Cheap, Rugged and Reliable Knife

G

Gylfi3

Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
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What would be a good, rugged and reliable knife that could be used in all manner of tasks like splitting wood and other bushcraft tasks that wouldn't break the bank. I'm talking under 100 dollars.
 
I have yet to find a good cheap knife. I have found some good affordable knives. Unfortunately they are slightly over the 100 dollar limit.

SOG made a bushcraft style knife for under a hundred and I thought it was well built for the price. The sheath was lacking. I'll try and find it later and let you know the model.
 
Thanks that would be great. The budget is kind of loose so as long as it's not too expensive it's fine.
 
There are actually quite a few. The Buck Hood Punk is right around $100, the Becker Bk-16 is around $80 and Condor makes several knives that are rugged and reliable. Plus I know someone will recommend Mora, something like the Bushcraft Black.
 
Condor immediately springs to mind. You could get a Rodan and a Golok, and still be under $100.
 
The Becker bk17 is a great knife, I'd also look into the Ontario SP-47. Personally I always carry a Bk14 and it has never let me down.
 
TOPS Brothers of Bushcraft is a solid outdoors oriented knife. 3/16" thick, 1095 RC 58, and found online for around $109.95.
 
If you dig around online, you can probably still find an old USA-made Schrade XT2B for next to nothing, maybe even brand new. Although I haven't exactly beat up on mine, I've used it to baton, make fuzz sticks, cut up boxes and such. The steel is "SCHRADE+" that I believe is some grade of 440, but it has yet to chip or roll, and has needed only the minimum of sharpening. I think I paid around $25-30 for mine new, and there is a Chinese version (also discontinued) that was produced after Taylor Brands took over the Schrade name. I like mine enough to have had a custom leather sheath made for it.

Otherwise, I think the Condor Rodan suggestion is a good one. I have one of them as well, but haven't spent any time with it due to the Schrade covering all the bases.
 
There are so many options in that price range. The question you should really be asking yourself right now is what type/size of knife are you wanting. Do you want carbon or stainless steel?

For "splitting wood", I'm assuming you mean by batoning, because most knives aren't very good at splitting (to short and to narrow). So if you're wanting to do stuff like that, you should probably be going with something full tang, and if it were me, it would be in a carbon steel. I'd also be looking at something with a thickness of somewhere in the range of 1/8in and 3/16in. And for a fixed blade, I like them at least 4inches. Beyond that though, things change depending on what length the blade is, because their purpose changes.

I use my Becker BK9 like a hatchet (chops better than my lame hatchet), and baton it to split stuff that approaches forarm/calf sized wood. I cut that wood with a folding saw though, because chopping just isn't worth the effort imo. I use my Mora for feather sticks, and finer tasks (its just barely 4in of blade). There are a bunch of blades in between (and further up or down the size "scale"). If you want a SINGLE blade to do everything, then you should be looking at the 5-7in range (blade length). I'd start with the ESEE 6 or Becker BK12 personally (both are 6in blades). But it really comes down to what you're wanting out of it.

So any ideas on your preferences in materials, and size?
 
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