Best Survival knife under $30.00??? Maybe.

So, you have a BK-2..... okay. The Mora would make a great backup as would the BK-15. Yes, to the financial realities of life.... I understand and you don't need to be defensive about it or think me some rich guy who just blows money for the sake doing it.
 
Combat- clip points and tantos
survival-drop points
outdoor- depends on primary use camping/backpaking/hunting. most of the time your gonna want a drop point. that is just my opinion.
 
For real world survival? Hard to beat a box of these. You'll have edges till the end of time.

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LEATHALBLADES said:
Well Actually 30 dollars its quite a bit when your paying for car insurence and trying to fix up the car at the same time. knives is just another expense. I can only afford to buy a knife once every couple of months..
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But you can do "torture tests" on the knives you buy? What if they fail?

This all seems odd. :confused: Im not getting any "takeaways" here.

Thanks for your review young man, and have fun with that Glock. I'm genuinely glad you enjoy it. :thumbup:
 
People always say that drop points are better for the hunting and uses related to that. They say that the point/tip will be stronger. The BK-16 is a great knife. I actually prefer a slimmer pointier knife even for hunting tasks for the most part which is why my favorites right now are the Blackjack 125 and Dozier Pro Guides knife. I also like a lot of the Bark River designs and the Fallkniven F1. Yeah, they are all more expensive.

I am somewhat enamored with the BK-15 as I bought it on a whim about 6-8 months ago. I really like it and it is a very useful design for me.... might not be your cup of tea.

One of my favorite older knives is a Randall Jack Crider Special which is essentially a steak knife on steroids. The values on this one are so high now that I don't use it. I bought it years ago as a practical knife I would actually use. Prices were nothing like you see these day for them on flea bay.
 
If you want a survival knife on the cheap, go with a small machete. It will out cut and out chop a Glock field knife anyway of the week. It's what it was made for. !2 inch Ontario, Tramontina, Condor, or other good machete will be very economical to buy and beat on.

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Yes, I am a big short machete fan. Hard to beat in terms of usefulness and the price. But field dressing a deer or cleaning a trout might be a bit uncomfortable.
 
I have the BG KNIFE it was given to me as a present. I used it and the steel is complete garbage I have chips all over the blade it looks as if I was choping on some sort of thick gauge metal wire. The glocks steel had held up better
 
LEATHALBLADES said:
I am Probably going to get a Mora anyway just for carving and I will test it with some hard use test like batoning and chopping. Its not going to do as well with chopping because it is so light.
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Don't bother. It is a utility knife used by Swedish craftsman for woodworking, stripping wires, and other cutting tasks. Once a Mora is dull, it is tossed in the bin and a new knife is used. Bushcrafters like it because it is well suited to carving wood and making various wooden implements.

It is a 2 oz knife, how the hell can you chop with a 2 oz knife? It has a 3/4 length tang molded into plastic. It's easy to break a Mora with a baton if that is your goal. We all know this. All you will do is push the knife past its limits and call it an inferior piece of gear.

If all you want is a piece of steel that you can pound on until you're exhausted, please don't get a Mora. There are better knives for that. But, then again, that is not bushcraft, or survival. If I was really trying to survive, I would care for my cutting tool because my life depended on it. Working within the limits of a tool, learning multiple techniques to solve a problem, preserving life, that to me is bushcraft. Chopping and batoning is just the tip of the iceberg.
 
I agree with Dogstar. It gets funny that whenever survival is mentionned, the first thing you always hear around here is get a Mora...

Cheapest worthwhile survival knife that can do some chopping is this, and in this price range nothing else even comes close:

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It even comes with a decent sheath, if you can believe that:

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The edge it comes with is probably inferior to the edge a similar $800-900 Chris Reeves Project 1 comes with, but once you put a good edge on it, it will likely beat the snot out of the Chris Reeves in edge-holding, and the sheath can hold stuff which the CR can't...

Yes it is in the $40-50 range, but if you really have to go lower, you probably should stay out of the woods...

