Budget large camp/light chopping knives

19-3ben

19-3ben

Joined
Jul 27, 2015
Messages
4,666
Looking for large camp knife that will also do some chopping and bushcraft work. Looking to keep it under $60. Blade in roughly the 8-10" range, preferably carbon steel but could be talked into the right stainless.
I have my fair share of machetes (both latin, bolo, and KLO types) so not looking for that.

Right now the top contender is the Condor Moonshiner. I have another Condor and am very impressed with the quality of their leather sheaths, which adds significant value to the overall cost of the blade/sheath combo.

Anything else in that price range that I should look at?
 
I should add that I'm not a huge fan of clip points on large blades, so large Bowie style knives like the Ontario Sp10 are out, even though they are great knives and would otherwise meet the criteria. Just a personal preference. I can live with more subtle clips points and wedges.

Edit to add:
Just to serve as an example, the Kabar large bowie, and Ontario Sp5 are ok in my book because they don't have clips that are nearly as exaggerated.
 
If you like the moonshiner, you're off to a good start...

I was going to suggest the Condor Hudson Bay, but you don't like clip points, and while it's not overly defined, it is still a clip point.

The other suggestion would be if you shop around, you can find a KaBar/Becker bk5 for right at your max $.
-it's a little bit shorter, but a lotta bit lighter, while still thicker in the spine... Might not "chop" quite as well, but will still handle light chopping with ease, but will do other knife stuffs just as good or better as the cro-van will hold an edge better then the Condor 1075, and there's no sharpened top edge to worry about if/when batoning.

Edit to add:
19-3ben said:
...I can live with more subtle clips points and wedges.

Edit to add:
Just to serve as an example, the Kabar large bowie, and Ontario Sp5 are ok in my book because they don't have clips that are nearly as exaggerated.
Click to expand...

The Hudson Bay should be good then, would recommend that over the moonshiner as a chopper; thicker spine, no top edge to worry about.
 
Last edited:
Would the Kershaw Camp series be considered a small machete with a thicker stock? I have a Camp 14 I believe it is, and it might fit your parameters but it has a molded plastic vertical/horizontal sheath (which is pretty good actually) and very comfortable rubber handles.

Pretty inexpensive but stout. One would not care about beating on it, and I use mine for batoning just for the heck of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top