Minimum price knife

O

OmegaA

Joined
Feb 13, 2004
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282
We often talk here about very expensive knives. However, what will be your cheapest knife you will feel comfortable with in any situation and for a long time?
For me: well, I spent one year with only one knife. I bought Tramontina when I was a foreign student (actually, I bought it for self defence, because I had problems with nazis, but then I realised it was also very good utility knife). Here it is: http://translate.google.com/transla...a.com.br/&prev=/search?q=tramontina&hl=en&lr= . It was the only knife I owned at that time, so I mainly used it for cooking (I used to cook a lot), but also carried it the city (did not have money for a folder) and used it for travels abroad. Then, after one year, I came back home, left it to my father and went abroad again. My father used it for slaugtering lamb, fishing and some house activities in the house. Then I got the knife back 2 or 3 years ago. Now I use it for outdoor activities when I have to cut a lot and when I travel abroad - I know it is legal everywhere. So, I think it passed quite the test of being universal and proved to be a good choice for me. It is still second most used fixed blade knife of mine. I bought it for about $4 or $5.
It is not strong, I agree, but if you do not misuse the knife you will be all right with this knife.
So, I guess this will be a minimum for me.
 
For me probably one of my swak`s.I have used it in the kitchen,in the garden, being a cabinettmaker i used it in the shop. Also it performed good for fielddressing when i took it hunting. I am convinced it would do its part if one would use it for self defense. I would rather have this than any of the combat folders. 10.- Euro/ 12.-US$
 
Of the blades I have now, for small precision work, the puukko on the bottom :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/puukkos.jpg

for large chopping work, the tramontina bolo :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/camillus_bush_hog_bolo_bm.jpg

These both run about $5 each, I bought the bolo on Ebay, it was heavily used, lots of life left in it yet.

The Byrd line from Spyderco also runs really inexpensive and offers very high performance for those times when you could not carry the puukko.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Of the blades I have now, for small precision work, the puukko on the bottom :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/puukkos.jpg

for large chopping work, the tramontina bolo :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/camillus_bush_hog_bolo_bm.jpg

These both run about $5 each, I bought the bolo on Ebay, it was heavily used, lots of life left in it yet.

The Byrd line from Spyderco also runs really inexpensive and offers very high performance for those times when you could not carry the puukko.

-Cliff
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What is the brand of the knife in the middle with the green tape/string on the handle?
 
+1 on the Tramontina Bolo, the only problem is lack of a sheath. Actually where I live the the bolo is hard to find.

Here in Brazil I would be comfortable with a SWAK and a machete provided I had a mill file as well.

I got along fine for years in PA with just my Ka-Bar.

The most "expensive" knife I own is my Becker BK-7, $50, and it works great. Mac
 
CRKT stiff kiss, tanto. The best cheap knife I have ever bought ($30). Great for all little things from camp chores, cleaning fish to skinning deer, and edc.
 
bacman99 said:
What is the brand of the knife in the middle with the green tape/string on the handle?
Click to expand...

Busse Battle Mistress, straight handled version, two generations ago.

pict said:
...provided I had a mill file as well.
Click to expand...

There is this, the Tramontina takes visible edge damage about every 500 chops or so, you can see a couple of visible dents.

I could increase the edge angle of course, but right now the cutting performance is very high so I'll take the extra sharpening.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Busse Battle Mistress, straight handled version, two generations ago.

-Cliff
Click to expand...


Good looking knife, but Its out of my price range.

the Becker BK-7 looks like a good knife and not a bad price.
 
Check out the Swamp Rat knives for similar blades that are significantly reduced in cost. That Busse is probably ~$600 on the secondary market, you can get a Battle Rat new for $160.

-Cliff
 
I have a Becker 7 as well and it does a good job for the dough spent to get it. More often than not, I'll carry one of three Mora's. The Frost SwAK for 9.00, the Eriksson SwAK for 10-12.00 and the Eriksson Mora 2000 for around 30.00.
 
Here are my recommendations for some outdoor survival knives that offer either cheap price or high "bang for the buck" if their price is a bit higher. They are listed from the bottom price on up to the $100 range.

- Mora knives Take your pick of maker & model. $7-$20'ish for the cheaper ones. The cheapest seem to be the Frost models, which some folks don't seem to like. I use them in the kitchen, where they handle pure cutting like a fiend and are easily resharpened. I find them to be fine slicers 'n dicers. For a bit more $$ than the Frosts, I like the Swedish Army Knife (SWAK) or the laminated steel Ericsson blades. While I like the look of the Eka W11 a lot, I find its $80 price too steep for serious consideration among other Mora type blades which can be bought for a lot less. For long term "do it all" survival though, none of the mora's would be my first choice. That said, I like them for the "little" in a big/little combination of two knives.

