What do you think is the toughest, best dollar to value combat/utility fixed blade?

[40oz]

Gotta be either a Mora or Old Hickory. OH doesn't come with a sheath, however.

 

[ThePeacent]

My personal picks for this particular contest, most already mentioned:
- Cold Steel GI Tanto
- Glock 78/81 knife

- Ontario SP1, 499 Pilot Knife, SP10 Marine Raider (and most ontarios ¡, really)
- Becker BK 5, BK 15
- Mora knives (Robust, etc.)

- KaBar Potbelly

 

[dingy]

So, if your thinking of a Ontario 499 dont buy one from Walmart. I purchased the first one and the guard rattled and moved the leather washers spun around. I called Ontario they were very nice and sent me a new one. This was seemed to be built a little better.

I had it on my belt during a small camping trip, I sat on the ground and it bent. I didn't pry with it, I didn't abuse it.. I just sat down and it bent. I can even re-bend it back with my hands, and I consider myself powerful.. but not that powerful.

So, for the money I would say go with a Gerber Strongarm. I think I picked it up on Amazon for roughly 40 dollars and it tough. Comes with a pretty nifty sheath.

two bad lemons for sure. there are lots of guys who reported in good things on this little knife.

 

[dingy]

glock 78/81 both are tough knives :thumbup:

 

[emw479]

Quick follow up. The first time I called Ontario I questioned why this particular 499 does not have a false edge. They said this knife is made specifically for Walmart. Also the sheath was made in china and not as nice as my others. Here's a link to a post I made with all three.


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Ontario-11-vs-Camillus-84-vs-Camillus-67-AFSK

Walmart doesn't buy the "double edged" version because it's illegal to sell in a few states. Massachusetts is the worst. It's easier to buy only knives that are legal in all states (and just avoid Chicago/NYC) than it is to cater assortments to each area.

 

[dingy]

those are tough and cheap knives , i think .

the GI TANTO moded by me , is my favorite .

 

[mael333ca]

the buck 119 can be had for 40$. It is a soldier knife and the stainless just might be a must depending on your settings.

 

[neal70]

how about the ka-bar d2 fight/utility knife? don't know much about it but i love d2,properly heat treated, it stands up head and shoulders above some other carbon steels.

 

[Charles Lacour]

I think the thread has wandered off topic a bit (which they all do). I think the original question was a good one.

So, to put salt on it's tail:

You have $200 to outfit a group of 10-15 people with knives. You don't know the terrain you'll be in or the people (so their skill level is unknown). Ignore other survival items - they're somebody else's monkey. You don't get firestarters, sharpening stones or anything else unless they're part of the standard kit for that knife. You'll be out at least two weeks, possibly a good bit longer. (And no, you can't get one good knife and abandon everybody else... )

Your chances of survival are proportionate to the number of people who have knives. Fewer people having them means more risk for you. If somebody's knife breaks, they get counted as "no knife". If it gets too dull to use, and can't be sharpened with what's available (like rocks), then it counts as broken. (if it comes with a sharpener (like the Ontario 499), you can ignore that condition. I'm trying to avoid the situation where it's a fantastic knife - if you've got a machine shop in your pocket...)

Invent your own scenario as to how all this happens, how you know about it ahead of time, etc.

Stage 1: What brand/model of knife do you choose for everybody (including yourself)?

Stage 2: What knives (multiple kinds) would you choose? (Bump the limit to $300 for this one.) Including one knife with a diamond sharpener would relieve all worries about them getting too dull, for example.

For reference, a few of the ones mentioned so far, looked up on Amazon:
The numbers under the $200 and $300 are how many you could get with that cap.


[table="width: 500"]
[tr]
[td]Knife[/td]
[td]Cost[/td]
[td]$200[/td]
[td]$300 [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Glock 78[/td]
[td]$29[/td]
[td]6 [/td]
[td]10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ontario 499[/td]
[td]$39[/td]
[td]5[/td]
[td]7[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]

[td]Cold Steel Tanto [/td]
[td]$21[/td]
[td]9 [/td]
[td]14[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Becker BK2[/td]
[td]$63[/td]
[td]3 [/td]
[td]4[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Tops Silent Hero[/td]
[td]$170[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]



The TOPS is a good example about what I meant about the thread wandering away from "Cheap and tough". You'd have 11% the chance of a group that had Cold Steel Tantos. You could probably argue quite successfully that it's a better knife than those CS ones, but it rather fails on the "cheap" half of the test.

So, anybody care to play? (Please include the cost and number info for anything not in the list.)

 

[threefeathers]

Lots of choices but my Cold Steel gi Tanto accompanied me on my last two deployments prior to retirement, as a 19D40.

 

[GrReaper]

I think the Cold Steel Bowie Machete would be my choice for the "toughest, best dollar to value combat/utility fixed blade". It retails for about 15 bucks on amazon. A very good poor man's bowie knife.

 

[dingy]

I think the thread has wandered off topic a bit (which they all do). I think the original question was a good one.

So, to put salt on it's tail:

You have $200 to outfit a group of 10-15 people with knives. You don't know the terrain you'll be in or the people (so their skill level is unknown). Ignore other survival items - they're somebody else's monkey. You don't get firestarters, sharpening stones or anything else unless they're part of the standard kit for that knife. You'll be out at least two weeks, possibly a good bit longer. (And no, you can't get one good knife and abandon everybody else... )

Your chances of survival are proportionate to the number of people who have knives. Fewer people having them means more risk for you. If somebody's knife breaks, they get counted as "no knife". If it gets too dull to use, and can't be sharpened with what's available (like rocks), then it counts as broken. (if it comes with a sharpener (like the Ontario 499), you can ignore that condition. I'm trying to avoid the situation where it's a fantastic knife - if you've got a machine shop in your pocket...)

