Hiking kit

shinyedges

shinyedges

Unfaltering Love & Undeviating Will
Gold Member
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Jun 5, 2012
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Good denizens of bladeforums,


I'm getting back into hiking, I used to hike regularly while I was active duty in the army and for some time after I got out. Not Appalachian trail length hikes, but from 5 to 15miles one way. My bag is set, my dilemma as a knife enthusiast is which blade to carry. I primarily like hiking to waterfalls, some of which have no trail. Which means some bushwacking. I will occasionally camp at these remote locations as well, which I change some of my gear for when I'm doing so.

I'm not an ultra light back packer, but I don't want to carry 100lb sack up a mountain anymore either. So for the purpose of slimming down on weight, I'm not taking all my knives 😅

Day hike on maintained trails - I'll likely grab my busse p&l.

Day hike off the trails - I'd like a little more blade length to chop so maybe a busse tglb or cpk sdfk. (I don't live in the rainforest or I'd bring a machete)

I'll likely rotate different blades through just to work them out and put em to use.


What would YOU carry? Any other Hikers on here?
 
Generally I don't carry anything too wild. Small Sebenza in pocket and Gossman UNK in the pack is a pretty normal pairing for me these days.

i-kJcc7fJ-L.jpg
 
Pretty much whatever knife is on me that day, plus a Manix2 LW that lives in my bag.

Knives aren't generally necessary for most hiking despite what we want to believe lol. Just carry the one that brings you joy.
 
I'm not a super regular hiker, but I go on a number of them every year, so for me I try to keep excess down and avoid exerting myself more than I have to.

When it comes to knives, sadly, the typical hiker doesn't require much; I shoot for a 3-4" fixed blade and I prefer it to weigh no more than 6 ounces.
That keeps it out of the way and light enough that I barely notice it, but it's enough knife if I needed it.
I carry leather work gloves in my day pack just in case I need to work through brambles or something unpleasant comes up in maintenance of existing trails.

If you're trying to blaze a permanent trail, I recommend a machete and some kind of saw, but 5-15 miles is a long hike to also be bushwhacking.
If you're going for a casual hike, I definitely recommend avoiding going directions that require hacking. On some public land, that's sometimes against the rules anyways.

However, if using your tools is part of the experience for you, and you're on private land where you can hack everything up you want to, grab whatever you like and go nuts.
 
Here's my $0.02...


Man, in general, the CPK SDFK is pretty f*ckin' hard to beat. For a large and extremely robust knife, it takes-up VERY LITTLE real estate in a pack/kit.


From our online exchanges, I think that you may be a bit of a "premier steel" and "objective testing" kinda' guy. (*No offense...Seriously).

Me? I'm a pragmatist. So, my next recommendation is purely from personal experience and is probably going to insult you. Again, Mea Culpa.


When I've wrestled with the contradiction of small size/lightweight and toughness in a fixie (*and I have), I've always landed on one of my Gerber Strongarms.

No, they aren't "exclusive" or necessarily "sexy". However, they are tough as a $2 Filet Mignon and reliable as a leather wallet. Beyond that, they are 420HC stainless steel (*which I know that you probably hate) and are kind of a zero drama "Set it and Forget it" option for me. They're also light as sh!t and basically disappear in your pack/kit. In fact, when it comes to a lightweight option, I actually prefer my Strongarms to my 14C28N Mora Garbergs and 3V SRKs and SRK-Cs. Your mileage may vary.


You asked, I answered. Just tryin' to respond/help.



*Me? I never leave the house without one of "weak" 1095 TOPS 107 "Steel Eagle" variants. "Lions, and tigers, and bears...OH, MY!!!"
 
shinyedges said:
(I don't live in the rainforest or I'd bring a machete)
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I realize I posted no pictures of the knives I like to bring with me and I'll fix that when I get a second, but just to address this-
I've honestly found nothing better than a machete for taking care of brambles and pricker bushes and such, especially considering the size and weight of a machete.
I think mine's an imacasa 18", and I get whipped in the face and hands a lot less.
 
