What kind of Knives?

[Bo T]

I saw the Mora Classic 1 & 2 and I'm going to try the #2 - it was $15 shipped with a 4" blade. Not bad and it would be my first Mora.

I keep a number 1 in my car for emergencies and ,"anybody got a knife I can borrow?" situations. For general use a micro bevel will help keep the blade from chipping.

 

[CWL]

I love the Tracker or the Tracker 2 knife by Tom Brown who is also a survival expert trained by a native american. Look Tom up very impressive man. Check out his Tracker Knife it is awesome. It has 3 grips, 1. is a long grip (Bottom of handle) for using it like a hatchet, 2nd is a middle grip for making arrow shafts (and there is a notch on this knife just for that, 3 standard grip for everything else. Plus the saw teeth actually work to saw things. And I like the steel used it is intended to be sharpened on almost any rock surface.

Yes, but the only thing that the Tracker knife cannot do well is everything.

It is a knife designed to do a little bit of everything, but ended-up not able to do anything well. And the saw sucks at cutting.

 

[kgd]

Cody's knife philosophy is that you use a knife that you are comfortable with and works for the tasks you use most. He chooses the mora because it is optimized for carving and slicing at the sacrifice of robustness. He was also heavily influenced by Mors Kochansky who espoused the virtues of the simple mora knife.

The ESEE-3 can be made into a really efficient slicer with a little time sharpening it. I convexed mine but left the coating on. It cuts and carves great. I like the length of the 4 better than the 3, but I like the thickness of the 3 much more so I feel the 3 is a better knife overall when paired with something to help process wood and split it.

The reality is though, as much as we in this community agonize over the ity bidy details of knives, it really doesn't make much difference which one you have. Its a far more efficient path to just use what you got and develop the skillsets and familiarity with the blade you have then to go from knife to knife to knife seeking the best one. I know that I and so many others went the latter route and it really didn't get me further in my skillsets and ability to manipulate wood or firecraft any faster. All it did was burn a hole in my bank account and I think in some cases my buying frenzy actually took resources away from what could be better spent as dirt time.

Now getting a new knife, there is nothing wrong with that. Searching for the one perfect knife is a circular and fruitless quest. Better to focus on dirt time and occasionally buy a new blade after through lots of experience in the wilds you've come to some very definite opinions of what you want and what you use most. You've got a lifetime to collect knives and eventually you will build a collection of ones trying different options. This can be done over several years and doesn't have to be done over a couple of months.