Folder for everything

Well, what do I do with my knife? Clean vegetables, cut paper when I do not want to find scissors, cut bread. Rarely cut some wood branches while camping. So, nothing unusual.
I read concept of three knives: one multitool for tools, one cutter and one for heavy work. So, two Victorinoxes (Picnicker and Swisschamp) fill my needs for the first two knives, but I have nothing for the third one. I do not intend to carry it with myself every day, only for travels and camping. Something that is a combination of a cutter that can also do some heavy work is ideal.
You may say fixed blades are not suitable for heavy work, but which folder, in your opinion, will be quite close in toughness to fixed blades and at the same time a good cutter? I do not intend to chop logs of wood, but already once I needed a knife for prying (that time I was lucky to have Busse with me).
Regards,
 
The problem with folders is that the hinge and lock are weak points in many (most) designs (especially for prying). I do not have a heavy folder in my collection that I would relay on for heavy prying, the leverage on the hinge mechanism is simply too great IMO. I have only a few fixed blades that I would have confidence in surviving use as a prybar (all of them are too heavy to carry for my tasts). (when I say prybar I am talking about heavy usage, not opening paint cans, peachcrates etc).
I like a few tools in my pocket (ergo my tinker), I have tried several other victornx knives, leatherman tools etc. and found them too big or awkward for every day carry.
Keep looking I'm hoping that one of the suggestions here will help me find the best carry knife too.
Enjoy!
 
I think the Spyderco Manix (see CLiff's review) or the Benchmade 710HS would suit your needs well. I would pick the one that fits your hand the best and feels most comfortable.

If corrosion resistance is an issue, the Manix is probably the better choice.

Note: Both are very lefty freindly.
 
Anybody consider a slip-joint a good do it all knife ? I knew an old guy that did everything with a SCHRADE muskrat and a camp ax .
 
OmegaA said:
Clean vegetables, cut paper when I do not want to find scissors, cut bread. Rarely cut some wood branches while camping. So, nothing unusual.
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Ok, that should not cause such quick wear as you noted, I doubt that is the promoted expected behavior. I have seen better long term lock stability in the various lock backs I have used.

Nice heavy use folders would be Manix, 710HSS, as Knifetester noted, if you want to actually do prying you will snap the tips off of those rather easily and will require something a lot heavier.

The Fulcrum IID might be a choice, since you already have nice cutting knives on you, it is more of a sharpened wedge than a knife, but can take a fair bit of prying and general beating.

-Cliff
 
Extrema Ratio MPC or Fulcrum, can find them at bright edge for $200 or so.

Greco folder, such as Falcon or Whisper, hard to find, but the best tough folder there is. They were $80 or so new, now they are probably worth a $100 or so.

Buck Strider folder, make sure and get the G-10 version, these are hard to beat. About $80 or so. The 420 version will be pretty tough and easy to sharpen, but the ATS-34 version will hold an edge longer (but it will be a little more brittle)

Any one of these will serve you well for many years, and not break. I remember a review where a Greco was batoned through wood multiple times without lock failure or bending.
 
You may say fixed blades are not suitable for heavy work, but which folder, in your opinion, will be quite close in toughness to fixed blades and at the same time a good cutter? I do not intend to chop logs of wood, but already once I needed a knife for prying
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Some other knives you may want to consider, in order of probable prying ability (and inverse order of cutting efficiency).

The ER Fulcrum, see Cliff's thread in the review section, 1/4" thick folding prybar.

Benchmade Skirmish: Frame lock (which is good or bad dependening on your preference), blade about 5/32 or 3/16" thick ( I don't remeber off the top of my head).

Another option, if you can find one, is the BM Ares with M2 blade, either the 730 or 732. Similar to the 710HS, no recurve, spear point, slightly shorter blade. Kinda rare (only about 500 or so out there) but a good knife. It is rarely discussed, but I would readily choose it over a knife like the SERE 2000 or Military.
 
knifetester said:
The ER Fulcrum ...
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Yeah, you can actually make a knife out of this with a little work, behold the Extrema Ratio Puukko :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/extrema ratio/fulcrum_modified.jpg

I didn't intend to actually do that, I meant to just apply a relief grind to the edge, but the steel worked *really* easily and in just a couple of minutes the edge bevel was gone and the primary grind extended full to the edge.

With this grind it now can do a lot of shallow cutting well, 3/8" hemp, peel potatoes, carve woods and so forth. It still wedges horrible in deep cuts, but actually makes a pretty decent utility knife which has high performance in shallow cuts and is a stout prybar.

I should have ground off one side with a x-coarse stone to see how long that would be, but based on how rapidly it was ground off with a worn 100 grit belt, I don't imagine it would be long, 10-15 minutes for a full reprofile maybe.

I think the steel in this one is defective though as the edge just fell apart on some light metal cuts, so likely most are harder to modify. In any case if you have access to a belt sander, or have an hour or two with an x-coarse hone, you could do this mod on an ATS-34 class steel.

-Cliff
 
Thank you, Cliff,
But... is there something more beatiful than this knife? It does match up with my technical requirements, but... aesthetically it does not look like a knife at all.
Regards,
 
OmegaA said:
But... is there something more beatiful than this knife?
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Yes, pretty much everything else. There are not a lot of folders however with blades thick enough for serious prying and locks strong/stable enough to match. Joe Talmadge has used a lot more folders than I have, maybe he can recommend a decent custom, drop him an email. Essentially you are looking for a 3/16" blade without a lot of taper, something with a blade like the Howling Rat with an axis, compression lock or lock back. Drop Busse an email to add to the list of people hounding him to put out a folder and maybe it will speed it up.

-Cliff
 
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