How's your Dayhiker? I think I want one.

[myright]

I'm thinking of getting a Dayhiker or a Woodlander to replace my BK9 for camping chores. The Becker has been AWESOME. It's just a little big and heavy.

For those of you that have a Daykiker, how do you like it?

I use my BK9 to chop wood, prepare fire, cook (it's a bit big for this, but I've made it work), digging sometimes, etc.

I really love the sheath on the BK9 because I can fit a multi-tool in it.

I'm not a huge fan of the kydex sheaths, but the Dayhiker looks awesome.

How's the handle? Blade? Functionality?

 

[zenheretic]

The handle is a strong point in my opinion. It should fit girly sized to gorilla sized hands, and due to the shape remain retainable even when wet.

The sheath is functional but isn't the best for retention. I wore mine on a rafting trip and it would occasionally snag loose from my life preserver. Not ideal on a rubber raft.

The blade functions, don't know what else to say about that.

 

[myright]

The handle is a strong point in my opinion. It should fit girly sized to gorilla sized hands, and due to the shape remain retainable even when wet.

The sheath is functional but isn't the best for retention. I wore mine on a rafting trip and it would occasionally snag loose from my life preserver. Not ideal on a rubber raft.

The blade functions, don't know what else to say about that.

I pretty much figure I'd have to swap out the sheath once I get it, but for the price of the knife it's a little dissapointing to have to do that.

You say the blade functions. Do you feel the shape of the blade works just as well as a straight edge of a Becker.

The handle is one of the things that has drawn me to that knife. It looks like you can use it all day and never have to worry about the handle slipping. That is the only knock I have on my Becker - it's a bit heavy and the handle doesn't stay in your hand all that well after a while.

 

[KLJTech]

I bought a Woodlander and I love the knife, I was worried about the sheath from what I had heard on some forums but my mine is solid as a rock, the knife clicks in firmly with no movement and is much better than I had heard. I was surprised that the sheath was made of such thick Kydex and held the knife so well after want I had read. Possibly Spyderco took care of the problem once they heard about it (I really don’t know).

I bought the Woodlander after emailing Jerry Hossom and asking is opinion on which I should buy, I have both the Ontario Hossom Retribution 1 and 2 but my hand feels cramped with the 2 (both are GREAT knives, the 1 just fits my hand much better). Mr. Hossom told me that the Dayhiker handle was similar in size as the Retribution 2 (but thinner) but the next 3 bigger Spyderco Hossom fixed blades have a larger handle (all of the larger sizes share the same size handle). It was also his opinion that since I already had the Retribution 1 that I didn’t need the Dayhiker.

Mr. Hossom was clear in his email to me that the Dayhiker is not a good chopper, a great hunting knife just not meant for chopping. I had my Woodlander for about 3 days before my son came home from college for the weekend and fell in love with it and talked me out of it. So, now I have already ordered a Forager from New Graham, that way we won't have two of the same knives. Mr. Hossom he did such an incredible job designing the Retribution 1 that since the Woodlander has only about a 1.5” longer, thought much wider blade, I thought that I may as well buy one in the series that is a good bit larger than the Retribution 1.

Mr. Hossom told me that the Woodlander would be his choice if he had to pick but 1 of the series, he also said that it will chop almost as well as the Forager.

I hope that this helps.
Good luck.