Loyal Becker Fans, I Need a Recommendation...

what's your price range?
Terrio works with all the pretty new stainless steels and has several models in the $200-250 range last I checked.
 
Thanks for all of the information, All. That gives me a lot of things to look into.

My budget is as low as is reasonable. $60 to $100. II just having a hard time spending more on something I am going to beat the crap out of.

As far as living off grid goes, I still have a VERY off the grid cabin in the PNW that we spend a decent amount of time at and I'm pretty sure you'd be very surprised how off grid a sailboat can be. At the moment, we are building a sailboat in a Marina in CA (I'm in it right now). About the last place I want to be but sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the end result. When this boat is completed, I'll be free to travel the world and go pretty much anywhere regardless of the state of things in America. Why go off grid and hide when I can just go somewhere else instead? Long terms goals include dual citizenship in a South American country my wife and I have already picked, a small, off grid vineyard, and retirement there since this place is going to take a complete crap. If I'm here when it goes down, so be it. I stay pretty prepared. I could invest more time in primitive living skills training..

A sailboat and international travel are actually excellent choices for staying off grid. Even if you are obeying all of the international travel rules, authorities will really only have a general idea of what country you are cruising and that's if you decide to play by their rules. A sailboat can be powered by wind, no matter the time of year if you have time to wait for it. Solar can keep your lights running and kerosene is ridiculously cheap throughout the uncivilized parts of the world. If the US takes a complete crap, I'm leaving by boat if I'm not already gone. If the world takes a crap and a sailboat becomes unsustainable, I'll build a homestead on some remote island in the South Pacific.

Survivormind
 
Get some Frog Lube for the BKs, food safe and in my informal tests of approximately 30 products it was in the top three for rust prevention. (Nothing is perfect around salt water though)

Buck is a great option, most all of them are good stainless steel at very reasonable prices, lifetime warranty. (They make fillet knives to)

The Spyderco Salt knives are the most rust resistant knives commonly available from what I've read.

Mora's in stainless are so inexpensive with rubber handles it's almost a given to get one or more of those.

Those inexpensive fillet knives like Rapala do pretty good with some maintenance and if kept sharp, would get synthetic handles over wood.

You could do well with these options and not have to spend a "Boatload" 😜 of money!
 
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Survivormind said:
Thanks for all of the information, All. That gives me a lot of things to look into.

My budget is as low as is reasonable. $60 to $100. II just having a hard time spending more on something I am going to beat the crap out of.

As far as living off grid goes, I still have a VERY off the grid cabin in the PNW that we spend a decent amount of time at and I'm pretty sure you'd be very surprised how off grid a sailboat can be. At the moment, we are building a sailboat in a Marina in CA (I'm in it right now). About the last place I want to be but sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the end result. When this boat is completed, I'll be free to travel the world and go pretty much anywhere regardless of the state of things in America. Why go off grid and hide when I can just go somewhere else instead? Long terms goals include dual citizenship in a South American country my wife and I have already picked, a small, off grid vineyard, and retirement there since this place is going to take a complete crap. If I'm here when it goes down, so be it. I stay pretty prepared. I could invest more time in primitive living skills training..

A sailboat and international travel are actually excellent choices for staying off grid. Even if you are obeying all of the international travel rules, authorities will really only have a general idea of what country you are cruising and that's if you decide to play by their rules. A sailboat can be powered by wind, no matter the time of year if you have time to wait for it. Solar can keep your lights running and kerosene is ridiculously cheap throughout the uncivilized parts of the world. If the US takes a complete crap, I'm leaving by boat if I'm not already gone. If the world takes a crap and a sailboat becomes unsustainable, I'll build a homestead on some remote island in the South Pacific.

Survivormind
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You're looking for a knife that will take a lifelong beating, always be by your side, and needs to be rust resistant and dependable when the shtf but your not willing to spend much? After reading this, I'd think you'd be looking for THE best and willing to pay more. If you want to be fully prepared, you should look at EVERYTHING that fills your needs then look at price 2nd or last, THEN weight price vs function/value.

If I were in this position I'd put $3-400 in the budget for a set- large and a small/medium to invest as a one time investment for a lifetime tool. Top quality is the way to go if my way of life depends on it. Something youre absolutely positive will last a lifetime with no worries will be worth every cent in the long run. One day when money is worthless, they will be priceless.
 
Yetidayhiker said:
I was checking out some knives and stumbled across another candidate. <$100. 6" spear point aus-8 blade with TiN coating, .24" thick. It's called a SOG Force. Might be worth checking out.

http://www.sogknives.com/type/knives/force.html
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Why on earth would you be doing that ;)? JK! That happens nearly every day for me. It's a terrible, terrible affliction.

OK, back to the OP.......I'll say I think NCSlice has made a salient, sanguine point. The tools and other items that I felt at the time of purchase I spent too much (or just a lot of) money on, turned out to be the best value of the things I own. The perfect example of this is not knife related; it is actually about knives: I'm sure a lot of know someone unwilling to spend some decent coin for kitchen knives because they don't see the value.....which is pretty damn funny (and extremely short-sighted (IMO)) because they get used every single day. Every year another POS is bought or they just put up with a tool that has becomes useless to do its job....and pretty soon it's nothing but frozen dinners (that they have to rip open with their teeth because there's nothing sharp in the drawer) and a heart attack - all because they couldn't pony up the one time cost of buying something decent and learning to maintain it or even pay someone else to maintain it. First thing anybody who works with tools for a living learns: buy the best you can get and then take care of them, because that's your livelihood, sonny. It's not even required to spend exorbitant amounts, either; my 3 big Wusthof Trident's were all in the $60-100 range and are going on 15 years in my kitchen, used damn near every day - and I don't foresee that I'll ever need to replace them. I'd say that's value. I might, however, want to augment that collection with one of James Terrio's kitchen beauties knives in the future, tho. On this point I concur with Erik....JT would be your best bet for a value priced custom in some modern super steel.
 
NCSlice said:
You're looking for a knife that will take a lifelong beating, always be by your side, and needs to be rust resistant and dependable when the shtf but your not willing to spend much? After reading this, I'd think you'd be looking for THE best and willing to pay more. If you want to be fully prepared, you should look at EVERYTHING that fills your needs then look at price 2nd or last, THEN weight price vs function/value.

If I were in this position I'd put $3-400 in the budget for a set- large and a small/medium to invest as a one time investment for a lifetime tool. Top quality is the way to go if my way of life depends on it. Something youre absolutely positive will last a lifetime with no worries will be worth every cent in the long run. One day when money is worthless, they will be priceless.
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I didn't say anything about looking for a knife that will "take a lifetime beating". If me being cheap is the new topic, whether or not a knife is always by my side has nothing to do with that topic. A knife being rust resistant and dependable aren't really hard qualities to find. The design of the blade and efficiency at tasks I intend to use it for are even more of a concern. I wanted to tap into the Becker fan resource because there are so damn many knife designs out there, there's bound to be an awesome knife I would love yet know nothing about.

I don't intend to spend top dollar on a knife. The increase in performance between a $100 knife and a $400 dollar knife is what? 5% maybe? That's simply not worth a 300% markup. Why would I buy a Busse ASH-1 when a BK2 can do the same work? Also, I've lost more than one knife in my life and I'm certain it will happen again. It's unfortunate but can happen. Why lose a Busse instead of a BK2?

I have other financial concerns that are far more important and expensive than a knife, such as rigging, building my mast, putting my boat on the hard for a bottom job, re-doing the through hulls, etc. I'd be an idiot to spend $400 on a knife and skip re-doing my through hulls.

I don't go to work. I'm an opportunist that buys low and sells high. That said, I'm not rolling fat and closing large real estate deals and what not and I have a very humble budget. If I want a $400 knife, that means I need to find some extra work somewhere to pay for that additional (ridiculously expensive) request.

Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick to well built beater knives in the $60 to $100 range.

Survivormind
 
Survivormind,

I've got a few knives with super steels and they are nice, but I agree with you, totally unnecessary! You can get 95% of the performance for much much less. About 10 years ago I bought a $200+ high tech carbon fiber and CPM S30V knife and I cut a very thin copper speaker wire in my car and the "super steel" chipped. My old sodbuster would have laughed at that soft copper wire! I have a few expensive knives, but I mostly carry a $10 Opinel.
 
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I know they don't have the best reputation, but gerber really stepped up their game with the strongarm. 420hc stainless. Seems to impress just about everyone and you could pick up two for under $100.
 