Good thoughts, I realize there's many different hiking experiences and some of which requires no knife at all. I like to prepare lunch, the firebox nano doesn't need huge wood pieces and can be ran with twigs essentially for boiling water. But if I'm bringing taters, onions etc for cooking a meal the flame needs to go longer and thicker wood that's chopped and or split is very handy, so a good sized knife goes well. Having the trangia as a back up or side option if it rains is also nice. I bring everclear as fuel.

It's been years since I did many miles of rough terrain and as I get back into it I surely won't be trail blazing 15 miles with a 6in knife. I'm thinking more like clearing a spot for lunch, maybe hacking some overgrowth around a spot so I have better access to climb down or up certain spots etc.

Overnighters of course there's more involved for evening fires and such. Not sure on the technical term for it now a days, maybe a thru hiker? Back packer? Idk. But yea, using knives is part of the fun for me.
 
Alone said:
Here's my $0.02...


Man, in general, the CPK SDFK is pretty f*ckin' hard to beat. For a large and extremely robust knife, it takes-up VERY LITTLE real estate in a pack/kit.


From our online exchanges, I think that you may be a bit of a "premier steel" and "objective testing" kinda' guy. (*No offense...Seriously).

Me? I'm a pragmatist. So, my next recommendation is purely from personal experience and is probably going to insult you. Again, Mea Culpa.


When I've wrestled with the contradiction of small size/lightweight and toughness in a fixie (*and I have), I've always landed on one of my Gerber Strongarms.

No, they aren't "exclusive" or necessarily "sexy". However, they are tough as a $2 Filet Mignon and reliable as a leather wallet. Beyond that, they are 420HC stainless steel (*which I know that you probably hate) and are kind of a zero drama "Set it and Forget it" option for me. They're also light as sh!t and basically disappear in your pack/kit. In fact, when it comes to a lightweight option, I actually prefer my Strongarms to my 14C28N Mora Garbergs and 3V SRKs and SRK-Cs. Your mileage may vary.


You asked, I answered. Just tryin' to respond/help.



*Me? I never leave the house without one of "weak" 1095 TOPS 107 "Steel Eagle" variants. "Lions, and tigers, and bears...OH, MY!!!"
Click to expand...
All thoughts are welcome! And I don't offend easily, I dish it out and can take it. But I don't see anything even remotely offensive in your post at all.

Some of us knife enthusiasts enjoy more rustic knives or old timey approach to things and I love that. To each their own. I'm definitely a guy knows what he likes in terms of performance steels. If everyone had the same opinions on here it would be boring, I embrace the differences and think there is often something of value to be gleaned from most interactions on here.


On the gerber, I actually have a lmf at the house, it was in my mom's pack. I recommended it to her. Many years ago I had a bear grylls gerber too, and I beat it like stole from me lol gerber can make some decent stuff, but alas... I am something of blade snob lol but I don't have anything against any knives, except counterfeits and trash knives made with tuna can steel.
 
Wonders why Shinyedges isn't simply using Karate? 🤔

I've only blazed a trail a few times.

Leave my gear behind, slice and dice with a sickle, returned to move my gear in, took a break. Repeat.

It was for fun, first. Hiking second.

Oh! I prefer Deer Jerky instead of some kind of 'Trail Mix'. Though, I will take some 'M&M's' as a desert.
 
shinyedges said:
All thoughts are welcome! And I don't offend easily, I dish it out and can take it. But I don't see anything even remotely offensive in your post at all.

Some of us knife enthusiasts enjoy more rustic knives or old timey approach to things and I love that. To each their own. I'm definitely a guy knows what he likes in terms of performance steels. If everyone had the same opinions on here it would be boring, I embrace the differences and think there is often something of value to be gleaned from most interactions on here.


On the gerber, I actually have a lmf at the house, it was in my mom's pack. I recommended it to her. Many years ago I had a bear grylls gerber too, and I beat it like stole from me lol gerber can make some decent stuff, but alas... I am something of blade snob lol but I don't have anything against any knives, except counterfeits and trash knives made with tuna can steel.
Click to expand...


I had to chuckle a bit. I almost referred to you as a bit of a "steel snob" but edited my post.


Anyhoo, let me know if I can mail you one of Strongarms. Put it in your kit and beat the life outta' it on your hikes.

