Folding survival knives

There are several that I can think of but stipulating US made only not only eliminates them but also limits your options. For just an absolute brute of a folder that comes as close to a FB as possible would be the ER RAO. The Kershaw 1050 Folding Field is a Buck 110 on steroids but it is built in Seki City, Japan. I carried a 110 from '77 until '84 and then went to the Kershaw without ever regretting the change. You are also eliminating all SAKs as well.
 
Halberdier said:
If you mean the RAT 1, that is my choice for a woods/survival folder. Large enough without being too large, solid and very reliable so far. But.. it's made in Taiwan.
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You're right I was in error. I've got one in a box somewhere so I should have known better.......... I think it's a great knife for the woods along with the EKA Big Swede, and that got me trippin' on all sorts of designs I enjoy but don't find so good in the sticks because the handle doesn't afford a good amount of cutting power. And that many with good handles have that over built can't cut properly-ness about them. The EKA was an obvious diss because of origin but the Ontario slipped through................Got to wonder though, each man to his own and all that, but I get a little bit bewildered by these arbitrary constraints. Personally, the more I've learned about knives the better I have become at evaluating a knife on merit alone. I strip out all the back story, which guru likes it, how many ninjas apparently have them issued, what it cost or who made it or where, any of that. I find that clouds the subject more than anything and you end up with “a knife like Tarzan had” type mentality. Sure you wouldn't strip it all out completely because there are potentially useful information packets in there that could be useful downstream – it's got a Bos HT vs uncertain for example. To my mind though when you rank this extra information from most useful to most useless the country of manufacture doesn't necessarily tell me much of anything. On that, I find it totally cart before horse to consider it as a primacy.......Rant off.
 
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baldtaco-II said:
You're right I was in error. I've got one in a box somewhere so I should have known better.......... I think it's a great knife for the woods along with the EKA Big Swede, and that got me trippin' on all sorts of designs I enjoy but don't find so good in the sticks because the handle doesn't afford a good amount of cutting power. And that many with good handles have that over built can't cut properly-ness about them. The EKA was an obvious diss because of origin but the Ontario slipped through................Got to wonder though, each man to his own and all that, but I get a little bit bewildered by these arbitrary constraints. Personally, the more I've learned about knives the better I have become at evaluating a knife on merit alone. I strip out all the back story, which guru likes it, how many ninjas apparently have them issued, what it cost or who made it or where, any of that. I find that clouds the subject more than anything and you end up with “a knife like Tarzan had” type mentality. Sure you wouldn't strip it all out completely because there are potentially useful information packets in there that could be useful downstream – it's got a Bos HT vs uncertain for example. To my mind though when you rank this extra information from most useful to most useless the country of manufacture doesn't necessarily tell me much of anything. On that, I find it totally cart before horse to consider it as a primacy.......Rant off.
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Nice rant. :thumbup: Looks like we have similar taste in knives. I bought the smaller Eka Swede and it turned out to be a sort of a 'tweener,' too large for the pocket and too small for the woods. But the solid build and beauty of this knife have me craving the larger model. I know I want synthetic, I just need to decide between orange and black. :)

One thing the RAT and the Eka have in common is solid, thick, unapologetic liners. Not 'skeletonized', one sided or partial. The Benchmade Griptilian, a well recognized knife mentioned here, has thin, partial liners. I own one and it's a great folder, but I wouldn't trust it in the woods.

I'm actually quite picky about the country of origin. To me, the three 'superpowers' of knives and where most my good knives come from are the U.S., Sweden and Japan. What I've seen from Taiwan is more 2nd tier Italy/Spain/France quality than 3rd tier (and below) China quality. Some well known Tops models are made there, as well as the RAT.
 
You can get the best of all worlds... An american company based in California that was started by a Canadian, but it's products are built and assembled in Italy. The company is DPx Gear and the knife is the Hest/F.

;)
 
dustyzz said:
You can get the best of all worlds... An american company based in California that was started by a Canadian, but it's products are built and assembled in Italy. The company is DPx Gear and the knife is the Hest/F.

;)
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Lol, yeah, been carrying one most of the time for over a year...but the OP specifically said US Made...not US originated design :)
 
A Spyderco Military or a Chris Reeve Sebenza would also be a great option, or how about a Dozier DK-3 folder? Not sure price is out of reach for the OP but any of those designs would do a good job.
 
