Need 3 fixed blades.

1. Benchmade Nimravus

2. Mora

3. Bradford Guardian 3... Although that White River Knives Caper looks pretty badass. Might have to get myself one.
 
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1)

I'd skip on any of the super short, super thick knives personally. The main idea behind a short thick knife like the BK2 is to be very versatile, and durable. But since you're already specializing the knives, then these don't really make sense IMO. For instance, the BK2 chops better than it has any right to (for a 5in knife), but its pretty bad compared to any "real" chopping knife. Same thing with batoning. Its a bit short to baton the sizes of wood that would require such a thick blade. And it sacrifices for the smaller tasks. As a one knife option, I "might" consider the BK2 type knives depending on the circumstances, but in a multi tool set I don't see much use for it personally (and I own one).

If I had your type of budget, I'd get a custom maker here to make me a CPM3v version of the BK16 (which I looked into doing a bit last year). I love its design, and the steel is great, but for that type of money, why not get something truely personal?


2)

The question about how knife #1 and #2 are different is a pretty good one actually. They may very well end up being very similar, depending on which end of the spectrum you listed you're looking at.

I would suggest going with a Mora (lots of models to choose from, and some aren't even as expensive as the black :p) for the time being. You can use it a bit, and figure out if your needs aren't being met by it, and then from there determine what you WOULD want in knife #1 based on that info. Alternatively, you may find you like it just fine, or just want a nicer/fancier puuko instead of the utilitarian Mora. No matter the outcome though, you're more informed, and should have narrowed down what you want.

3)

No idea on this one. I know many people like the ESEE Izula, or a BK14 with the scales, but I just find that knives like this are just overall too small for me. I like a 4 finger grip.

Good luck finding something that works for you :).
 
As for number one, you might want to check out the Chris Reeve Nyala. It has a 3.75 inch long blade and an extremely comfortable handle.

Great way to spend $230 of knife money. It really is one of the best knives in its class.
 
Great suggestions so far everyone.

I wanted #1 to be a slightly thicker blade that could be a back up to the ash2 if for whatever reason I can't use the ash.

#2 I wanted a slim blade that was able to do the finer work like I've seen the moras do, I'm thinking of getting the mora now then looking at getting a fancier puukko later just because I like them lol.
 
Srtr said:
Great suggestions so far everyone.

I wanted #1 to be a slightly thicker blade that could be a back up to the ash2 if for whatever reason I can't use the ash.

#2 I wanted a slim blade that was able to do the finer work like I've seen the moras do, I'm thinking of getting the mora now then looking at getting a fancier puukko later just because I like them lol.
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We are in YMMV territory here and I will tell you what works for me.

I find that 5" functionally limits the size of wood I'm going to baton to be about wrist thick. There *are* some wood types that are so knotty and twisted that they are hard to split but by and large, I find, that a 5" blade made of THIN blade stock is more than sufficient for splitting down wrist sized wood.

I use a hatchet for splitting wood in the 6" to 8" down to wrist sized. Below wrist sized, I find the hatchet to be tedious, so to take wood down to pencil sized, I use my 5" (or 4") knife, which has a wafer thin 3/32" blade. You're reading that right. That's about 2.5mm thick. It does just fine, so long I don't get stupid and try to split bricks with it.

The beauty of a thinner blade in this range is the versatility it provides. The knife can cut potatoes one minute, split kindling the next and be used for carving the minute after that.

There's a certain school-boy chuckle type of fascination I get when I hold a short (5" or less) and thick fixed blade. Sets the imagination running and I imagine that most guys get that when they hold such a knife. Sort of like a Jeep with mud runners on it. But functionally, I find such knives useless. They don't split that much better actually because they're so limited by the blade length. My thinner blades do just fine in wrist size wood, so the extra width provides no real gain. And the width makes them lousy slicers for food and lousy carvers in wood.

The place where a short wide knife makes sense, IMO, is as a sharpened pry bar utility tool. Something that is capable of stabbing through an enemy's rib cage one minute, prying open a crate the next and digging a hole in the dirt and rocks the minute after that. I'm describing the uses that gave birth to knives like the old Camillus Pilot Survival Knife and original Ka--Bar and IMO, that's what short thick fixed blades excel at. I don't use my knives for those sorts of things.

My advice is to experiment cheaply before spending big bucks. Buck has recently introduced the Mesa as a Walmart exclusive. 5" blade. Full tang. Fairly thick. Micarta scales. About $45. The also have the 6" Reaper for less than $40 and several makers have knives of this sort in that price range. My recommendation is to get a cheap 5" thick knife like the Mesa and a thinner knife like the Mora Companion (the Companion, not the Heavy Duty) and then take them out back and beat the crap out of them with impunity. Then make feather sticks with them. Then sharpen them (hint, convex the crap out of the Mora - I <loath> true scandi grinds). Then repeat.

