Snobbery or just learning?

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
20,039
When I was a kid, my Schrade Cave Bear 7OT was fine for use outside. Whatever I was doing, which was mostly cutting my way out of stickerbushes on old trails in the woods around my parents home, the Cave Bear could do the job. I also had a couple old junkers, and a Schrade 34OT.

Well, after I got away from the el crappo Jaguar type knives, I got into big huge fixed blades that they were using to filet car doors. Cold Steel kukri machetes, I went on a big kukri kick. After a while, I got into the large tactical type fixed blades. Benchmade, Beckers etc. Then, I got into the Busses, Swamp Rat. All kinds of stuff. Then I went wild for huge custom fixed blades.

Now, I am into bushcrafters. Most of my collection consists of bushcrafters. I traded into a lot of fixed blades over the weekend, and the majority are either kitchen blades, or bushcrafters. I have a few big knives left. A Larry Nowicki bowie/camp knife. An ML mountain man style camp knife. A Gossman Kephart, a Dozier Wilderness and an LT Wright Tracker. No beasts, but not really bushcrafters in the true definition of the word.

I've found that I like the smaller knives, not too small, but not big camp knives, for something to just carry on a hike, or a walk through the woods. Doesn't have to be something I'd use to chop down a tree. Just a 4" blade, and I'm ready to go. I like the idea of a Mora and a SAK, but I want something a little prettier to use.

I've found that the more and more I use, the more and more my tastes change. Not that the knives I had were bad, they just were not for me. I am sure that there is a place for the big bad chopper out there, and I like some that are out there, but they are not for me.

I may change my mind down the road, but my favorites right now are my Gossman mini Kephart and WTK, JK Kephart, LR Harner hunter and Kellam Wolverine. Great knives to get out and use.

YMMV.
 
The fact that your taste in knives changes over time is not unusual, I think it does for all of us.

The important thing is that you are happy with the knives you have, and that they work for the jobs you ask them to do. :thumbup:





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
I think that a lot of people, particularly on this forum, tend to put way too much time, energy and money into having what's hip and trendy. As I get older, I have gravitated back to the old, reliable knives that have just been tooling along doing a great job for a generation or more.

These days, you're more likely than not going to find me carrying an older Buck, Gerber, or yes, Randall. Maybe even a Ka-Bar 1217. Maybe they're not the newest, most state-of-the-art thing out there, but they've always gotten the job done for me, and still do.
 
I find my tastes change a good bit too... a lot of the time it depends on what I don't have and what a lot of people are talking about LOL. I feel like I'm missing out and need to try the new gotta have knife... But forever I've been a big fan of the Chopper, Field Knife, Folder Combo. My choppers have around a 10" Blade that's .25" thick, my field knives have a 5" to 6" blade that's anywhere between .25" and 3/16ths thick... and then a Folder. My folder of choice right now is a Leatherman Charge XTI... Love that thing. Has a million and one uses. And I have a sheath so that my Field Knife rides piggy-back on my Chopper.
 
You Snob!

Just kidding. I agree and am at the same point. I have my big choppers, but they hardly ever come out with me. I much prefer a smaller fixed blade on the trail, paired with my floding saw I think I can handle most chores.

As of late, I'm testing out scandi type blades. Other than my mora I have never used one. I have a few inbound as you allready know;)
 
My taste's change to as I use more and more knives. I narrow the styles down that I like after carrying them. I love choppers, LOVE them and have many of them. However I find myself carrying a custom Neilson while strolling through the woods, its light, holds an edge and can chop/baton in a pinch. I still carry some of my choppers but I have settled on a mid sized blade for most chores. Like an SFNO or smaller as they are easier to carry but can still pack a wallop.

Like you I carried a small knife a mora (didnt know it was one) for years. It had been so heavily patina'd that I didnt know what it was....just knew I liked it and it worked. My tastes changed as I got more into knives/steels/trends and as I got more MONEY!!!

Its good to have change especially if the change helps you recognize what works for you.
 
Being a "knife nut" is just that! We are allowed to change our minds. I LOVE my Randall #1- 8 inch blade but I prefer smaller blades for real field work. Each time we change our ideas as we learn, the knife collection GROWS!
 
Samael said:
I think that a lot of people, particularly on this forum, tend to put way too much time, energy and money into having what's hip and trendy. As I get older, I have gravitated back to the old, reliable knives that have just been tooling along doing a great job for a generation or more.
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I tend to think the same, but thats not to say new knives are not reliable, I dont think thats what you were saying, but Id thought I point it out.

I have to say, I started with smaller knives, 3-4" blades, a hatchet and a folder, but as I started going on longer trips, or trips where multiple people were coming along, I gravitated towards the larger knives (5-7") and a folding saw, Right now the RC6 and a folding saw are all I take, ever.....

On a quick trip out to the park for the day, Ill take along a smaller fixed for sure, but off the beatin trail, I've had a knife that size and it wasn't fun for me.:thumbup:
 
Traditional designs have a reason why they are traditional, they work. I tend to gravitate towards smaller, thinner knives because I use them. I'm sure my camp knives can do the same, but I simply don't carry them that often.

I think the whole bushcraft came out of people actually using their knives beyond backyard chopping contests and discovering that you don't need something that chops through concrete. Actually a knife should primarely cut and the whole argument that my live might depend on it sounds stupid. How many concrete blocks do you run into in the outdoors.
 
