Knives as digging tools?

damib said:
Hello,
I've first heard about this concept of knife as "all in one" tool that can be used for digging back in the day when I found out the Ka-Bar Heavy Duty Warthog which was advertised this way (at least in my country). Today, I found out abou the Tops Tracker Digger which was apparently even designed with such use in mind. What do you think of such designu? Do you have some experience with using such knives as digging tools? Please don't crucify me. I know that knives are not primarily digging tools, but I think that this is quite interesting concept for some heavy duty knife.
Click to expand...
Boker Plus Cop Tool. It's too small to make massive holes but it's great for planting/gardening.
Boattale said:
Emergencies call for using the best tool you have. Sometimes that's a knife.
Click to expand...
Every time I see your posts and the video you've got in your signature, I'm reminded of a drinking game my friends and I would play in college. We'd listen to that song and every time Mellencamp said "small town" we'd take a sip. It was dangerous!
 
Alone said:
*EDIT- OP, I posted this because I didn't know if you'd seen the vid pertaining to the Tracker Digger.
Click to expand...
Yeah, thanks. I have seen it yesterday and I must say that the idea behind the tool is fantastic, but it is not quite the knife that I am now searching for. But definitely cool tool for gardening!
 
Before you go buck wild with a dedicated digging knife.

I would suggest getting a cheap knife and digging with it (hultafors heavy duty would be perfect)

Because I don't know if a specialised digging knives do any better than any other knife.

And I would believe that almost nobody else does either.

Ironically I have a hultafors and am more than willing to find out. Because I am not concerned about a knife like that.

I don't have a patch of ground I can easily wreck.
 
Ever heard of the 1880 Springfield "Hunting" knife?
us1890a.jpg

m-1880_hunting.gif
 
Drop bear said:
Before you go buck wild with a dedicated digging knife.

I would suggest getting a cheap knife and digging with it (hultafors heavy duty would be perfect)

Because I don't know if a specialised digging knives do any better than any other knife.

And I would believe that almost nobody else does either.

Ironically I have a hultafors and am more than willing to find out. Because I am not concerned about a knife like that.

I don't have a patch of ground I can easily wreck.
Click to expand...

The Hultafors GK was my first thought when I saw this thread. It is also the knife I use for popping open frozen car doors. The blade is not very wide, which makes me wonder why it occurred to me so readily as a digging knife. I think the answer lies in the handle, which is 1) really fat for a knife that size; and 2) comes only in a horrible rustoleum green, which makes it seem at home in a horticultural setting and which suppresses any qualms you might have about subjecting it to abuse, which to my mind includes digging.
 
I wouldn’t dig with my knife personally unless absolutely necessary. I do have a hori hori knife which i consider more of a sharpened spade than an actual knife.

If i wanted a knife that could do knife stuff and dig well i might look at the expat libertariat machete by esee. I love that chopper. No tip to mess up either.
 
Henry Beige said:
The Hultafors GK was my first thought when I saw this thread. It is also the knife I use for popping open frozen car doors. The blade is not very wide, which makes me wonder why it occurred to me so readily as a digging knife. I think the answer lies in the handle, which is 1) really fat for a knife that size; and 2) comes only in a horrible rustoleum green, which makes it seem at home in a horticultural setting and which suppresses any qualms you might have about subjecting it to abuse, which to my mind includes digging.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It is not like digging will ruin the looks of that knife.
 
On a side note, with all these Hori Hori recommendations, does anyone like a particular Hori Hori? Looks like there are a lot of them.
 
LimpCroissant said:
On a side note, with all these Hori Hori recommendations, does anyone like a particular Hori Hori? Looks like there are a lot of them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I also noticed this which is weird because it is usually pain in the butt to find anything little bit more exotic than Victorinox in my country.

There are variations of the tip, some of them are serrated on one side, some have ruler (what is this even used for? - we just throw seeds under soil here) and there are other variations, it seems.

And it is not even expensive in a country where you pay +40-120 bucks extra for knives from manufacturers like ESEE.
 
Well, of course, no knife is a digging tool!

If you use a Randall knife for about anything except slicing meat, that will void their warranty.

Our son brought a Randall #16-1 "Special Fighter" to Iraq in 2004. He used it to open up MREs and as a map pointer. He also had a Chris Reeve Green Beret. The CRK was once used to hack a piece of Plexiglas in half to make a quick-n-dirty map cover somewhere in the desert. He has never said it, but I suspect that he scraped out a hasty fighting position with it.

I don't know the CRK policy on heavy usage or abuse.
 
Last edited:
I prefer to use the right tool for the job. It is not like shovels are rare or expensive.

N2s
 
Oh-oh. Oh-oh . . .! (imagine that I am frantically waiving my hand from the back row in Homeroom).

The US Army did issue a "trowel bayonet" in the late 19th Century.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top