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Help pick an outdoors knife?
- Thread starter Dakki
- Start date
Preacher Man
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regarding Knife laws in Texas, check this site:
A study of weapon laws in Texas
Long story short, gunknifenut is right. A single edge knife with a blade no longer than 5.5 inches is legal carry in Texas. The weird thing is that a Bowie knife is illegal in Texas. There are exceptions for "outdoor activities that require longer knives" but those exceptions apply only at the place of the "outdoor activity" and not for every day carry.
On what knife to get, I agree with fonly. If you can get your hands on a CS Master Hunter on Carbon V, that would be your ideal knife. For hunting/survival, if you take care of it, carbon steel beats stainless everytime. Now, if you were to use the knife near or at sea, or if you want a knife that doesn't need as much care, that would be a different equation. But I'm assuming that is not the case here.
A study of weapon laws in Texas
Long story short, gunknifenut is right. A single edge knife with a blade no longer than 5.5 inches is legal carry in Texas. The weird thing is that a Bowie knife is illegal in Texas. There are exceptions for "outdoor activities that require longer knives" but those exceptions apply only at the place of the "outdoor activity" and not for every day carry.
On what knife to get, I agree with fonly. If you can get your hands on a CS Master Hunter on Carbon V, that would be your ideal knife. For hunting/survival, if you take care of it, carbon steel beats stainless everytime. Now, if you were to use the knife near or at sea, or if you want a knife that doesn't need as much care, that would be a different equation. But I'm assuming that is not the case here.
- Joined
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But if you were camping, hiking, hunting, geocacheing, basically anything in the woods/outdoors etc etc then would having a knife over 5.5 inches be ok?
The easiest thing to do would be to bring the huge knife in your pack. If whatever authority discovers you with the knife you are most likely using it in the "allowed" environment and then they would probably not bother. Do they stop and ask if a guy has an axe that is too long? If you then need to "wear" a knife get a shorter one too.
It is the same here in Sweden, people doesnt arrest every hunter that carries a knife in the food store, they are obviously going hunting. The cops would on the other hand be quite worried if Joe the addict were sitting outside the shop waving about a big screwdriver.
Good luck with whatever knife you choose.
So get a shorter knife for survival/small jobs and carry it always and get a bigger knife (or saw) that you keep in your pack. Then noone will bother you. If the police in any form meets you, they will see the short knife and be happy with that, and you can still bring your huge knife and be happy with that.
It is the same here in Sweden, people doesnt arrest every hunter that carries a knife in the food store, they are obviously going hunting. The cops would on the other hand be quite worried if Joe the addict were sitting outside the shop waving about a big screwdriver.
Good luck with whatever knife you choose.
So get a shorter knife for survival/small jobs and carry it always and get a bigger knife (or saw) that you keep in your pack. Then noone will bother you. If the police in any form meets you, they will see the short knife and be happy with that, and you can still bring your huge knife and be happy with that.
Preacher Man
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Think of it this way. When was the last time you saw or heard of someone being arrested in Texas for using a machete or kukri to spllit or chop firewood (that you found on the ground, of course
) at a state park camp site? The operating activity here is chopping, and the operating word in the law is "required". If you are camping or hiking and only carry a knife instead of a hatchet to chop wood, then a large knife would be required to do the job. By the same token, why would geocaching require a large knife? How do you justify needing a large knife for geocaching? What you need to make sure is that the knife fits the activity so you can justify the need for that particular knife in that specific outdoor activity.
That being said, nodh makes perfect sense. Keep the large knife out of sight until you need it, just to be on the safe side. I always take a Ka-bar kukri machete when camping to split and chop firewood and I've never had a problem, even when the park ranger sees me using it. But then, I don't walk around the park with the kukri machete hanging from my belt.
unfortunatly basing a knife's worth by its tang isnt fair. Look at the moras, Mors Kachanski gets by fine with his, his recomends it front and foremost. If you find a knife you like, and you use it the way a knife is made to be used, you are not going to have any problems. Just keep it safe, their are proper techniques to batonning with a stick tang knife, but its possible, I've done it. I've beat the crap out of a buck 192, great little knife. When used right, it would last a life time. And the tang of the Master Hunter really isnt much less wider than the blade, its 3/4 the size.