Dirt cheap survival/emergency/bushcraft knife...

S

sja2249

Joined
Feb 11, 2006
Messages
174
I want to put together a few emergency kits. Something along the line of a very basic, VERY cheap PSK ( personal survival kit ). I'm essentially broke at the moment. *sigh* I was wondering if the $2 "bait" knives are any good. I realize they aren't going to be fantastic, but would they be of any use? Do they hold an edge at all? If they are complete garbage, I'll wait until I can get my hands on a few mora's or Marttiini's... If they are at all useful, I can start with those for now then maybe upgrade to mora's later. If I was looking to build one kit, a mora wouldn't be an issue, but I want to stash multiple kits in two households and 5 vehicles.

Anyway, does anyone anywhere do any comparisons or reviews of these things? I see basically the same knife going under several names. Berkely, Angler's Choice, Mustad, etc. etc. etc. They have 3.5" blades and either serrations or a scaler on the back of the blade. They seem to run between $1 and $3.

Thanks.

Sam
 
My experience is that they are basically glorified steak knives. IMO saving for Moras is the wise move.
 
elkins45 said:
My experience is that they are basically glorified steak knives. IMO saving for Moras is the wise move.
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+1 I've had no name chinese brand fixed blades shatter from light batoning, and not just the handle but the actual blade. (This is back when I didn't know anything about knives other than the ones at the gas station looked cool)
 
Meh. I'm vaguely disappointed, but not surprised. Thank you. I'm a little annoyed that the prices on the Mora's and Marttiini's seem to have gone up a little. I can't find any for under $10 anymore.
 
sja2249 said:
Meh. I'm vaguely disappointed, but not surprised. Thank you. I'm a little annoyed that the prices on the Mora's and Marttiini's seem to have gone up a little. I can't find any for under $10 anymore.
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I understand your disappointment, and sorry you are broke right now, but the reality is that a 3 dollar knife is a 3 dollar knife.

Something like a knife for an emergency survival kit is worth saving up for.
 
Yes, but you should still be able to find the #1 for $10 and most of the other carbon steel & stainless basic models from $11-14. Well worth the price.
 
Go $15 and get a Mora Robust (twice the normal blade thickness) shipped to you from theBay.

Prof.
 
The robust looks very interesting. I'll probably get one or two of those and a handful of classics or Marttiini 571's.
 
A good few year ago now , I bought a cold steal canadian belt know , and a $2 bait knife
I gave the cold steal one away , the bait knife is still rattling around in the car kit . Imho its better .

at the end of the day , its just another stainless steel blade and its very much luck of the draw what youre getting for stainless steel , I lucked upon a good one , as far as stainless goes , its taken a fair amount of use and suprised me how well it holds its edge . The canadian belt knife ... yeah soft

neither compare with a mora real well , but then imho nor do a fair number of way higher priced blades either .

If you have $2 and need a knife now , grab the bait knife ... its not going to be as structurally strong , or hold its edge as good as a higher priced knife , but , its a knife , and when youre digging in your kit cos you have to , any knife is better than none , if you know how to use it . Save up and replace it .. upgrading imho is probably preferable to doing without at all .
 
Myal said:
... its not going to be as structurally strong , or hold its edge as good as a higher priced knife , but , its a knife , and when youre digging in your kit cos you have to , any knife is better than none , if you know how to use it .
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Roger that! And if you don't have a knife, any piece of steel would be better than nothing.
That dude that got his arm squershed by the rock in Utah saved his life with a $7 multi tool his mom got at a gas station as a stocking stuffer!

Steel is cool!
 
if you can tell stainless from carbon, go to the local good will and look for some older carbon steel kitchen knives. They can be had for a dollar or two and will suffice until you can get the mora's which are the perfect option for what you want.
 
Mora. Seriously, at $10-15 for a great knife, what's not to love. I love my 546G. It went through 3 deer this past hunting season without sharpening (my torture test), breastbones and all, and most of the edge still shaved. Only a few swipes on a DMT red diamond stone on the patio and it was hair-popping again (it came hair-popping sharp). I bought a Grizzly sheath for it, and it's great. Costs 3X what the knife did, but I plan on buying a backup knife, and I'm done for life for fixed blades for hunting/bushcraft (yeah, right). The 511 is the same knife in carbon and can be had for <$10. I'm 43 yrs old and have had every knife there is. I was seriously impressed by a Mora knife, even after carrying Sebenzas.
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I can understanding wanting to put together a few emergency kits, BUT I'm not sure it makes logical sense to put "cheap" ones together with no funds.

