Best knife for survival ?

Best blade for you is the one your most comfortable with....I love Rat Cutlery ...excellent pricing and one of the best warranty's ! They have great edge taken and holding abilities and the ergonomics of the handle is great....one of the most versatile sheathing systems on the market.
 
gunknifenut said:
Trust ME!!!
$50 and under range...Javenpaa or Wood Jewel PUUKKO.
$50 and up..Randall Adventure Training
$100 -$150..BARK RIVER, Aurora, NorthStar, Nebula, Bravo1
$150-$300..BUSSE, SWAMPRAT, SKOOKUM
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+1

That about nails it. I mean, I could wiggle a little in those buckets and say the Fallkniven F1 or Ranger RD6 could compete with the Randall Adventure Training.. but this is general idea.

Now what I would add to this is the fact that you said this is your first survival knife. With that in mind, my breakdown looks like this

$50 and under... quality puuko
$50 and up... Randall, F1, RD6, Rat
$100 and up... you don't know enough about what you want in a survival knife to justify this much cash.

Here's my progression, FWIW. (I'll supress maker's prices since they aren't static)
Frost Mora ($10) - Nice but I was ready for something a little higher quality
Buck 110 ($50) - I didn't like the blade profile and the slippery handle
Ranger RD9 ($110) - Nice, but way too big to be a general survival knife. Hell of a chopper though
Himilayan Imports CAK ($130) - Just can't get into Khukris. They're a little too "Zombie Killer" for me
Custom made Ranger Bush Knife ($private) - This is my current bushcraft knife, but for survival I wanted something a little beefier
Koster Nessmuk ($private) - This is my main knife. It's not your traditional thin Nessmuk slicer, but instead it's a beefy 1/4" slab of 3V steel. So I have the nessmuk style, but a survival knife. I had a penetrator tip put on it to make a sharp point. Went with canvas micarta handles.

The point is, it took me a bit to figure out what I wanted in a knife. I'm very glad I got out as cheaply as I could. For someone who's not really a collector, finding the right knife for me means the others are essentially useless. It would have been awesome if I had been able to test run some different styles before I bought, but I didn't have that luxury. Therefore, I did the next best thing, which was to try the least expensive version of the style.

I would suggest you do the same. Try a Frost Mora. If you love the puuko style and scandinavian edge, look into a Skookum Bushtool or something. Try a Kabar. If you like the "sharpened prybar" style of thick sturdy knife, look into Ranger/Busse/Swamprat/Scrapyard for one of their beefier models. If you think you'd like something inbetween, like a Mora style but in a beefier package, look into Fallknivens or Bark Rivers. Try a Ranger RD9. If you like the giant choppers, maybe you'll look into a Busse Battle Mistress or something. You get the idea. I surely wouldn't jump to a multiple hundred dollar knife on a whim, or on a review, or even on advice from this forum. Plus, a lot of people PREFER the less expensive ones. I know a lot of people, me included, who will take a Ranger RD9 over a Busse Battle Mistress. The battle mistress uses a better steel, but I like the feel of the RD9 better. In addition, a lot of these "cheaper" knives are very well known, and could probably be sold used if you were so inclined.

High quality doesn't mean you'll like it and expensive doesn't mean high quality. An awful lot of guys carry the Mora 2k as a survival knife and love it. That knife costs what, $30 or so?

Ok enough rambling.
 
Noshtero-

Do you have any pics of your Koster in hand? Or any at all of your ranger bush knife?

How has that koster nessmuk worked for you in the woods? (Carving, cutting, batoning, etc.)
 
I'll have to take a Koster in Hand pic. But here's a couple shots of the ranger bush knife:

Ranger Bush Knife
DSC03595-1.jpg


Next to a Snow & Neally
DSC03734.jpg


Next to a Ranger RD9
DSC03740.jpg


The koster nessmuk has worked great. Here's some pros and cons as I see them:
Pros:
Looks awesome (I know... but why not right?)
Tough as hell being that it's 3V
Great weighty feel to it being that it's 1/4" thick
Nice flat side that I can scoop with
The nessmuk hump is great to grasp and use like an Ulu
The rounded edge slices very well even though it's so thick. Dan's full flat grind helps a lot
You can't beat Dan's quality.
The quick draw sheath Dan sent with it is awesome.

Some possible Cons:
The nessmuk hump makes batoning interesting. It's different to baton on a sloped surface and the blade really isn't long enough to baton in front. I would have a tough time doing any having splitting with it. If I anticipate lots of wood collecting, I'll bring a hatchet. In a pinch, I could split enough to get a fire going though.
It's on the heavy side since it's 1/4" thick and 9" long overall.
It won't do paper thin slices due to the thickness. This is where the SAK/Opinel comes in. Dan's full flat grind does help though.
Drilling is a little tougher because the nessmuk hump reduces how accute the point is. I've accounted for this a bit by having Dan put a penetrator/striker tip on it to make the point more accute. It's worked for me so far.
Carving is tough just due to the size of the knife. That's what my SAK/Opinel is for.

All in all, I love the thing. It's my main carry. To be absolutely honest, I find that once I step in to high quality knives, there is little difference in performance, and it becomes all about presonal preference. This knife is by far a high quality performer. It also happens to suit my personal preference, and so it's my "perfect" knife :)
 
Quirt said:
I suggest you take the money you'd invest in the Tracker knife ...
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and purchase a high-quality Gore-tex (or other breathable laminate) shell, high-quality fleece jacket, high-quality wool pants, and some nice Danner boots. Then go buy a $9 Frosts Mora.
 
Thanks Nosh- Didn't know you were speaking of that modified shiv. Great looking knife.

Thanks for the review on the nessmuk, that was what I was expecting from it largely. Koster's work is really good stuff.
 
SpookyPistolero said:
Thanks Nosh- Didn't know you were speaking of that modified shiv. Great looking knife.
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Ya I was just talking about that with someone else. Basically, put a scandi blade on a Shiv handle, slap some linen micarta on it, add some thumb grooves and a lanyard hole and you've got my knife :)

It is one fantastic bushcraft knife. The grooved handle from the shiv makes all the difference in the world to me as far as ergos.
 
By survival do you mean a walk in the woods just outside of town or do you means days and perhaps weeks away from civilization as a whole?

In either case, the best knife is the one you have with you.
 
Fallkniven is my choice. I have tried alot "survival knives" and definitely for a first choice I would go with a stainless blade because of maintenance and edge holding.

There is a lot to learn. Sharpening, carving, snap cuts for branches. In alot of the videos of Ron Hoods, he goes into knife skills.


Going with a hollywood knife is the wrong place to start for survival. Your priorities should be on skill development and less on the cool knife.

Form follows function:
Firemaking, shelter building, food processing will determine your knife needs NOT hollywood.
Good luck
 
iamsmiling said:
By survival do you mean a walk in the woods just outside of town or do you means days and perhaps weeks away from civilization as a whole?

In either case, the best knife is the one you have with you.
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Sigh... this type of reply to the question always seems smug to me. And why exactly does the usage make a difference? A weekend in the woods or six months in the Congo, I would think you'd want your knife to be able to do both? Especially if you only plan to buy one?
 
I think a swamprat ratmandu would be perfect!
and they're available at the store now!
that or a fallkniven A1!
:D
sorry, I just think they would both be great knives.
 
My question is, what do you want to do with it?
The question is relevant because if you want to chop/split wood more than a couple inches in diameter, my answer will be different than if that isn't a consideration.

wildmike said:
Good God! Get an R-10 from Himalayan Imports learn to use it. Then get a kukri.
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Reading my mind. R-10:
R-10a.jpg


Excellent, TOUGH knife, scandi edge. They need sharpening when they come, but mine's like a razor now. It's a thick blade, mine seems thicker than what most people report, but it also has some pretty good distal taper, so the tip is fine enough to use. It wasn't too expensive $40-$50, in that ballpark.
Here's a link to the review I did on mine: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=543764

My other suggestion if you want to do heavier chopping would be a Himalayan Imports Kukri. Specifically an Ang Khola, 15" or larger. They chop exceedingly well, aren't helpless when it comes to soft vegetation, and they come with a sharpening steel and a karda (small puukko-like knife) as part of the deal. So you have a large heavy duty blade and a small blade for fine tasks. Unless you go for one of the monster AKs, it shouldn't run you over $150.
 
