Opinions on an all-arounder

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Rory Compton

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May 14, 2011
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So Ive been studying the forums and some youtube reviews for awhile and I'm interested in getting an all-arounder. I currently have a benchmade nimravus 141SBK and 140BK which I really like but want something with more utility, length, and thickness. Im not the biggest knife connoisseur out there, so forgive me if I'm missing something blatantly obvious.

On the table for choices so far:
Becker BK-7
Greyman warrior 7.5
ScrapYard Scrapper 6
Busse Jack Combat Grade
ESEE-6

I'm really digging the greyman, scrap, busse, and esee because of the guarantees. I like the warm and fuzzy. Also the choil on each if I need to choke up a bit. I'm leaning most to the greyman and scrapyard tho, the scrapper because of the price and the greyman because of the recurve.

I'll use the knife for general camping, some botaning, survival, hunting, fishing, and food prep, but would like something I could take to combat and would be decent for some jungle work or chopping if I had to.

I'm also interested in kukri's, I like the 12" ang khola from HI, but its just not tactical enough. Any recommendations in that department I would greatly appreciate as well.

Any good solid tactical sheath recommendations for any of the knives would also be greatly appreciated.
 
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I wouldn't use a large carbon steel fixed blade for fishing, hunting, or food prep. Just my 2 cents. It's just hard for me to imagine what kind of food prep(when someone says that, I'm thinking of kitchen work) one could do with a 12" kukri.

Personally, I think a Strider fixed blade would fit the bill pretty well, but that's more for corrosion resistance than anything for me.
 
I was thinking along the lines of a camp site food prep, got the woodblock at home with 12 knives sitting on the counter which only has 2 I use. I like to stay minimalist when I'm out and about.
 
I looked up the strider knives, there website lacks detailed info about the sizes, weight, and metals used. Any recommendation on a particular model?

I like the sniper, signed by Chuck Mawhinney, the man, the myth, the legend.
 
Swamprat Ratmandu -- hands down. You'll get 5.5 inches of amazing SR-101 steel, which is incredibly tough and takes the sharpest edges I've ever seen. Plus you'll get great ergonomics and a top notch warranty (even better yet, a warranty that you'll never use because you'll never break the damn thing). Check out Swamprat's forum. The RMD is widely praised as one of the company's best offerings ever.
 
After looking around a bit more I think I'm pretty sold on a scrapyard/swamp rat knife; m6, scrapper 6, or the yard guard. Although as I'm looking more I'm realizing that these knives are no longer in production and they all seem to be overpriced in resale if you can find them. Which would put me back at the greyman, becker, or esee. Man that blows lol.

The strider's look good too, but too expensive for me. They gave one out the instructor's choice at my sniper graduation. I guess that says something about them.
 
Not yet, but I think I would be more partial to the bull dozier or combat utility, the magnum camp seems to almost have a tanto point and im really not into that for this purchase.
 
moogoogaidan said:
Swamprat Ratmandu -- hands down. You'll get 5.5 inches of amazing SR-101 steel, which is incredibly tough and takes the sharpest edges I've ever seen. Plus you'll get great ergonomics and a top notch warranty (even better yet, a warranty that you'll never use because you'll never break the damn thing). Check out Swamprat's forum. The RMD is widely praised as one of the company's best offerings ever.
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+1. Or if you'd like something similar but a little lighter, a little cheaper, there's the Scrapper 5.
 
You know, even though I understand that a Scandinavian field knife is probably not as sexy or as manly as some of the ones mentioned, I have to say that my favorite all-rounders are Scandi blades.

A quick visit to Ragnar's Forge (RagweedForge) will show you what I mean.

For example, there's the usual line of Mora knives, the classic Swedish field knives. There's a very long history of knife making in the little town of Mora, Sweden, and the simplicity and robust designs of their legacy knives are very well tested and proven. I have a Mora #1 that I picked up in Stockholm in 1973. It's not the oldest knife I own, but at nearly 40 years, I no longer wonder about its quality.

They've also added some newer designs, taking advantage of modern handle materials, without sacrificing steel quality or edge integrity. The Mora 2000 (also rendered as the Bushcraft Forest), for example, is one of their modern patterns that has gained serious popularity as a very practical and usable knife. Their Bushcraft Triflex is another knife that embodies tough, sharp usability.

The #345, Lapp-90, and Lapp-95 are examples of updated designs. Not cheap, but then they're not cheap either. I have an earlier version of the #345. Earlier, like 20 years old. If I knew I was headed into the woods for a couple of weeks, I'd be hard pressed to find a better general-purpose fixed blade among all the stuff I own.

The Mora knives may not be "hip" enough or fancy enough, and they're certainly not "tactical" enough, but they're certainly working knives.


If you feel that $20 or $30 is just not enough money to call a knife "serious," you can always browse the Norwegian stuff. Oh, and another little company, EKA Knivar, out of Eskilstuna, has some nice stuff. Heck, they even have one called the Allround, their #A-10. This one:

a10.jpg



Finland is also well represented there.

Browse around.

You may be very pleasantly surprised.

 
I've never owned Scrapyard, but man do I love my ESEE-6. That bad mofo clears my camp sight, cuts the ends off my cigars, kills gators for dinner, and gets sharp on my leather gun belt. Good all arounder? This thing defines all arounder...
 
Thanks for the first hand experience.

I wouldn't mind a non tactical knife, but I need something to take to combat. It needs to be an all arounder because I'm really limited on kit size and space and weight when I deploy. Between all the other gear that we have to carry as well it ends up being a lot. I also don't feel like spending 1,000 on a bunch of different knives for every situation or climate I'll deploy to, be it the sub-trop jungle, desert, northern forest, plains, or a triple canopy rainforest.
 
When I was looking for the exact same knife you're looking for (the "one" -- a perfect sized do-it-all blade that you can keep forever and never be outdone by another knife), I picked up a BK9, BK7, RMD, M6, Mora Triflex 780, Fallkniven F1, Himalayan Imports 18" ASTK, Himalayan Imports 18" Bonecutter and a Himalayan Imports AK Bowie. The one I chose above all others is the Swamptrat RMD. The 5.5" blade is perfect -- anything longer becomes unwieldy. The thickness is perfect. The ergonomics are perfect. The steel is perfect. I'd definitely recommend picking one up next time they become available, which I think is pretty soon. I have one and am thinking about getting another, just because such perfection is rarely so cheap.
 
You could also look at the Ka-bar Short Tanto or the Buck Omni Hunter 12pt/Buck 119 special
 
moogoogaidan said:
When I was looking for the exact same knife you're looking for (the "one" -- a perfect sized do-it-all blade that you can keep forever and never be outdone by another knife), I picked up a BK9, BK7, RMD, M6, Mora Triflex 780, Fallkniven F1, Himalayan Imports 18" ASTK, Himalayan Imports 18" Bonecutter and a Himalayan Imports AK Bowie. The one I chose above all others is the Swamptrat RMD. The 5.5" blade is perfect -- anything longer becomes unwieldy. The thickness is perfect. The ergonomics are perfect. The steel is perfect. I'd definitely recommend picking one up next time they become available, which I think is pretty soon. I have one and am thinking about getting another, just because such perfection is rarely so cheap.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience, they said they will have some more coming out shortly hopefully there will be some RMDs.
 
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