I may just make a "cheap steel" believer outta' you, yet. Lol. 😄
 
shinyedges said:
But yea, using knives is part of the fun for me.
Click to expand...
I get it- there are knives which... dare I say... aren't as practical and if the knife is with me, you know I'm having a good time just for the sake of using it.
I love the Skrama 200. It's just a beast of a crude, rugged knife, but it's definitely not what I'd call a "hiking" knife.
(old picture when it was new)

N2nnhxz.jpg


One of my favorites is this Jaarvenpaa Utility knife.
Light weight and the dangler sheath stays out of the way.
at the time I bought it, it was also like $50 or less, so somewhat expendable if I needed to do something that'd risk damaging it.
(again, an outdated picture)

gypmJkZ.jpg


Probably my favorite general purpose knife is the CPK Kephart.
It's a bit much for casual hiking, but it's so useful while camping that it's hard to bring anything else.
This one's pretty special because it was a gift from Murphjd25 Murphjd25
Kephart sure knew what he was doing, and CPK really did a great job with refining it.

j0qPnLW.jpg
 
The last hike/camp/fishing I did was the first time I was made aware of Mora. I brought a Basic and Robust. Two is one, one is none, and so on. Never been a count the ounces guy. I assumed the little Basic would go dull and eventually break so I gave it hell just to see what they would do. I still have that knife and the Robust never got used. If you're a fire steel guy then yes you would need to sharpen the spine on either model.
 
shinyedges said:
All thoughts are welcome! And I don't offend easily, I dish it out and can take it. But I don't see anything even remotely offensive in your post at all.

Some of us knife enthusiasts enjoy more rustic knives or old timey approach to things and I love that. To each their own. I'm definitely a guy knows what he likes in terms of performance steels. If everyone had the same opinions on here it would be boring, I embrace the differences and think there is often something of value to be gleaned from most interactions on here.


On the gerber, I actually have a lmf at the house, it was in my mom's pack. I recommended it to her. Many years ago I had a bear grylls gerber too, and I beat it like stole from me lol gerber can make some decent stuff, but alas... I am something of blade snob lol but I don't have anything against any knives, except counterfeits and trash knives made with tuna can steel.
Click to expand...
Having a tough skin and a rough sense of humor comes with the territory as a former service member lol.
What was your MOS? Almost nice to meet other vets here, 11b first then went 19k, got tired of walking everywhere. A good ruck set up properly makes a huge difference when it comes to carrying weight enjoyably as you well know.

I really like the Mora Kansbol myself and it’s mostly what I reach for when wanting a general purpose kick about the woods knife. It’s lightweight and performs well, comfortable for me to hold and use, the sheath is a plus as if it gets wet or dirty just rinse it out later, one of the main reasons I like it as a hunting knife.

BPS knives of Ukraine has some nice models I also like and use, but they need a bit of hand finishing out of the box which I actually kind of enjoy.
 
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BJE said:
Having a tough skin and a rough sense of humor comes with the territory as a former service member lol.
What was your MOS? Almost nice to meet other vets here, 11b first then went 19k, got tired of walking everywhere. A good ruck set up properly makes a huge difference when it comes to carrying weight enjoyably as you well know.
Click to expand...
Facts! If I don't have to carry heavy weight I won't anymore, though what I don't consider heavy may well be heavy to someone else. Military humor can be offensive lol
 
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Maximumbob54 said:
The last hike/camp/fishing I did was the first time I was made aware of Mora. I brought a Basic and Robust. Two is one, one is none, and so on. Never been a count the ounces guy. I assumed the little Basic would go dull and eventually break so I gave it hell just to see what they would do. I still have that knife and the Robust never got used. If you're a fire steel guy then yes you would need to sharpen the spine on either model.
Click to expand...
Mora is my guilty pleasure, and the Mora basic is more than enough knife for most needs. The "Cedric and Ada" Youtube channel did a great synopsis of the basic 511, giving it credit for what it is, and being honest about what it isn't. Editing to Add: but the stick tang does actually go a lot further into the handle than he says in this video- it's actually a 3/4-ish tang.
 
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