Looking for the perfect bush/survival knife for me. Going with ESEE most likely.

raindog101 said:
Wow. Lots of information in this thread. I don't really know where to start, except to say that an ESEE 6 and an Izula II is a great combo for starters. Using it will give you a good handle on what are the pros/cons of a big knife and little knife. And for just $12 more, I'd get a Mora also. This will give you that extra feel for what role a 4" knife can fill. Once you have a little more dirt time, you can decide which direction you're starting to take with your knife use. Then, you can either keep what you have, sell it to buy different stuff, or just start amassing a huge collection of various blades. I think you've set your feet on a very long road. Welcome to the party, pal. I made my suggestion of a Mora for a very specific reason. If you decide (like many of us here), that a 4-5" blade is the most used/important tool in your arsenal, you can then invest in something a little nicer/more expensive after a while, like a custom (check out some of the custom puukkos out there...fantastic!), or some of the nicer production models (I personally have never been disappointed in Fallkniven, especially the F1 in VG10). I really think there is a reason why most folks I know, and most members on these kinds of knife forums, post about and use 4" blades. Build your high-end collection around that, and I don't think you'll regret it. That being said, I've owned quite a large number of the most common "bushcraft" blades talked about here and on other forums, such as Survive!, Fallkniven, Tops BOB, ESEE 3 4 6 and both Izulas, Ratmandu, Becker BK16 15 BK 5 7 9, various puukkos, a few customs (Big Chris, ML, Ray Laconico, GL Drew, JK to name a few)...well, you get the picture. Guess what I started with, and ended up with? A Mora. You buy one, I'm pretty much guaranteeing you'll keep it. Whaddaya got to lose? It's 12 bucks! OK, I'm done now.
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This is fantastic advice. As I have said before, when you get a gold membership here you can not only buy but then sell your personal knives. This allows you to test drive various knives. If you find the perfect knife (though there is no such thing), great. If you don't fancy what you got, sell it off with not much loss. Buying used is a great way to build experience with different types of blades. One might find that after longing for an Esee that you actually hate the design, material, or quality. Simpley sell it at not much loss and by that Fallkniven that also gets recommended. If that F1 or any other knife you learn about on this forum becomes your go to blade, then BFC has served its purpose well.
 
craytab said:
You also have made the mistake of claiming that a production knife is at the level of a custom.
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I would disagree.

In the $100 to $130 price range, the ESEEs, the Fallkniven F1, the TOPS B.O.B., and the Beckers (with add on Micarta or G10 scales) ARE equivalent price/performance values to more expensive customs. Those knives are typically of flawless quality and generally come with a decent sheath. The well known custom knife makers cannot beat the economies of scale that those manufacturers are working with. Takes too much work to make the knives by hand. That's why the custom knife market share happens with more expensive steels where they can add enough markup to make a living.
 
raistlin65 said:
I would disagree.

In the $100 to $130 price range, the ESEEs, the Fallkniven F1, the TOPS B.O.B., and the Beckers (with add on Micarta or G10 scales) ARE equivalent price/performance values to more expensive customs. Those knives are typically of flawless quality and generally come with a decent sheath. The well known custom knife makers cannot beat the economies of scale that those manufacturers are working with. Takes too much work to make the knives by hand. That's why the custom knife market share happens with more expensive steels where they can add enough markup to make a living.
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You are correct in a sense. The price for what you get might be better on a production knife. That is completely subjective. The actual fit & finish of a custom compared to a $150 production knife is not on par.
 
craytab said:
You are correct in a sense. The price for what you get might be better on a production knife. That is completely subjective. The actual fit & finish of a custom compared to a $150 production knife is not on par.
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Yep. Although the fit and finish of those production knives I listed are pretty darn good. If fit and finish are all one is after, then one is paying a lot more for extremely diminishing returns with more expensive custom knives that may have little or no practical value. Better design ergonomics or better steel I could see as arguable. Fit and finish, well, not important for a survival knife to step up above the best of that production class, IMO. That seems more about collecting knives than choosing a survival knife.
 
