The Right Knife for the Job...

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Mar 12, 2010
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Picking the right knife is not always easy.

There are so many elements to making this choice, and so many factors that weigh in differently for each of us individuals. We all have different needs, uses, philosophies, hand sizes, environments, and countless other factors that cause us to choose one design feature, style, or steel type over another when selecting a knife. After all, we are often trusting our life to whichever knife we choose. This isn't a light decision for me, and I know it's not for a lot of you. It is our trusted companion above all others when venturing out to do dangerous things. Even if we don't feel we are trusting our life to it, there still is often a significant investment, and we want to make the right choice.

Our uses and philosophies that motivate these types of decisions can change over time. We may sometimes be surprised by how this changes our choices. Sometimes, we recognize that a particular knife was suitable for one set of criteria, but failed to WOW us when tasked with something very different.

And then sometimes, we find a knife or knives that shine in many different arenas, when faced with many different tasks.

I've grown very fond of my ESEE's. There are many like them, but these are mine...

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As you can see, they have been through the ringer with me. I am not easy on anything that I own, and it needs to be durable, rugged, and be able to withstand some serious punishment to hold up to the demands of JGON. After spending time with all of these knives, I've gained a very great appreciation for Jeff, Mike, and everyone over at ESEE for making a phenomenal tool. They are all great knives, but what is the best knife for you?

A good knife for you must be capable of accomplishing the tasks you ask of it, designed for accomplishing the tasks you ask of it, and feel comfortable "in hand" while accomplishing those tasks.

This means, metallurgy must fit. Uncoated, high carbon steel in a saltwater environment is going to be a bad choice due to corrosion. Edge geometry must be appropriate for what you are doing. If you are slicing tomatoes all day, a very robust ESEE-5 is not the best tool for you. If you are splitting wood for your log cabin, an Izula is going to be a pain in the butt to use. If you are getting attacked by hoardes of zombies, or happen to find yourself out of ammunition when a pack of feral hogs are running loose, you are going to be mighty glad that you have your Junglas. :D

I don't have experience with all of the ESEE knives, but the ones I own fit into their own respective niche SO WELL that I couldn't help but share some long winded thoughts about it.

In an EDC (every day carry) role, Izula is a hands down winner. For the price, you just get SO MUCH knife. It is small, but for an EDC it just can't be beat with the Rowen 1095 concealed in your pocket or on some cord tucked underneath your shirt. The design is nearly perfect, whether you prefer the original or the II. The versatility with the cord wrapped handles, scales, naked, or other (I've seen someone use paper miche to make a handle), the Izula will become unique to you however you choose to modify it. Whatever you do to it, it won't change the fact that it's 2 oz. of the most bada$$ steel out there, and it will do great things for you in an EDC role.

Now, take the Izula out of the EDC role, and that's where it begins to fall behind some of the others. Many things come into play here, but one of the most underrated design features of a knife are in the handle. After all, it's the only part of the knife that should (hopefully) come in contact with you at all, so it should be a good fit for you, and for the knife's intended uses. Here are some pics to illustrate...

The Izula handle is great for EDC. It's slim so it won't protrude when in your pocket, on your belt, or around your neck. It is skeletonized to shave weight. But when it comes to tasks that require a little muscle, such as carving tasks, the Izula handle is going to be it's biggest drawback. It is too small to get a solid, full palmed grip on. Here it is in my hand with a quarter for reference.
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When carving, whittling, making kindling, notching branches to make shelter, traps, figure 4 deadfalls, or any of the other countless bushcraft style tasks out there, you are going to want a handle is large enough to provide you a solid surface to grip onto, but small enough so that you can still perform detail work without it being cumbersome. Also, the handle material needs to be well made and fit and finish come into play more in this role. A poorly made handle will be hell on your hands if you've got work to do in the bush. My ESEE-4 is more comfortable than anything I own for these types of tasks. Looking at the pics, it just fits perfectly in my hand. I'm actually amazed by how well it fits most of the time.
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A larger handle than this and it gets a bit awkward to accomplish these fine tasks. A knife like the Junglas is devastating in the bush when it comes to clearing trails, and it can chop very well, but when it comes to the smaller stuff, it's going to be outclassed by the smaller knives in the ESEE lineup easily. A handle like this is designed for getting a firm grip and absorbing impact. Think baseball bat (Junglas) vs. pool cue (ESEE-4) vs. dart (Izula). That might not be the best analogy, but you understand what I mean, right?
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The length of the blade has big weight in all of this as well. Longer knives need a bigger handle to balance the weight of the knife. It's all a balancing act. When going from one extreme to another, weaknesses become strengths and strengths become weaknesses.