- Cold Steel Bushman and Mini-Bushman $20 and $14 respectively. I suggest you wrap the handle with duct tape and/or then cord overwrap to both improve grip and store the tape/cord.

- Cold Steel SRK factory second $35'ish on sale occasionally, or $50 regular.

- Becker Knife & Tool Crewman BK-10 $45, Combat Utility BK-7 $50, or Combat Bowie BK-9 $60 models would be my top three BK&T choices. The minimal "Becker Knecker" model BK-11 needs a handle job IMHO, whether scales or a wrap job. But it is priced decently cheap at $35.

- Spyderco Moran Featherweights $65 range. Like the Mora knives, this one is a pure cutter. But I find its VG10 stainless convex edge to be a good slicer and the funny looking (IMHO) handle to be quite comfortable in use. I like the drop point version better than the trailing point. YMMV.

- Ranger Knives $60-$100 for the recommended Ready Detachment series (RD6, RD7, RD9) with their micarta handles. For a more minimal configuration, you could look into the RAK or Shank models.

- Swamp Rat Knife Works $79-$129. I like the Howling Rat at $89 or Bog Dog at $79 for a 4" blade knife. At $129 range, the Camp Tramp is one of my favorite durable "do it all" blades, at a price well below most blades that come anywhere near its performance limits.

(edit to add) Don't forget that there are some pretty cheap kitchen knives that work well for cutting chores. One of the perennial el-cheapo kitchen favorite brands is the Forschner Fibrox series from the same folks that make Victorinox Swiss Army Knives. And you can occasionally find even expensive brand kitchen knives for literally a couple bucks apiece at garage sales.
 
Rokjok, you and I think very much alike. Good recommendations.

If you really wanted to get by on very little, I have to say that if the only knife you ever had was a Victorinox Tinker (for something less than $20 at Walmart, I think), then you could probably get through life pretty well. I've field dressed any number of deer with a knife quite a bit smaller than that, and also a number with a Vic Trailmaster (now called the Trekker). About the only problem with doing this with a SAK is that the cleanup is a bit messy, though if you take the tweezers and the toothpick out and soak the knife in soapy water for a few hours, it cleans up reasonably well.
 
Yep, I agree about the Vic SAKs. They make for a pretty good all around field knife. Just gotta change how things are done. I still prefer to carry a fixed blade, along with the SAK. That way I'm not cutting up my cooked food with a blade that just cleaned and butchered same.
 
When I was on my "once in a lifetime" coastal black bear hunt on the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula (south of Homer Alaska) in May of this year, we watched a video that one of the other guys brought along on how to skin b'ars. Somebody had shot a huge brownie and the guide skinned the entire monster out with a Victorinox paring knife! (Just like the five that I use daily in my kitchen, only the guide used one without serrations. Costs like five or six bucks.) I about filled my pants when I saw this.

The "boat knife" was a Frosts of Sweden Tradesman Mora (4" stainless for eight bucks) that was put to quite a bit of use by several of us (all six of us got a bear). I had a lot of time to reflect on this, having lugged along a Chinook II that I got just for this purpose, even though I had any number of other knives back home that could have been put to this use (didn't tell my wife this). The Chinook II did an excellent job, but you know, if all I had was an eight dollar Frosts mora then I wouldn't have been handicapped at all.

Other than maybe a big honkin' splitter/prybar to have along to split wood to get to the dry interior in case you get caught out overnight in the wilderness, I am very confident that a man could get by in life with a swiss army knife and a mora. Our upper paleolithic hunter/gather ancestors did pretty well on less.
 
I saw a non-folding tanto stiff kiss that was real nice . All I see for sale are folders . Does anyone know where I can get the non-folder ?
 
the real answer as far as skinning anf game processing is that the thinner the blade the better it is .

i knew of a couple of guides out west that liked to carry a repala fishing knife for the game and camp chores, if they could not do it with the fillet knife they used the camp axe.

alex
 
bacman99 said:
How about the Becker? Will it hold a edge? Any opinions on it quality?
Click to expand...

I am thoroughly impressed with the quality and edge holding properties of Becker. Even for a lot more money, they are hard to beat.

Will
 
Another real good value are the discontinued Hudson bay knives wich cold steel sold some years ago. Found a place here in Germany that still had a few new ones in stock, so I bought 3 scalpers and the are great knives. Also very good are the green river knivesmade by russel. The thin blades are a lot tougher then most would believe and they cut!
 
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