Deciding on a good outdoors knife

A

ambivalens

Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
21
Hi all, this is close to my first post here (in fact it is my second, I believe), so please treat my ignorance gently :rolleyes:

I'm looking for a general purpose knife to carry in the woods, for use with everything from properly gutting a fish and preparing it, to cutting down some reasonably sized branches etc.

My father is a collector of hand made knives, and up to this point I've been using one he gave me a while back. Due to some unfortunate events, that knife has been retired, and as his knives are collectors items (and hideously expensive at that), I've decided to finance my own escapades from now on :) I have a 7" black Ka Bar, but it doesn't really feel like a proper wood knife to me. When I pull it out it feels like I should be sneaking into an enemy camp to murder someone, rather than be preparing to cut off an annoying branch.

I've been looking at Fallkniven knives. Both A1 and F1 look like good, sturdy workers, without looking all too tactical. All the reviews I've read have also been quite positive. But then the Northern Lights series caught my eye, more specifically the 5.11" VG10 blade one (http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=SWEDNL4EL). This really has more of the woodsy feeling I'm looking for in it, I think. Do any of you have any experiences with this line of knives? Also, would the 5.11" be too small? I'm a big guy, and the 5" small Ka Bar I recently bought just disappears in my hand, feeling more like a kids knife than anything else.

As I'm from Norway, I'm trying to go another route than Helle. They have some knives that appeal to my sense of "proper wood knife", but I've been around them all my life, so a change of scenery might be nice. The Simonich Salish also caught my eye one day while browsing these forums - looks like a very decent knife.

In conclusion, I'm looking for outdoors/wood knives that look more like they belong in the woods than the Ka Bar style tactical murder weapon (think Helle meets Fallkniven, perhaps..). I'm open to anything, and especially takes on the Northern Lights line from Fallkniven. Price is no real object if the knife is really what I'm looking for (up to a point, that is.. ;)).
 
IMHO, you would be better off not trying to make one knife to all jobs. That doesn't mean you need to spend a lot for two knives. I'm pretty sure you could get two very useable, very different knives for the cost of one Fallkniven A1. No, I'm not anti Fallkniven. I have a few Fallknivens and like them alot. You can get nice light weight, inexpensive clipper that will cut a 3/4" branch.

I really don't get this "murder weapon" talk and you are not the only one talking that way on this forum. Are you worried about what someone else will think if they see your knife or are you bothered by a "tactical" knife? Any kitchen knife can easily be used to kill someone. You can do great harm with almost any tool. Your brain is the weapon, not the tool.
 
Rich357 said:
I really don't get this "murder weapon" talk and you are not the only one talking that way on this forum. Are you worried about what someone else will think if they see your knife or are you bothered by a "tactical" knife? Any kitchen knife can easily be used to kill someone. You can do great harm with almost any tool. Your brain is the weapon, not the tool.
Click to expand...

Quite true! I guess I did formulate that a bit clumsy. It was more meant as a description of the look of the knife, for lack of a better expression to use at the time. I guess you are spot on when you ask if I'm bothered by a "tactical" knife. I do like their looks, but they feel a bit more "hard core" than what I associate with general forest activity. That said, I will probably bring my Ka Bar along for some of the tougher jobs - it just won't be the one hanging on my belt.
 
The tasks you describe--preparing fish and hacking tree branches--are probably better accomplished by 2 different knives. While you can find one single knife that will do them both, they may not necessarily do them well. Your Ka-Bar is probably up to the task of hacking branches, in spite of its appearance.

If you are looking for a knife that looks like it belongs in the woods (though I really don't know what your vision of that is), I can tell you that I find Matt Lesniewski's knives to be very functional and fit the appearance. He has a website--www.mlknives.com. Check out his designs--he has a variant of the Kephart that might suit your needs.
 
I understand you want something different rather than go with the Ka-Bar for everything, but just to disabuse you of the notion that the Ka-Bar is a combat knife, look at these modern versions of the Marble's Ideal. This is the knife on which the classic Ka-Bar Fighting/Utility Knife was based -- a camp knife. A combat zone knife, perhaps, for soldiers living outdoors.

What the others are getting at is that you would do better with a lighter blade for fish and a Ka-Bar style for general camp and brush clearing. I'm sure there's a good knife that would do both, though. Check out the Bark River knives. They have a tremendous variety of sizes and styles, most with convexed edges like the Fallknivens.
 
Alternative 1: Fallkniven F1, Bahco folding saw, multitool.
Alternative 2: Fallkniven S1, Fallkniven WM1/U2, folding saw, multitool.

http://hem.passagen.se/nodh/trio.jpg

That is all you need.

I know some norwegian tradition is to have a huge knife instead of an axe or saw. Then the A2 might be of interest. Combined with a F1/WM1/U2 it will be great.
The NL and TK series knives are useful too.
Keep the F1 etc on your belt and the A2 on your backpack.

Hälsningar från Ed.
 
