Choosing a field knife

D

Desertfox3088

Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
22
I am new here and still absorbing the wealth on information this site provides. I am looking to purchase a fixed blade field knife, something to do some light bushcraft work with. The intended use would be general field tasks as I lead a small backpacking class. The knives I seem to be interested in are the benchmade bushcrafter, benchmade saddle mountain skinner (these two knives seem pretty similar, $50 price difference), and becker bk16. The s30v steel of the benchmades seem to fetch great reviews and seems worth the extra cash. Reading so many reviews doesn't necessarily make the choice easier. Other suggestions would also help. Thank you for your opinions!
 
Condor bushlore, 50$, high carbon steel, scandinavian grind, micarta scales, leather gunslinger sheath, overall, awesome knife. But personnally i'm a Esee guy. So if you are into the Esee knives, the Esee 3 is an awesome blade. It's been my partner for 3 years now and as never let me down.
 
there are sooo many threads on this if you try the search function chief... like hundreds. I've carried a fallkniven F1 for 7 years or so now and I've never been let down. and it's done a LOT.
 
The Becker is my choice. I love S30V for most tasks but not general field duty because I've found it to be brittle compared to the 1095CV. if you have to do a little digging it chips along the fine edge like a serration and any amount of flex at the edge while cutting hard into some thing or a stiff prying motion causes breakages. The 1095 doesn't hold an edge as well but it sure is comforting when what you thought was going to be easy turns out to be border line knife abuse. Hope this helps
 
Welcome to the Forum, Desertfox! Don't overlook the Mora Companion - they come in either stainless or carbon and, for $15, you can't go wrong:




Of course, if you prefer something more elegant (and pricey), Bark River has many attractive offerings - e.g., I just got this Gunny in black and white ebony recently (about the same size as the Mora's, but more than 10x the price):

 
You're looking at some very good knives. I like both the BM Bushcrafter and the Saddle Mountain Skinned (the Bushcrafter is a bit thicker and has a few nicer details, which might explain the cost difference), but I think the BK16 you also mentioned would be a better choice for you, in my opinion.

S30V is a great steel, and it an certainly work well in a medium sized fixed blade. However, the 1095 Cro Van used in the Becker is going to be more forgiving for field tasks (it's a tough steel, run softer than BM's S30V, it'll handle shock better), it's going to be easy to sharpen which is important if you're not very experienced and it's a lot cheaper than either Benchmade model. You can get a BK-16 for around $75 or so. 1095 is not a rust resistant steel, but only the edge is exposed since the blade is coated.

Other good options would be (assuming from the knives in your post that you don't want to spend over $170-180): ESEE 3 or 4, Cold Steel Master Hunter, Fallkniven F1 (if you don't mind the convex grind, it takes some learning to sharpen), Spyderco Bill Moran (the drop point one), Helle Futura or other nice Scandi, Blackjack Tac Ops 4 Ranger (goofy name aside, it's a cool knife), TOPS BOB, etc.
 
Great info gentleman thank you I have been checking out all of the suggestions. The bark river offerings look great! It seems that the Benchmade Bushcrafter is a good complete package. The sheath even looks nice. I seems alot of these type of knives come with cheap sheaths and many users go to custom or aftermarket sheaths. The only problem I see is that alot of people dont seem to like the benchmade bushcrafter. Esee & becker look hard to beat especially for the money. Thanks again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top