Invent your own scenario as to how all this happens, how you know about it ahead of time, etc.

Stage 1: What brand/model of knife do you choose for everybody (including yourself)?

Stage 2: What knives (multiple kinds) would you choose? (Bump the limit to $300 for this one.) Including one knife with a diamond sharpener would relieve all worries about them getting too dull, for example.

For reference, a few of the ones mentioned so far, looked up on Amazon:
The numbers under the $200 and $300 are how many you could get with that cap.


[table="width: 500"]
[tr]
[td]Knife[/td]
[td]Cost[/td]
[td]$200[/td]
[td]$300 [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Glock 78[/td]
[td]$29[/td]
[td]6 [/td]
[td]10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ontario 499[/td]
[td]$39[/td]
[td]5[/td]
[td]7[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]

[td]Cold Steel Tanto [/td]
[td]$21[/td]
[td]9 [/td]
[td]14[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Becker BK2[/td]
[td]$63[/td]
[td]3 [/td]
[td]4[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Tops Silent Hero[/td]
[td]$170[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[td]1[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]



The TOPS is a good example about what I meant about the thread wandering away from "Cheap and tough". You'd have 11% the chance of a group that had Cold Steel Tantos. You could probably argue quite successfully that it's a better knife than those CS ones, but it rather fails on the "cheap" half of the test.

So, anybody care to play? (Please include the cost and number info for anything not in the list.)

GI TANTO is the cheapest in your chart , but i think glock78/81 is a better budget knife.

 

[Nellem]

Per Cold Steel:

"Please don’t throw away hundreds and hundreds of dollars on similar knives sold by convicted felons and rip off artists posing as elite "military operators". Get the real G.I. Tanto from Cold Steel and get more than your money’s worth."

I strongly suspect this remark is aimed at Strider. Is the G.I. Tanto not a rip-off of a Strider design?

 

[dingy]

Per Cold Steel:

"Please don’t throw away hundreds and hundreds of dollars on similar knives sold by convicted felons and rip off artists posing as elite "military operators". Get the real G.I. Tanto from Cold Steel and get more than your money’s worth."

I strongly suspect this remark is aimed at Strider. Is the G.I. Tanto not a rip-off of a Strider design?

GI TANTO is a tough & cheap knife , but i do not think it as a good knife .
after i modded it , my GI TANTO seems better alot.

new / original gi tanto has some drawbacks:
1. the handle slabes are made of plastic and was molded into square shape , too slippery when hands getting wet.
2. screws are easy to loose , when use knife very hard.
3. upper guard is not friendly in out-door use.
4. the tip is too pointy , easy to break.
5. tanto piont on knife is not Versatile as bowie and drop point .
6. the sheath is too shabby .

so i think glock 78 is a better one .

 

[AntDog]

Per Cold Steel:

"Please don’t throw away hundreds and hundreds of dollars on similar knives sold by convicted felons and rip off artists posing as elite "military operators". Get the real G.I. Tanto from Cold Steel and get more than your money’s worth."

I strongly suspect this remark is aimed at Strider. Is the G.I. Tanto not a rip-off of a Strider design?

Yes, and yes.

 

[Charles Lacour]

I think the Cold Steel Bowie Machete would be my choice for the "toughest, best dollar to value combat/utility fixed blade". It retails for about 15 bucks on amazon. A very good poor man's bowie knife.

Hadn't heard of that one, and went over to Amazon to check it out. My first thought was, "That's WAY too thin!". But all the reviews were at least neutral, and the large majority very positive, including quite a few comments about how strong it was. Checked out a few things on Youtube, and I have to admit, for a $15 knife, it's pretty impressive. I'm still concerned about the thinness of the blade - in non-standard uses (even accidental ones) I suspect it won't hold up all that well. But I thought well enough of it to order a couple...

 

[dingy]

Yes, and yes.

it depends on how you defind the word of "rip-off ".

i do not think CS did some thing wrong here .

 

[Charles Lacour]

@Dingy,

Thanks. I was considering a post asking why, and here you went and did it for free. ( )

After looking your points over and looking at the knife, I see what you mean on the pointyness of the tip and the upper guard. The sheath, I care about two things: it protects me (and everything else) from the edge of the knife, and it carries the knife so I'll have it when I need it. If it does both of those, it's "good enough", even if it's not good.

If #2 means that the screws holding the handle on are breaking, that IS pretty bad. (I'm surprised they're not rivets, though.)

Some of those are pretty serious downsides, so yeah, that might take it out of the running for me, too.

 

[AntDog]

it depends on how you defind the word of "rip-off ".

i do not think CS did some thing wrong here .

Well, if you define ripoff as an almost exact copy, then yes it's a ripoff.

Different materials, yes. But it's a damn near exact clone of one of the Strider models.

And yes, that inflammatory ad copy? I'm pretty damn positive that was aimed squarely at someone.

I'm not saying the GI Tanto is a bad knife. It's not. And they're so cheap I think everybody should have 2 just for fun. But...it IS a copy, or at the very least borrowing very heavily.

 

[bt93]

i like well treated 1095 because a few passes on a basic field sharpener and your back in business.

That's the same reason I like Buck's 420hc, plus it's stainless. I've used smooth rocks to get a workable edge on that stuff.