you're going into the woods and you have to choose...

O

OzarkCreekWalker

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Jul 25, 2011
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you have to choose between a hatchet or a bk2 as your chopper (not your only knife, but your only chopper) . which would you choose and why? I would think the hatchet would be a better chopper but the bk2 has more utility.
 
Id have to go hatchet, since its not my only cutting tool. The BK2 might do more, but Ive got the other knife for the non chopping duties. The BK2 doesn't really have the heft or length of the hatchet either...If my choices were a hatchet or machete, I'd go machete all the way (for my location anyway :D) since the machete can do much more than a hatchet.
 
Hatchet I have had choppers, hatches, and small axes I like the small forest axe and a knife or two
 
Hatchet for sure. The Bk2 is not in any way a good or even half way decent chopper. I'm surprised that you are comparing the two honestly.
 
Are you sure you don't mean the BK-9 and not the BK-2????

When it comes to chopping the BK-2 sucks compared to any good axe or hatchet made

It was not designed to be a Chopper
 
as my only edged tool I;d take a bk-2 over a hatchet.. though my love for such a scenario goes to the bk-7 (most versatile bk knife imho) but if I could bring a regular belt knife and an axe I would take an axe over a bk2.
 
ac1d0v3r1d3 said:
Hatchet for sure. The Bk2 is not in any way a good or even half way decent chopper. I'm surprised that you are comparing the two honestly.
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Wow, that's sure not what they say in the becker forums.
Anyway I kind of meant for that to be any big heavy survival knife of the sort, which i thought the BK2 was the most popular. It's more of a hatchet vs (insert becker, busse, tops, etc survival blade) Everywhere i look on these forums its people chopping away with these knives so I wondered what people really thought.
 
The BK2 is a good chopper -- for it's size, sure. But in general, it is not a good chopper. (I've never owned one, but the RC5 is pretty much the same length and such, and it isn't) I'd take a hatchet if it isn't my only edged tool.

If you include actual chopping knives, I'd take the knife, as I prefer to chop with knives over hatchets.
 
For me it would be the hatchet since it would not be my only tool. For chopping I would want a tool built for chopping aka hatchet.
 
This is so completely variable... for what situation? Winter, spring, summer, fall, desert, alpine mountains...? With winter coming up my go to tool will be a 26 inch Wetterlings SFA. Even pine when frozen is just too much for a knife-your joints will look like the spine of your blade by the time you get anything accomplished. Went up into the mountains today to play an epic round of Capture the Flag with some school buddies. The girl I drove up with lost her keys, and everyone else had left. We were 8 miles from the nearest person through some gnarly pine scratch and high desert. She took a pen light and a radio and went looking over the square mile where we had been playing, in vein hope of finding her keys. I set to work with the Condor Hudson Bay Camp Knife in my daypack splitting wood for kindling and making a bow-drill kit. By the time I'd finished carving my notch she comes skipping over the ridge dangling her keys, but in a situation where 15 minutes out of town means some serious country, you'd be stupid not to carry a good knife in your backpack. A hatchet however, in that case, is a little too big for the intended purposes. It really depends on the situation-the application of common sense is enough to answer your question.
 
hatchet for sure. i would definitely take my jk hawk. with other knives for the fine work the hatchet/hawk would be a great addition.
 
I agree with PayetteRucker. I've been on lots of backpacking trips that I didn't carry a hatchet or large blade. It all depends on the other factors of the trip. Sometimes it's fire restrictions, you have a stove, a water filter, and shelter, so the knife is there for just in case.
Use a lanyard and only two fingers and the thumb and the BK2 is an okay chopper, but not nearly as powerful as a hatchet or hawk. A full sized axe is even better, if you want to carry the weight.

A side note, the ESEE 5 has a thicker grind than the BK2, I own both. The BK2 is better a cutting, chopping, and slicing. The ESEE 5 is made well, but just too thick for normal camping activities. It's a military survival tool.
 
foxx said:
A side note, the ESEE 5 has a thicker grind than the BK2, I own both. The BK2 is better a cutting, chopping, and slicing. The ESEE 5 is made well, but just too thick for normal camping activities. It's a military survival tool.
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Exactly. I can't understand why people who have never owned a BK2, can continue to comment on it's use, by comparing it to a different knife that they own. Two very different knives in use, in my opinion. And I own both!:D

As for a choice between a hatchet or the Bk2, and it's not my only knife... I would take the hatchet. Either my Wetterlings or the new Fiskars works great for me. Especially when paired with a Bark River Canadian Special.
 
Since a hatchet is as heavy as heck, I'd carry the knife. A hatchet is good to carry in a truck. I wouldn't hike around with one unless I was planning to build a log cabin, or something at the destination.
 
dougshoe said:
Since a hatchet is as heavy as heck, I'd carry the knife. A hatchet is good to carry in a truck. I wouldn't hike around with one unless I was planning to build a log cabin, or something at the destination.
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Depends on the hatchet. My hatchet weighs less then the BK2. ;)

I would take a hatchet even if it was my only tool. "Survival knives" are overrated IMO.
 
What hatchet? If it's a coleman camp axe that thing dulls on the first swing so I'll take a BK2.

If it's a decent hatchet and I have another knife to go along with it then the hatchet of course. Take away haveing any other cutting tool and I will take the Bk2 over the hatchet.
 
foxx said:
...A side note, the ESEE 5 has a thicker grind than the BK2, I own both. The BK2 is better a cutting, chopping, and slicing. The ESEE 5 is made well, but just too thick for normal camping activities. It's a military survival tool.
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Varg Lobos said:
Exactly. I can't understand why people who have never owned a BK2, can continue to comment on it's use, by comparing it to a different knife that they own. Two very different knives in use, in my opinion. And I own both!...
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I have used the BK2 before, just never owned one. I felt they did pretty much the same in use. There wasn't a big enough advantage either way for me to say one did that much better in anything. That may be because of the RC5 having a more comfortable handle, and me being used to it, or the fact that there just isn't a big enough difference overall. Either way, my point stands as far as I am concerned. Neither are a great chopper overall. (Not even good, really)
 
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