Folders?

Razor

Razor

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 8, 1999
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With, all the good folders, that we have now. I sometimes, wonder, how much, we really, need, fix, blades in the woods? Don't get me wrong, I like my Kepharts, but the BM520, has been doing alot, in the woods lately. Any opions? Almost forgot about the SAK Farmer to!
 
Razor said:
With, all the good folders, that we have now. I sometimes, wonder, how much, we really, need, fix, blades in the woods? Don't get me wrong, I like my Kepharts, but the BM520, has been doing alot, in the woods lately. Any opions? Almost forgot about the SAK Farmer to!
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I like a SAK especially, but I also like a bigger knife which can be used to baton. Can't do that with a folder.

Andy
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
I like a SAK especially, but I also like a bigger knife which can be used to baton. Can't do that with a folder.
Andy
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Don't tell Horndog that ;)

I think that today you have some folders that is stronger then some fixed blades. (Buck hartsook comes to mind.)
I also think that a lot of people think *Folder = Pocket knife = smaller then a fixed blade*, and while this is properly true most of the time, there is still (More and more) times this is not true.

Is this good or bad, clever or not so clever, I don't know ?
What I do know is that I'd feel that the Cold Steel Rajah II is not what I consider a pocket knife even if it is a folder :p .
 
Personally, I would never intentionally rely on a folder.

But I think a distinction should also be made in terms of the locking mechanism (or lack thereof) of the knife.

That being said, I always EDC a slippie or SAK along with a smaller fixed blade (BRKT Pro Scalpel II recently)
 
I used to really go for the big camp choppers. Busse, Swamp Rat, huge customs, Becker Combat models. Now, bushcrafty sized knives are fine for me. I'm going on a small camping trip, and all I plan on taking are my Gossman mini Kephart and Victorinox One Hand Trekker. I have Sebenzas, a Spyderco Military, Ritter Grips etc, but I have really come to appreciate that OHT on a hike.
 
I prefer fixed blades for a bunch of reasons but I'll relax on that sometimes. I'm not going to include the SAK Outrider in that. The Outrider to me is a tool which just happens to have a blade on it. Even if the main blade was replaced with a spoon it would still be in my kit.

A lot of it for me just boils down to confidence in my own abilities relative to my surroundings and what my objectives are. The “being in the woods” is not alone sufficient incentive for a fixed blade. I do a few miles in some sort of woodland most days at the moment. As a matter of daily living I am in familiar areas. The truth of it is that many times I'm in lame non-challenging places where one wouldn't be shocked to see a family roaming around. It's plausible that something that could go wrong and I'd seriously regret not bringing a fixed blade, but the way I assess probability that can often be dismissed. If I'm out watching the dog in action, or meandering along smoking a long one taking pictures of stuff, or sitting in a hide playing wildlife voyeur, most often the tools that are most useful to me are the kinds of things a gardener might use. For me that means pruning shears and the folding EKA Big Swede.

In fact, only a couple of days ago I saw something that piqued my interest in taking that a step further. Below is an EKA Compact.

eg-04-09_123818601.jpg

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While it is down the AUS6 / 44A end what with it being 12C27 I think it may well be good enough. Despite also having the hideous brass screw I haven't been deterred from using my Big Swede because it works so well. Looking at the grind on these and they look like they might trump that at slicing and push cutting. I found them for $16.95 USD so that should be about 10 quid to me when I find them here. Cheap enough to get a bucket full of 'em as beaters and stick them all over the place. It is only that I haven't had chance to use one yet that I haven't gone back to the “folding knife equivalent to a Mora” thread and revised my selection.
 
I am from the "cut with a knife, chop with an axe" school of thought. I compliment my Gerber pocket ax with a SAK huntsman and a Buck 110. I enjoy folders and find that that when used properly, they are fine for woodwalking. I don't try to baton with them, that's what the Gerber pocket ax is for.
 
I think for any hiking/backpacking/camping east of the big Mis, a folder is okay, especially if your in an area where you're not more than a day's hike out. Most the time you're only a few hours away from your car. A folder like a Victorinox farmer or hiker will do just fine.

If you're a full day or more walk away from civilization, I think a sturdy fixed blade or hatchet is a good item to have. But then you have Collin Fletcher doing the length of the Grand Canyon with only a little sak.

