Help me pick a fixed blade knife for camping.

Seems cool enough - not sure what steel they use on them....

If you spend some time here, you will find many, many items worth purchasing....

Be warned: there is no end to it!

So far, you seem to have made a good start. :thumbup:

Gadgetaholic said:
OK - I have done it!
http://newgraham.com/store/product/218/KaBar-Becker-Combat-Utility-BK7/
I think this is a knife that I will like - I certainly like the looks of it. It should be big enough for what I currently can think of being my needs/wants. I have read about how sought after this knife is and I don't think the price is really that much for such a highly regarded knife. With the extra small knife included that gives me big (7" blade), medium (4" blade) and small (umm, small blade) fixed knives.

I also have a Rat 1 & Endura 4 on the way as well as my K502x - so I'm doing OK for folders.

So for now I'll try to keep off the credit card and save my money - I don't really see any need to add to my collection for a while. Maybe I'll find I need a hatchet or machete at some point, but I wouldn't need to spend much for that. I'll try to cut out the spending for a while at least - for now I'll just go with using the knives I have on hand and on the way.

I think of what I have on order the BK-7 is the one I am most looking forward to getting my hands on! Compared to many that I have looked at it seems a little under-priced to me - I think that I would have been willing to pay a bit more for that one.
Click to expand...
 
Buffalohump said:
Seems cool enough - not sure what steel they use on them....

If you spend some time here, you will find many, many items worth purchasing....

Be warned: there is no end to it!

So far, you seem to have made a good start. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I think I have all the knives I need for now, I just need to save some money for all the knives that I will decide I want. There are so many nice ones available but I need to work out what size/style is the most useful for me before I buy the dearer knives.

The BK-7 is listed as 1095 CroVan on another site - I presume that is Chrome Vanadium steel. I am still getting used to all the metallurgy terminology but I think that 1095 is a decent steel at a cheaper price than D2, S30V or ZDP-189.
 
Cabela's did have the Buck 120 General, a 7.5" variant of the 6" 119, still made only for their 'Pro-Line' series. It was sale priced at $55 in Cabela's very recently received '2009 Cutlery' catalog as item # JTZ-51-5086 (page 6), although a check of that item number on their site reveals it is no longer available (I love advertisements for items that are no longer available!).

I did use a similar sized KaBar for years for camping, just not for food, but I feel today a smaller knife, like the 119, or, as I found out several years back, even the 4.1" 192 Vanguard, is extremely useful 'in the field'. I always felt safer with wet/cold hands and some form of finger guard, too. I have what are heralded as 'better' forms of bushcraft knives now - and scars to prove how my wet/cold fingers miss those older knives and their guards...

You don't have to refinance the farm to afford a decently made and effective - even made in the USA - fixed blade.

Stainz

PS My 119 is now my gp kitchen butcher knife, while my old 120 went to the in-laws last year as a turkey carver.
 
A good SAK is all you really need. I did a ton of camping with a Buck 110 and my Vic Explorer.
 
udtjim said:
A good SAK is all you really need. I did a ton of camping with a Buck 110 and my Vic Explorer.
Click to expand...

I don't think this thread is about bare necessities. I have carried a SAK and a LM every day for more than a decade - they are bloody useful tools! But I am now adding more of the useful blades tools to handle some tasks that a SAK either can't do or at least can't do as well as something with a longer/fixed blade. I am sure I could get by reasonably well with just my SAK and nothing else - if that was my aim.

When I bought a K502x I thought it would be useful for tasks that need a bigger blade than the SAK or LM Wave has - but then reading up on knife use I discovered that there are jobs that you really want a fixed blade for - I didn't have any fixed blade suitable for camping at all. I also tried out the K502x when preparing dinner and found that the blade wasn't quite long enough for some food prep tasks - I don't think I'll have that problem once I have my BK-7! :thumbup:

The good thing is that once my knives arrive I will be looking for any excuse to go camping - camping more often can only be a good thing! It is coming into summer and there are lots of good places for camping here in New Zealand so it should be a very nice summer for me.
 
There ain't much better buscraft knife / camp knife than Mora 2000. There really isn't that match batoning and heavy use in normal camping. Perhaps I would go for Becker BK7 + Mora 2000 combo. BK7 for hard work andabuse and Mora for slicing and general use.

in normal camping you need more ability to cut slices and cut well than hack thru with thick blocks and such. IMHO people inted to mix up survival and camping together...
 
If $200 is your limit, get the Fallkniven A1. Stainless, sharp, and damn near indestructible.