It's funny you post this because I was just thinking the same thing. I've come full circle back to loving traditional slip joint knives, a mid-size FB, and a hatchet. That's not to say that I don't have knives of different styles, but I'm coming to appreciate the utility of couple of different styles that I learn to use well.
 
I have many big choppers, They hang on the wall in the garage. When I go out to cut a bunch walking sticks, I take one along. If I were going back packing I wouldn't even think of packing one of those with me. I love the small folding saws and whatever I have for a EDC. I would not pack a EDC that I didn't think would get me through any scrape that I could get in to. Big choppers to me are great for carrying in the Jeep for cutting a walking stick or two. And just for entertainment. For me they are really not a need to have but a sometimes want to have. Most of the time when I go out I carry the Vic Explorer and the laplander saw. I usually have my JK Hikers Backup.

Hunting is a different story, I carry a four inch hunting knife and keep several bigger knives at camp to process meat. And my JK hikers Backup.;)
 
bodhi_ said:
Actually a knife should primarely cut and the whole argument that my live might depend on it sounds stupid. How many concrete blocks do you run into in the outdoors.
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I don't think it sounds stupid to think that your life could depend on your knife! But since you think it does, that might explain why you miss the point of the concrete block chopping....


If you do the kind of things where there IS the possiblity of depending on your knife as a survival tool, knowing that you can use it as a knife, a hammer, a pry bar, shovel/hoe, hatchet, etc., is very comforting to some.

I love my Moras and SAKS, but if I'm heading out into the real wilderness, I prefer to have a decent-sized Busse along with me. :D

To each his own... that's why there are so many different knives!

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
ive got my tastes pretty narrowed down. a combination of traditional scandi knives and some old west type of stuff. puukkos, leuku, douple bits, Gransfors Bruks, bowies and slip-joint folders are really all that i care for, and i dont really see that changing. but that dosent mean i am not open minded. but i can definatly understand wanting to change things up.
 
for a general bush blade 4-5 inches of carbon steel with a full tang and a scandi grind are hard to beat.
 
My personal using tastes run to traditional scandinavian knives mixed with some of the western (as in west of the mississippi) styles. I find that the outdoor environment colors things a bit. So my big chopper is more of a thicker machete with a long clip, and goes car camping more than hiking. My EDC shop knife get abused as a prybar more than it should and has a fairly steep grind angle near the tip, but looks like a green river with a paracord wrap. VERY practical, but not terribly swooshy looking.

All around, my favorite has to be the full tang, fat handled leukupuukkowestern sheath knife. a straight spine or shallow clip, possibly a bit of spearpoint. thin blade, convex or scandi grind (I'm starting to like scandis, but a convex is still easier to maintain in the field.), not too long, but not too short. I most always have a patch knife for short blade work, and an SAK for really finicky stuff.

But it does depend. Hiking the creeks and delta region, the 4 inch blade and a super light chopper seem to work best, but up in the high country I gravitate towards a 6 inch blade and a small axe. Of course, for me a 6 inch leuku should be 3/32 or 1/8 thick, not 1/4. So it weighs a bit less than you'd think.

The big knives do have a place and a use. But big is relative, and doesn't have to involve 3 pounds of weight.
 
An Mora, an nice bushcrafter piece, some GB axes and a pole and paddle bucksaw. This isn't snobbery. This is all that is NEEDED.

No it's not snobbery. Rather we in the developed world have excess material goods and spend too much money on goods we don't NEED and fret about how to use our worldly items, as we have so many it gets downright confusing.

To simplify, is to use what we have to it's fullest, as less becomes more.

This is the road I am going to go down. I'm getting tired of housing so much STUFF. Instead I want to become an practicioner and not a accumulator.
 
I`ve bought many blades over the years. HI kukhris, BK-9, billhooks, SAKs and so on. I think they are great knives and I like to own them:).
But when it comes to what I actually use, it is the old trusted ones. My scandi knives I`ve used since childhood.
I think everyone should use the ones that works for them no matter what other people say or does.

Tor
 
bodhi_ said:
I think the whole bushcraft came out of people actually using their knives beyond backyard chopping contests and discovering that you don't need something that chops through concrete. Actually a knife should primarely cut and the whole argument that my live might depend on it sounds stupid. How many concrete blocks do you run into in the outdoors.
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LOL I got called a troll for being on the other end of this discussion but here goes... Sure a larger knife made to chop concrete blocks is gonna be thicker and more robust so it isn't going to be able to do delicate little tasks... But you are aware that many of the "Indestructable" Knives, as they are called, cut very very well in about 99% of all cutting chores... with the exception maybe of fine wood carving... and since many buy them as survival tools and not a hobby knife/carving knife... this limitation seems ok. They will not carve a pipe, or make a figurine.... but they are quite capable of making shelters, traps, snares, and a variety of other wilderness survival structures. Not to say that a thinner bushcrafter can't also do these things as well... but as the other poster mentioned... try using a small thin bladed knife as a shovel, or hammer, splitting maul, or pry bar.

A Large chopper can't replace an Axe... but it can do many things a Hatchet can't... Namely it can baton LARGE pieces of wood... A 10" blade can baton a full sized log. I am very fond of the Chopper, Field Knife, Folder combo.
 
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