Welcome.
my current set up is the before mentioned cs drop forged survival knife and a green river dadely on my belt and a tomahawk on my ruck sack.
Sounds like a nice trio. Should be able to cover most tasks.
Hello, I’m curious to hear your guys opinion of the tops war Prather Bowie.
I’m looking for a knife that is handier and more “fighting-ish” than the cold steel drop forged survivalist (gen 1).
I have both - Prather and the Gen 1 CS Survivalist. Prather has so far been left stock but the Survivalist has been modded. Stripped, clip drawn back/lowered, guard bobbed, choil added and lightening cuts in the handle to change the balance slightly, patina forced (until I get around to rust blue it).
Both knives are good solid blades. You can go wrong with either.
Hello, I’m curious to hear your guys opinion of the tops war Prather Bowie.
I’m looking for a knife that is handier and more “fighting-ish” than the cold steel drop forged survivalist (gen 1).
In that case, the Prather should be right up your alley. Its a fighting knife par excellence and would excell in that category. Its a dedicarted fighting knife after all contrary to the CS.
my requirements would be a knife able to prep food, make kindling, do some lighter weight batoning (only every once in a while) and still be light and handy enough to carry on my person and defend myself from Bigfoot and cattle rustlers.
The Prather would be fine for food prep in the sense that for example when chopping vegetables, your knuckless wont hit the cutting board due to the tall blade. In spite of the thick blade, it should be able to slice/cut meat just fine (that was after all, what it was designed for).
The Prather how ever is not suitable for batoning, not only is it a safety consideration due to the long curved clip, but also because the clip made for penetration is a weak point (the Prather is a solid knife and most likely wont break but if abused, thats where itll break). Last but not least, the Prather clip would chew up your baton in short order.
(though if only be for light batoning, as you say, that should pose no big problem).
For carrying, one doesnt have an advantage over the other, as they are both big and relatively heavy knives. One shouldnt outdistance the other in this category (or at at least wouldnt for me). Youll do equally well with carrying the Tops or the CS.
Im not a knife fighter but due to the long drawn out clip of the Prather, IMO it would have the edge over the CS for fending off Sasquatch and intimidating cattle rustlers. The Prather wins in the SD department.
As for steel, both the proven 1095 and 52100 are fine.
my drop forged survivalist works so well at a batoning that I may ditch the tomahawk and just carry the cs in my rucksack for wood processing.
Good point. Not least because you are talking about two heavy knives (Prather and Survivalist). Saving weight for when hiking is imperative IMO and some smaller more light weight knives might be alternatives but that wasnt what you asked for and outside the scope of this thread, so Ill stick to the two knives mentioned.
The CS does indeed work well for batoning the stock configuration. The stock Survivalist blade does after all have the lines of the proven CS Trailmaster.
The CS wins in the wood processing department IMO.
For woods bumming, Id pick the CS Survivalist (in spite of CS' OTT marketing and stigma associated with the brand). The Prather is better for SD and for chopping/slicing some foods but overall the CS would IMO be the better knife for general 'bushcrafting' of the two and will be adequate for when chopping/slicing food.
tl:dr Some of CS' marketing I cant abide and CS turns out some models, which are tacticlol and quite frankly horrible. Though some of the CS blades are silly, the cheapish CS Survivalist is not one of them.
For a general woods bumming knife, one could do a lot worse for the money than the CS Survivalist, if the choice is between that or some other equally heavy knife at the same price point.