I doubt this post will prove popular because I know there's a strong Reeve contingent on this forum, but those are exactly the kind of thing I think are are totally unsuitable. I'm sure they are splendid knives and all that, and I wouldn't want some upstart to jump in putting words into my mouth because I have a very specific peeve, and that's nothing to do with the quality of Reeve knives. The fact is they are thin at the handle and that makes it really hard to put down any power compared to alternatives. I won't point that just at Reeve either. A lot of Spydercos are the same way. I love Spyderco but there's a world of difference between big and comfortably hand filling. As a specific example; I'm with 2' of an excellent Spyderco Police model. Take a simple task like bending a stick over and whittling down through it with a push of body weight and even the desperately inferior and antiquated Gerber Gator folder will power down the cut much more comfortably. No matter how big they are, compared to alternatives, thin handled folders put a hurt on the web of your hand if you try to apply much force into a cut........If we consider why variations on the broomstick handle abound on fixed blade neo-bushcraft twig whittlers whereas slim or string wrapped efforts not so much it's not surprising. It doesn't matter at all for light duty use or game gathering, but for working wood it starts to matter PDQ. I extent that line of reasoning to “a survival folder” that whilst isn't going to be abused is going to need to be a lot more comfortable to cut hard with than what probably rides more discretely as an EDC. I was quite surprised the Enzo folders with their neo-bushcraft bent decided to go slim for exactly that reason, whereas something like the EKA 92 for industry, farming and forestry is nothing like that. As with the Reeve and Gerber, I'm sure the Enzo is probably a finer knife than the EKA but I know which one I'd rather hold for jobs involving a good amount of force.........2cents
 
baldtaco-II said:
I doubt this post will prove popular because I know there's a strong Reeve contingent on this forum, but those are exactly the kind of thing I think are are totally unsuitable. I'm sure they are splendid knives and all that, and I wouldn't want some upstart to jump in putting words into my mouth because I have a very specific peeve, and that's nothing to do with the quality of Reeve knives. The fact is they are thin at the handle and that makes it really hard to put down any power compared to alternatives. I won't point that just at Reeve either. A lot of Spydercos are the same way. I love Spyderco but there's a world of difference between big and comfortably hand filling. As a specific example; I'm with 2' of an excellent Spyderco Police model. Take a simple task like bending a stick over and whittling down through it with a push of body weight and even the desperately inferior and antiquated Gerber Gator folder will power down the cut much more comfortably. No matter how big they are, compared to alternatives, thin handled folders put a hurt on the web of your hand if you try to apply much force into a cut........If we consider why variations on the broomstick handle abound on fixed blade neo-bushcraft twig whittlers whereas slim or string wrapped efforts not so much it's not surprising. It doesn't matter at all for light duty use or game gathering, but for working wood it starts to matter PDQ. I extent that line of reasoning to “a survival folder” that whilst isn't going to be abused is going to need to be a lot more comfortable to cut hard with than what probably rides more discretely as an EDC. I was quite surprised the Enzo folders with their neo-bushcraft bent decided to go slim for exactly that reason, whereas something like the EKA 92 for industry, farming and forestry is nothing like that. As with the Reeve and Gerber, I'm sure the Enzo is probably a finer knife than the EKA but I know which one I'd rather hold for jobs involving a good amount of force.........2cents
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I'd agree with you on thin handles. Heck even the handle of my HEST/f 2.0 (which some would consider thicker) was uncomfortable after some rather hard push cutting.

My most comfortable, hand filling, folder would probably be my 0200, so I guess that would be my suggestion.

-sh00ter
 
Well, if I had to rely on a folding knife as my single survival implement, then I'd opt for a multitool of some sort. Since you want something US made, that would rule out SAKs (you might want to take a look at them anyways), so I'd go with a good Leatherman tool. I like the Super Tool 300 myself, but a Charge or Wave would be good choices as well (and they've got one hand opening knife blades).

I think that having a SAK or multitool with a saw, awl, etc. in addition to a knife blade is better than trying to find an overbuilt single bladed folding knife that you can use as a fixed blade.
 
Zt 0200, 0300, 0301 any of email are fairly bulletproof.

My choice is the Lone wolf Harsey T3, but they are no longer made.
 
wildmike said:
Zt 0200, 0300, 0301 any of email are fairly bulletproof.

My choice is the Lone wolf Harsey T3, but they are no longer made.
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You can get them on ebay. There's 2 on ebay right now, and they pop up pretty regularly. They go for about $400 average I'd say, I got one for $265, $359, and $400. I'm a big Lone Wolf fan so I keep my eyes open for them. The advertised retail price when they were in production was $300, but some place had them for as little as $195, so they are more now obviously but they are great knives.
 
Soon as I read the title I thought of the new light weight buck 110, also mentioned above. I think they are under $30.

I wish the scales were the same shape as on the 110 otherwise I think it's as good a folder as the original.
 
Benchmade griptilian. Love mine. I use it daily to poke holes in the plastic lid on my coffee so I can drink it faster. I hate slow coffee delivery.

Badge54
 
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