CU/9 and Magnum Camp - your opinions please.

Geode

Geode

Joined
May 12, 2001
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I will be buying one of these, and wondered if owners or Will can shed some light on the differences between the two. The Magnum Camp looks to be thinner, lighter, and possibly faster in the hand.

My guess is that both cut very well, but the CU is probably a better machete or chopper.

I will be using the knife as an all around home/camp knife. It will get use in the garden for small branches, etc. but should be able to cut well on meat, wood, cardboard and the like also. Most times in the outdoors I will have a folder or small fixed blade for fine cutting chores.

For those of you who own either, or both of these knives, may I have your opinions? Thanks in advance.
 
I'm no expert here, but I think if you got a smaller folder to do the finer work, you can get a bigger knife that does the rough stuff.
From Camillus:
The great Jerry Fisk, Master Bladesmith and National Living Treasure, designed the Becker MAGNUM CAMP knife to be an all-purpose knife, and it is! An excellent camp kitchen knife, the Magnum Camp proves its versatility by being a moderate duty chopper as well. The knife is balanced beautifully and its speed in the chopping stroke has to be experienced to be believed.
Click to expand...
I suppose if you're going to start chopping, the 9 would be a better chopper than the Magnum Camp. So I'd take the 9 myself.
Take my comments with a grain of salt BTW.
 
I have the Magnum Camp and the Campanion (so I'll use that for comparison to the BK/T 7) and I would say that the Magnum Camp is much thinner and would be the choice if kitchen duty type chores were intended. It's not going to be a good choice to cut a tree down, but I've used it for two inch artichoke stalks in my sister's garden that were fairly tuff and it went right through them. It's cut small vines and tree limbs (1" and under), watermelon and cardboard with out a problem and it would be the better choice for a roast also out of the two.
With the Campanion, the thicker steel is great for a survial type knife IMHO. The campanion is what I take backpacking when one knife is all I'm taking (with a folder too, but that's just goes with out saying)and I'm not doing a lot of complex food prep. Just boil it or burn it.
In short the campanion (with the .250 thick steel) is about as indestructable as you are going to get. Yes there are probably nicer knives, but come on, it's not getting much stronger. You could dig a hole or cut a steel 50 gal drum in half with it. The magnum camp (with the .180 steel) is as advertised, a good camp/heavy duty kitchen knife. It's the knife that comes along if I go camping in a truck and is used around the kitchen/garden.
 
the BK9 is thinner than the campanion,the edge is also much thinner/more acute,it really cuts well.I think Ethan nailed it with the BK9,just the right balance of durability and cutting ability. The only thing I did was to open up the choil with a dremel so I could choke up on the blade,that worked extremely well.Now the knife is easily the most controllable 9" camp knife I've handled.Unless you really like the magnum camps blade geometry for a specific task I'd go with the 9 in a heartbeat,the performance/weight ratio is as good as it gets for a camp knife.
 
Calyth, Brent, and Logan5 - excellent input. I decided to go with the C/U 9 and ordered it from Bayou Lafourche today. I will be doing a bit of hacking and maybe some nasty garden chores with it - small machete.

I do plan on getting the Magnum Camp too. In fact, Jerry Fisk sells a version he modified the edge on, to be fully convex. If Fisk modifies it, I will buy it. Supposed to be extremely sharp. Looking forward to chopping a watermelon in half with that sucker.

Geode
 
I thought the 7 & 9 were both .250 thick. Maybe I'll take a closer look at them.
 
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