sorry, i thought we were in america where people are free to express their opinion on not only knives, but other people, i didnt realize that bladeforums.com was so oppressive to its users, or is this just a case of a single moderator trying to flex their "cybermuscle"
 
like i said, i dont really care what you and your buddies did to japenese people and how you rounded them up and put them into camps during ww2.....i wasnt involved with that, so the way you use the terms "Them japs" and the way i do are different, the japanese..."japs'' for short, believe it or not, are a very honorable people, i have respect for them, theres a big difference between being racist and politically correct.....but politics are bullsh-t so i dont care to be politically correct...the fallkniven is an exellent knife period, not even just for the price range, ask anyone whos ever owned a fallkniven and see how many bad things they have to say about the knife, and who cares about the warranty, if sh-t hits the fan warranty companies wont be honoring, at that point the only thing that matters is you have a usable, quality blade, which is exactly what a fallkniven is, sure theres other great knives out there that are worth the money, including custom knives, does that mean people should discredit and not consider the fallkniven, only if youre on the same high horse as crabytab
 
GuyWithaFewKnives said:
sorry, i thought we were in america where people are free to express their opinion on not only knives, but other people, i didnt realize that bladeforums.com was so oppressive to its users, or is this just a case of a single moderator trying to flex their "cybermuscle"
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This is a private forum - like being a guest in someone's home. The mods volunteer their time to enforce the owner's rules. If you do not like the rules, stay away.
 
GuyWithaFewKnives said:
sorry, i thought we were in america where people are free to express their opinion on not only knives, but other people, i didnt realize that bladeforums.com was so oppressive to its users, or is this just a case of a single moderator trying to flex their "cybermuscle"
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You talking to me?

We are on Bladeforums, where Spark sets the rules and moderators watch out for violations. One of our firmest rules is not to allow personal arguments to derail a thread. That's why we stress discussing the topic and not each other.

After all these years of wearing out my fingerprints posting here I got all the cybermuscle I need, no flexing necessary.

Now drop the subject.
 
So, why not start throwing out the "n word"? Wether you like it or not, "them japs" is not a nice term at all. It's derogatory. Think it's not? Try using it in front of a Japanese man with lots of tattoos, and missing a couple sections of pinky fingers.... That conversation will not go well for you.

Fallkniven makes good knives. Great knives IMO actually. (I've owned a couple and thought they were fantastic) However, they do not have the same caliber of no questions asked warranty that other companies do. I like the fact that if I break an Esee I get a new one. For free, no matter the circumstances. That inspires confidence.

Edited to add: sorry Esav! We must have been posting at the same time! On topic from here on out for me.
 
Just to get back on topic: Brian Andrews and Off The Map custom knives look very very nice. I've drooled over them for years, and I've heard many respected members on here rave about his Bushcrafter. Just in case the OP wants to check it out.
 
lol, throwing out the "N" word, what a joke, if hearing the word japs makes you think of racism, its likely cause youre a racist. and i didnt realize bladeforums was like nazi germany, where only the perfect "posts" are allowed, and all others will be exterminated, i was talking about the advantages of SS and quality of craftsmanship from from people who live in the country of japan, and some other dudes get off topic of "the perfect bush/survival knife" by talking about racism and warranties? warranties???? cause when youre in a real bush/survival situation that warranty is gonna help build a shelter and fire and process food in order to survive after your knife breaks, right?.....lol, way off topic....but apparently im the idiot here
 
raistlin65 said:
Yep. Although the fit and finish of those production knives I listed are pretty darn good. If fit and finish are all one is after, then one is paying a lot more for extremely diminishing returns with more expensive custom knives that may have little or no practical value. Better design ergonomics or better steel I could see as arguable. Fit and finish, well, not important for a survival knife to step up above the best of that production class, IMO. That seems more about collecting knives than choosing a survival knife.
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thanks for making sense here, fit and finish, warranties? thats knife collector talk, and if you re-read the original post on "the topic" the poster is talking about putting together a "survival bag, cause you never know", meaning hes talking about getting a knife specifically for a situation where fit and finish and warranties, mean nothing, maybe the guy doesnt have $400 or more to spend and 6 months to wait for a custom knife, maybe he will end up trying to survive by the ocean with salt water, i would definitely prefer SS to carbon steel in that situation, at less than $200 the fallkniven F1 and A1s are an exellent choice for the original posters usage
 
GuyWithaFewKnives said:
lol, throwing out the "N" word, what a joke, if hearing the word japs makes you think of racism, its likely cause youre a racist. and i didnt realize bladeforums was like nazi germany, where only the perfect "posts" are allowed, and all others will be exterminated, i was talking about the advantages of SS and quality of craftsmanship from from people who live in the country of japan, and some other dudes get off topic of "the perfect bush/survival knife" by talking about racism and warranties? warranties???? cause when youre in a real bush/survival situation that warranty is gonna help build a shelter and fire and process food in order to survive after your knife breaks, right?.....lol, way off topic....but apparently im the idiot here
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Just Wow...

