spyderco bushcraft vs helle

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blindb9

Joined
Sep 4, 2011
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Not sure what helle knife i like yet, im thinking the futura or Gt maybe? Is one helle knife better then the next?

Between helle and spyderco bushcraft, what is the better camp knife? Which is easiest to sharpen/maintain?
Would the spyderco be stronger then the helle as it is a full tang knife?
thanks for any input!
 
Hi, a Helle knife is good for everything except battoning or chopping etc so if your going to practice heavy bushcraft i'd say go with the spyderco, however if your going to use the blade for regular stuff i say go with a helle, i got the "fjellman" and i can carv for hours with it , hardly any hotspots. remember helle's been makin blades for 80 years, and i think they might be a little better at scandi's then spyderco, dunno. GL
 
I would go Helle or Brusletto over the Spyderco, it just didn't feel right in the hand to me. But I would take a BHK Bushcrafter over all of them. It's just so... right.
 
If you like the Helle but are still worried about the tang you may want to look at an EnZo Trapper as well. Seems like it might be the halfway point between the two.
 
blindb9 said:
Between helle and spyderco bushcraft, what is the better camp knife? Which is easiest to sharpen/maintain?
Would the spyderco be stronger then the helle as it is a full tang knife?
thanks for any input!
Click to expand...

You are really asking about knife skills. These questions really depend on your own abilities, they aren't really inherent in any knife. Personal skills matter more than the knife in your hand.

Scandinavians have been using partial tang and stick tang knives with relatively thin blades for centuries in the Arctic without any problems. Any fixed-blade Helle will perform any true outdoor chore that you need it to, so will the Spyderco. So will any of the hundreds of so-called "Bushcraft" knives being sold today.

Choose your knife based on what you like, not on what others can do with their knives. Nothing wrong with choosing a knife because you like how it looks.
 
You have two threads going full of people telling you the construction of a traditional scandi has been proven reliable in the outdoors for hundreds of years.

You want full tang....just get full tang. Sheesh.
 
I was a firm believer in full flat tangs as the only viable option for outdoors knives, until I got a job that involved hours of heavy outdoors knife use. I tried out many hidden tang knives, and had no issues with those that had tans that ran the whole length or almost the whole length of the handle.

I've used a few Helles and have no complaints. I find them more appealing than the Spyderco Bushcraft (love the company, and I'm sure the knife is great, though) and most models are considerably cheaper.
 
Franciscomv said:
I was a firm believer in full flat tangs as the only viable option for outdoors knives, until I got a job that involved hours of heavy outdoors knife use. I tried out many hidden tang knives, and had no issues with those that had tans that ran the whole length or almost the whole length of the handle.
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The desire for a full tang is a Mall Ninaj thing. It's "obvious" that full tang is stronger... it's just not true. It's easy to calculate the strength on the bond between handle, and a tang would have to be be minute not to be stronger than the blade. Or even easier, just look at some destruction tests of Moras.

Talking of which, it's not really clear that either knife is much of an improvement over a Mora...
 
meanwhile said:
Talking of which, it's not really clear that either knife is much of an improvement over a Mora...
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You're right.

Only real difference would be cosmetic appearance, which is why I push the "buy what you like to look at" direction for knives. All knives are just 'knives" after all, it is the knowledge and skills of the User that is important.
 
meanwhile said:
The desire for a full tang is a Mall Ninaj thing. It's "obvious" that full tang is stronger... it's just not true
Click to expand...

It's not a "Mall Ninja thing".
And full tang is stronger, just take a look where the failure point is on the original Ka-Bars...right at the tang, where it goes into the handle.
The Beckers aren't having that issue, even with the same steel.
More steel=more strength.

The only question is if that extra strength is needed, which it often isn't.
 
stabman said:
It's not a "Mall Ninja thing".
And full tang is stronger, just take a look where the failure point is on the original Ka-Bars...right at the tang, where it goes into the handle.
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You mean the part of the blade outside the handle, yes? That's where knives usually fail, full tang or otherwise. And there is no way that strengthening the tang can make the blade stronger there.

The Beckers aren't having that issue, even with the same steel.
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Sigh. To the extent that this badly worded unverified claim is true (which isn't much - Beckers are actually unusually breakble for knives of their thickness, while Moras are at least averagely tough - see eg http://www.knifetest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1920) that's because the Beckers have thick BLADES. Not long tangs.

...Other blades not notable for failing this way are traditional samaurai swords, heavy bush hooks, and genuine Gurkha kurkris. All these have hard lives and are hidden tang.

More steel=more strength.
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Yes.... But the steel HAS TO BE AT THE POINT OF FAILURE. You don't strengthen the blade by making the tang longer three or four inches away! In fact this belief is so silly I can't even understand where it got started. There's no justification for it in science or engineering. The stress that breaks the blade in the circumstances you describe is exterted by torque from the point of contact in cutting; how does lengthening the tang - on the opposite side of the point of failure - reduce torque or strengthen the blade at the failure point? It's like trying to fix a hole in a ship's hull by making the masts taller - it's insane.

...What often would help is a curved rather than sharp transition to the tang, but most production knife makers don't bother because it's not in Teh Book Of Mall Ninja, so their customers don't know to look for it, so they don't bother. You might want to read the wikipedia articles on stress fatigue and related subjects, if you actually want to understand this subject a little - there are several other characteristics that will badly weaken a blade that you also won't know about. (Hint: take a look at the picture of the blown Strider in the thread on BKRT suckiness.)

(Also: the original Kabars were rat-tail tangs - this design is nothing like the big hidden tangs on eg Moras!)
 
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meanwhile said:
Sigh. To the extent that this badly worded unverified claim


, but most production knife makers don't bother because it's not in Teh Book Of Mall Ninja, so their customers don't know to look for it, so they don't bother. You might want to read the wikipedia articles on stress fatigue and related subjects, if you actually want to understand this subject a little - there are several other characteristics that will badly weaken a blade that you also won't know about.!
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You seem to have a dislike for me.
That's fine; I will not bother with you ever again.

Enjoy being smug.:thumbdn:
 
meanwhile said:
(Also: the original Kabars were rat-tail tangs - this design is nothing like the big hidden tangs on eg Moras!)
Click to expand...

You have that the wrong way.

The Ka-Bar 1217 has a stick tang, it does not taper, unlike the Mora classics which do have a rat tail tang as they taper down to a point.
 
blindb9 said:
Not sure what helle knife i like yet, im thinking the futura or Gt maybe? Is one helle knife better then the next?

Between helle and spyderco bushcraft, what is the better camp knife? Which is easiest to sharpen/maintain?
Would the spyderco be stronger then the helle as it is a full tang knife?
thanks for any input!
Click to expand...

Have a look at the Helle Temagami, it has a full tang and designed for rougher use.
 
Whatever you choose, you should buy a few mora to practice with. You may be surprise by what it can do. There are things I do to mine that you would not think to use a 200 dollar knifes for, regardless if its hard use or not.
 
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