I'm not trying to flame you or anything, but it just doesn't make sense to throw together cheap survival kits for two homes and 5 vehicles if you can't even afford an $8 dollar red plastic handle mora. (9 bucs with sheath).
 
sounds like it may not be his own two homes and 5 cars

I slap up budget kits for friends that I want to get thinking along the lines of being prepared , gear that will do the job , but that doesnt come with the luxury of warranty ( like .. if youre using it cos you need to .. youll mail it back and wait for replacement ? )

Im not going to spend a heap on people that are possibly not going to to get the idea and run with it .. I would rather they catch onto the idea and begin upgrading it themselves , besides I dont have that kinda cash anyway .

just a possibility :)
 
In a survival scenario, I'm pretty sure you/anyone else would want the quality knife... Go with the Mora, or possibly one of the Cold Steel lite hunter-style knives. You can get a pendleton for under $15, and they can handle some pretty rude treatment.
 
I was just thinking you could sell a car or four. Then get the mora & you wouldn't need as many. :D
 
I know I'll probably get killed for this but how about a plain old stanley type utility knife ??? If you have a Harbor Freight Tools in your area they have utility knives for 2.00 and sometimes 1.50 on sale or go into any walmart/home depot/lowes and look around and find one that fits the bill. Most of them come with 3-5 replacement blades that are covered in oil so they wont rust in the bag and if your giving these to friends that dont generally use knives then instead of sharpening they can just change the blade makes life easier. If you think it wont work then I'd also put a vote in for a mora I just got a companion from amazon and it's a nice knife for the money.
 
A few years ago, I bought some S&W Homeland Security fixed blade knives. They weren't great, but they weren't garbage either. The blades were 440C, kept their edges well but were essentially sharpened pry bars. Still, for batoning they are probably the best for the money! That said, I bought a cheap Homeland Security knock-off for $13 just to see how it would compare. The bad news is that it was a BAD knock-off and the sheath was awful!

The good news is that the knife was still pretty sturdy. The painted blade was bad and the steel was probably 420, but in an emergency situation--if your plane goes down, if you have to grab a bag and go--that $13 knife would be worth many times what a CR Sebenza would be worth! My wife used that knife one summer as a weeder, and after I got it back, I cleaned it with some soap and water, sharpened it (and it DID sharpen!), oiled it and threw it in my car trunk where it resides today. My S&W Homeland Securities were $29 and I think they were mismarked because they soon after went to $39 and the blades changed to 440...period!

You can get some good knives for cheap prices, and that HS knock-off has been an astounding buy. I'd baton with it in a heartbeat with every expectation that it would survive. And there's no doubt but what the S&W 440C would baton hard wood with no problems whatsoever plus, as I said, it keeps a good edge for a tanto pry bar! It would make a poor weapon, but it could be used as such in a defensive situation.

The bottom line is to get the best that you can afford. In a bugout bag, there are some items that simply shouldn't be scrimped on, and knives are certainly in that group! As Jesus said, if you don't have a Ka-Bar Large Heavy Bowie then you should sell your cloak and get one. I'm only partially joking when I say that as a knife, a flashlight and a good gun are essential parts of your bugout bag. If you have to scrimp, get a big cheap heavy knife and pray that you made a good choice.

SWHSTanto.jpg


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Here's the S&W HS knock-off with a 5-inch el cheapo Maxam. The latter
is a pretty good defense knife if you have nothing else handy.

MaxumBowie_2.jpg


This is a pretty knife and it feels great in the hand, but it will break
in a heartbeat and probably injure you in the process.

.
 
I have a few bugout bags already. Mine has a couple of Marttiini's in it, my girlfriend's has a couple of Mora's. I wanted to put a small PSK style kit in each of our vehicles and a couple more for her kids. Hopefully, we'd have the real kits and we wouldn't get separated... but I like the idea of each of us having a little something in case we do get separated. The idea was to put them together on the cheap. Most of the stuff in the kits is either stuff left over from building the serious bug out bags or other everyday random stuff. I just don't have enough fixed blade knives to go around... I could probably scrape up enough folders, but not many of my folders are hard use knives, and the ones that are aren't the kind you'd want to hand to a teenager.
 
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