I won't be responding to your continued defense of using a racial slur. Nor will I respond to your personal attack on me and other members here. I am not going to address your sassing of the mods. I won't even attempt to clarify for you what exactly the First Amendment refers to. And comparing this great place to Nazi Germany? I would be a fool to get into an argument with anyone that would make such comparison because it is ludicrous. It is the mods job to handle folks who would do these things and they are very good at it. We have been told to move on and I intend to do so.

Yes in a true survival situation a warranty means nothing...well sort of. To me the Esee warranty means they stand behind their product. They are so confident that it won't fail they warrant it in such a way that the company would be bankrupt if they bad bad products. To me that is important. To me that says it is a product I could count on in a survival situation. I bring the warranty issue up because it might be something someone new to the knife world does not know. Other people will disagree and that is fine (as long as in their disagreement they don't stoop to personal insults and the like). We have had great conversations about this subject in the past and all walked away fine. In fact, through discussions like this I have gained extreme reverence for one member in particular here.

But you know what? How often have I used my knives in a true SHTF situation? Never. Not once. Nor am I likely to ever. For example today I will be in the back yard cutting down my tomato plants after the freeze we had last night. Say I use my Esee 5 because I want to feel awesome while doing it. Perhaps like the clumsy oaf I am I drop the knife on to the tile walkway in front of the garden bed. The Blade hits tip down and I break a chunk off. Guess what? I am covered.
 
GuyWithaFewKnives said:
maybe he will end up trying to survive by the ocean with salt water, i would definitely prefer SS to carbon steel in that situation
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craytab said:
But you know what? How often have I used my knives in a true SHTF situation? Never. Not once. Nor am I likely to ever. For example today I will be in the back yard cutting down my tomato plants after the freeze we had last night. Say I use my Esee 5 because I want to feel awesome while doing it. Perhaps like the clumsy oaf I am I drop the knife on to the tile walkway in front of the garden bed. The Blade hits tip down and I break a chunk off. Guess what? I am covered.
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Agreed.

Plus, the OP has already said that he lives in upstate NY and wants a survival knife for the woods there. And in the highly unlikely event of an SHTF event that causes a societal collapse where he would have to bug out to somewhere far away, probably the last place one should go from upstate NY is the eastern seaboard where there are millions of people. Odds seem astronomical that he needs to worry about having a knife where he will be using it to survive near salt water.

1095 steel with a good warranty seems like a fine choice :)
 
I would love to add, Buck Knives. They are great performers, and they do not get enough recognition. I have had a 119 for over 40 years and it still rides in my truck for "do - it - all" type of tool. I wore out a sheath but the blade is fantastic if you want a all around knife.
 
have to agree with sams here, if putting together a bug out bag, and need a knife that youre gonna put and leave in there just in case, the buck 119 is probably the best choice, cheap at like $40-$50, but a long proven knife, tested by many in the real world by people much tougher than you, and SS blade cause if youre packing a bag for a shtf scenario, the reason they call it a shtf, is because sh-t has hit the fan....all bets are off, and unless the original poster is an avid outdoorsman, which living in upstate NY, i highly doubt, what on earth makes you or him think his best shot at surviving would be to head out into the woods alone rather then heading to where are other people are grouping up and figuring things out????? am i the only one who thinks thats crazy talk......great choice sams, buck 119 is the perfect bug out bag knife based on price/performace/versatility, im sure theres a couple more great options like that too
 
have to agree with sams here, if putting together a bug out bag, and need a knife that youre gonna put and leave in there just in case, the buck 119 is probably the best choice, cheap at like $40-$50, but a long proven knife, tested by many in the real world by people much tougher than you, and SS blade cause if youre packing a bag for a shtf scenario, the reason they call it a shtf, is because sh-t has hit the fan....all bets are off, and unless the original poster is an avid outdoorsman, which living in upstate NY, i highly doubt, what on earth makes you or him think his best shot at surviving would be to head out into the woods alone rather then heading to where are other people are grouping up and figuring things out????? am i the only one who thinks thats crazy talk......great choice sams, buck 119 is the perfect bug out bag knife based on price/performace/versatility, im sure theres a couple more great options like that too.....oh ya, buck 119...unlimited lifetime warranty...i know some goofballs that will dig that up
 
As for the original topic, the initial post seems to be leaning towards an ESEE 5...so why the heck not get an ESEE 5?
There's no such thing as a "perfect survival knife" anyway, so go with what you want.
 
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