Questions about knives

[RescueRiley]

I have a fallkniven f1 I've I just got back from a survival weekend course with john mcaan owner of survival resources.I got to use the f1 extensively for battoning, carving traps and spoons preparing tinder and starting fires... It is a beast,,, the edge holds very nicely, but being a convex grind it is slightly harder to sharpen than others...that being said when I got home I gave a few passes on a loaded strop and it is again shaving sharp....

 

[riddleofsteel]

I like the Northstar and often recommend to firends and beginners. It is a stout, smaller, light weight knife designed for bushcraft and field work. However my own personal preference is a BRK&T Aurora if you like carbon steel (A2) or the BRK&T Nebula if you like a great stainless knife. I guess it is the way the handle feels in all positions that makes the Aurora/Nebula series my favorites. Put simply there are some knife uses that the Northstar is a little small in the grip and uncomfortable for me. Young folks and most women don't feel that way. Then there is that laynard loop that wers out my palm when drilling with the Northstar.
It's hard to beat the Aurora/Nebula series for a good all around field and bushcraft knife.
My Aurora before Mike polished it back to smooth bone along side my Stewart Marsh bushcrafter.

My blaze orange G3 Nebula

 

[brians]

Becker Crewman is super tough, shaving sharp, stout and almost indestructible, and will be back soon - yeeehah

 

[glamdring]

I might be wrong but I think all the fallkniven knives have stick tangs their thick but they don't come all the way up to the top and bottom of the grips/scales. However fallkniven does sell blade blanks that are not stick tangs but you need to have someone put scales on them.

 

[k-spar]

I recommend these three dealers for Bark river purchases - they're all great guys, and each will bend over backwards to make sure you're happy with your knife:

KnivesShipFree

DLT Trading

McKnight cutlery

Yikes, after looking at those prices, they may be a little out of the price range, unless I save for a while. Also not sure I want to make such an expensive knife my "heavy use" knife. I'm conflicted though, cause they look great.

Becker Crewman is super tough, shaving sharp, stout and almost indestructible, and will be back soon - yeeehah

Really? I stayed away from Becker cause all their stuff seemed too big, but that seems about the right size, and the price is definitely a benefit. When will these be back on the market?

I might be wrong but I think all the fallkniven knives have stick tangs their thick but they don't come all the way up to the top and bottom of the grips/scales. However fallkniven does sell blade blanks that are not stick tangs but you need to have someone put scales on them.

I thought they were full tangs, but if that's not the case it's a big turn off for me. I may have to look else where then. At this point, it's looking like the RD4 is at the top of my list.

 

[glamdring]

I don't want to scare you off of fallkniven. they are very tough knives there is a guy that does knife destruction tests I think on knifetests.com he tested a falkniven A1 and I think it has done the best so far out of all the knives he has tested. The prices on them are pretty steep but those knives will probably last a lifetime if not more. (The tangs go all the way to the end just not to the top and bottom of the handle.)

 

[melt]

Ka-bar's Impact series knives are full tang with slab handles, and are affordable if you can live with
1095. Or there is the Impact Spear Point with D2 steel and micarta handles for a few dollars more.

 

[whitedoor]

Japanese swords don't have full tangs, and they hold up to hard use quite well.

 

[k-spar]

I don't want to scare you off of fallkniven. they are very tough knives there is a guy that does knife destruction tests I think on knifetests.com he tested a falkniven A1 and I think it has done the best so far out of all the knives he has tested. The prices on them are pretty steep but those knives will probably last a lifetime if not more. (The tangs go all the way to the end just not to the top and bottom of the handle.)

Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't be so worried about my Mora snapping on me then. Still, it is a good excuse to buy a new knife. I'll keep the Fallknivens on the short list.

 

[pitdog]

Ka-bar's Impact series knives are full tang with slab handles, and are affordable if you can live with
1095. Or there is the Impact Spear Point with D2 steel and micarta handles for a few dollars more.

 

[Fieldtestornothing]

I'm definately in the Carbon Steel Camp for my fixed blade choices. I love my F1, well I love it's design, but honestly the steel doesn't perform as well as my favorite carbon choices (my exceptions would be if you work in a wet environment). My choice from your selection would be a northstar, RAT 3, F1, and RD 4. The ranger is a tank, but will require some extensive work to bring it to what I consider a 'good' edge for woodwork.

Good luck in your search!

