Please help me choose a budget fixed blade or axe combo..

skyhorse said:
The Buck mesa is another good one for less than $50.
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I saw a couple of these at a gun show. the Guy was asking $25 a piece. Amazing knife for twenty-five and a decent knife for fifty.
 
BellaBlades said:
I would settle for this kit if it came in the OD green model. Maybe I will get another companion and the axe. Hmm.
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I have no experience with the mora axe but I will say that I much prefer something like the snow and neally huson bay axe which costs similar to the mora axe. It has decent steel and the extra handle length makes it a decent wood processor for the weight. I often carry it in a simple sack backpack for my excursions in the woods. It can be used to fell small trees but certainly isn't ideal. They're really more of a limbing tool but can be a bit of a jack-of-all trades in the axe world. I consider it the BK9 of the axe tools.

Most hudson bay axes would fit this usage, the snow and neally is simply the one I picked as it used a harder steel than I've used before and I wanted to try that out (forged 1080 according to a forestry website).
 
BellaBlades said:
Ok I will check out Hudson bay.

What is is about the Bk9 that appears to you so much?
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Keep in mind that the Hudson bay is a pretty light use axe pattern.
The eye doesn't have lots of depth to it, and because of this the heads will loosen up much faster than other axes.

My recommendation would be for a Vaughan & Bushnell half hatchet available for under $30 at most hardware stores.
Or their standard camp hatchet available for $22

Btw the mora axe is available in od green, but the mora axe is far from ideal.
It's got a thin bit / blade inserted into the composite handle and because of this it won't split very well or be very effective of a chopper compared to a real hatchet. It's practically an axe shaped knife.
 
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Hickory n steel said:
Keep in mind that the Hudson bay is a pretty light use axe pattern.
The eye doesn't have lots of depth to it, and because of this the heads will loosen up much faster than other axes.

My recommendation would be for a Vaughan & Bushnell half hatchet available for under $30 at most hardware stores.

Btw the mora axe is available in od green, but the mora axe is far from ideal.
It's got a thin bit / blade inserted into the composite handle and because of this it won't split very well or be very effective of a chopper compared to a real hatchet. It's practically an axe shaped knife.
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Considering the uses of hiking, fishing, camping, and yard work a light duty axe should be perfect, if an axe is chosen. IMO, the hudson bay design is a hatchet with a longer handle, good for chopping but not great at splitting.

BellaBlades said:
What is is about the Bk9 that appears to you so much?
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The BK9 is kind of the industry standard for a knife that can be beaten on, like batoning, process wood, do some finer tasks like creating feather sticks of carving notches or similar. Basically, most people have heard of the BK9.

I personally have an HK feint which is lighter weight and made of 440C. I've been using it for delimbing logs, clearing brush & vines, and I have split wood with it out of curiosity but I won't do it again as it flexes noticeably around knots. I am fond of the recurve/bolo shape and will be looking for something more akin to that. I have had a fox "kuhkri" in the cart at BHQ for a while... it's not really a kuhkri and I would say it's more like a bolo than a kuhkri but I didn't name it. My hesitation is that I know very little about Nitro-B steel. The belly towards the tips seems to make the smaller blades punch above their weight compared to a straight blade of similar thickness, length, and weight. It also seems to be decent at less fine carving like square notches for building structures.
https://www.bladehq.com/item--Fox-Knives-Kukri-Fixed-Blade-Knife--31304

Photo credit to Blade HQ
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The tools I was using this week for building some stands to help with sawing wood.
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Obviously staged to show off to a friend on the forum as I was using a B&T knife from a forum knife maker to help cut out the square notches before lashing logs together.
 
I would suggest you take a look at the Condor Pack Golok or Village Parang for your chopper "knife". Condor has other models and take a look, but those are my two favorites of the short machete type choppers.

Folks love the BK-9. I personally just go with something larger that really chops and use one of your other knives for cutting.

Pick up an axe at a yard sale or flea market and mostly use it at home. If you feel you need an "axe" for the trail, get yourself a very small hatchet.
 
For now this will get me by. It seems like an all-around Ideal tool for medium-duty use and the tip seems agile enough. I do have a full size axe so I don't really think it's necessary for me to get a large chopper or a hatchet at this time.
https://www.bladehq.com/item--Ka-Bar-Combat-Kukri-Knife-8-Black--11480

This is small enough to carry on hikes or in the yard and tough enough to handle anything I might need.

Trust me if it is too small I will report back to pick up something with more horsepower.

Or , in another words. If my horsepower defeats this tool, I will upgrade.

But I'm pretty sure a chainsaw and an axe will make quick work of anything else. :)
 
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