If you could only own 3 knives for the rest of your life...

[soundless]

What knives would make the cut so to speak and even more importantly why?

 

[Wild Ben]

If you can make do with just 3 knives, you are on the wrong forum! But wait, let me think...

 

[Shorttime]

Eh. I'll take a wild swing at this.

Let's see. I have the gent's knife thing covered with a fancy version of the Skeletool, which is not a knife, so it doesn't count.

I don't really do woodscraft stuff, and I try to pair complimentary tools because, although I like them, sharpened prybars don't cut stuff very well.

What else?

Well, it's only three knives, so I'm jolly well going to spend some money.

An Andre De Villiers Impi lockback with LSCF slabs and copper inlays for everyday.

I kinda still want to have an electrician-pattern, so I'd get a very nice example of a Case electrician, with wood slabs.

One more. Huh.

On the one hand, Busse Combat has some attractive fixed blades that I know will do all the stuff, and then some. On the other hand, an Ontario issue-style knife can take a shocking amount of abuse.

Eh. I'd go with the Busse, just because they're full tang. Probably an Ergo Badger Attack, maybe some flavor of the ASH.

First though, I'd have to figure out what all the names mean.


Edit: I used the word "knife" an awful lot.

 

[Railsplitter]

In the grand scheme of things, I really only need one knife.

That one knife would be a Buck 112 with a Drop Point blade. Specifically a Website Exclusive with Ebony scales and an S30V blade.

My other two choices are a Benchmade 556 Mini Griptilian and a Buck 212 fixed blade in any configuration.

 

[Johnnyblades7]

These 3:

Knife in the middle is a beautiful piece no doubt about it, but it reminds me of rhino lol

 

[Ikhnaton]

If I'd have to choose between ones I currently own:

Spyderco Manix 2 XL, it's an amazing knife with great ergos for me, amazing slicey blade with a very good length, capable of a lot of things

Reini Rossmann Irbis, mid-size fixed blade that cuts really well and can take an awful lot of abuse, can do woodwork and food prep

Tom Brown Tracker 3, nice and big(-ish), lots of brute force behind it if you want and can also be used for a couple of different tasks


I'd like to add a Skrama 240 to replace the Tracker (mostly because of the size) l, although I wouldn't be mad if I could get something from Busse or a Bill Siegle, but I think that could be difficult in Europe.

 

[ErikMB]

Interesting that people are not emphasizing knives that include a bottle opener or corkscrew. I use those features a lot (now that I no longer pop a bottle cap off a beer with my teeth... those were the days....)