Knives: I sharpened both to just below hair whittling (can whittle hair, just not free standing)
After all that hard work:
BK-9:
Shaved a little, more like scraped hair of
Fehrman:
Shaved cleanly
With my sven saw, I cut down a tree approx 2 telephone poles long and same diameter. I took about 10 feet of wood. Each knife split about half that wood into appropriate pieces. The wood was pretty good and frozen.
The BK-9 Split pretty well, liked the length. Plenty tough, very comfortable handle, not slick with gloves, but very slick without. The knife did get stick a couple times on knots. Usually, I could just blast through the smaller ones, but it got stuck on the larger knot. Great slicer, could make feather sticks. Overall 8.5/10. I took off .5 for getting stuck a couple times, and 1 for being slick without gloves. I would LOVE a 1/4 thick BK-9.
Fehrman: WOW!!! What a GREAT knife! Being 1/4 inch, it split like a CHAMP. Never got stuck once! When though the same knots that stumped the BK-9. Very sharp tip. It still cuts well too, not as well as the BK-9, but feather sticks were possible. The handle, oh man the handle... Its great. There is a layer of rubber in between the Micarta and the steel, and it works very well for absorbing shock. Its also very grippy with and without gloves. 9.5/10. Took off .5 for feathersticking ability.
Sven Saw: 10/10. Freaking awesome. Folds up tiny, light, cuts through wood like butter.
The perfect woods combo in my opinion would be Fehrman First Strike, Sven Saw, and a smaller knife for game, such as a Mora or ESEE 3/4. I actually didn't need to use the Breeden or the Mora once.
A survival knife must be 7" or more, it just gives you so many options. To be honest, I really cant see a folding knife being really that usefull at all... Sorry folding knife people.
Shelter/Sleep:
Tempuratures were high teens. There was also a severe windchill. It was SOOOOOO damn windy. If you stood outside at like 2AM, you can feel the wind blowing you over.
Thermarest Self Inflating Matress: 10/10. Kept me very insulated from the ground. Cant take off for anything, its light, folds pretty well, and very warm.
Tent: Help up fine in the wind, but was a bit breezy. Kinda heavy at 6ish lbs. 0 condensation. 7/10.
Sleeping Bag: Pretty warm the mummy "hood" didn't cinch up so great, so It was a bit breezy around my neck. Its big a kind heavy though at 5 lbs. Still, it fit inside my backpack. 7/10
Overall, I slept a comfortable 8 hours.
Fire:
Fire starting was pretty easy.
I brought some tinder, about two handfuls of pine chips left over from building my shed. I made a small pile of the chips on the ground and soaked it with some 91& alcohol. I used about 1/5 a small visine bottle of alcohol per fire. It lit with a couple firesteel strikes. Then I piled on marker sized pieces of wood, and moved on to larger pieces. Due to the wind, the fire burned very, very fast, and I was batoning non-stop from 5-8 o'clock. The fire also burned very hot, boiling water from snow in just a few minutes.
Isopropyl alcohol is a great firestarter and a must have for winter fire-making.
This was a great trip, and Im planning another one soon!
:thumbup: