- Joined
- Feb 28, 2006
- Messages
- 4,012
It's always hard to make specific selections for other people because whimsy usually plays such a big role in what people prefer.
That said, be brutally honest with yourself. Is it a serious trip with problems to solve or are you just looking for a man-child excuse to play with knives. If it is the latter and you want to do a gratuitous amount of cross-grain chopping, throw knives at trees, or want to make like you can jelly wrestle a bear to its death if only you had a knife with military connotations in the name, just grab any of the currently trendy knife molesters knives.
On the other hand if you are serious about solving problems identify exactly what they are and look at what a professional would use. I love SAKs, but a chef doesn't make my dinner with one for good reason. Leathermans can be fun but a mechanic doesn't use one to work on my car. They are compromise tools and needlessly heavy and / or the wrong shape for doing most things optimally. They are for when you have to compromise. If you don't then swerve them.
On that, look at your Buck 110 for example. What is it really offering for all that weight? Is it happy in the wet and slime of a canoe fishing trip? Does it like the bucket? Does it slice really well compared to others? Are you going to spend a disproportionate amount of time changing its diaper. Apply that same sort of criticism to all the tools you consider against the tasks you need to perform. If the majority of your knife use is going to be food prep of some sort ask yourself where outside of a tool enthusiast forum, where function is often secondary to form, would you see a KABAR USMC used for food prep. And why is it if you go to forums that are food prep / fish prep in nature do you see them using something totally different. Knives can be a great hobby up to the point where they make people delusional.
As I see it you have two areas to load up on as a priority; fuel for fire and food:
You've got the Fiskars hatchet already, great. Nice simple machine that's hard to break. Team it up with a big ole bow saw. The saw does all the cutting and the Fiskars is strong wedge for busting it down the grain.
For the knife bits my personal choice would be to knock up a couple sheaths for a pair of Fibrox handled Victornox or Swibos [yellow handle harder to lose]. One would be a small chefs knife so I could use a cutting board properly and use a proper knife action, and the other would be a fillet jobbie. With those and whatever folder I had on my person I think I could take on anything I'd encounter on a trip like that with my priorities the right way round. Others have mentioned Moras. I'm not into Scandis but I can see the appeal for a similar sort of reasoning. Plus they come with a sheath. There's no doubt they are inferior at what are essentially kitchen duties though than a dedicated pair [op cit].
Anyway, whatever you choose you get my thrust. Load up on knowing what is really good for solving the problems that are nearly all if not all of the task. If you don't fall into the knife molester's trap you'll be fine.
That said, be brutally honest with yourself. Is it a serious trip with problems to solve or are you just looking for a man-child excuse to play with knives. If it is the latter and you want to do a gratuitous amount of cross-grain chopping, throw knives at trees, or want to make like you can jelly wrestle a bear to its death if only you had a knife with military connotations in the name, just grab any of the currently trendy knife molesters knives.
On the other hand if you are serious about solving problems identify exactly what they are and look at what a professional would use. I love SAKs, but a chef doesn't make my dinner with one for good reason. Leathermans can be fun but a mechanic doesn't use one to work on my car. They are compromise tools and needlessly heavy and / or the wrong shape for doing most things optimally. They are for when you have to compromise. If you don't then swerve them.
On that, look at your Buck 110 for example. What is it really offering for all that weight? Is it happy in the wet and slime of a canoe fishing trip? Does it like the bucket? Does it slice really well compared to others? Are you going to spend a disproportionate amount of time changing its diaper. Apply that same sort of criticism to all the tools you consider against the tasks you need to perform. If the majority of your knife use is going to be food prep of some sort ask yourself where outside of a tool enthusiast forum, where function is often secondary to form, would you see a KABAR USMC used for food prep. And why is it if you go to forums that are food prep / fish prep in nature do you see them using something totally different. Knives can be a great hobby up to the point where they make people delusional.
As I see it you have two areas to load up on as a priority; fuel for fire and food:
You've got the Fiskars hatchet already, great. Nice simple machine that's hard to break. Team it up with a big ole bow saw. The saw does all the cutting and the Fiskars is strong wedge for busting it down the grain.
For the knife bits my personal choice would be to knock up a couple sheaths for a pair of Fibrox handled Victornox or Swibos [yellow handle harder to lose]. One would be a small chefs knife so I could use a cutting board properly and use a proper knife action, and the other would be a fillet jobbie. With those and whatever folder I had on my person I think I could take on anything I'd encounter on a trip like that with my priorities the right way round. Others have mentioned Moras. I'm not into Scandis but I can see the appeal for a similar sort of reasoning. Plus they come with a sheath. There's no doubt they are inferior at what are essentially kitchen duties though than a dedicated pair [op cit].
Anyway, whatever you choose you get my thrust. Load up on knowing what is really good for solving the problems that are nearly all if not all of the task. If you don't fall into the knife molester's trap you'll be fine.
etc. What knives should I bring? Here's the list:
