Looking for the best 9+ inch blade for under 500.00

C

cpmsteel

Joined
Dec 6, 2011
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211
Hey guys, I am looking for the best overall woods knife,for less than 500.00 I have been looking at Busse knives and Fehrman knives. I don't want a custom knife, production only and with micarta scales.

What would your choices/picks be?
 
Junglas? Basic 9? lots of variables to consider in regards to the roles you want it to fill.
 
The current Swamp Rat is the Rodent 9, with a 9.5" blade. From what I hear, the funky looking handle is actually quite comfortable.

You really can't go wrong with the KA-BAR Becker BK9, though you could get 6 of them for your budget.

The Condor Boomslang, Kumunga, Thai Enep, and Golok are all nice if you want a really tough 1075 blade.

The Cold Steel Trailmaster (SK-5 for preference) is a wonderful woods knife, and is recommended by many who have used it.

Also, you could always go with a Kukri.
 
Fallkniven NL1 Thor or a Fehrman Final Judgement.

I use a Fehrman Hoodhunter as my main woods knife, and it just rocks. The Fallkniven NL1 is also awesome, and stainless.

There is a good youtube vid by Knivestown on the Thor.

But Fehrman Knives are seriously awesome. They heat treat that 3V to super human levels.
 
cpmsteel said:
Hey guys, I am looking for the best overall woods knife,for less than 500.00 I have been looking at Busse knives and Fehrman knives. I don't want a custom knife, production only and with micarta scales.

What would your choices/picks be?
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Welcome to bladeforums! Like gooeytek said....that question is unanswerable with the amount of information you gave us.

What do you expect to do with the knife? Clean fish? Chop wood? Are you in hardwoods? Tropical woods? Are you hiking through the woods and concerned about weight? Are you doing "bash the bejeebus outta stuff while within 50 feet of a gassed up car with a trunk full of beer" woods stuff? Will you be doing a lot of skinning? Bushcraft? Why are you looking at Fehrman and Busse? Why 9+? You a "minimal survival" guy? Are you considering a best "woods set of tools" for under $500? etc etc etc
 
cpmsteel said:
Hey guys, I am looking for the best overall woods knife,for less than 500.00 I have been looking at Busse knives and Fehrman knives. I don't want a custom knife, production only and with micarta scales.

What would your choices/picks be?
Click to expand...

based on what you have said, you are looking in the right places.
 
marcinek said:
Welcome to bladeforums! Like gooeytek said....that question is unanswerable with the amount of information you gave us.

What do you expect to do with the knife? Clean fish? Chop wood? Are you in hardwoods? Tropical woods? Are you hiking through the woods and concerned about weight?ue Are you doing "bash the bejeebus outta stuff while within 50 feet of a gassed up car with a trunk full of beer" woods stuff? Will you be doing a lot of skinning? Bushcraft? Why are you looking at Fehrman and Busse? Why 9+? You a "minimal survival" guy? Are you considering a best "woods set of tools" for under $500? etc etc etc
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I will be using the knife on week long backpacking trips. The trips are all over the US. I am a lightweight backpacker. However not with my knife. So this knife along with a folder will be my only two blades/ tools. I currently carry one of the first 300 Battle Mistresses, but want to put it up for a while.
 
Zombie Tools has some very nice big blades for $225-450. You may want to check them out and possibly get two within your budget. I've been ogling their website for the past couple of days now. :jerk it:
 
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I never even heard of zombie tools. Checked out their site. They aren't my style though :)
 
you could buy 7 Becker BK9's
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Ignoring the axe / saw / large knife / small knife / multiple knives discussion - if your starting point is a large knife and a folder, here are my choices for a large knife for backpacking:

Out of the choices below, I most often reach for the Busse B11 or the Browning Crowell/Barker (the re-profiled ones. I have some factory spec ones that are decent but the re-profiled ones are much more efficient). They are not the outright best choppers that I have, the Benchmade Competition Chopper is easily the best chopper I own but it weighs 1 lbs 8 oz. The B11 and Browning are the best i.t.o performance/weight. They are also light enough and versatile enough for other tasks and extended use. The re-profiled Browning handle does not cause any hotspots. The B11 handle needs a piece of bicycle inner tube over it because the finger groove causes a hotspot.

If I will have a smaller knife along with the larger knife, then I don't have a strong preference between the B11 and Browning, but if I will have only one large knife, I would take the Browning over the B11 because it is more versatile for me. I have used it in the kitchen on soft items and harder items (watermelons etc.) and it fared well, and then took it out to chop branches, and it did very well.


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I have not used this one, Busse ASH Whacker 9.5 Prototype (top knife in the picture), on a backpacking trip yet, but will in future because backyard testing has shown it to be a very efficient chopper and also versatile. It is not a production model yet though.

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Some weights that I have on file (without sheaths):

Benchmade 171 = 1 lbs 8 oz
NMFBMLE = 2 lbs 1 oz
FBMLE = 1 lbs 13 oz
BWM Pumpkin = 1 lbs 7 oz
BWMLE = 1 lbs 6 oz
BWM CF = 1 lbs 5 oz
M9LE = 1 lbs 3 oz
B11 = 1 lbs (Stripped)

I will weigh some more and update the post.
 
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cpmsteel said:
Do you happen to know when those are supposed to come out?
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I have wanted to ask that question since I got these at Blade 2011 (June) but as you may know, the answer will be "2 weeks :D". (A standard joke in the Busse community).

Actually, I don't recall any confirmation that it will even become a production model. I hope it does because it is my 2nd favorite Busse after the B11 and I want more.

You may want to ask in the Busse forum though - you might just get an answer.

P.S. The price on the Proto was north of your $500 cap - I have no idea whether a production model will be lower so you may want to ask about that also.
 
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If I were you I'd probably hit up the exchange and try to snag a Busse Basic 9 or 11 also Busse has recently done a run of Basic 10 LE's which will eventually find their ways to the second hand market.
 
Entrek Destroyer possibly, though I'd tend to stick with the carbon offerings like the RTAK, Junglas, Bussekin blades etc. Check out the TOPS Power Eagle and Armageddon as well.
 
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