Buck 119 Brahma
Kabar Marine Hunter
CS Finn Bear
Mora Bushcraft Orange
Mora Bushcraft Pathfinder
 
I said $3-400 for a set...a pair or three...not one. Thats around $100/knife if your looking for something that compares to Beckers in any rust resistant steel. You did note $60-$100. If your saying shtf, it could be your last Knife purchase. You did ask for recommendations so I was giving mine. That's just the way I see it. I was putting my mind in the situation as you described it and that is how I would go. If I was dropping off and tuning out, I'd look at everything I take as my final shot at aquiring material goods and go for the best I can get within reason. Not a single $400 Knife...just a bit more for something much more dependable, and maybe more than just one, as you said one may get lost etc.

Going the cheap route, Buck is the best bang for your buck...hehe. They do have some higher end designs as well but their 420HC seems pretty tough in my limited experience, and very popular for a reason. Warranties won't even matter really if one is in the middle of the ocean or some far off land.

We all know that Beckers...for the price, there's no better. Anything else in their range will be sub par comparatively, IMO, so ya may as well just stick with them, leave the coating. I'm sure minimal maintenance will keep them in shape. From what you've shared in other posts etc, the amount of use they'll get would probably keep most, if any, rust knocked off.
 
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Ah yes, I misunderstood you NC and I probably wasn't clear. I am only looking into the one knife since I have some other stainless tools I'll be taking with me.

What about Condor's 420 HCSS? Anyone have experience with that?

Survivormind
 
It's funny, I've been going down to Florida to work on a project at the bottom of the Everglades in Florida Bay for the last dozen years or so. I've been on the perpetual hunt for the knife you're looking for. Something stainless that would handle my work chores on the boat, and would be able to handle some abuse if everything went south and I got stuck surviving in the Everglades for a couple of days until help came. I still think I would have more faith in a Fallkniven A1 or a Ray Ennis Entrek to hold up to every imaginable scenario but I would never have brought them out on the water with me because I would have been afraid of losing them overboard and that's way more money than I can afford to lose. I finally settled on the aus8 version of the Cold Steel SRK. I got it for ~$50. You can find a VG 1 version for ~$70 with a little google-fu. The handle is great wet, the sheath works well. There are plenty of abuse videos on it. I've batonned mine at camp and it didn't blink. Not perfect but plenty good enough.

To answer your Condor question, I have their bolo machete in 420HC stainless. I've beaten the daylights out of it at campfires. It split a ton of wood, it's easy to sharpen, all in all pretty bomb proof.
 
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condor's HT runs a little softer than kabar's 56-58 - more like OKC, in the 54-55 range -- so it'll dull a little faster but sharpens easily.
 
1066vik said:
condor's HT runs a little softer than kabar's 56-58 - more like OKC, in the 54-55 range -- so it'll dull a little faster but sharpens easily.
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That's good information.

Anyone used this Condor Primitive Bush Knife? It's got Matt Graham's name on it. I guess he's some primitive living expert (thank you Google). I've never bought anything with someone's name on it but the design appeals to me and it meets my stainless requirement.

Survivormind
 
Creaky Bones said:
It's funny, I've been going down to Florida to work on a project at the bottom of the Everglades in Florida Bay for the last dozen years or so. I've been on the perpetual hunt for the knife you're looking for. Something stainless that would handle my work chores on the boat, and would be able to handle some abuse if everything went south and I got stuck surviving in the Everglades for a couple of days until help came. I still think I would have more faith in a Fallkniven A1 or a Ray Ennis Entrek to hold up to every imaginable scenario but I would never have brought them out on the water with me because I would have been afraid of losing them overboard and that's way more money than I can afford to lose. I finally settled on the aus8 version of the Cold Steel SRK. I got it for ~$50. You can find a VG 1 version for ~$70 with a little google-fu. The handle is great wet, the sheath works well. There are plenty of abuse videos on it. I've batonned mine at camp and it didn't blink. Not perfect but plenty good enough.

To answer your Condor question, I have their bolo machete in 420HC stainless. I've beaten the daylights out of it at campfires. It split a ton of wood, it's easy to sharpen, all in all pretty bomb proof.
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Well, let's find what we are looking for. Keep me posted on what you find and I'll do the same.

Survivormind
 
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