larger fixed blade or tomahawk, but it does not replace the Silky saw for wood processing.

ETA:

From the OP list, I would likely choose a Becker BK7 or BK9, but I might rather buy the BK5 not on the list. (12 oz.)

For me, the small Condors are too similar in use to the Mora.

If I really wanted to chop, I'd pick the RTAK-II.

As stated already for my use, nothing takes the place of a Silky saw for wood processing.
 
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rdrogers said:
If you are carrying the Mora, add a Victorinox Farmer instead. It has a saw and would be more useful than a larger fixed blade. Plus it's lighter in weight.
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bingo! or spring for a Bushcrafter-saw, knife, awl a Farmer w/o screw drivers
 
The obvious question is how useful will all that processed wood be inside your tent... Do you have a tent stove? Are you planning on building an alternate shelter or having a campfire? An open fire alone won't do much to keep you warm, safe and dry in the cold rain. You stay warm by staying dry.

The truth is that big camp knives aren't very practical. If you think you will need to create an emergency fire bring along a saw, a bunch of different industrial fire starters (flares, candles, esbit tablets, wetfire tablets, storm matches, lighters, trioxane etc) and if possible some sort of tarp/ reflector shelter. Better still look in to hot tenting, which involved using a portable woodstove inside your tent.

The mora will do everything you ask of it within reason. Go out and use it, then come back and tell us what was wrong with it. What else are you looking for? Longer or shorter blade? Thicker or thinner blade stock? Different blade geometry? etc
 
If you really feel you must start a fire, take a hatchet. In general, I don't believe in camp fires on the trail without a good reason like falling in a river. In the long run, they just give the Forest Service one more reason to restrict access to the back country. I've been backpacking in the Northwest for decades with a white gas stove starting with a Swedish Primus from REI in 72
 
Sounds like a Fiskars/Gerber or Husqvarna composite-handle hatchet is what's needed. No wood to get wet, and will process wood much faster, and more efficiently, than a big knife. The Fiskars hatchets seem to get great reviews once you refine the bit a little. That and a folding saw should set you up for quite a bit.

I'm in the southeast, so my environment is a bit different, but I'm most comfortable with a machete for all around use (due to my time in south Florida). They excel at lopping limbs off, and do just fine with bigger stuff (not splitting...cutting and bucking larger limbs). A heavy machete would be my personal recommendation....it's like a big camp knife but far more efficient and useful for bigger stuff. An 18" Ontario or a few of the Condor models (parangs, goloks, machetes) would serve you well I would think, and wouldn't overlap with the Mora so much.
 
Quirt said:
Think about his operational environment and not your environment and the tools he needs to survive in the northwest. Kentucky is spot on- a hatchet min, a SFA more better plus a saw. Almost everything in the northwest is fully saturated soaking wet with this time of year averaging 1/2" to 1.5" of rain daily, 8-15 mph winds, 85 to 100% humidity and 40 degree highs. Hypothermia in the making.

He needs to harvest larger diameter vertically standing dead wood snags and reduce it down in the least amount of time with the least effort-calorie burn. And he is sleeping in a non-heated high humidity shelter. He is wet or damp from both internal and external sources. He cannot afford to piddle around with smaller hand tools working with fully saturated limbs to dry clothing, gear and himself. Lewis and Clark darn near died out there in the fall/winter and they were well equipped and highly skilled woodsmen. They were operating, however, in a foreign hostle environment. The northwest is an extremely beautiful wilderness but very unforgiving - people die every year in that rain forest because they cannot dry out and keep their core body temp regulated easily. Just say'n.
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This is exactly why you should look to good CLOTHING, good shelter, and a good sleep system. If you rely on making a fire then you've already made mistakes. Think about it. You're cold, wet and tired. You can either;

chop a bunch of wood and start a fire.
or
string a tarp, put your fleece on, and crawl into a sleeping bag that's resting on an insulated mat.

I know which I'd choose. There's a time for being a manly man and there's a time for being a smart man.


The mora is plenty. It would even be overkill in the summer months. Maybe a folding saw in the winter if you want some extra insurance. I like the Silky Pocket Boy if you're inclined. Everyone talks about how you need this blade or that to survive but if you talk to guys who hike a lot(one guy I talked with literally wrote the book on NW trails) and in all types of weather, you'll quickly see that the most they carry is a SAK. The author carries a dull SAK classic even in the middle of winter. We're knife guys so we see "survival" through a "knife prism". The other 99% of outdoors people couldn't care less about knives and they do just fine.