Now, unless you are backcountry camping, it's probably overkill by a mile. For about $100, I'd get an RC-6 from RAT Cutlery or a Bush Camp knife by Knives of Alaska. For $75, you can go for a one of the various KaBar knives, Buck's, or Mora's and do just fine. Make sure you take a little SAK or slipjoint for small tasks.
 
DallasSTB said:
Make sure you take a little SAK or slipjoint for small tasks.
Click to expand...

No worries there - I don't leave the house without my Leatherman Wave & Victorinox Cybertool. I'm good for small blades as well as other useful tools (pliers, scissors, bottle opener, can opener, etc).
Also if you check the knife I have ordered: http://newgraham.com/store/product/218/KaBar-Becker-Combat-Utility-BK7/ you will see that it comes with a small knife which fits in a pouch on the holster - this could be pretty useful when I need a smaller knife.

IMO going camping with a big nasty knife as your only knife is a bit silly, it wouldn't add much weight to take a second smaller knife. Bigger is not always better. I am hoping to cover all tasks fairly well by taking at least 3 knives - big, small and a folder in between. That is as well as my SAK & LM. I like to be well prepared and I like to carry more gadgets to play with than I really need. It will always be more likely that I will have more with me than I need rather than be short of something. As well any shortfall is likely to be corrected by the next time - if I could do with something I don't have then I've gotta buy whatever it is that I decided I need.

I am bound to take all my knives and several torches for a couple of trips so that I can try them out to see which ones work the best. From there I will refine my list of gear. Unless I go on a 5 day tramp I wont have to worry too much about weight - I can take some canned meals and other heavy items for most of the camping that I do.
 
DallasSTB said:
If $200 is your limit, get the Fallkniven A1. Stainless, sharp, and damn near indestructible.

Now, unless you are backcountry camping, it's probably overkill by a mile. For about $100, I'd get an RC-6 from RAT Cutlery or a Bush Camp knife by Knives of Alaska. For $75, you can go for a one of the various KaBar knives, Buck's, or Mora's and do just fine. Make sure you take a little SAK or slipjoint for small tasks.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions - once I have received my knives and taken them camping a few times (and saved some money) then I will consider what I would really like to own out of the knives that I am finding the most useful size & style. I'll probably be willing to go to $200 knives and maybe try to find something in S30V. So suggestions for good knives for me to look at and think about are great to see. :thumbup:
 
Gadgetaholic said:
I am bound to take all my knives and several torches for a couple of trips so that I can try them out to see which ones work the best.
Click to expand...

I have found that torches burn out too quickly and can also be a fire hazard in dry conditions, I would recommend checking out some flashlights instead :p:D
 
theonew said:
I have found that torches burn out too quickly and can also be a fire hazard in dry conditions, I would recommend checking out some flashlights instead :p:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they are handy if you need to transfer a fire to another place a short distance away! :p

BTW
ATM the lights I take camping are worth more than the knives, even counting the knives that are on order and I don't have yet. I started going camping for a good chance to use my lights (well, partly for that) and from there I decided I needed some knives and next I'll go camping even more to use both my lights & my knives. My dearest lights are worth over $100 - like my limited edition Ti light or my Surefire A2 Aviator. But I can see the possibility that in a year or 2 I could easily have knives worth more than my lights.
 
BK-7 is a great choice. If you want to spend a little more and make it an even better knife, you might look at the micarta slabs that are available for it. Or you can go the poor-man route and stretch some inner tube over the scales (do it with the knife IN the sheath).

Here are some of the older Camillus versions of your knife.

7s.jpg


My personal choice is not one that you can easily find, but it is a good balance of durability, weight, length, and steel. Old-school Swamp Rat Ratweiler.

RWstripped2.jpg
 
Well, my BK-7 arrived today - WOW! :thumbup:
It is one helluva knife, it definitely has some solidness and weight to it.

I got my 'Ontario Rugged Gear 9" Overall Fixed Camo Hunting Blade w/Drop Blade' knife a couple of days ago. With a 4" blade I thought it wasn't as small as I'd imagined. It is made from Chinese stainless, but sharpened up OK. It is also a full tang knife and has a respectable thickness to the steel, so it should hold up to a good bit of use. For a $15 knife it certainly doesn't disappoint! But now that I have the BK7 it does seem a little dinky - kind of like a 4" dwarf standing beside a 7" basketball player.

The BK-7 came sharp so now I have a few less hairs on my arm. It also came with the BK-13 tucked in the sheath which would make a nice knife for fiddly cutting jobs.

Here's a pic of my 3 fixed blade knives:
IMG_8344.JPG
 
Congrats!
I really think that some suggestions here gave you tougher time to decide rather than help you. But you've made the right choice!
I've got a BK7 and absolutely love it. You won't be disappointed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top