Over knifed?

G

GEC

Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
950
Okay so me and my wife go camping for a couple days this past weekend. I pull out my Fiskars hatchet, Mora 780, and SAK camping model. My wife started messing with me about having to many knives and think it a little over board. She herself carries a SOG fieldpup or my OHT on her when we camp or hike, but just one of them only. She can understand the machete/hatchet and SAK. I think that she doesn't like my mora because it cheap and ugly. I know what it can handle and it limits. The 780 is tough as nails in its class of knives. Maybe not the best but it will get the job done.
I got to thinking about it alot and maybe she is right. I used to just carry my SAK all the time in the bush or hiking. I never needed anything else but to cut open food items, using the can opener, I use the saw alot, and small task. So do I really need to carry the mora for anything? What do you guys think? Do you think I would be better just carring a chopper and a SAK just to save the weight?
 
When I am packing in to camp, I carry three knives and a leatherman at least.....when I am car camping.....well......there could be twenty knives with me just because I want to see how they compare to each other doing different things. My wife thinks I am a crazy fool for doing it.......but......she doesn't undestand the need for my .45 while camping either. You have to remember that you are asking knife knuts if you are overknifed....that's like asking a group at a pyromaniac convention if they think you should carry more than one match lol.
 
I don't think you'll find anyone here who will tell you that you are over knifed. I carry a case trapper, marbles trailmaker, schrade old timer, sog twitch 2 and sog seal pup elite with power lock in sheath- all alternating of course on daily carry -oh and i keep an estwing in the truck for bigger trees. so... no. not over knifed in my opinion- do i think moras are ugly? yes. would I carry one? no! -but there are tons of campers who love that little bastard and swear by it as the best survival knife they own. It's like that good ol' hound dog that eats cow pies... There is just no accounting for people's tastes;)
 
My wife looks at me funny when I toss a couple pocket knives in my pockets for a walk down the street. :D I don't think you are over knifed at all. I normally carry a pocket knife and SAK with me when hiking and when camping I add a Mora 2000 in my pack, along with a small axe of some kind.
 
Lots of folks here use variations of the Nessmuk trio: A hatchet, a 4 inch or so fixed blade and a folder. Sounds to me like you've got a pretty good trio for yourself. I usually carry a Fiskars hatchet, a fixed blade that I put together from an Atlanta Cutlery kit, a Swiss Tool, and a couple of Spydercos. And that's when I'm backpacking. I don't think I'm usually quite as bad as bigbcustom when I'm car camping, but I've been known to bring along a few swords and a few pumpkins when I go car camping in the fall. :D;)
 
bigbcustom said:
When I am packing in to camp, I carry three knives and a leatherman at least.....when I am car camping.....well......there could be twenty knives with me just because I want to see how they compare to each other doing different things. My wife thinks I am a crazy fool for doing it.......but......she doesn't undestand the need for my .45 while camping either. You have to remember that you are asking knife knuts if you are overknifed....that's like asking a group at a pyromaniac convention if they think you should carry more than one match lol.
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Had me rolling.

I think there really isn't a magic number of tools to carry at any given time. A knife is a tool. Simple. Take what you need.
 
just yesterday my wife was looking at discontinued Spyderco snapits, saying they would be very handy in the outdoors adventures.

guess i'm lucky!

or I know how to pickem. :)

xdshooter
 
Sure we are over knifed and over prepared and over jacketed.

My wife laughs at me cause I always carry extra clothes in my car. But I can't tell you how often I pull out a jacket or something when someone is freezing.

It is the same with knives. I think the Mora has a place. What if you met a fellow traveller who needed to borrow a knife? or you lost one?

I would rather be over prepared than under.
 
xdshooter said:
just yesterday my wife was looking at discontinued Spyderco snapits, saying they would be very handy in the outdoors adventures.

guess i'm lucky!

or I know how to pickem. :)

xdshooter
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it definately could be a lot worse....:D

my wife loves knives.... she carries one everyday, for work especially...she has quite a little collection going.... a good portion were stolen from me....:o
 
The Mora might be inexpensive and ain't city pretty but show me a knfe for ten bucks that cuts beside knives costing twenty times as much and me and the wife will both buy it. Pretty don't get it done any better than ugly in some cases.
 
