With your experience and knowing what you do today

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fordf250

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May 6, 2007
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what production knife would you choose for EDC & hiking/camping? We all would like to go back in life and "do it again knowing what we know today". Based upon experience what would your 1st purchase be if you had to do it over again.

Keep it simple... only one knife for each. Make it a folder for EDC and a fixed blade for camp & trail. No extreme requirements.

Tell why you picked it. Is it the design (er), blade composition, utility or maybe it doesn't exist yet and you have a fantasy knife you would like to see produced.

Mine are sentimental favorites. The folder is a Puma with stainless steel blade dating back to the mid to late 60"s. I don't know the model name, but it's a Buck 110 look-a-like. The other is a Ka-Bar fighting knife issued to me about the same time. They both had a violent baptism, but have served as my trusty companions ever since. I'm getting worried about loosing or damaging one or the other so I have been carrying some newer knives from my collection, but they just aren't the same.

So you've got a couple hundred bucks in your pocket, the mortgage is paid and the wife says you deserve to treat yourself to something nice, what are you going to buy?
 
I wouldn't make any changes at all. The outdoor knives I've used over the years include a BuckLite, several Opinels, and my current choice the AG Russell Hunters Scalpel. Each one of these easily performed every cutting task encountered while living and working outdoors. In fact, if I hadn't lost them I'd still be carrying the same knives today. That's the one thing I would change, not losing so many knives while working in the field.

-Bob
 
Years ago I used a Buck Vanguard when camping or hiking, now I rotate between a half dozen Bark Rivers and a Charlie May Scandi Slitter. For my EDC Ive always carried SAKs but am getting into high-end slipjoints now. All in all I don't feel that I have made any poor choices.
If I could pick one production fixed blade it would probably be a Bark River Aurora. That knife is perfect for what I do in the outdoors. As far as an EDC is concerned any of the Case/Tony Bose collaborations would work, in particular the muscrat or the whittler.
 
For my EDC folder, I wish I had started with my mini-Manix. The ergos are great, I like the steel, and the knife feels almost like an extension of my arm. The blade size is more than enough for my everyday uses.

Camp fixed blade? I'll have to go with my Mora 2000. The grip feels good and the blade is very easy to sharpen.

No regrets on any of the purchases/trades I've ever made, those just happen to be my favorites.
 
Interesting question, fordf250.

For my fixed blade/wilderness knife, I have a John Greco Explorer, a model he doesn't currently make. I've had it for 3 years and it's an excellent knife.
The only change I'd make to my field knife purchases is the very first purchase I made - a Cold Steel SRK. It was a fine knife for the time but, knowing what I know now, I wish I would've sprung the extra $50 or so and bought a Cold Steel Trailmaster. I thoroughly love the design and it's more in keeping with my wilderness knife preferences. For my usel the SRK is good, the Trailmaster is better.

For a folding EDC, I'm perfectly content (though ever-looking :p ) with my Benchmade Griptilian D2. I've carried it nearly daily for nearly 4 years and it's as good now as it ever was. That knife was a homerun choice :thumbup:
 
I definitely would have purchased a Spyderco Endura, from the get go, for my EDC. This is due to the fact that simple works (found that out here and through experience)! As long as a folding knife has a good grip, a blade that is sharp and easy to maintain, a reliable lock, provides for easy access and carry, and has a good company standing behind it, I think one's bases are well covered.

For a fixed-blade camping/hiking knife, the same principles above (minus the lock) also apply. I would have purchased and would have been using a Fallkniven F1 from square one. The F1 is all the knife I've really ever needed in a camping/hiking companion. It is a very dependable knife.

Had I realized what it was I was looking for earlier on, I would have saved myself considerable time, effort, and money. However, I might not have ended up here, where I have learned quite a bit. The "hunt" for the "perfect knife/knives" is also a lot of fun.

Regards,
3G
 
I would be just as well off had I used only the 5" Western carbon and leather fixed I got when I was 12:eek:. The first good folder I got 35 years ago, a small Craftsman (Schrade) stockman, is still in my pocket with no repairs and used every day. If I had all the money spent on chasing the PHANTOM (my perfect knife), I could buy a new pickup with it. I got a Plumb hatchet at the same time as the Western, and it still works just fine with the original handle (I used it yesterday on tree branches). It's a slow leak in my finances, not likely to be patched any time soon.:D ss.
 
EDC -- Delica Plain edge -small and stout what's not to like?

Fixed Hiking -- Gerber Yari plain edge lightweight and will do knife things w/o fail
 
EDC Folder: Case Texas Jack in CV, amber bone.

Fixed hunting/camping/fishing: Curently working on a design, it's gonna have a 3/32thick, 3 1/2long, 0-1 blade with scandi grind, ironwood handles with nickle silver bolsters, mosaic pins and lanyard hole.

If I wasn't getting into making my own knives, it would be a rehandled Mora 510. It's been the perfect knife for me in the last few years for camping and fishing. There may be some nicer high end knives out there that I would like, but I don't have any experience with them so I can't say that's what I would get. I've heard alot of nice things about bark rivers, I would like to try one of those out sometime, but right now, any spare money is going into making,not buying knives.
 
Folder: EDC either CASE Wharncliffe Mini-Trapper or BUCK Alpha Dorado

Fixed: Any of my Bark Rivers esp Nebula.
 
EDC Folder: BM mini-Skirmish...no doubt. Perfect size, frame lock, slim for inside-the-waistband carry, and tip-down.

EDC Fixed: Bark River mini-Skinner. Rides nice and high, sharp as a razor.

Fixed Tactical: BM Nimravus. Light, long, and deadly.

Fixed Hunter/Camper: Bark River Bravo-1.
 
My fixed blade choice would be the Swamp Rat Camp Tramp knife. While bigger than most skinning/field dressing knives I believe in your scenario its a nice compromise. It will do both the field dressing chores on larger game when needed due to the choil allowing one to choke up on the blade for more detailed work and it can nicely replace a small axe also for most chopping chores and mahete chores like clearing out of some brush or undergrowth to make camp so that would be my fixed blade. The larger blade and the edge keeping can allow it to triple duty as somewhat of a spade for some digging if need be also.

My folder choice would probably be my personal lockback knife seen in my signiture line. I know from experience that in a pinch it can do a lot of the food prep work and even fillet work for fish and skin other small game prep work with ease and its easily cleaned up afterwards. I've used it comfortably in the field for a while and its never failed me yet. Being D2 steel it keeps its edge well and since I made the knife I know the lock won't fail me when I need it.


STR
 
For a folder, I would likely choose a Spyderco Endura. IMO, a better knife for the money cannot be had.
 
Seeing as how I don't have Steve's folder, I would go with a Custom Buck 110 in BG-42 and a Buck 408 Kalinga Pro in S30V.
 
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