To make a long story short(ish), I frequently go on trips into some relatively tough North American wooded and desert areas. I am accustomed to gearing up for this sort of thing, with one exception. I am used to taking a single fixed blade knife (in recently years a Fallkniven F1) on this type of trip. However, for many of the trips I have coming up throughout the foreseeable future, I absolutely cannot take a fixed blade with me. This is for completely unavoidable social/political reasons. I wasn't even able to get my little Izula okayed.
The good news is that the only requirement is that it be a "folding knife" (although I'm not going to test the waters by showing up with a Camillus CUDA Maxx
which I don't really think would be the right knife for the job anyway ). The other good news is that my knife also does not need to be concealed. Belt carry is considered to be perfectly acceptable. I'm hoping that this opens me up some reasonable options.
This puts me in the unusual (for me, anyway) situation of needing a "folding-fixed-blade" of sorts. I know that there is no such thing... I'm just trying to make the point that I need a strong, high quality, folder, for tackling about as tough of a camp chore as one can imagine tackling with anything less than a hatchet or a machete (and due to gear weight restrictions, occasionally tackling chore that probably should be done by a hatchet or machete ).
The Falkniven F1 has stuck a perfect balance between my gear weight restrictions and the strength, egos and general quality that I tend to demand. With a folding knife restriction added to the mix, I am kind-of at a loss in what to do.
I suppose one could think of what I need as being a kind-of like what people often describe as a "survival folder"--something with which you could do a lot of wood carving, and perhaps even some occasional battoning, while also handling somewhat more delicate tasks like game and food prep. However, unlike a survival folder, my folder is going to need (hopefully) to last a lot longer than 3-7 days.
Just for a little background... Some of the more capable folders I own or have owned in recent years are: CRK Large Sebenza, CRK Small Sebenza (current urban EDC for the past two and a half years), Large Ritter Grip, Small Ritter Grip, BM AFCK, BM940, Spyderco Manix, Camillus CUDA Maxx, Almar Sere 2000.
The Strider SMF seems like a good choice, and it's a knife I have long-considered trying out, anyway. But, I have never owned an SMF, and have nowhere to go, locally, to get my hands on one. I have also considered getting another (sold my old one) large Ritter Grip. For a second I considered getting another (also sold the old one) large Sebenza, but then decided that there wasn't enough strength in it to make it worth choosing over the large Ritter Grip, whose blade shape and grind I prefer for a lot of tasks. In other words I figured that if I'm gonna get a large Seb then I might as well give up a little more strength to get a large Ritter Grip (which is cheap enough to occasionally be replaced when it doesn’t hold up over time), or scrap both and go with the SMF or something similar (which I do not consider cheap and would need to have hold up over time
).
What are your thoughts on an SMF filling this role? What about another knife with the right characteristics?
Thanks!
P.S. I won't be carrying more than one knife.
The good news is that the only requirement is that it be a "folding knife" (although I'm not going to test the waters by showing up with a Camillus CUDA Maxx
which I don't really think would be the right knife for the job anyway ). The other good news is that my knife also does not need to be concealed. Belt carry is considered to be perfectly acceptable. I'm hoping that this opens me up some reasonable options. This puts me in the unusual (for me, anyway) situation of needing a "folding-fixed-blade" of sorts. I know that there is no such thing... I'm just trying to make the point that I need a strong, high quality, folder, for tackling about as tough of a camp chore as one can imagine tackling with anything less than a hatchet or a machete (and due to gear weight restrictions, occasionally tackling chore that probably should be done by a hatchet or machete
). The Falkniven F1 has stuck a perfect balance between my gear weight restrictions and the strength, egos and general quality that I tend to demand. With a folding knife restriction added to the mix, I am kind-of at a loss in what to do.
I suppose one could think of what I need as being a kind-of like what people often describe as a "survival folder"--something with which you could do a lot of wood carving, and perhaps even some occasional battoning, while also handling somewhat more delicate tasks like game and food prep. However, unlike a survival folder, my folder is going to need (hopefully) to last a lot longer than 3-7 days.
Just for a little background... Some of the more capable folders I own or have owned in recent years are: CRK Large Sebenza, CRK Small Sebenza (current urban EDC for the past two and a half years), Large Ritter Grip, Small Ritter Grip, BM AFCK, BM940, Spyderco Manix, Camillus CUDA Maxx, Almar Sere 2000.
The Strider SMF seems like a good choice, and it's a knife I have long-considered trying out, anyway. But, I have never owned an SMF, and have nowhere to go, locally, to get my hands on one. I have also considered getting another (sold my old one) large Ritter Grip. For a second I considered getting another (also sold the old one) large Sebenza, but then decided that there wasn't enough strength in it to make it worth choosing over the large Ritter Grip, whose blade shape and grind I prefer for a lot of tasks. In other words I figured that if I'm gonna get a large Seb then I might as well give up a little more strength to get a large Ritter Grip (which is cheap enough to occasionally be replaced when it doesn’t hold up over time), or scrap both and go with the SMF or something similar (which I do not consider cheap and would need to have hold up over time
).What are your thoughts on an SMF filling this role? What about another knife with the right characteristics?
Thanks!
P.S. I won't be carrying more than one knife.
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