Your backpacking knives for 2019!?

More often than not it’s an Ontario Rat 3, a Delica and SAK Farmer. if I’m cutting weight or worried about loosing a knife (kayaking) it’s a Mora 510 or Companion.
 
upload_2019-2-14_14-10-31.jpeg So this is the knife I made for myself, it’s out of ztuff. It’s what I call a heavy duty backpacking blade! I made this blade for my upcoming 45 mile trip! It chops well, carves decent, corrosion resistant, and extremely tough!!
 
rodriguez7 said:
So this is the knife I made for myself, it’s out of ztuff. It’s what I call a heavy duty backpacking blade! I made this blade for my upcoming 45 mile trip! It chops well, carves decent, corrosion resistant, and extremely tough!!
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That's a cool looking knife and great pictures.

I would love to hear about the upcoming trip, where you're going, what the basic kit is (and its weight) and how you see the knife fitting in.

Interesting to see the different approaches.
 
I’ll be doing a 45 mile trip on the gila river here in New Mexico. It’s all wilderness. My pack is an exo mountain, it’s a lightweight titanium frame, with a load shelf for hauling meat. It’s mainly a hunting pack. I usually use a jetboil stove, and eat mainly mountain house, total pack weight will be about 30-35 pounds. I will have my knife, mainly for clearing trail, chopping wood for a fire, or whatever I need, making a spear for fish, which I will have my fishing kit, with everything to set up a trot line too. I always take a big knife with me, everywhere I go, along with my glock 29 in 10mm.
We plan on going anywhere from 10-15 miles a day! Not a bad trip. Last year, we caught some fish, and cooked them on an open fire, catfish! Good stuff.
I’ll also be doing another trip in April, but on my horses. We’ll be going into another part of the wilderness, to a different fork of our gila river. 20 miles in, we’ll stay a few days, do some fishing, then ride back out another 20 miles.
 
I used to carry a Mora companion while backpacking, but last year I had two of them where the blades came loose. Probably just bad luck. I've been looking for something full tang and lightweight, but I haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet. The White River Backpacker and Bradford Guardian have my interest.
 
mpm0097 said:
I used to carry a Mora companion while backpacking, but last year I had two of them where the blades came loose. Probably just bad luck. I've been looking for something full tang and lightweight, but I haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet. The White River Backpacker and Bradford Guardian have my interest.
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I can always recommend a custom!
 
In the past I’d just carry whatever folder I happened to grab that morning. More recently I’ve been packing my Bradford Guardian 3 or 4, depending on my mood. I’d also have a folder in my pocket. On my last few hikes I carried my Benchmade 5500 and the G4 and then my Spyderco PM2 and G3.
 
rodriguez7 said:
I’ll be doing a 45 mile trip on the gila river here in New Mexico. It’s all wilderness. My pack is an exo mountain, it’s a lightweight titanium frame, with a load shelf for hauling meat. It’s mainly a hunting pack. I usually use a jetboil stove, and eat mainly mountain house, total pack weight will be about 30-35 pounds. I will have my knife, mainly for clearing trail, chopping wood for a fire, or whatever I need, making a spear for fish, which I will have my fishing kit, with everything to set up a trot line too. I always take a big knife with me, everywhere I go, along with my glock 29 in 10mm.
We plan on going anywhere from 10-15 miles a day! Not a bad trip. Last year, we caught some fish, and cooked them on an open fire, catfish! Good stuff.
I’ll also be doing another trip in April, but on my horses. We’ll be going into another part of the wilderness, to a different fork of our gila river. 20 miles in, we’ll stay a few days, do some fishing, then ride back out another 20 miles.
Click to expand...

Very envious. I've never hiked down there.

Very intriguing pack choice. I made the switch to a Kelty external frame about 5 years after decades carrying internal frames. I don't see ever going back.

Very cool that you have the ability to make fires there regularly. Do you carry a small wood stove and/or saw of any sort?
 
Opinel No.10 and a Mora Companion.... but if I want something fancy, switch the Mora for my Buck 192 Vanguard...
 
pinnah said:
Very envious. I've never hiked down there.

Very intriguing pack choice. I made the switch to a Kelty external frame about 5 years after decades carrying internal frames. I don't see ever going back.

Very cool that you have the ability to make fires there regularly. Do you carry a small wood stove and/or saw of any sort?
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I chose that pack, because I need a versatile pack that can haul meat too, I hunt a lot. And if you’re going to buy a 500 dollar pack, might as well pick a good lightweight one. This pack weighs 4 pounds empty, but can handle 150# load!
Sometimes I’ll carry a silky saw, but I usually don’t.
And the fire thing, just depends on the time of the year, drought conditions, and what not. Even if there was restrictions, no one is that far in there to enforce anything. You can’t beat catfish cooked over an open fire!
 
For day hikes I like my Benchmade Grizzly Ridge. The orange highlights on the super grippy handle are helpful in the outdoors. I lost a machete (cheap one) before and misplaced a hatchet another time (wasted lots of time/energy searching for it).

For longer/more difficult hikes, I recently upgraded to the Winkler Spike (added blaze orange paracord lanyard w/glow in the dark beads).

My previous belt knife was a used, old, beat up Gerber LMF that served it’s purpose for many years. I cleaned up/sharpened the LMF and passed it to my nephew.

I will probably pick up an Esee Junglas at some point too. Although it will be quite a while until I’m able to do any serious camping/hiking trips with two young kids.
 
Whenever I'm out in the bush I will have these on me:
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Smash05 said:
More often than not it’s an Ontario Rat 3, a Delica and SAK Farmer. if I’m cutting weight or worried about loosing a knife (kayaking) it’s a Mora 510 or Companion.
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If I feel like sizing up my fixed blade from the Bradford G3 I go to my Esee 3 (formerly Rat 3). That's one perfect sized backpacking fixed blade if you want to not just carry needless weight, but also have a super solid performer. A great choice.
 
I am actually messing around with a couple of "lightweight hiker" knives presently. Both will have the permanently epoxies in place paracord handle with a bit of perhaps leather underneath to "round out" the handle a tad and will be made from .110 thick steel. One is in 110W8 and the other in AEB-L. The are pretty tough steels so no concern about taking then down that thin. They are both a bit longer than say the White river. The 115W8 blade is over 4 inches long and like 1 1/8 or so wide. Pictures to follow maybe.
 
Well now that my back is not the greatest, backpacking and hiking may be off the list from this point on. I am having to rethink my options. Weight is a bigger consideration now days.

Thanks for the input, everyone. You've got me thinking!
 
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