Gaston
 
I view the knife failing issue as "we make our choices and we live with the results." A younger friend of mine buys cheap knives and tosses them into trees and other similar kinds of activities. I keep telling him to get throwing knives for this and he just does what he wants to. Why should I care? I guess that applies to knife torture tests in general as well. I guess it really just boils down to fun and what we like to do. Certainly with the Kabar USMC knife and the Becker BK-2, you have a lot of the "survival" bases covered. The BG knife has its faults as you have observed.

For most things in the woods, you might want a larger knife capable of some chopping (like the BK-2), something thinner and pointer for more detailed tasks (like the kabar USMC), a folding saw for bigger stuff, and probably a SAK or something along those lines. You have the basics covered.

Good suggestion Gaston. And you can even put a wrench on it for twisting. :D
 
dogstar said:
If all you want is a piece of steel that you can pound on until you're exhausted, please don't get a Mora. There are better knives for that. But, then again, that is not bushcraft, or survival. If I was really trying to survive, I would care for my cutting tool because my life depended on it. Working within the limits of a tool, learning multiple techniques to solve a problem, preserving life, that to me is bushcraft.
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Exquisitely put. Somebody make that a sticky. :thumbup:
 
Gaston444 said:
I agree with Dogstar. It gets funny that whenever survival is mentionned, the first thing you always hear around here is get a Mora...

Yes it is in the $40-50 range, but if you really have to go lower, you probably should stay out of the woods...

Gaston
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Gaston, I appreciate your enthusiasm. I can't say I agree with you, other than that a Mora will break if you mercilessly baton it. I would much prefer an 8$ Mora 511 than the Schrade you posted, for more reasons than I care to state. If the Schrade works for you, great. I also disagree there is some "price of admission" for the woods. You can do plenty with a used Old Hickory found at the thrift store for 50 cents. On bladeforums, bushcraft seems to be about the knife, not a person's knowledge, skill, and attitude. It is the other way around.
 
I have seen he Schrade and I have thought about getting it. There are others that that i would rather have more or i have been looking at for a while though.
 
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If you haven't tried one of the Moras with the thicker 0.126" blades such as the Mora Robust I heartily recommend them. I have the Robust. I also like its handle size and texture. Its no Becker or ESEE, but for under $20 it is amazing!

I don't get the chopping thing. I can easily split little sticks even a tiny knife to get dry wood, but I'd rather get dead "teenie tinies" off standing tree branches to start fires. I'd hope to only need to burn dead wood I can break by hand - or knee. Quite frankly if I were lost or stuck out somewhere I'd be more concerned getting shelter, just getting a fire started (after that I've never really had problems keep it fed - I'm sure things might be different in other environs), having potable water, and making myself findable.

If you're not sure what a Mora Robust is I bought mine from http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html
 
I have a couple Mora's (Companion and Craftline) and just got a Glock 78 cause I liked its reputation and price. I think each have their place and as I use the Glock more often I'm sure it will find a useful place in my kit. Bottom line is get what you like and can afford.
 
Lethal, seems as though some blade snobs and semantics gurus have made you their whipping boy for an evening of fun and snark. You made a simple suggestion and they got OVERLY technical and damaged your thread to the point of disrespect. Gentlemen, keep that crap in whine and cheese and mind your manners please.
 
OP, thanks for your review of the glock field knife. Also, you have shown good patience with some of the other members here. One suggestion, it doesn't sound like you have experience with enough different knives to say what is the "best" under $30. Maybe it would be better to just give your experience with the knives you have rather than say which is best at this point. But, I thought your review was interesting and I appreciate you posting it.

One question for many of the other people posting in this thread. What is the difference between a question designed to learn or help others versus one designed to make yourself feel smart or make somebody else look bad? I think we are seeing a little to much of the 2nd in this thread. Many of you probably have more different knives and more experience "bushcrafting" than either me or the OP. But, I think the knowledge could be shared in a better way.
 
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