If anything, I'd say you're underknifed :rolleyes:. I carry a Benchmade AFCK, a Buck Alpha Dorado and a Swiss Spirit going to the laundry room. :)

Doc
 
As someone of great wisdom once suggested, you are only over knifed when you have so many knives on you that the resulting weight makes it impossible for you to walk. ;)
 
Count me in as another person that loves the 780.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I didn't want to start a new thread to post this and it is still 780 related. I'm sure most of you have seen the Frosts 680 Triflex, it is the Tradesman model which is just a scaled down 780. On Ragnar's site it says the handle is hollow, which turned me off for a long time. Well I finally got one and the handle felt really solid. I didn't want to take it apart and see for myself, but a poster on the other knife board did just that and was happy to report that the handle is not hollow. It is just like the handle on the other Frosts knives. He said the tang was just like the tang on the 780. So for all of you fans of the 780, I think you all need to try out the 680, after all it is only $9 so even if you hate it you are not losing much money. It is just as tough (blade is .098" and differentially heat treated just like the 780), just a little smaller. Here is a picture of my two for size comparison.

P1060228.jpg



As far as being overknifed, I don't think you were. You basically had a Nessmuk trio and it is good to have a fixed blade to go with your SAK and your hatchet.
 
I rarely go camping with more than 3 blades - my choice is hatchet, fixed and a multitool or a folder.
For edc its just 1. Suits me fine and never felt underknifed.
Its up to you though if you feel its right it will just make you feel more confident in bad situations, I wouldnt want to step out of my comfort zone so someone else wouldnt look at me weird.
I will be the one looking at you weird as you try and chew through branches! LOL
 
GEC,

Nope, you're not weird! In fact, as someone else has noted, this gives you an excuse to buy a "pretty" BRKT knife to replace that "ugly" Mora! (Pretty is as pretty does, IMHO) And you have it all over "Nessmuk"...you're actually taking YOUR family along on your hiking adventures!

Ron
 
GEC said:
What do you guys think? Do you think I would be better just carring a chopper and a SAK just to save the weight?
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I can hack down decent sized shelter trees if need be with my big choppers but it isn't very efficient and it is also very tiring. I can knock the same trees down with a tomahawk and it is more efficient, thus less work and I suppose a saw would be the most efficent of them all. I also need a small blade for fine work regardless of my tree cutters. And trees get harder to cut as it gets colder in the winter. At minus 30 a tree is like rock and a chopper can bounce right off of it, so, then there is the hatchet or saw. This is my rational/practical side. The Indians in the far north just use chainsaws because it's not a hobby for them, they need wood for fuel and lots of it. A chainsaw is more efficient for cutting down their trees.

The hobbyist/outdoorsman side of me loves just about all blades and will toss an assortment into a pack and a chopper on my hip. Rational?, probably not but I don't care much as I'm having fun. Most of my stuff is tucked away until I'm in the bush so I don't get suspicious looks. If you have a lot of tree cutting to do, use a more efficient tool and a smaller blade for fine stuff, if overpacking bothers your wife. Just my 1.5 cents.:D
 
I myself do carry FOUR different edge tools, an that is just for working in the office :)
A Fallkniven U2, a Leatherman Fuse, a Fallkniven WM1 and a SAK something.
If I am seriously going somewhere else I bring another two or three edge tools. Bahco folding saw, FK F1, small or big axe and some extra gadgets.
 
Do you think I would be better just carring a chopper and a SAK just to save the weight?
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If you were backpacking weight would be a concern, but it sounds like you were car camping or at most, camping after a short hike into the camp. If that is indeed the case, I don't think the extra pound or so your hatchet and Mora weigh is really an issue. If I am going camping, I always have a Swiss Army Knife with me (usually a Vic. Hiker or a Vic. Rucksack) mainly for the saw blade, a Mora of some sort (usually my 780 but I just got a 2000 so that will either go also/or in place of the 780 in the short term future). I have a Wetterlings Wildlife Axe that I sometimes carry, but since I usually don't have to do much heavy duty chopping I usually carry one of my Tramontina's, more often than not my 12" or 14" Bolo. In any configuration, I think my trio of tools is more than adequate for the kind of camping I usually do. Also, my Leatherman of choice is the Kick. While it doesn't have a ton of tools on it, combined with the saw on my SAK I find it works great and is quite a bit lighter than some of the other Leatherman's that I have. I have been looking into getting one of the pocket chain saws (the good ones, not the cheap POS ones) but I haven't gotten one yet. I don't really need it, but what is the fun of only owning tools you really need?
 
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