Ideas for a hard use field knife

justjed said:
MtnHawk1, for me it's less about the length of the blade, and more about the thickness, and the height of the primary grind. Five inch blades, 1 inch wide and a quarter inch thick, with a saber grind, are going to be plenty tough, and I have some of those! I have knives that I can hammer into a tree and use as a step, if need be. But, recently my focus has been thinner, slicier blades. Thus, cutting (and sharpening) technique becomes more important than brute strength. I keep a tomahawk around for the really tough stuff. IF I can remember to grab it going out the door as the world is coming to an end!
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I would call a 5" knife with 0.25" stock a sharpened prybar. But I agree with your general leanings. The Sendero Classic (you mentioned) would make a nice regular use blade in the woods if you prefer a guard.
 
That's the type of blade I refer to as a sharpened pry-bar. You pretty much can't break them, but their geometry leaves much to be desired in the way of actual useful cutting of stuff. And since knives are meant for cutting stuff, whichever type of knife you choose should be based on its suitability for the widest variety of tasks. The less you have to look around for something that can do the job better, and the fewer tools you need to carry, the easier your life will be.

Previously, my criteria for a hard use knife included EOTWAWKI scenarios. But I am older, a bit wiser(I hope), and something of a realist. It's the older part that keeps coming up. I want a cutting tool. I already have killing tools. If the end comes knocking, I'll meet it with a .45 Commander and a 12 gauge pump. If it's an EOTWAWKI thing, even with preparations, I'll probably(most likely) be one of the 90% who goes out reasonably early in the festivities. Being older doesn't give me any advantage. I will have to make my own, or perish. This is the law of nature. And a loner like me won't last long in a pack hunter setting...
 
J justjed I understand the end of the world scenarios and the appeal of indestructible knives like the BK-2 or ESEE 5. For me the reality is that I am greatly attracted to them, but I get them and play around with them... often not even cutting anything, and say..... this isn't what I will use regardless of the situation. Another thread here is the old zombie apocalypse scenario and I mentioned in that thread that I would choose something along the line of the Randall 1-7 which in fact is 0.25" stock I believe. (I have a M15 and M16 and both are 1/4" blade stock. My 1-7 is the Blackjack version.) I want a slim pokey knife for this kind of thing and tough, I think. But for my overall use, I don't choose something like this and as time moves forward I choose cutting performance over maximum strength. The BRKT Wilderness Explorer model is one that I would depend on in the woods and it's about as big as I want to go with a 5.75" blade. The model for me is the "BK-15+".

I doubt I would survive very long if things got really dog eat dog, but I would certainly try and I would protect my loved ones to the death.
 
J justjed and 22-rimfire 22-rimfire The end of the world may be always around the corner, or taking place slowly already. In real life, hard use tends not to be, as you rightly mentioned, beheading zombies or otherwise defending yourself against hordes of attackers. It may not even be batoning wood. Just yesterday while taking care of our animals (we have a couple of donkeys, thus the need for a lot of water carrying and schlepping portions of hay, cutting bale twine and so on) I noticed that a length of steel wire I had used to fix protective fencing tight around a tree in the donkey patch, had begun to vanish into the tree where the main trunk forked, which had grown fast. It took 20 minutes of prying with my Leatherman Rebar and the Mora HD I always grab when I step into the yard to get out that wire. I had to cut pretty deep into the wood and wrestle the knife under the thick steel wire to get it loose. Hammered it into the wood several times, then pulled on it with my considerable weight to wriggle the wire up and out of the forked trunk. Like pulling out a U-nail in a barbed wire fence, only ten times worse. The 4 mm steel wire broke in two and had to be pried out from both ends.
The Mora HD got the job done and still cut paper afterwards. One just has to take care to pry against the steel with the spine, not the edge...
Hard-use knives take a beating and don't make you cry when you end up damaging them. Nor are they extremely thick - the HD is 3 mm. My Terava Puukko would have done at least as well - although... I did hammer the Mora into the wood with the palm of my hand, the lanyard ring on the puukko would have made that a painful affair.
For the end of the world, maybe a bagful of Moras or equivalent blades would be best. And a towel. ;-)
 
schwep said:
....or taking place slowly already.
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I suspect that is absolutely correct as our sun only has a certain lifetime before it burns out. I can honestly say that Mora's don't really appeal to me but I own a couple and would not hesitate to use them as needed.
 
Hard use? Try something from Anza. They run on the thick side, since they are ground from files, but cut pretty well due in part to the hollow grind. The shortest blade I have is 2 1/2”, the longest close to 8”. They are all sharpened pry bars, even the ones only an eighth of an inch thick.
 
'Hard use' is a relative term. What constitutes hard use for me, today, is different from what I would have considered hard use when I was 25. And my idea of hard use is less strenuous than many, I presume.

OP, the best way, hell, the ONLY way to find out what works for YOU is to buy something, and USE it for the kinds of tasks you bought it for. If it doesn't hold up, get something else, using your newfound experience to make an informed decision. What I like is unimportant, I like particular stuff for my own particular reasons, and they're quite likely different from your reasons for liking particular stuff.
 
justjed said:
....OP, the best way, hell, the ONLY way to find out what works for YOU is to buy something, and USE it for the kinds of tasks you bought it for. If it doesn't hold up, get something else, using your newfound experience to make an informed decision. What I like is unimportant, I like particular stuff for my own particular reasons, and they're quite likely different from your reasons for liking particular stuff.
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You can read all the recommendations you want to and ultimately it's up to you to decide what works for you. Was looking at a little Kizer folder today in a store.... not expensive and it's a nice knife. In most cases, a slip joint is "enough" knife for my hard use or most of it.
 
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