Fixed Blade

[Austin H.]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I can say that I have read a lot of posts on here and am pretty impressed with the knowledge that comes through in a lot of the posts. That being said, I have a question regarding the best fixed blade knife to EDC. I am a college student in Texas, so it isn't uncommon to see other students and employees of the campus carrying around smaller fixed bladed knives on their belts.

I'm looking for a relatively small knife that I can carry scout in the small of my back. It needs to look a bit more traditional (as opposed to "tactical") as this alleviates some tension that people might have if I walk around carrying my Ka-Bar USMC knife in it's black Kydex sheath. I was looking really hard at the Buck Vanguard, but can't justify spending the money right now.

Can anyone recommend a knife similar to the Vanguard or one like in the picture below for a good price? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!


I've attached a picture that I found on Pinterest. I will be custom making a similar leather sheath.

 

[dalefuller]

If you want to stay under the $75 that the Buck costs and have a useful and more traditional look, you can look at Cold Steel (mini-Pendleton Hunter, among others), ESEE Izula 2, Becker BK14, Boker Plus Scott McGhee, and A G Russell Hunter's Scalpel or Woodswalker. There are many more but that should get you started.

Any particular reason for wanting scout carry? This makes the knife available with only one hand. I've learned to avoid that because I've been in situations where I needed to get to my knife with my "other" hand. That may not matter to you but I've run into that more than once. I carry my G3 horizontally on my left side now. That allows my usual RH crossdraw but it also makes the knife available LH as well. Scout carry also seems to me to make it very tricky to resheath the knife after use. I admit, I'm not the most coordinated person in the world, but still...

You should also look in the exchange here on BF. Both the individual fixed blade sellers and the knifemaker's F/S subforums will have fixed blades in your current price range from time to time.

If / when you can scrape together the $, I'd highly recommend Bradford's Guardian 3. They start at about $160 for the knife and sheath from online sellers and they are outstanding daily users.

Welcome aboard. Hope this helps...

 

[Hickory n steel]

The buck 113 ranger is 57$ right now on knife center .
I believe knife center is an affiliated dealer, if not then you won't even see this post

 

[dalefuller]

Knifecenter is indeed a paid supporting member here under their business name Knifecenter. I didn't even think about the 113. If the OP wants to stay with Buck, that would be a good choice. I loved my 112 when I was carrying it.

 

[sfrigon1]

I just grabbed a guardian 4 for $ 120 and a 3 for $ 90 not sure if I can say where but it's a pretty big, reputable dealer soo... yeah that's what I would go with if I were looking also the lionsteel m4 you can find for around $ 130