My hunch is that within a few months of this, you'll figure out what you want out of 4"-5" knife and will be better positioned to know what to invest in in terms of a nicer knife. If you end up going with 1 knife in this size range instead of 2, you certainly won't be alone. Many of us have been down the same path.
 
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Your justification/desire for knife #1 makes total sense. Its actually the reason I got my BK16.

In the past I've done the BK9, Mora, and a folding saw. The BK9 did all the heavy work, the mora did most everything else, and the saw just cut wood to length. As I've been using the big knife a bit less, I wanted something I "could" baton more (than the mora) if I needed, and not even bring the BK9 at all. The BK16 is 5/32in thick, so not dainty, but not as thick as some of the other knives in its class (Tops BOB, and ESEE 4/LaserStrike). I'm a sucker for the good ergos of the Becker knives, so I'm perhaps a bit biased. They're just very comfortable to use/hold for my hand (I did have to add liners under the handle scales to give it more girth though).

Other knives I'd look into, are the new ESEE 4 HM (which supposedly fixes the handle ergos "problem" with the normal ESEE 4 no choil makes the handle longer and more comfortable), the ESEE laserstrike, and Becker BK10 (not as overbuilt as the BK2, but still a beefy 3/16in thick, but its what I'd buy if I was looking for my BK2 again right now). I also hear a lot of good things about The Bark River Bravo lineup.

And honestly, the custom makers here can make you something EXACTLY like you want for that price, easily. Like I said, if I had that money given to me for this type of knife, I'd be after a 1/8in thick CPM3v BK16.

Good luck finding something that works for you :).
 
ocnLogan said:
Your justification/desire for knife #1 makes total sense. Its actually the reason I got my BK16.

[Snip...]
And honestly, the custom makers here can make you something EXACTLY like you want for that price, easily. Like I said, if I had that money given to me for this type of knife, I'd be after a 1/8in thick CPM3v BK16.
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Hey Logan... If you had the knife you describe, would you feel the need for thinner fixed blade like a Mora?
 
pinnah said:
Hey Logan... If you had the knife you describe, would you feel the need for thinner fixed blade like a Mora?
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The short answer is no. It would replace the Moras use case scenario in my setup, and would expand a bit into the BK9's (light batoning of 1-3in sized pieces of wood). In the circumstance above, I'd go with the custom/fancy BK16, and a folding saw, skipping both the Mora and the BK9. I may include a SAK or something similar for lightweight redundancy/backup.

And somewhat strangely I don't really think of Moras as "thin", so much as I think of them as carving knives for some reason. Some of them are thin, but they also have a narrow chord, and are scandi grind, so they've got a decent bit of metal in them, and don't do great at food prep. However, most of my useage in the outdoors is carving of some sort (usually tarp stakes, toggles, firecraft), which is why I frequently use a Mora. Theoretically a FFG custom out of 1/8in blade stock should work pretty well for carving as well though, which is what my reasoning above is based off of (no longer bringing the Mora if I had such a knife).
 
ocnLogan said:
The short answer is no. It would replace the Moras use case scenario in my setup, and would expand a bit into the BK9's (light batoning of 1-3in sized pieces of wood). In the circumstance above, I'd go with the custom/fancy BK16, and a folding saw, skipping both the Mora and the BK9. I may include a SAK or something similar for lightweight redundancy/backup.

And somewhat strangely I don't really think of Moras as "thin", so much as I think of them as carving knives for some reason. Some of them are thin, but they also have a narrow chord, and are scandi grind, so they've got a decent bit of metal in them, and don't do great at food prep. However, most of my useage in the outdoors is carving of some sort (usually tarp stakes, toggles, firecraft), which is why I frequently use a Mora. Theoretically a FFG custom out of 1/8in blade stock should work pretty well for carving as well though, which is what my reasoning above is based off of (no longer bringing the Mora if I had such a knife).
Click to expand...


We're very close. Like 1/32" close.

I had a Companion HD for a bit and it had a 1/8" blade. I've since moved to the thinner Companion (and older Schafer H-15), as I find them more versatile and giving up very little in terms of splitting power. But 1/8" is very livable too.

I definitely prefer full convex over both full flat or pure scandi. I find scandi edges to be frail and hard to sharpen and I find full flat harder to make good shavings.

Here's a video of a bark river and mora being out through their paces.

[video]https://youtu.be/sLlxWbce4iE[/video]
 
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