Full flat or scandi?

[BC Bushcraft]

I think I have a fear reaction to FFGs because my first one was a RAT 3 which I hate and never use. That's more to do with the handle then anything and the secondary v was like a sword grind. Didn't like the coating either.Spent hours on that knife to make it functional, and I never bring it out now lol.

 

[The Zieg]

I've come across the Nieto Terrano and am trying to decide between the scandi or full flat. It's a solid 4mm thick (5/32) bohler n690co or O2. I generally like scandis but more around the 3mm thickness.

It'll be my belt knife when I explore the wilderness without an axe and maybe only a small folding saw. I don't hunt so no skinning for me.

Opinions?

I'm going to take up the position of the lone Scandi holdout. I have many versions of both Scandi and FFG blades and while my EDC needs are almost always best served by FFG, for rugged outdoor use, I really do prefer Scandi grinds. If I were going a'bushcrafting without a chopping tool, I'd bring a traditional puukko.

Just me and my preference, though. With the knife you're looking at, you can't go wrong. Hell, I've done bushcraft trips with just an SAK and nothing else . . . OK, I was wearing pants.

Zieg

 

[bikerector]

I think I have a fear reaction to FFGs because my first one was a RAT 3 which I hate and never use. That's more to do with the handle then anything and the secondary v was like a sword grind. Didn't like the coating either.Spent hours on that knife to make it functional, and I never bring it out now lol.

If the RAT 3 was anything like a RAT 5 I owned, it was a really thickly ground full flat grind and really did itself a disservice as a cutter with the crinkly coat and thick edge to perform anything but wood processing tasks. I think Ontario caders to a market of people who are more abusive with their knives so they put more robust edges on them. I had the same problem with some SP plus series ontarios. I am much better with blade mods now and I think the RAT 5 would've been much better for me after taking the edge down a bit and stripping the coating off.

So, while the grind has a great impact on the performance of the blade, how that grind is done is also really important. I don't like scandis but I give fiddleback forge and LT Wright a free pass on scandis because they do them really well and it's amazingly easy to keep them very sharp without much fuss. In a similar note, I've found the shallow hollow grinds on cold steel knives very pleasant for woods knives and they're slicey but not really thin in the hollowed portion to where I'm afraid of breaking the edge like a deeper hollow found on hunting knives.

I looked up the knife you mentioned in the OP and it should be a great choice knife, from the best I can tell, in FFG. As an alternative, the LT Wright Bushcrafter HC is similar and would perform very well for you and is priced similarly depending on where you're located. The 1075 used on those will perform reasonably close to O2. I had never heard of the brand you mentioned but it looks like a promising design; I do like my Kephart shaped blades and neutral handle shapes for woodsy uses.

 

[BC Bushcraft]

If the RAT 3 was anything like a RAT 5 I owned, it was a really thickly ground full flat grind and really did itself a disservice as a cutter with the crinkly coat and thick edge to perform anything but wood processing tasks. I think Ontario caders to a market of people who are more abusive with their knives so they put more robust edges on them. I had the same problem with some SP plus series ontarios. I am much better with blade mods now and I think the RAT 5 would've been much better for me after taking the edge down a bit and stripping the coating off.

So, while the grind has a great impact on the performance of the blade, how that grind is done is also really important. I don't like scandis but I give fiddleback forge and LT Wright a free pass on scandis because they do them really well and it's amazingly easy to keep them very sharp without much fuss. In a similar note, I've found the shallow hollow grinds on cold steel knives very pleasant for woods knives and they're slicey but not really thin in the hollowed portion to where I'm afraid of breaking the edge like a deeper hollow found on hunting knives.

I looked up the knife you mentioned in the OP and it should be a great choice knife, from the best I can tell, in FFG. As an alternative, the LT Wright Bushcrafter HC is similar and would perform very well for you and is priced similarly depending on where you're located. The 1075 used on those will perform reasonably close to O2. I had never heard of the brand you mentioned but it looks like a promising design; I do like my Kephart shaped blades and neutral handle shapes for woodsy uses.

I have never heard of it either and I only found it doing a custom steel search on lamnia.com. Definitely a kephart style knife with great steel choices, handle materials and a nice leather sheath with dangler option and a ferro rod loop. The knives close to it like the brisa trapper(Enzo) are quite a bit more expensive for the n690, or the casstrom Lars falt in sleipnar steel too.

I want to go stainless because I live in the PNW and it's soooo wet here all the time lol

 

[Henry Beige]

Scandi was a novelty to me until I came across Moras. I like Moras because they are light and cheap, and they work. I use them for food prep, too. They are sharp and they cut. I do not do thin slicing in high volume, so a scandi blade does not cramp my style in food prep.

For most of my everyday cutting, which usually only involves the edge, the particular grind makes no difference at all. If the knife is sharp, it cuts. The grind and blade thickness really only matter if you are cutting deeply into the material, as in batoning wood or cutting cardboard or thick, tough material.

 

[Forester_01]

I've had bushcraft knives in both scandi and ffg/sabre grind variants. If you can envision yourself mostly using the knife for woodworking tasks i.e making feathersticks to start a fire or lightly battoning pieces of wood, get the scandi grind. I found the scandi grind to produce excellent, detailed wood curls more reliably so than the ffg knife. A scandi could perform quite well alongside a small axe. I'd highly recommend the lagom bush knife for a scandi blade.

That being said, if you picture yourself solely carrying ONE do it all knife in the field, I'd recommend picking up a full flat grind/sabre grind knife. It will be tough enough to handle large battoning jobs, and will still be able to produce feathersticks quite well. If it were me, I'd stick with ffg/sabre grind knives either my custom fixed blade in cruwear or my carothers fk2.

I hope this helps influence your decision. Also, it is important to consider how you plan on sharpening each knife before you purchase it. For scandi knives, you will have to invest in waterstones and a strop.