Only One Knife for Everything, Forever!

black mamba

black mamba

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2009
Messages
22,992
I'm not talking about carrying one knife for a week or even a year. I'm talking about:

You can only have one knife to do everything, EDC, work, church, weddings, shorts & T-shirt, suit, hunting, fishing, camping, bushcraft . . . EVERYTHING . . . FOREVER!
Just the one knife, and if you would not carry it there (wherever there is) then you have to go without, naked (knife speaking!).

Beyond the frame pattern and blade shape, be as specific as you like, but at least include the frame and blades.

Just the thought process to come up with a reasonable answer is even fascinating. Do you choose the biggest thing you can carry, or the smallest thing you can get away with? Do you specialize with several blades in a folder, or take a one fixed blade does everything approach? Or do you consider all of that and more? It must be versatile, portable and dependable.

Considering EVERYTHING I could think of, I would go with a 4-1/2" serpentine stockman like this Moore Maker, with clip, sheepfoot and spey blades, but in VG-10 or 154 CM stainless.

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Jeff, Jeff! Why are you doing this? You know that I can't make a call like this...

Probably the closest thing I can think of is the BF 2009 Barlow. Genius, just pure genius that knife.

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Ed J
 
I've had my Keith Johnson Lanny's Clip in my pocket everyday since February. I've used it for pretty much anything you can think of at this point from cleaning a Coho in a pinch to making fuzz sticks to get the fire going. It doesn't have 8 blades or a can opener, but I can't remember needing anything else these last 8 months.

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Honestly, something has to suffer. Either the very large tasks, or the very small ones if you are limiting yourself to one knife.
Since I use the grocer/butcher for all my meat, and assuming my life continues on as now, I would choose the Texas Jack. I'm not crazy about the Stockman, and the Texas Jack gives me the full size Clip, and a nice compromise between a Pen and a Sheepsfoot for the really small, delicate work.
Yup, that would be mine. Of course I would want a custom one with a Wharncliffe secondary, but if it had to be one in my current collection it would be this one:

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Just not possible.

As much as we love to romanticly envision the one knife for everything, it's just too much to ask for one single tool to do it all. The closest person I knew to a one knife man, was my own father. He carried that little Case peanut everyday of his life.

But...

I did notice that he had 'other' tools stashed around, for other work. In his car trunk, he had a cut down English machete that he called his bushwacker. It was an ugly 10 inch sheepsfoot bladed chopper that got used for what his little peanut wouldn't deal with. In the family's picnic basket, he had an old dark bladed butcher knife wrapped up in a clean kitchen towel that he used as a ham and bread slicer. So he had options open to him should his little pocket knife need to be augmented.

The old mountain men layered up their cutting tools. They were critter skinners by profession, so their main knife was a thin bladed butcher knife. If they needed a chopping tool, or if the local injuns got anti-social and the single shot in their rifle was not enough, they had a tomahawk stuck in their belt or close at hand. The I. Wilson or Green River knife was not their only tool.

Besides, what fun would it be to have just one?:D

Carl.
 
Jeff, I'm beginning to think that you're a member of the subversive...

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:eek:


Get thee behind me, Satan :p
 
Hard choice, ...but now, a stockman is what i have in mind, not large, just about under 4 inches or so, maybe the 47 pattern. Again, hard choice...
 
It would be this Post 2004 3 3/4" Schrade Fire & Ice Trapper with black picked bone handles made by GEC in 2007. Better built than any knife to ever come out of GEC with the GEC name on it. Sturdy, tight, very sharp out of the box, and a wooking fool. Only two blades but both very heavy and very capable.

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Of course we all know this is an exercise in futility.
 
Give me 3½ Barlow with good steel and that is there.. wait Dan Burke Small Barlow in D2... my answer is that. Small wharnie, main spear nothing it cannot do. If we talk folder... but if we talk any blade in traditional section: Silver steel puukko with around 4" blade. My ancestor did everything with the puukko, so why cannot I ?
 
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I would have to say for me it would be a Wharncliffe Trapper! It's
big enough for heavy duty cutting and small enough to lite work
as well. It's about all a man needs on any giving day...imho.

Jason


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No contest, this Case Bose Dogleg Jack would touch all the bases for what I do in life.
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I'm gonna cheat a little and say the Victorinox Farmer - I think with it's combination of tools it would be enough to get me through.
 
thejamppa said:
Give me 3½ Barlow with good steel and that is there.. wait Dan Burke Small Barlow in D2... my answer is that. Small wharnie, main spear nothing it cannot do.
Click to expand...

IF world calamity struck and I only had one knife to continue on in my current half blue collar/half white collar lifestyle, (none of the normal apocalypse-end of days caveats that would require me to live off the land) that would be my choice as well. I love that knife. I wouldn't want to skin a moose with it, but we don't have moose down here anyway. :D

The DB Barlow D2 is small enough to drop into my pocket (unlike my 4 1/4 stockmans that feel like a have a piece of rebar in my pocket with dress pants), it doesn't rust in my sweaty pockets, and the main blade is big enough for just about any task. The wharnie blade seals the deal for me.

My grandfather hunted and fished constantly for decades and was a blue collar man himself. He never carried anything larger than a medium stockman or his 3" barlow. He did just fine.

Although... if it was to the end of my days that 110 would be a hard choice to beat.

Robert
 
Many good replies, but frankly I'm surprised at how many chose the Buck 110 with it's single blade. I thought the stockman, although not a whopper like I picked, would be in the majority.

Elliott, you gave me a good laugh with that 5th Column artwork! God forbid we should have to make such a decision for real-- it's just an exercise!

If it were an apocalyptic scenario I would be like Denzel in the Book of Eli, with one big bad fixed blade.
 
I think I could rough it with only my Buck 301 preferably in yellow derlin owning a stockman or cattleman knife of any make is IMO like carrying 3 different knives that can handle a wide array of task from delicate to fairly hard.
 
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If the doodoo really hit the fan and I had to run from the house with the bare minimum I'd grab my scout knife (or wenger SI)...these things really can do everything you need from a pocket tool.

I have found 3 1/4 to 3 5/8 to be a great size, I have trouble getting attached and regularly carrying a large folder even though they come in handy sometimes.
 
For most of my life I typically only carried one knife, a Victorinox Soldier. I always had a few traditional knives but this forum is what renewed my interested in many knives.

If I could only one traditional knife for ever, I'd want it to be fairly large so that it would last a long time despite blade loss from sharpening... and be fairly heavy duty. The Case/Bose Tribal Spear is the knife that comes to mind. The blade geometry is good for many types of tasks. And it's an extremely well constructed knife. Ironically, I don't have one at this time.

Since the Tribal Spear only has one blade and I like having both a straight blade and a clip blade, I'll go with a cattle knife or stockman instead. There are several modern production knives that come to mind but I'd probably go with the Calf Roper from GEC. Nice, full blades. Good size for pocket carry. Good blade steel.

But my enjoyment of traditional knives is based on a love for the oldies so I think I'd prefer to have a vintage knife if I could only have one. Something like an IXL cattle knife would do the trick.

Ohhhh.... wait a minute.... If I could have only one. It would have to be a Tony Bose ...probably a stockman.
 
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