survival knife, which should i buy

Ontario SP-10 Marine Raider Bowie. Less than $60. Easy to sharpen to shaving edge and Chops like nobodies business. If I'm stranded in the woods, this is the knife I want with me.
 
If you are going with two blades now then it should deffently be a small fixed blade like an ESEE 3 or Swamp Rat Rodent Solution and a machete. A good machete will out chop any of the knives mentioned in this thread.
 
My favorite pairing, by far is the BK9 and BK14. But that's just me.

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And, there is a new BK14 coming out in D2, the BK24, should be out in January.

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Moose
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
What about a khukri and an opinel?
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That really would be the best of all worlds, and you would have dedicated knives, phenomenal at what they do and probably around the same weight as some other "do-it-all" camp knives...or survival knives...or whatever we are supposed to call them.
 
I can't imagine a camping type survival situation where over a 5" - 5.5" x .25" blade would have a clear advantage. Below are my RC-5/ESEE-5 and BK2, shown sporting the aftermarket Micarta grips - the OEM's are better. I've seen the BK2 in stock for $65 or less shipped from several sites. Both knives are US-made of 1095 carbon steel.

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Not a Busse - but quite effective... and they come with a sheath.

Stainz
 
I love big knives. I sometimes just can't help wanting to buy one. But the honest fact is I seldom use them because for me they are too big and clumsy for detailed tasks (without a lot of use experience). So I usually do the two knife approach or three... pocket folder, medium fixed blade, and big fixed blade. But the big one usually just gets left at home in reality.

So, I started going with the short stiff machetes as my substitute for the "big one". I use machetes. My current favorite is the Condor Pack Golok. But I could easily be talked into an ESEE Junglas, Condor Boomslang, or Condor Luchnessmuk. I will probably buy one of the Luchnessmucks to try out regardless. It sings to me..

The BK-2 is not a bad in between knife, but it is kinda big and heavy and one needs to decide if it is practical and how much chopping you are likely to do in reality.
 
Check out the gso-10 from survive knives it's a 10 in but really issuable design and its cpm-3v and riduculously made for. $225. See Adam from equip2endure reviews on YouTube. The knife is worth allot more than that. For me a 5-6 inch blade and a $30 bahco Laplander go a whole lot further. 5 in can batton whittle carve skin game just a out everything. 9 inch knife is for scaring big things away. Too big for any kind of fine work essential for bushcraft or survival. Ray mears the father of bushcraft and survival and a legend created the woodlore which only sports a 4 inch blade. If you have your heart set on a monster you need to look at a necker or patch knife to match it.
 
And a knife will never beat a saw for cutting wood. One good knot in a conifer and you big blade can have a big boo boo. Making it essentially useless. Also if you've used a Laplander you realize survival is about calories and efficiency. Bigger blades are less efficient and unless its a full on machete in the jungle a big knife is more of a preference for big knives than a practical edge in the survival game. If you carry a small knife and lose it you only have a big knife. If you carry a 5 inch and a pocket or necker or patch you still can do both. I carry a Multitool which has do much more use plus an zt 0561 hinder elmax 4 in pocket. Multi tool is invaluable and would lose pocket knife from edc before Multitool. A saw a Multitool and a 5 in blade. If you can't survive with those maybe you shouldn't. Good luck which ever way you go. Like to throw in other options.
 
knifeboy14 said:
ok ill look into that
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Another option for your "survival" slicer (can we just call it "camping"?) would be a nice slipjoint, particularly a Victorinox Alox Farmer. In addition to a nice, thin blade that is going to carve and slice beautifully, it's got a folding saw blade. Great for having fun in the woods....whether you call that fun "camping" or "survival."
 
rolandsilvajr said:
And a knife will never beat a saw for cutting wood. One good knot in a conifer and you big blade can have a big boo boo. Making it essentially useless. Also if you've used a Laplander you realize survival is about calories and efficiency. Bigger blades are less efficient and unless its a full on machete in the jungle a big knife is more of a preference for big knives than a practical edge in the survival game...
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I disagree with a couple of these notions.

1) Bigger blades are NOT less efficient than saws. Saws only become more efficient under certain conditions, namely cross-cutting large-diameter (> 2-3") wood or cutting in confined spaces. I have a Bahco folding saw and it sees MUCH less use cutting wood than my large & mid-sized blades which can be used to chop or baton through <3" diameter wood much more efficiently, as well as being used to split wood. Most machetes are durable enough to handle cutting more than vines and light vegetation in the jungle. So YES, a knife WILL beat a saw cutting wood.

2) Bussekin blades are designed to never experience the type of "boo boo" you describe. In fact, I am not aware of any such instance occurring with a large Bussekin blade EVER, be it INFI, SR77 or SR101. The OP is wise to invest in such a tool. Himalayan Imports offers some similarly impressive products, 5160 steel. The Junglas is meager 1095 but I've never heard of such an instance with one of them either. The 'choppers' offered by most companies are designed to withstand most any cutting use without catastrophic failure.
Folding saws, on the other hand, fail pretty often - teeth snap off, blades wedge and bend and warp, pivots & locks fail, all during normal use. Be aware of this when you recommend a folding-saw over a large knife for "survival" situations.

But I concur with some of the other notions proffered - 5" blade + multitool + folding saw should cover the most bases with redundancy and minimal weight... unless you need that machete for cutting through light vegetation ;)
 
Check out Scott Gossman's subforum and look at his Big Boar Tusker. It is also a very well-regarded chopper. I haven't moved into the "chopping" phase of my knife obsession yet, but when I do, I'm buying a Gossman BBT.

They're probably a bit more expensive than a Scrapyard, but certainly less than a Busse.

Gossman is a semi-custom maker but, from what I understand, his turn-around time is pretty reasonable. I still haven't figured out how you go about buying a Busse. It seems to take a while unless you go used, which you can probably do with a Gossman as well.

Check it out, I doubt you will be dissappointed.

Eric G.
 
For chopping you can't go wrong with a cold steel gurka kukri. It chops like a beast
 
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