The budget bladed amature woodsman

RescueRiley

RescueRiley

Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
5,944
I was thumbing through my collection the other day and there are some nice knives there a few barkies falkniven etc. but the tools that get the most use seem to be the fiskars hatchet the moras and the saks. all 3 can be had for under 50.00...Now granted if I had to knowingly go out into the world with just one tool that might change my perspective, I've moved through alot of combos that I've talked about here but it always seems come camping time those are the mvp's So for $150 I could have 3 sets of identical tools that will (if cared for properly) last me the rest of my days and probably be there for my son as well. This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy my nice knives, and that I can't appreciate the workmanship of a Brkt blade, or a GB hatchetr (items like those are about as close to xcaliber as I'll get) but as an Amature hobby woodsman, I really feel set with a budget setup like that..
 
Last night I cut down a 7" diameter dead tree w/ the Fiskars. I am not real big on hatchets, but the Fiskars worked well. After I was done, 3-4 mins w/ crock stick and a buffing wheel and it was slipping through notebook paper. The Mora 760 rides in my bag, and goes most everywhere out that I do. It is great for cleaning birds, because it rinses off easily and stays nice and sharp. There is no law that you have to have high dollar tools. I have some for specific reasons, but I think the trio you mentioned works just fine, and I would be thrilled to have them when I needed them.
 
Same here, I have nicer blades, but I almost always carry a sak, a mora and either a marbles safety axe or estwing hatchet. Part of it is because I'm not afraid to use them, and after using them realize they work (for me) as well as anything else I've tried.
 
i dont even own a fixedblade.... but several decent folders and a corona cane knife HF machete and a few axes and hatchets...
 
I have a lot of miles on an Old Hickory boning knife that I made a crappy sheath for. That knife cuts like crazy and sharpens up easily. And I seem to reach for my Fiskers hatchet more than my GB because I know it's a tenth of the price and I'm not afraid to beat on it. Inexpensive doesn't have to mean cheap!
 
RescueRiley said:
I was thumbing through my collection the other day and there are some nice knives there a few barkies falkniven etc. but the tools that get the most use seem to be the fiskars hatchet the moras and the saks. all 3 can be had for under 50.00...Now granted if I had to knowingly go out into the world with just one tool that might change my perspective, I've moved through alot of combos that I've talked about here but it always seems come camping time those are the mvp's So for $150 I could have 3 sets of identical tools that will (if cared for properly) last me the rest of my days and probably be there for my son as well. This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy my nice knives, and that I can't appreciate the workmanship of a Brkt blade, or a GB hatchetr (items like those are about as close to xcaliber as I'll get) but as an Amature hobby woodsman, I really feel set with a budget setup like that..
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I'm real glad you found what works for you Riley, guess we have had many conversations about this kinda topic eh !;)
The thing is though bro, I still can't really get my head around the Mora fixation thing that people have? I have used them and sure they are ok and for the most part will get ya by just fine, but you have some really nice blades that are far better than Mora's so what gives ?:confused:
 
Pit I'll be honest I feel like alot of my high end blades are too thick in the spine I feel like I beging to slice things and then end up wedging through the rest...If I had to choose 1 tool to do all things it's be a high end knife hands down, but if I'm going to have other tools, than I need the knife primarily for slicing, and a thin carbon blade is pretty unbeatable for that...also as a side I'm particular about my moras as well only carbon stel and preferably full tang.
 
As far as cutting tasks I have a really hard time thinking of a knife that will outperform a mora for any money? I am waiting on a BKRT Aurora now which I expect will equal a mora for cutting but be more resilient, which is really all I am hoping for...but what knives have you owned that were better performers for woodcrafting and food prep? I mean that's got to be 99% of bush work right there?

The only thing I don't find moras any good for is prying but I just never really find myself doing that. I guess chopping is out but I don't expect a knife in that size to chop anyway...unless it is so thick and heavy that it doesn't really cut anymore.


Further to this topic though - I have a Wetterlings 19" axe I paid $30 for, a 4 inch Mora that cost me $10, and a SAK Soldier I got brand new at a gun show for $10.

Man, if that's not fifty bucks worth of performance I don't know what is!
 
THanks guys. I just ordered 3 mora 510's he other day (should be here tomorrow) but Ijust started carving out a spoon with my clipper...and man the handle on that thing is fantastic..(and it battoned through a wrist thick piece of would No problem)
 
Wrist thick wood and smaller is all I need to make a fire, shelters, and camp grills out of green wood.

misanthropist $50 well spent. That is all you need.
 
It's really great how cheap you can get some good steel for, and it makes entry into fieldcraft really easy. Quality, basic, inexpensive gear is one of my great pleasures in life.

I hear you on finding lots of 'upper level' blades being too thick for much good work. They do a few things well and you know they won't break if horribly abused, but they often don't slice too well and frankly that's a big part of what I expect a knife to do! I'd never give up my 510, and recommend it to everyone I can. After getting that, I have to find excuses to buy other (much more expensive) blades, and then end up comparing them to the 510.

The Fiskars is another 'given' for me in terms of performance, it just works and works and never fails me.

It's too bad that I have insatiable steel lust, because these inexpensive performers deserve more dirt time than I give them. I always trying to test out new toys it seems instead of working more with the old reliables.
 
heph said:
Opinel makes some nice budget conscious knives as well.
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Do they ever! Truly the Mora of folders! I remember getting my first Opinel around the same time as my first Mora...not more than ten years old. What a great knife!
 
oppy #7 in my pocket right now...I live in an suburb of manhattan (unfortunately) I try to get out of the city as much as I can, however there is a 400 acre park about a mile from my home it is prdominatntly forrested and (for most city dwellars only navigable through a series of horse trails that run through it... I often got there to practice my skills (no fires in city limits) and No fixed blades either so I often use an opinel #7 for most of my local outdoor practice.
 
Same here. I only have a handfull of knives (or multi-tools) that cost more than $30. Granted, I often buy used, BUT, even then I shop for quality tools that are up to the task and are still affordable. It's also partly due to shopping around- taking advantage of sales, coupons, rebates, clearance, and buying knives seperated from their owners by TSA.

My go to 'tough' fixed blade is an Ontario Spec-101 that I paid $12 (new) delivered for. Various moras are great too.

I have Opinels, and while they are nice knives and are very handy, I can't really turn myself over to them.

Even certain Asian imports that most here, including myself, usually detest can make some models that are very functional.
 
Don't want to jump off topic here, but anyone notice that Sweden is grossly overrepresented in the "cutting tools worth ten times what you pay for them" category? I suggest we raise a collective toast to the bloody great country of Sweden.
 
RescueRiley said:
I was thumbing through my collection the other day and there are some nice knives there a few barkies falkniven etc. but the tools that get the most use seem to be the fiskars hatchet the moras and the saks. all 3 can be had for under 50.00...Now granted if I had to knowingly go out into the world with just one tool that might change my perspective, I've moved through alot of combos that I've talked about here but it always seems come camping time those are the mvp's So for $150 I could have 3 sets of identical tools that will (if cared for properly) last me the rest of my days and probably be there for my son as well. This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy my nice knives, and that I can't appreciate the workmanship of a Brkt blade, or a GB hatchetr (items like those are about as close to xcaliber as I'll get) but as an Amature hobby woodsman, I really feel set with a budget setup like that..
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I don't know about the whole amateur woodsman thing - over here, you'll see guys that have spent most all their lives in the woods both for fun and profit, and the most of them carry relatively inexpensive blades, like Fiskars hatchets and pretty basic carbon steel puukkos, sometimes even Moras if there's nothing else to go with. It's not the price that matters, it's the quality. A Fiskars hatchet may be cheap, but it's a good hatchet, and it'll last and last. Sure, if you pay three times as much, you can get a hatchet that holds a better edge and has a better geometry out of the box, but it probably won't be as tough (at least not in the handle) and it won't do the job three times better. There's nothing wrong with going with inexpensive tools as long as they are good tools. :thumbup:

Many people these days are elitists and show-offs, thinking they are somehow better if they own more expensive things. From this kind of thinking, it easily follows that "it must be better if it's more expensive", but that's not always the case, and then one must always consider the law of diminishing returns. If you have a cheap tool that does exactly what you want it to do, then why would you need a more expensive one that might do the job only slightly better?

All that said, many people do blades as a hobby, like I do. I bet many of us here don't need a fraction of the blades that we have, but we still love 'em. I find it fun to hoard various blades and then use them when I feel like it, having lots of options from the cheapo production knife to the expensive hand-made custom. Let's face it, we're not posting on a knife forum because we're right in the head, we're posting here because we're knife nuts! :D

And now I have to say a word about Moras, too. :p I've used a lot of Moras (like pretty much any Finn who has actually ever done anything with their hands), and while they're excellent for their price, there are tools that are much better (and a lot more expensive, of course). In my experience, practically any decent Scandi knife beats a Mora in cutting and slicing, edge retention and sometimes toughness as well (only sometimes, because unlike most Scandis, there's nothing about the Mora that's meant to be pretty, it has been designed for one thing alone, to be the ultimate low price disposable "use 'em hard and throw 'em away when they break" knife). Let's take my Tommipuukkos, for example. All hand-made, and all will cut and slice better than any Mora I've ever used, and hold their edge far longer, too. It's always seemed to me that Moras are immensely overrated outside Scandinavia, likely because especially in America it seems to be fashionable for even small knives to be made extremely thick and cumbersome, and this then leads into people wondering how well a Mora cuts by virtue of having a thin blade and light weight, and no godawful choil to hinder work. According to my experience, there are many knives that will do basic cutting tasks better than a Mora, and even more knives that will do abusive beating tasks better than a Mora. There's one thing that Moras are best at, and that is exactly the thing they were designed for - to be disposable, cheap beaters, that you can carelessly use for whatever you can imagine to want, from normal cutting tasks to prying nails off boards in construction work, and then discard and get another one when they break. Anyone who thinks Moras are somehow unusually great cutters or slicers would do well to try a quality puukko or indeed any relatively thin-bladed knife of reasonable edge geometry and design (no choils for things to keep jamming into). In the end, it's a question of whether or not you want to be pay for having a better knife. It's like with the hatchet - are you satisfied with the Fiskars, or do you have to have the GB? What works for you... Personally, I like to try all kinds of things, just so I'll know what actually is best (for me) and what's worst.
 
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