Cpl Punishment said:
My other suggestion if you want to do heavier chopping would be a Himalayan Imports Kukri. Specifically an Ang Khola, 15" or larger. They chop exceedingly well, aren't helpless when it comes to soft vegetation, and they come with a sharpening steel and a karda (small puukko-like knife) as part of the deal. So you have a large heavy duty blade and a small blade for fine tasks. Unless you go for one of the monster AKs, it shouldn't run you over $150.
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And that's just the everyday, list price. The truly great thing about Himalayan Imports (well, one of the 4 or 5 truly great things) is that you can usually get very good knives from them for a heck of a lot less than that if you do like the regulars at the H.I. subforum do. Read a few weeks' worth of threads on that subforum, get a sense of what you're interested in, get a sense of when the "deals of the day" are posted (usually tends to be the same general time of day, though this varies over time), then hang out on that subforum at about that time, and see what gets offered. You can usually find offers that are in the $60-85 range on most of the common kinds of khukuris if you can wait a while, if you don't mind going for a "villager" (H.I.'s word for khukuris that aren't as highly-polished as their main product line), or if you don't mind minor cosmetic defects that can usually be cleared up with a little rust removal or epoxy. A very good idea is to do your lurking with an e-mail ready to go, addressed to H.I., with your name, address, proposed method of payment, and just blanks ready to fill in with the specifics of the knife on offer. Often, you may even find that if someone else beats you to a particular knife, Yangdu (the proprietress of H.I.) will cut you a similar deal on a very similar knife.

One downside is that lots of people end up with dozens of Himalayan Imports knives this way.

Happy sharking!

P.S.: If you do end up getting serious about H.I. khukuris, be advised that almost all but the skinniest and shortest of them will out-chop most other knives out there of similar size. The ang khola models are among the most dedicated choppers of the lot, and the chiruwa version of the ang khola (= the one with a full-width tang, with handle composed of two slabs pinned to the sides) is probably one of the most unbreakable knife configurations you could think of. That said, these knives can have spine thicknesses up to half an inch (or even more, on some of the really-oversize ones), and though they'll eat through logs like mad, they may be less-suited to other cutting tasks than are the other models of khukuris, many of which are excellent choppers in their own right. Even a sirupati--which is a pretty-slender knife by khukuri standards--will chop very nicely, in my experience. One of my favorites--and a very good starter model--is the British Army Service ("BAS") model. True, for a khukuri, it's "small"--which means that it has a 10-inch blade, which I believe is about the size of that of a Scrapyard Knives "Dogfather" and maybe bigger than a Swamp Rat Knives "Battle Rat"--but, hey, with a blade that length, do you seriously think you'll be out of luck if you need to chop some wood? Or butcher a game animal? The only H.I. models that I'd really worry about using for chopping are ones with blades under 10 inches, kobras (very thin blade, designed for martial arts use and subject to special limitations on its guarantee due to thinness), and chainpuris (very thin, maybe originally intended for ceremonial use). Because these are completely hand-made in a small-scale forge in a third-world country, forged from old files and used truck springs, there will be variations and occasional quality control issues--but you address this simply by giving the knife a hard workout when it arrives in the mail. For me, this involves chopping the knife into a very thick, hardwood log, leaning on it hard a few times each way, and then just chopping some wood with it for a while. I do this in such a way that it is the main chopping area (not just the tip, since the tip is deliberately left somewhat soft, to resist breakage) that is stuck hard into the log. This is basically the testing method that H.I.'s founder, the late Bill Martino, personally recommended buyers use after receiving one of H.I.'s knives. I gather that some people have had knives break when they do this. Myself, I have had exactly two H.I. knives that bent (one a chainpuri, the other just got a bit more of a wave of the edge than I was comfortable with), and these were instantly replaced by H.I. with very robust knives that never had any trouble at all. I have NEVER had one break.

And the really nice thing about this is that you really can test them before using them, and H.I. really does replace them. There aren't too many manufacturers out there that have a guarantee like that such that you can actually afford to test your actual knife before taking it out into the wilderness and relying on it in this way.
 
Come on people.

What he really needs is a Giant Chitlangi Bowie.

IMG_4668.jpg


IMG_4649.jpg


In a quickdraw piggyback sheath with an R-10 to go with it. :D

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]
 
I carry a S1 a leatherman multi-tool and if need be a HI Kukri.All I'll ever need but, I still love to play with other blades in the woods.
 
Cold steel bushman if you are broke, Bark river fox river, RAT RC4, or Ratmandu if you have a bit of dough.
 
One thing is for sure. If you can't survive with a 20-40 dollar knife, you won't make it with a 500.00 dollar knife either. A person with a little skill and knowledge can survive with a SAK or even no knife at all. Get a decent knife and learn how to use it, save the hype for mall survival nuts.
 
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