Looking for a beater knife to keep in get home bag/survival kit

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bowieknifenick

Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
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Hey, new to the forum. Been a long time lurker, and finally joined. Figured I'd start a thread.

I'm looking for a rugged knife to keep in my get home bag/car survival kit. I have a couple ontario knives and a kabar that i'd trust with my life, but I use those around the house and I have weird reservations about keeping them in my truck in case the bag should be stolen, what not, etc. Those are just knives I can't part with.

So i'm looking for a full tang knife, I'm looking at the Becker BK9, the Becker bk7 and the Becker Bk2. I'm a little reserved about carrying a huge fixed blade concealed in a bag but I want something long enough to baton with if need be, and to beat on in a survival situation. I'm very rough with my knives so I'm looking for a knife that I can trust fully. I beat on my ontario's and my USMC kabar and they come back asking for more so I'm used to that kind of rugged dependability.

What are your opinions, get the bk9, bk7 or the bk2? I'm partial to a longer blade, anything less than 7" feels like a toothpick to me, but this is for a bag that will be sitting in the passenger side floorboard of my truck most of the time (regular cab with no toolbox) so If i were to be stopped, I'd want something that would look more like a tool than a weapon to an officer.

Thanks for your opinions,
Nick
 
bowieknifenick said:
Hey, new to the forum. Been a long time lurker, and finally joined. Figured I'd start a thread.

I'm looking for a rugged knife to keep in my get home bag/car survival kit. I have a couple ontario knives and a kabar that i'd trust with my life, but I use those around the house and I have weird reservations about keeping them in my truck in case the bag should be stolen, what not, etc. Those are just knives I can't part with.

So i'm looking for a full tang knife, I'm looking at the Becker BK9, the Becker bk7 and the Becker Bk2. I'm a little reserved about carrying a huge fixed blade concealed in a bag but I want something long enough to baton with if need be, and to beat on in a survival situation. I'm very rough with my knives so I'm looking for a knife that I can trust fully. I beat on my ontario's and my USMC kabar and they come back asking for more so I'm used to that kind of rugged dependability.

What are your opinions, get the bk9, bk7 or the bk2? I'm partial to a longer blade, anything less than 7" feels like a toothpick to me, but this is for a bag that will be sitting in the passenger side floorboard of my truck most of the time (regular cab with no toolbox) so If i were to be stopped, I'd want something that would look more like a tool than a weapon to an officer.

Thanks for your opinions,
Nick
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What's your budget?

You seem to like Kabars and Ontarios. If you have an attachment to the one you already own, have you thought about just getting another for the sole purpose of putting it in the car? A beater duplicate that can serve without you developing a protective attachment to it might be really helpful.

Also,
What are your opinions, get the bk9, bk7 or the bk2? I'm partial to a longer blade, anything less than 7" feels like a toothpick to me,
Click to expand...
If a BK2 would feel like a toothpick to you, you must have some Paul Bunyon style teeth!!!
:)
 
Budget is anything less than $100.

I might get another Ontario Marine Combat Knife, the sp1, can be had in my area for around $50

Even my kabar feels like a toothpick. I'm 6'3, 280 with a lot of muscle. I have the Ontario SP10 the 10" bowie knife and that seems to be a perfect size knife for me. Just feels right ;)
 
Sounds like you're already on the right track. Another Ontario would be awesome for that purpose, as would any of the Becker knives you mention.

Just to add another thought, might be worth a look at the Condor Moonshiner/Moonstalker. Nice big blade for the money. If you get it from Ben at Baryonyx Knife (a member here by the name of FortyTwoBlades), it'll get his QC check to make sure it's perfect for you. I'm awfully tempted to make this my next knife purchase actually.
 
I took a look at those Condor's you recommended. I think I'm going to buy another Ontario for the GHB but those Condor's look too good to not buy to fill another purpose :)

I swore I'd cut back on the number of knives i'd buy, darnit hehe
 
If you want a larger blade get the bk9, it isn't called king for nothing...the 2 may be shorter don't underestimate it, if I could only have one knife in an emergency survival situation it would be my bk2. It's the one knife that I ALWAYS have with me when traveling for work. (Atleast when I'm flying, when I'm driving I usually have a 9 accompanying it as well as a few others)
 
It may be too small for you, and it's a gerber, but I have to say the Gerber Strongarm. US made, excellent sheath thats molle compatible , and it's only $45 on the big river.
 
bowieknifenick said:
I took a look at those Condor's you recommended. I think I'm going to buy another Ontario for the GHB but those Condor's look too good to not buy to fill another purpose :)

I swore I'd cut back on the number of knives i'd buy, darnit hehe
Click to expand...

A Bushlore makes a fantastic knife for smaller knife tasks... a bushlore paired with a large knife like the BK9 would be a "do it all" combo... just saying.. and just enabling...
 
Thanks all for the replies. Certainly a warmer welcome than I've had with other forums!

I've personally have had bad experiences with gerber. I still have a few of their gear but that's mostly because they haven't broken yet. Had several of their products fail and I just don't like the way their stuff is put together. I do have a discontinued gerber collapsible saw (not the folding kind, the one that pulls apart in pieces and is held together by blade tension) and it seems to work pretty well. I'm using that in my get home bag and this thread is about a knife to go with the saw to baton apart small logs. I have a LMF Mora in the pack already but I wouldn't trust a half tang, 4" knife to baton. I have considered using a hatchet in place of the saw and knives but I find it much easier to make kindling with the saw as compared to the hatchet. The saw makes nice clean square ends which is perfect for batoning and for me personally, batoning is much more controlled than swinging a hatchet which really isn't designed to split wood, well, neither really is a knife but we're talking survival here.

I will take a look at some of the condor's you've all mentioned. But if i do buy the condors, it most likely won't be for the get home bag.

I think I'll be buying another of the Ontario Marine Combat Knives, https://ontarioknife.com/fixed-blades/spec-plus-series2013-09-03-16-58-57/sp1-marine-combat-detail and then have one for home use, and one in the bag. I've hammered on this thing (with a wood baton) through good sized logs, through knots, even halfway through my finger (had to get six stitches a month ago on my birthday), and only the powdercoating on it has worn off (i think it gives the knife character).
 
I 'm thinking that if it's a genuine time of crisis, and I were going to depend on that get home bag to help you do just that, I'd want the best knife money could buy. A beater knife is not what I want to trust my life to.
 
I may have misconstrued the meaning of a "beater knife," by a "beater knife" I don't mean a knife that is sacrificing in quality, I mean a rugged knife, that's not too expensive (much like the USMC kabar) that I can beat on and not worry that it will let me down.
 
bowieknifenick said:
Thanks all for the replies. Certainly a warmer welcome than I've had with other forums!

I've personally have had bad experiences with gerber. I still have a few of their gear but that's mostly because they haven't broken yet. Had several of their products fail and I just don't like the way their stuff is put together.
Click to expand...

I'm by no means a Gerber fan, and most of there stuff is complete junk. However the made in the USA stuff is proving they can still make a quality product. The strongarm being one of the most recent they released.
It's actually a nice knife especially for the cost, and if it was the only tool I had in a survival situation it would likely serve me well.
 
Fwiw, I got a bk5 and a bk15, but in my bob I keep a Schrade Extreme Survival, (along with a Mora Companion)... There's quite a few models to choose from, 8 or 9cr stainless or 1095 Carbon; it is a rugged enough knife to take beating, takes and holds an edge well enough, but also cheap enough at <$40 to not worry about...

My rationale being, in my personal situation, under most foreseeable circumstances, I could get home and reup my knife supply appropriately, AND in most foreseeable scenarios my house is rendezvous point (A) where we could hold up well enough and long enough to assess the situation. So essentially my bob is really more of a grab and go emergency "kit", as I couldn't see myself being stuck with "only" my bag, but even if I do, it does have everything I "need" in it...
 
That's a good suggestion. I like my Mora, I have the LMF version with the firesteel in the handle. I commute to college 20 miles one way into mostly wide open country and my main reason for having my get home bag is because of vehicle breakdown, blizzard or some sort of natural disaster or terrorist attack (what a world we live in, have to worry about this....) My bag is to make a stay in my truck more comfortable or if I should have to hoof it back to town to get gas, etc, i'll have food and water. In any sort of terrorist attack or civil unrest my plan will to be to take my truck as far into the fields and away from the road as I can, park it and head into the treeline to wait it out.

In my get home bag, I have a small cook stove (not to cook with though, I live where it snows a good portion of the year) so it will be cold and my emergency water is likely to freeze so my plan is to cut open the frozen water bottles and melt it with the cook stove. I have several bundles of 550 cord, a 5x7 backpackers tarp, first aid kit, headlamp and batteries, MORa knife, collapsible saw, tinder, fire making essentials, heavy duty work gloves, mini survival booklet, knot tying guide, rain poncho, beef jerky and a el-cheapo fixed blade I plan to replace with the knife that I choose thanks to this thread :) there;s some other stuff I have in there but I can't remember what it is right now
 
Should also take a look at the tops BOB. it's another heavy duty durable knife that holds an edge incredibly well and easy to maintain it.
It's kinda like a mora on steroids lol
 
Gerber Strongarm is perfect for this. $50; great sheath, feels great in hand, and is extremely tough (check out the Gauntlet videos for this knife on Youtube).
 
Seems like a pretty good kit you have there.

It sounds like you want a largerish knife, mostly for splitting wood?

Its worth noting that while the USMC Kabar (1217) is well known... it has a history of failures when using it to baton regularly, mostly owing to the fact that it really is a combat knife with some utility added, rather than a "true" woods blade. I think the Beckers/ESEE/Condor choices are a much better idea for that type of work.

I have a BK9, and am very happy with it. I use it, a mora, and a folding saw on most outings (I consider the BK9 a "hatchet replacement", that I find more versatile for my uses). However, most of the time I don't find myself chopping with it (because of the folding saw), and I also don't tend to baton much larger than say...forearm to calf sized wood, mostly because its a bunch of effort to anything larger than that.

With that in mind, the BK7, Condor Varan (8in blade iirc) and Condor Hudson Bay (7in?) might be good options, as they're smaller/lighter, while still capable.

As far as keeping it from looking crazy in a bag... Not sure. Beckers look fairly "tactical" from the factory, as they're all black. I find they look less so in a different sheath, with the coating stripped, different handle scales, etc. But ultimately I think how its perceived is how you act around it.

And finally, have you thought about a BK3? Its the model thats designed for response teams/firefighters/EMT's. That could do well for a truck knife. And it will still baton wood with the best of them.

Good luck finding something that works for you :).
 
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