Knife for tropical rain forest

T

thomasFATCAT

Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
12
I live in South East Asia. And just went out from the forest.
Now I'm looking for a knife that can use for survival in tropical rain forest.
Here are some choice that I have in mind.
1.Browning Crowell/Barker Competition 10" blade
2.Spyderco Forester 9 1/8" blade
3.Fallkinven A2 8" blade
4.RAT7 D2 7" blade
Browning1.jpg


SpydercoForester.jpg


FallkinvenA2.jpg


RAT7D2.jpg




What I would like to ask are.

A.which one can chop best?
B.which one is best for survival knife?

Thanks in advance for all of yours advise.
 
The humidity is going to be a killer; not very blade friendly. Although any of those blades will perform and they will all perform differently I would still look into the individual steel's corrosion resistance and think about my knowledge and ability in terms of maintenance of said steel. You mentioned survival so what tasks do you feel the blade should excell at?
 
Here are some picture of the tropical rain forest that I went through.

DSC_7187.jpg

the bamboo forest

DSC_7034.jpg

very high humidity

DSC_7143.jpg

a lot of palm tree with thorn
 
Just read the bottom of your post. Sorry, it's late. Chopping.... well you'll get different answers for that and your technique and the edge angles you've set on the blade will help dictate the blades function as will the overall geometry of the blade. They're all great blades and as long as you're up on how to maintain them any one should serve you well. As far as my opinion I would probably choose the Forester just because it has a variety of of attributes I both like and am familiar with. Nice pic by the way. Are you familiar with these steels?
 
While i don't think they are already out yet in the States, look for the Spyderco Rocksalt.
It's a large fixed blade designed by Ed Schemmp, completely made from rustproof H1 steel and fitted with a tough and rotfree Zytel handle.
This would be my choice,
 
And this is picture of the team leader, who is a great hunter.
Look at his knife. I think it just about 7" blade long.
( He said that his knife use to longer than this but with his intensive use and sharpen it's get shorter and shorter.)

With this knife he can do anything. I saw he cut 2" of bamboo in one shot. He also use his knife to prepare meal.

DSC_6998.jpg
 
It seems like a good recommendation. I've never used H1 nor have I used it in a large blade. Only read good things about it in regards to folders but a large fixed blade sounds interesting. Any one have any experience with this knife? thomas do you know what kind of knife your team leader uses?
 
thomasFATCAT said:
And this is picture of the team leader, who is a great hunter.
Look at his knife. I think it just about 7" blade long.
( He said that his knife use to longer than this but with his intensive use and sharpen it's get shorter and shorter.)

With this knife he can do anything. I saw he cut 2" of bamboo in one shot. He also use his knife to prepare meal.

DSC_6998.jpg
Click to expand...

the leader has bare feet, you could sharpen your knife on his calluses
I would go with a bolo style blade.
 
guysmalley said:
the leader has bare feet, you could sharpen your knife on his calluses
I would go with a bolo style blade.
Click to expand...

555 You will get more surprise when you saw his $4 plastic shoes:thumbup:, which perform better than our $200 Grotex shoes especially when we walk along the wet rock.

By the way, can anyone give me more advise on the question.

A.which one can chop best?
B.which one is best for survival knife?
 
The Fallkniven A2 or A1 would with the zytel sheath option would do well in that type of humidity. I own an S1 and its a great all-around survival knife.
 
I would get the knife that the Team Leader carries.

For SEAsia a blade with front-heavy parang/bolo design makes more sense because you need to cut thru cane & bamboos which are harder than SoAmerican vines & green branches.

I'd stick with a classic design for your region. Go ahead, ask the Team Leader what he uses.
 
Check out the Spyderco Rock Salt. It is designed by Ed Schempp to be a versatile knife for requirements such as yours, functioning as more than just a chopper. It is also rust-proof and has an incredible steel that is very resistant to chipping, making it excellent for a low maintenance chopper.
 
That Spydero looks promising, I have a Tasman Salt in H1, but it may not be easy to sharpen in the field.
 
The Spyderco Rock Salt has a lot of promise. I'd feel better about it personally if it were flat grind instead of a deep hollow grind. I don't know what the reasoning behind a hollow grind on that knife is all about really. The shape of it and the Kukri resemblance indicated to me it should be considered a chopper and I've never considered deep hollow grinds to be chopping knives. Maybe someone else knows more than I do on that. Perhaps Sal or Ed could enlighten us there.

Still it will resist the elements quite well but the grind will probably keep me from owning one personally because I'd have to wonder how much it could take compared to the same thing in a flat grind or even better a nice convex grind. The hollow grind would be more understandable in a smaller fixed blade I think. But how much detail work and slicing will one be doing with a big knife like that? I have trouble figuring that part of the design out. Otherwise its a great idea I think.

For folders in that area of the world I'd certainly take along a couple Pacific Salt knives with you.

Some of the other fixed blade H1 steel knives would be a good idea if you can pack them to fit them in.

STR
 
let me guess your team leader don't use stainless steels knife? but that knife still doing its job.
From experience stain resistance (rust resistance) is not a issue(in to the Jungle) especially if use use often the knife.
I use 1095 with a black coating a lot, worked out well after 45 days in jungle.

I will go for the parang or kukri to clean vegetation as primary blade.
About the bamboos clean, go around if you can becouse the fatigue is huge and in the progress you can still injury yourself so badly. Despite the fact for the best tool.
 
As far as the HG on the Rock Salt I hear it has something to do with the way H1 is, that it cannot be flat ground, so it is hollow ground instead.
 
Let me second the comment about corrosion. If you want a bright, silver blade, carbon steel will be an issue. If, however, you are just worried about performance, carbon steel blades were and are in good service all over the jungles of SE asia and elsewhere.

John
 
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