Jungle Blade/Chopper

Where you live on Kauai? A friend used to have the RTAK, thing was nice but he lost it running after the dogs. Little over my price range.
 
valiantco goloks look very nice. i think they're 70 AUD for a basic one. saw a few reviews on the forums here and they looked like great knives.

on the other hand you could pick up a tram with a good sheath. those are excellent machetes and come in the 12 inch range i believe.
 
Kind of outside of your options but have you considered the Cols Steel Bushman- decent chopper with a socket handle so you could improvise a short spear for dispatching purposes. Then again I've never boar hunted w.o. a gun before.
 
Well you can always look at the Ontario SP8, or the Kabar Cutlass (which I happen to like). I use a Ranger RD-9, but that isnt under your $$$$ amount.
 
Today I grabbed a 10" Forschner butcher knife like this one. (middle)

plastbutcher.jpg


Pretty ideal for what I was looking for and well under the budget at 35$. Chopped a few guava with it earlier and was pretty impressed. felt like it was plenty heavy enough and swung halfway through the 1.5-2"ers. Fits snug in my ontario machete case, only 1" of the handle is exposed out of the sheath. Plenty pointy to blade pigs. They even make a wood handled version that I can see myself getting in the future. I plan on sharpening the first half inch of the back of the blade.

Anyone have any experience using these as trail knives?
 
I've used the Forschners and the Wengers for general camping duty and they have held up well. A good value.

DancesWithKnives
 
I agree that a big leaf-shaped blade like a parang or bolo would work great as a dual-purpose bushknife/pig hunter. It's what natives use from South America to SouthEast Asia all day long.

I've got 2 blades by Bill Siegle that would fit the bill, but I think that the Condor hog sticker or the Cold Steel spear knife would do great at only $35 and $18.
 
Masteroffajitas said:
Perfect pig knife has got to cost a little more then 50 bucks, doesn't it?

I'd go with a RC-3 in orange g-10, the jump proof sheath locks the blade in tight.
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Uh.... as much as I like the RC-3 I don't think is the most appropiate knife for pig dispaching purposes. Don't you feel it falls A TAD short? I am not a hunter but I do spearfishing... and when dealing with +15kg "congrios" (Conger Conger) all my diving knives feel short, trust me about that.

Mikel
 
Can't beat a Chris Reeve Project I, if you ask me. It's my longest-used and toughest knife.

For a longer knife with machetelike chopping capabilities, the Junglee Bush Sword is very effective. For a cheap knife, I was very impressed.
 
evbouret said:
Today I grabbed a 10" Forschner butcher knife like this one. Plenty pointy to blade pigs. They even make a wood handled version that I can see myself getting in the future. I plan on sharpening the first half inch of the back of the blade.
Click to expand...


I'm really surprised the point of that knife is considered adequate for hogs, even with a sharpened back. I would personally not even consider a tip like that for stickin' the local varmints I go after; at least not without seriously regrinding it to a clip point or something. Sure, they can cut their way in as long as it's very sharp, but the one time you need it after the tip is dull from bushwhackin', well, I hope you don't regret it.

I have used a very similar pattern butcher knife for clearing smaller brush and weeds, and that thin edge does seem to let it cut and slash all out proportion to its size.
 
I think these butcher knives are really overlooked as choppers. I'm thoroughly impressed with the 10"'s ability to chop and I've handled my fair share of short bladed 10-14" trail knives.

You're right about the tip looking hard to blade a pig but I've seen pigs bladed with normal machetes. The tip is a little wide so I'll be knocking the back off a bit when I get access to a grinder. May even use my hand files.
 
Thought I'd report back after chopping trail with the forschner butcher knife. The knife is completely ruined, it looks like a mangled, twisted saw blade. The fine edge couldn't hold up to guava.
 
Most butcher knives are thin ground for cutting meat all day, whereby a chopper needs a more obtuse edge. You may want to try another and give it a thicker edge and see how that goes (provided that they are cheap enough for that).
 
evbouret,

Is the wood of a guava serious hardwood, such as lemon or pomegranite trees have? If so, that's a lot to ask of a butcher knife and would even challenge a thin machete. I'd be thinking khukri or hatchet for hardwoods.

DancesWithKnives
 
i was looking a little more and i think my friends use the dexter russel fish splitter as a machete and it works great. I thought it was a normal butcher knife but its thicker stock with a thicker edge. Perhaps instead of carrying a machete/pig sticker and a skinning knife I should be focusing on carrying a machete and a pig sticker/skinning knife?

I think I'll grind down this mangled knife into a smaller knife of some sort.

5207-small-01.jpg
 
As an old hog hunter myself, I'd suggest either the Condor Jungle Bowie or Combat Machete. The machete chops better than the bowie, but the bowie is a mean pig sticker,

Machete013.jpg

Combo012.jpg

Wichester model 94 in 44 magnum, combat machete, Bayley Hotel knife.

But my best machete/sticker is this convexed CS Bowie machete.

CSBowieMachete001.jpg
 
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my condors and convexed cold steels hold up to Doug fir, hazel brush and maple all day long...
 
there are several fellas here that would make a sheath for the machete. If you look up sheaths i am sure you will find some, i know one of them will make a nice custom leather for only $20.00
 
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