help me flush out my selection the forest

[theizzardking]

here's what I'm looking at
sven saw
Ontario 18" machete D-guard..i love d-guards....
esee-6
?????
guthook
rat-1 folder
SAK

for the question marks i'm considering the swamp rat-3,esee-3,izula,????...where would you go and why?..needs to be fixed blade...i like the esee brand, but kind of want to try another manufacture so i can find who i truly love, but so far it's been hard to find a value like that else where, but hey i'm new i just learned of esee a few months ago...

i've traditionally used something like the kershaw mini-skinner in that place, so needs to be good for cleaning,skinning and detailish work... i'm not trying to carve a totem pole here but needs to be fine enough to make some traps and utensils if needed.... thanks a ton guys any all comments appreciated.

 

[TWBryan]

I'm very partial to a Becker BK14. If you wanted to spend more money I've heard good things about the Izula II. For the uses you describe though I would be looking at a mora knife for fine detail work. Good luck.

 

[theizzardking]

I'm very partial to a Becker BK14. If you wanted to spend more money I've heard good things about the Izula II. For the uses you describe though I would be looking at a mora knife for fine detail work. Good luck.

yeah i was also considering the bk14 as well, read all of the bk vs izula threads and am still racking my brain, i already have a kabar warthog and bk9 , and really like my esee better for over all quality and finish, so was trying to stay away from kabar, what do you guys think about the swamp rat 3? is that going to be too big for my needs? i suck at sizing these things for tasks without having it in my hand....so was debating between sizes as well as manufactures...


i already have a mora scout 39 and a 2000, i bough the 2000 because it was closest to full tang they had, but still makes me a bit nervous for the harder tasks like batoning, my thinking is i want all of my knives to have a bit of over lap in-case one goes down or gets lost for some stupid reason i'm not up the creek, that said, i do understand the trade off that i'm asking here, i shouldn't expect my e-6 to do what my mini-skinner does, but that also doesn't mean i couldn't baton some kindling with my skinner if i really needed to....am i making sense here or is this just stupid?

 

[Shotgun]

Why can't the knives you already carry do the work you've listed? I find it hard to recommend a knife when I see every other knife you have to be able to do the work you've listed to varying degrees of ease. Not judging just curious.