The ESEE-4 blade is just about the width of my palm. According to Mors Kochanski, that is the perfect size for Bushcraft uses, which is what I use my ESEE-4 for here in the woods of WI. Here is a a couple of pics comparing the length of these three pals...
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MORE TO COME...
 
When it comes to having a blast and kicking butt in the woods, or using a knife for processing the wood needed for fire and shelter demands of a wilderness excursion, the Junglas is boss. It is a wilderness beast. Now, I will admit, I favor a hatchet or axe over a large knife any day. They are more useful, better at chopping, and better at carving than my Junglas (still waiting on the ESEE boys to come out with an axe or hatchet for those of us that don't play in jungle environments) but there is still nothing like going out in the woods and having a chop fest with a 10"+ knife.
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For me though, out of these three knives, I reach for my Junglas the least. It's so much fun, but I don't often have the luxury of choosing my tools based on the fun factor. When I choose my tools, I usually have to take more practical use into account. I realize I risk derailing my own thread by even mentioning this name, but I don't buy into the Nutnfancy "one big knife for all" mentality. I like the big knives, but a get so much more utility out of my smaller ones. When it comes to bushcraft, nothing beats my ESEE-4. I reach for it more than all others when I'm in the woods.

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JGON, thats exacyly why i like my 6 the best. I just fits me like a glove and it simply works, it is my goto blade...
I also have the Izzy and 4, and a new RTAK II, but my knife is my knife and thats the 6 hands down,:thumbup:
 
Nice write up! I think you nailed it with that set right there. I have the Izula and the 4, still looking to get the Junglas. It's good to to see some ESEE's with some use on them.
There are a bunch of people that could benefit from thoroughly reading this post. Thanks for sharing.
 
The 4 is indeed an awesome bushcraft knife. The RTAKII is a great fun knife but not as usefull as the 4. Maybe i'll get a 6 to see how that works.
 
The 4 is my favorite bushcraft-type knife also. It's got all the right goods. That's a really good combo you have. The Izula for small stuff, Junglas for bigger tasks and the 4 to cover everything else. I always carry a small and large fixed blade as well in the woods.Nice post:)
 
I just bought my first knife the Rc-5.

I choose this model because it will be my only knife (knifes are expensive here!) it will be used from bush craft to Tshtf or when I'm sailing. From what i heard the Rc-5 is build like a tank.

If I'm going to buy another knife it will be the Izula for the smaller tasks.
 
thanks for this post. very informative and i imagine you may contribute to quite a few sales with it. ;)
 
Great review. If I had to choose one knife it would probably be the 6 just because the handle is so darn comfy, but you are correct that the 4 works great for all things bushcraft. If you get some extra cash try on the Izula II and I think you'll change your mind a little. That extra half an inch combined with the new scale design gives a nearly perfect fit for whittling plus it's uber light and can be worn as a neck knife or easily pocketed. I think for a two blade setup I could definitely go with a machete(in your case the Junglas)/Izula II combo.
 
Excellent well written post. It was very well thought out and makes perfect sense to me. Your reasons for liking the 4 are the same as me liking the 3 so much, altho I do wish it were a little thicker in the handle but it works for me. Well done.
 
Excellent post which goes a long way to answering a lot of questions which pop up around here. Thanks, I really enjoyed reading it. Great pics too!

I did a lot of reading around when I was trying to chose THE bushcraft knife for me. That was when I fully discovered ESEE. All of the info I took in led me to one knife: ESEE 4. I bought that and an Izula (which was more of an impulse buy) and I can only echo what you've said: they work so well together and are perfect for bushcraft. I don't have a Junglas yet (!) but it looks like a mighty impressive tool.

Cheers!
Claudiasboris
 
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