Hmm- normally I'd recommend Mora kniives, but seing as you don't want a Helle-
An Ontario Rat 3, or a RAT RC-3, in 1095, for general purpose.
For cleaning fish, a lightweight fillet or boning knife.
And a carbon steel slipjoint of some sort. I like the Case Medium Stockman, CV.
 
nodh said:
Alternative 1: Fallkniven F1, Bahco folding saw, multitool.
Alternative 2: Fallkniven S1, Fallkniven WM1/U2, folding saw, multitool.

http://hem.passagen.se/nodh/trio.jpg

That is all you need.

I know some norwegian tradition is to have a huge knife instead of an axe or saw. Then the A2 might be of interest. Combined with a F1/WM1/U2 it will be great.
The NL and TK series knives are useful too.
Keep the F1 etc on your belt and the A2 on your backpack.

Hälsningar från Ed.
Click to expand...

I can certainly see the logic in these setups, and I like them very much. I think I'll break the norwegian tradition (which I think might be more sami than norwegian, but what do I know?) of carrying a very large knife. While I do like the look and feel of a large knife, I feel I'm not skilled enough to put a long blade to proper use when it comes to smaller tasks.

About the F1, does it have a large/broad enough handle for a pretty large hand? I haven't got freakish hands, but as I stated earlier, the small Ka Bar feels like a little kids toy in my hand, so I'm worried :) I'm asking because I order my knives from the US, as the prices in Norway are abhorrent, insulting and right out insane. Even with added taxes on importing I'm saving a pretty penny on getting my knives from the States - the downside is that I'm not able to hold them in my hand before I fork up the cash.
 
jim preston said:
Hmm- normally I'd recommend Mora kniives, but seing as you don't want a Helle-
An Ontario Rat 3, or a RAT RC-3, in 1095, for general purpose.
For cleaning fish, a lightweight fillet or boning knife.
And a carbon steel slipjoint of some sort. I like the Case Medium Stockman, CV.
Click to expand...

Hm, the Ontario Rat 3 certainly looks appealing. It looks more or less like a cheaper version of the F1 - with the added disclaimer of me missing some finer points. I like the design, it's no frills and straight up utility. It has certainly made the list of knives under evaluation, thanks for contributing :)
 
Sharp Eye said:
I would take a look at Bark River knives. They have lot's of good bushcraft knives. People often like the Aurora, Fox River and North Star Models for the woods.
Also, take a look at this thread. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=553865 You might find a suggestion that you like.
Good luck and let us know what you decide.
Click to expand...

Wow - the Aurora and North Star really caught my eye! Beautiful knives, with the Aurora leading slightly on the list of candidates. Thanks a bunch to you and Esav Benyamin for opening my eyes here.

(wow, the Aurora really is beautiful)
 
The Aurora really is an outstanding knife:
DSCF2918.jpg

It's the one at the bottom right side in the pic.
Well designed & built , VERY sharp & easy to keep that way.
I think it's a good all around type of knife.
Cliff
 
If you have a problem with small handles, I suggest you do what I used to do when I couldn't actually hold a knife before buying it.

Get a piece of paper and draw the outline, try to add a note on the handle thickness, and put your clenched fist next to it, or cut it out of cardboard and hold it. Some of the Bark Rivers (like the Highland Special) feel small to me and others (like the Gameskeeper) fit fine.
 
You might also look at Ranger Knives, although there's certainly nothing wrong with the direction you already seem to be going.
 
Cliff Nieporte said:
The Aurora really is an outstanding knife:
DSCF2918.jpg

It's the one at the bottom right side in the pic.
Well designed & built , VERY sharp & easy to keep that way.
I think it's a good all around type of knife.
Cliff
Click to expand...

Great shot! I was wondering, which knife is this?

knife.jpg


It looks very nice, fits nicely into the no frills heading we're going in here.
 
Have you looked into the Grohmann knives,the #4 survival and #1 original
would make a great pair add a multitool.and your set I've carried mine for
almost 10 years and they haven't let me down


tyrantblade
 
ambivalens said:
About the F1, does it have a large/broad enough handle for a pretty large hand? I haven't got freakish hands, but as I stated earlier, the small Ka Bar feels like a little kids toy in my hand, so I'm worried :) .
Click to expand...

I have small hands, and the F1 feels somewhat small even to me. If you have large hands I would imagine the F1 too small for you.
 
The 5 inch Marbles Ideal is a very nice knife. So too was the pre war Ka-Bar look like (model 447?).

Two 6 inch WW2 blades I am pretty fond of and both can be had on Ebay often for less than $40 and make good woods and GP knives. Either will serve you very well. I've used the top one a lot and it stands up very well.

US Army Quartermaster (Cattaraugus pictured on top, but Case made one too) and (my 'newest' toy) the US Armed Forces 'Hunting' knife (found in life rafts and survival kits as well as war time PXs) aka the Ka-Bar Commando (bottom).

IMGP0191.jpg


You may also want to look at the early USAAF and USAF 'Pilots" knife, the pre-saw tooth versions.
 
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