Blade Lenght Opinions - Short & Sweet or Big & Bad ?

M

Mike-The-Knife

Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
1,301
So here's the thing . If you pour through the survival sites you soon get the drift that popular opinion is that the most usefull bushcraft/survival knife will have a blade length of 4 to 6 inches . Then you get those who just LOVE their big choppers and make their point that big knives can do small jobs where as small knives can't do big jobs .

Now I am NOT trying to start any debate about big blade , small blade . Everyone on this forum is here because they like and use knives . So it seems to me to be a good place to get a general opinoin . There is NO right or wrong answer here just opinions . Like certainly people who only like pocket folders will have a different opinion than mountineers who spend alot of time chopping wood with their larg fixed blades .

So I'm asking everyone to give their opinion on what YOUR all around , general use , if you only had one sort of thing knife , what length of a blade would you want on it ? And maybe elaborate on what experience or reason for your choise .

Personally because I don't really like carrying a heavy knife I lean more to the survival knife sizes , and have my Basic 6 and Sykco 511 .




HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS !
 
I've found that 3.5" is kind of a sweet-spot for folders, and I prefer 3-5" fixed blades. I like smaller knives than that, but not larger knives. I'm not a fan of enormous folders or fixed blades in the least.
 
4.5" to 5" in folders and 5.5" is where I stop. 6" is my sweet spot for fixed blade carry.
 
3.5" is pretty much perfect for folders. Dont carry fixed blades much but have a few sub 4" ones I carry every so often. For an hiking/outdoor knife, I like a 5-7" blade.
 
3.5-4" for folders, and 9-10.5" for fixed blade.
Why? Because it works, that why.:)
One big fixed blade and one folder does everything I need to do.
 
So it seems that most people are of the same mind that for a fixed blade 6" is the prefered length . Makes me feel even better about the Basic 6 I have on the way :D


HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS !
 
Why would you choose? SHORT AND BIG is the solution!!! The KB2 has it all!!!
5304343801_e4910439fa.jpg
 
Hi Alex17 . There's alot of truth to your statment . I had an original Becker Campanion and for it's lenght it could really chop . Someone jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong , but wheren't the Becker's originally 5/16 thick instead of 1/4 ? I know that that was the one thing with that knife for me was the weight . It was quite a chunk hanging on your belt and that prompted me to sell it .
 
Personally I don't get the whole one knife deal. It's nice to think about but in reality it just doesn't work all that well. If I was going to carry one tool in the bush it's going to be a machete or an axe like object.
 
Shotgun said:
Personally I don't get the whole one knife deal. It's nice to think about but in reality it just doesn't work all that well. If I was going to carry one tool in the bush it's going to be a machete or an axe like object.
Click to expand...

+1. Basically this thread boils down to the old "If you could have just one knife..." question, and that question doesn't make sense to me. Sure, it sounds cool in theory to have your one trusty do everything knife for when you are somehow teleported into the middle of the wilderness or deep behind enemy lines.

But it's fantasy really. You can have more than one knife at a time. You can bring different knives for different situations. You don't have to compromise functionality.

Big? Small? Depends.
 
Depends. When I hunt, my knife tasks tend to include chopping (making blinds etc.), snap cutting (clearing limbs etc.) and so forth. For that, my Becker BK9 is really convenient. For general dinking around outside, my BK2 is a more all around useful blade for me.

---

Beckerhead #42
 
For general outdoor use...

izula04.jpg


But as others have said, it depends on what you intend to do whilst out in the great outdoors. I think that a good all-round hunting blade would be something like a Buck 119 and nothing beats a proper fillet knife for fishing, imo. For extended or winter trips involving wood processing, I'd personally go with an axe/hatchet/'hawk and/or saw.
 
Knives are like clothes to me -- I dress for the occasion. Having said that like a cool cowboy, I'll sometimes bring things along just cuz I feel like it. I'll sometimes bring a sami chopper or kukri instead of an axe, but if I'm in an area with lots of people (trails n' stuff) I'll leave the kukri at home and go for the axe instead, so people will stay calm. I will however, always have some sort of Mora or similar knife as an all-rounder while in the woods. A folder is a great backup and around-the-campfire type knife, but I rely on my fixed blades for getting by, and, those are usually around 2-4 inches. For heavier tasks I use a Pocket Chainsaw or some type of chopper. I never use just one tool, as I believe that there is no such item which will excel at it all.
 
If I get stuck in a tough spot in the woods, I want the biggest knife I can get. Usually something like a BK9 or and ESEE Junglas.

All other modes of woods fun, 4-6"

Moose
 
people say large blades can do everything a small blade can do but that's not always true or at least there are tasks they can't do nearly as well. that said I still like larger knives because they are still more capable than small blades. I like ~4" blades for EDC and when I go camping I usually have a lighter 5-7" and a 9" or larger. I find my becker BK9 is big enough to chop with but light enough I could use it for smaller tasks if I didn't have a smaller knife.
 
2.5-4.0 folder and a hatchet for any real chopping! Like has been said, rite tool for the rite job. I prefer a 4-6 inch blade to butcher deer as well, but have done it with a much smaller knife many times.;)
 
Some good ideas here . And I'm all for "the right tool for the right job" it's nice to have an axe , a big knife and a small knife for fine work . But if I go out snowshoeing or hiking in the mountains I don't want 5 lbs of cutting gear dangeling from my belt and day pack . I just want one knife thats not too heavy and is a good all round knife . Just in case I stop and make a fire or maybe get caught in a bad storm and need to quickly make some sort of shelter , or whatever might come up in a long day in the woods . To me , if you hike in the woods where you can't be going by jeep or ATV that changes the amount of gear I want to carry . Especially if I'm not on a 2 or 3 day outing . That said , in truth I always have my EDC with me even if I carry a bigger fixed blade into the woods . But I find a 5 or 6 inch knife about the most handy in those cases .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top