OP, the author I referred to wrote "Afoot and Afield." It's a good guide on local trails.
 
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fmajor007 said:
Given your environment, weather/atmosphere and budget restrictions and balancing your wants with (imho) your actual needs, I'd suggest a 2-tool approach:

1) Condor Rodan - if you *really* want a slightly larger knife (designed by our very own Joe Flowers) for ~$38
2) a folding garden pruning saw of some flavor (Bahco are well regarded)

if you added a few dollars to your budget, I'd UPGRADE the saw to a Bob Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" - it is the absolute best compact saw I've seen/used in 30+ years of playing around in forests backpacking/hiking/hunting.

A saw will help you gather wood far more efficiently, safely and easily than any chopping tool. The 30" Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" is what I have and is my favorite, but a good gardening/pruning folding saw can also accomplish wood processing tasks with aplomb.

I've not used a Condor Rodan, but it is well regarded by at least Joe Flowers as well as another prolific poster here "FortyTwoBlades". It has a 5 1/4" long by 3/16ths thick 1075 steel blade which is plenty adequate for the uses you've specified.

The Mora will do a whole lot more than most would otherwise think... I'm a sharpened-prybar kinda guy, but I carry my lightweight Mora Companion everywhere...

For most years of my climbing, backpacking, hiking, etc I carried no more than my trusty Swiss Army Knife "Huntsman" and it served me well. Later, I picked up a Leatherman "Wave" and it replaced the Huntsman for backcountry duty because it was a good tool.

Nowadays when I'm not gaining/loosing 5,000' of elevation (I live/play in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains), I can "splurge" on weight with my heavier knife and Dustrude "Quick-Bucksaw" (I trim weight in other areas...).

HTH....
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Some solid advice, epspecially on the folding saw thoughts. Bahco, silky or the bob's buck saws are a great way to get what you need and get back to enjoying the view.
 
Ok I might not be to helpful, I understand the idea of saving weight with a large knife vs. an axe/hatchet. But if your going to be out miles you could come across serious need for fire. I would opt for a scout axe(1.5-2lbs 18" handle). I know it's unlikely but if a large knife fails on you it's could be a catastrophic failure. 99% of the time if an axe fails on you it would be a broken handle or poor hang. Both of which could be fixed/replaced while out in the wilderness. I carry an old americanax scout axe which I have $15 in for the head and a new handle. Another thought is this. What are the benefits of carrying the extra weight vs. the ease of use when it matters. The axe would perform the job significantly easier although being heavier to carry... That's just my thought. Oh and throw in a farmer just for the sake of it. Both easily affordable within your budget ;)
 
I love my KOA Bush Camp, it's 100 dollars. A proper knife for camping can chop trees and baton. That is the RTAKII. I own the ESEE Junglas, the brother of the RTAKII, and I can say they are both willing and ready to take a beating.
 
john wayne said:
I love my KOA Bush Camp, it's 100 dollars. A proper knife for camping can chop trees and baton. That is the RTAKII. I own the ESEE Junglas, the brother of the RTAKII, and I can say they are both willing and ready to take a beating.
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Some people think so, yes. Many others don't.
 
Mora seems fine.

[video=youtube;Ja4gnTAoNzU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4gnTAoNzU[/video]
 
Codger_64 said:
Some people think so, yes. Many others don't.
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If people want to argue that a survival knife shouldn't cut trees, good luck trying to convince me. 10 inch blades have saved my life before in -20 weather. If they wanna waste space and add weight by carrying a hatchet, be my guest. Anyone who spends decent time in the woods knows how important chopping capability is on a knife.
 
john wayne said:
If people want to argue that a survival knife shouldn't cut trees, good luck trying to convince me. 10 inch blades have saved my life before in -20 weather. If they wanna waste space and add weight by carrying a hatchet, be my guest. Anyone who spends decent time in the woods knows how important chopping capability is on a knife.
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I don't see how my reply could be construed as "trying to convince you" in the least. That was certainly not my intention. You can believe what you want to believe. If that happens to be that a 10" knife is what your survival depends on, more power to you. I simply pointed out that not everyone agrees with that point of view. I do suggest that in the past sixty years I have spent a fair amount of time in the woods and have survived quite handily without ever owning a "chopping knife". And have in fact survived at times with no factory made knife at all. Knowledge and skill trumps tools in my experience. Tools make things easier quite often though.
 
IMO, get a Vic Farmer, and you can leave both the mora and the other fixed blade at home.
 
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