Minimalist camping without a fixed blade

Gaston444 said:
Well I tried "minimalist chopping" with the top folder pictured below: At 11 ounces these Al Mars have considerable heft that would be a wasted feature without a bit of hacking at light branches, or even chopping at an angle for making basic tent pegs...:

PB047226_zpsusqeqxnj.jpg


Note the deceleration impact from chopping was considerably reduced by the fact the whole grind was zero-edged to about 6-8 degrees per side... It really made a difference in shock... The chopping performance was actually quite good (for a folder) since it combined the thinner edge with the weight of 11 ounces: The edge survived intact (surprising for a zero edge, and illustrating the excellent quality of the Seki City's Aus-6) but the knife's pins and foundations were unable to take the modest impact loads... I did not hack as hard as I could, just spun the knife loosely by the flared end of the handle...

The lockbar's center pivot pin deformed, leading to a changed lock position:

PB047231_zpsqihgetc0.jpg


Note how the Zero Edge took it in stride, while the whole knife crumbled... The red logo knife below it is a 10 degree bevel... From the factory these things are just dull, yet even with so much thinning the zero edge still survived chopping... The bottom knife will be limited to slicing tasks from now on...

PB047228_zps23ghzssw.jpg


It could well be a more modern folder with a proper steel stop pin would hold up better, but today's folders tend to be well under 11 ounces, and would not be much good at hacking anything...

Gaston
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Yes. We know you broke your 30 year old classic folding knife chopping with it in your back yard. What does this have to do with anything?
 
No first aid kit, no compass, no map, and only a single way to start a fire is fine for most of my jaunts into the woods. But then there is the Great God Murphy.
 
Thomas Linton said:
No first aid kit, no compass, no map, and only a single way to start a fire is fine for most of my jaunts into the woods. But then there is the Great God Murphy.
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Hi! Have to "react" on this :). Even if I generally hike on easy, marked and "populated" mountains trails, I never leave home without a first aid kit. I am not talking about paramedics/army kind of kit with tourniquets, syringes, etc. but just the basics, like a disinfectant, Band-Aids, elastic bandage, eye drops, tweezers, bugs bite cream, etc. I am probably clumsier than the average :), but I have experienced on myself that even minor cuts, a twisted ankle, something getting in my eye, can soon become major annoyances on the trails, without proper means to treat them. I can personally manage a fire, food prep and all the assorted outdoor task with a slipjoint (with some skills and caution :)) if needed, but cannot manage an effective first aid for myself without a proper kit, let alone taking care of my family members. I agree on leaving compass and maps at home if hiking in well-known, “populated” areas/trails, I do that often. Fire-starting kit and a flash-light/torch is another must for me. It happened to me once that, due to a twisted ankle, my speed of descending was reduced very much and had to make my way back to the car basically in the dark. Without a flashlight, it became a quite tiresome experience. Be safe out there :thumbup:!
 
I have a folder on me daily "for just in case". When I go in the woods, I add to the folder a fixed blade knife "for just in case". Caring a tool "for just in case" beats any passionate disputes about having it or not - at least for me.
 
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not me. I don't even bother with 'minimalist' camping anymore. Load up the old 4Runner, and take off into the woods. :)
 
Quiet said:
This.

I feel like we're seeing the ghosts of old declarations of "Fixed blades aren't needed for camping, and in fact, they may unnerve people you meet on the trail!". Can't recall who said that, it completely escapes me at the moment.
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I have seen many threads and discussions somewhat derailed with that ghost declarer.....somehow the name escapes me too?!!! awful preachy whoever that is!
 
Brad "the butcher";16712014 said:
I have seen many threads and discussions somewhat derailed with that ghost declarer.....somehow the name escapes me too?!!! awful preachy whoever that is!
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He isn't that wrong though.
"It may unnerve some people. "
"May" isn't really preachy and chances are if you meet a hundred on a trail one more sensitive guy or girl will be unnerved.
Also nothing is really "needed" by everybody for camping. Give my mother in law a fixed knife and things might go more south than without.

Either way. I don't care about an unnerved exception though if they are more common I'd adjust my gear. I like my fixed knifes and see why many would want and some even need one. But I also know that many wouldn't need one. Depends on the person and the environment they are facing and the situations they know.

Campground camping vs primitive survival art and whatnot.
 
Jens Schuetz said:
He isn't that wrong though.
"It may unnerve some people. "
"May" isn't really preachy and chances are if you meet a hundred on a trail one more sensitive guy or girl will be unnerved.
Also nothing is really "needed" by everybody for camping. Give my mother in law a fixed knife and things might go more south than without.

Either way. I don't care about an unnerved exception though if they are more common I'd adjust my gear. I like my fixed knifes and see why many would want and some even need one. But I also know that many wouldn't need one. Depends on the person and the environment they are facing and the situations they know.

Campground camping vs primitive survival art and whatnot.
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I don't see it as preachy either, not to mention many woods have habitations, cottages or even small towns cutting through them. That is why I carry fixed blades only inside the waistband...

Actually, come to think of it, really deep isolated woods is about the most stressful place to come across anybody... Whenever I hear someone in some remote wood, they tend to give me a wide berth and I do the same...

Gaston
 
the preachy part is I am always seeing the same guy push a little multitool and a couple small light use folders put forth as the grail of hiking/backpacking...just cause it works for that guy who may have experience it's always put forth as.....the RIGHT way. years of the same info every time any op gets anywhere near the topic at hand.......preachy

i have multiday backpacked for over 30 years and would never be that underknived......I would and do bring a similar multitool.....with a light strong fixed in the 4 to 7 inch variety with a folding saw and a millie.
some unforgiving terrain and weather changes in the temperate rainforest of British Columbia
 
Scout Camper pocket knife when I was 14
Camillus Demo when I was in the Army
SAK Camper with a saw backpacking from the 70s
Now a SAK Farmer

I also am never underknived
(if underknived is a word)
 
Wait a minute.
Now hikers and campers are afraid of a hiker/camper who carries a knife in a sheath?

I can open carry a gun at almost any time I want (Fed buildings=no), but I should be worried about a camping implement unnerving a camper?
Yikes.
 
This has gotten to be more than slightly ridiculous.

Carry what you want, but if you don't want, then don't carry. But to make the point that a fixed blade knife sheathed on my hip may make others uncomfortable is ludicrous. So you don't need it. So what? You don't need a fire extinguisher until you have a fire. You don't need a spare tire in your car until you have a flat. You don't need a fixed blade until some day, things don't go right, then you do. Badly.

But if my fixed blade is making someone uncomfortable, then it's their problem, not mine. They need to go get counseling for their phobia. It's the woods/boonies, some people prefer a fixed blade. Get over it. Get help. The snowflakes of the world need to understand that the whole world may not see things their way, shocking as it is. I like knives. I especially like knives that do not fold if I'm off in the woods. My choice.
 
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