When I lived in Trinidad Colorado for a few years, I got to do alot of back country travel. It was an eye opener in more ways than one. I thought I'd be way off in the boonies, and I'd get on top of a high point and see a tiny bit of dust off in the distance. Taking out a monocular, I'd see a pickup truck or country truck on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Or I'd come out of the woods to a dirt road that turned out to be a ranch road, or a road to a fire tower where a ranger was on lookout.

There is not too many places in the lower continnental U.S. that unless you have a broken leg and can't walk, that you can't walk out of in a day or so if you have a compass and halfway know what you're doing. Any hiker with the ten essentials in a day pack will be just fine if they hav e just a little bit of common sense and planning. The people that get in trouble are the idiots who blunder into the wilderness with zero prior planning.

Most survivlal stories I've read or heard, the amount of cutlery had little to do with the outcome. Boils down to just common sense and a little planning and prior practise with a few things. With a hatchet, and a fire steel to make shelter and fire, you pretty much have it made. It's been many years now since I've bothered carrying a sheath knife. I have a sak and another pocket knife of some kind, then depending on season, a saw or hatchet. Summer is sak and saw, winter is sak and hatchet. I tried that spliting technique the down under guy used with folding saw, and it works great. No more battoning.
 
I just can't get my head around folders, if they break you are left with an unusable knife.I'd take a small fixed over a folder anyday of the week !
 
For most intents and purposes I think a folder would do fine on basic hikes and overnighters. However harcore bush trips and hunting camps, a fixed is a must.

I just got a D2 paramilitary yesterday, and am really happy with it so far. Paired with a farmer, I think it would serve well on most dayhikes.
 
I can't imagine going through a day without a folder on me. Any folder I have will find itself in the woods too since I just leave whatever I happen to be carrying in my pocket. I generally carry a "tactical" type knife or a sak Farmer, sometimes both.
 
I have a few folders and like them for edc type stuff. I carry my Spyderco ATR into the woods as well. But I always have a fixed blade as well.
 
pitdog said:
I just can't get my head around folders, if they break you are left with an unusable knife.I'd take a small fixed over a folder anyday of the week !
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I respectably disagree. If they break you either have a short blade on a handle and a flake knife (think flint, obsidian...), or a broken handle and a larger flake knife- just like when a FB breaks! Not optimal but they will still cut.
 
Just about any good fixed blade is going to be stronger than most folders. The main benefit of folders is that they fold. So we can carry a large blade knife more conveniently. I have found one folder that is actually tough enough to chop and baton with, the Cold Steel Rajah 2. Will it chop as well as my Ratweiler? Of course not, but it chops better than a Mora! :D
 
Here`s another EKA in the middle - makes for a great slicing pocketknife for the office:

SANY0010-1.jpg


I don`t baton much, so I often take thia larger, classy folder when hiking or woods bumming:

SANY0006-1.jpg
 
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Folders are great when you don't have the option of a fixed blade (like where I work, you can carry any size knife, so long as it folds. A fixed blade crosses the line into "weapon" according to the rules. . .), or carry it a lot and use it a little.

The only folder I carry in the woods is a SAK, and I carry it for everything but the blade.
But I also carry fixed blades. But there's a few reasons fixed blades are superior:

1.) Yes, for knives with the same dimensions, the fixed blade will be stronger than the folder.
2.) Aesthetics: There's more you can do on a fixed blade to make it "look nice" than a folder, since you don't have to worry about accommodating the blade in the grip.
3.) Ergonomics. For the same reasons as above, you have much more lattitude to shape the grips and blade of a fixed blade. For prolonged use, this is the big reason a fixed blade is superior to a folder.

Oh, and just because it's a fixed blade, doesn't mean it has to be a chopper, nor does it being a Busse mean it has to be huge! :D

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One other reason to prefer a fixed blade: ever notice how many folders are designed for one-handed opening? Why is that?

Fixed blades are the simplest one-handed opening design there is. ;)

Nevertheless, folders are much more convenient to carry. Brian, I really like that Grohmann folder. I'll have to get me one.
 
The more you know the less you have to carry. I have been in the bush with just a folder plenty of times. Personally, I don't rely on a knife to survive. My resolve and mind must be the sharpest tools that I carry. I have never had a quality folder break when used properly.
Battoning has never served a purpose for me in the bush. It's easy enough to find any size stick or log by looking on the ground. A trapper or stockman, hell even a barlow has handled all my needs on three and five day hikes.
When I take my fixed blades out. They hardly get used.
 
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