 

[RescueRiley]

TI have a fallkniven f1 and it is not a stick tang at all it is a solis through tang that proteudes into an exposed section at the base of the handle that can be used for hammering. another popular choice among the wilderness types sems to be the BRKT fox river I got a chance to paly with one this weekend and it seems pretty nice.

 

[glamdring]

RescueRiley,

I'm not saying that it doesn't go all the way through to the base of the handle. But that it does not extend to the top of the handle or the bottom of the handle. Like the Ka-Bar impact series that pitdog has pictured. sorry if I have explained myself poorly.

 

[nodh]

If you look at the picture second from the bottom you see the tang.
http://www.knifetests.com/FallknivenA1photos.html
The two millimeters with a different colour at the left end is the part sticking out.
The only Fallkniven knives that does not have a protruding tang is the WM1 and the EARLIEST models F1 (the ones with M-number stamped on them).
The F1, S1, A1, A2, F2 has the same construction just different sizes.
That is why I really like the F1 and the other ones, they can take punishment and perform.
The F1 was originally developed for the Swedish Airforce as a Survival knife by people who more or less lives in the wild themselves. They really know what they are doing. Just for that reason it is so popular with bushcraft people. It is a survive in the wild knife, not a survive in a bunch of Al Qaida knife. If a regular Mora knife is a Volvo 240, a Fällkniven is an Strv 103, the "S" tank.
One of the reasons that the F1 has VG10 is that most of the time in Sweden there is snow, and snow is water and so on. One other reason is that the edge holds much better and as a bonus, or planned, is that the back of the knife is great for scraping a firesteel.

I know there is different views on how a knife should look, what is a big knife and what is a small knife. The F1 might look small compared to Kabars and Becker knives but one thing is that you should carry it everywhere.

 

[Dantor]

I think you'll be fine with your mora, course we always like getting new steel! Your choices are sound and you should be fine with any of them, I have the F1 and Rangers and really really like em. Someone posted this article about batoning here and I thought I'd pass it along to you.

http://www.barkriverknives.com/docs/batoning.pdf

 

[ashtxsniper]

Yikes, after looking at those prices, they may be a little out of the price range, unless I save for a while. Also not sure I want to make such an expensive knife my "heavy use" knife. I'm conflicted though, cause they look great.



Really? I stayed away from Becker cause all their stuff seemed too big, but that seems about the right size, and the price is definitely a benefit. When will these be back on the market?



I thought they were full tangs, but if that's not the case it's a big turn off for me. I may have to look else where then. At this point, it's looking like the RD4 is at the top of my list.

They are basically full tang and not a stick tang. The tang is longer than the handle and has somewhere between 1/16"and 1/8" Kraton concealing the top top and bottom of the tang. They are the same as the blade blanks they sell. You really cat beat a Fallkniven.

 

[dingobubba]

I'm a fan of Justins blades. The RD4 is next on my list. E-mail Justin and he can somewhat customize it to your liking.

 

[Hard H2O]

If I was going to be batoning a lot I would look into some sort of hatchet. I like using the right tool for the job.

I understand that a lot of knives will do it when the technique is applied correctly, and it is an important tool for survival, but why, if you are expecting to split wood and you do it a lot, would you not carry a hatchet to do it?

 

[nodh]

There is one advantage towards splitting wood with a knife instead of a hatchet. With a knife you hold the dangerous part, the edge, on the thing you are to split and apply force to the whole thing. If you for any reason miss, the baton is not that dangerous and the knife itself does not have much momentum to do any serious damage. With an axe you both have to aim and hit at the same time. You can do it with a hatchet too. If you baton the hatchet you get the same control. In order to split a piece of wood you need an edge and some force applied to the edge. If you have it in an xe or a knife and a piece of wood, that is up to you.
There is a third way. Have a metal bar welded to an axehead, like a bark scraper, then you place a weight around the bar. When you are to split wood you hold the bar with one hand and the moving thing with the other. It will work like the thing you use to remove break pads but opposite.

 

[k-spar]

If I was going to be batoning a lot I would look into some sort of hatchet. I like using the right tool for the job.

I understand that a lot of knives will do it when the technique is applied correctly, and it is an important tool for survival, but why, if you are expecting to split wood and you do it a lot, would you not carry a hatchet to do it?

weight.

I'm not looking to build a cabin, just process fire wood. A knife should be able to do this fine.

to clarify: I meant I wanted a knife that would hold up to the stress of it. I don't plan to spend hours every day splitting wood. I just don't want the knife to break on me when I need to split wood because it's wet on the outside.