Boats has a couple of really good lists here. I can't say I'd argue with any of the choices. I'm with the anti-serrations camp. I've tried to use serrated portions of blades numerous times and they are a waste as far as I'm concerned. Anything small enough to use a tiny little length of serrations on can be cut through without any serrations too. 1-2" of serrations doesn't take the place of a saw or a hatchet.
my top five survival knives
- Thread starter Skillet
- Start date
- Status
I am not doing hypotheticals. I have used most of the knives I wrote about. Then again, I am a nobody on the grand scale. However, some of the knives I wrote about have hundreds of years of actual development as far as their design principles are concerned, while others have state of the art developments that turn on ancient and well proven design principles, such as Fallkniven's use of blade lamination of a very hard steel core sandwiched between two slabs of softer steel for flexibility. That's right out of the Japanese katana playbook.
There's way more to the stainless/non-stainless and coated non-coated debates than simple corrosion. you'll find most real knife enthusiasts are not drawn to cheaply made stainless steel knives like the Seal Pup, with the steel it is made off being an almost automatic deal breaker.
Serrations are put on knives for the fine folks out there who cannot sharpen a knife adequately. Your jab about "Indian carvings" just highlights that you've never seriously bush crafted anything like a snare trigger.
I don't care what the SEALS did or didn't with the SOG. They are not, by and large, any more experts about knives than they are about say, rip stop nylon, though they have use for such stuff.
There's also a huge difference between falling for a publicity stunt by a prospective low bidder and actually buying a decent knife without the hype.
Your opinion betrays you as inexperienced. There's a whole hell of a lot of differences in steels, (and high quality heat treating for that matter), that come into play well before ultimate failure of a blade.
ArfinGreebly
Moderator Emeritus
Short Knives & Folders
So, I've been thinking about this.
I have a folder that's been my companion for a couple of years now. It's a Normark branded EKA Swede 92. In the photos below, it's the one with the green rubber handle.
It's made of Sandvik steel (12C27, I believe), takes and holds an excellent edge, and handles like a fixed blade. It has a 3.5" blade. I find it broadly useful in everyday life. Food, boxes, all manner of general cutting tasks. The blade length makes it handy and easy to control for close-up finer work.
Now, it's never gonna be a pry bar, it's very likely a terrible shovel, and it's an awful hatchet. On the other hand, it makes a fine knife. A really fine knife.
Notice that little tab at the back? That's the lock release. It's completely out of the way of any hold on the handle, meaning that a "gorilla grip" won't release the lock. And the little hole makes it easy to hang it by a lanyard.
I think that if I were stuck in the woods and needed a cutting tool, I'd certainly be happy to have that with me. And given that I have it on my hip daily, there's a high likelihood that I actually would have it with me.
Tomorrow sometime I think I'll dig through a few boxes and drawers and break out the camera.
I have a few fixed blades that I think would be suitable to the task of "survival" knife. I'll see what I can do to round them up and take a few pics.
So, I've been thinking about this.
I have a folder that's been my companion for a couple of years now. It's a Normark branded EKA Swede 92. In the photos below, it's the one with the green rubber handle.
It's made of Sandvik steel (12C27, I believe), takes and holds an excellent edge, and handles like a fixed blade. It has a 3.5" blade. I find it broadly useful in everyday life. Food, boxes, all manner of general cutting tasks. The blade length makes it handy and easy to control for close-up finer work.
Now, it's never gonna be a pry bar, it's very likely a terrible shovel, and it's an awful hatchet. On the other hand, it makes a fine knife. A really fine knife.
Notice that little tab at the back? That's the lock release. It's completely out of the way of any hold on the handle, meaning that a "gorilla grip" won't release the lock. And the little hole makes it easy to hang it by a lanyard.
I think that if I were stuck in the woods and needed a cutting tool, I'd certainly be happy to have that with me. And given that I have it on my hip daily, there's a high likelihood that I actually would have it with me.
Tomorrow sometime I think I'll dig through a few boxes and drawers and break out the camera.
I have a few fixed blades that I think would be suitable to the task of "survival" knife. I'll see what I can do to round them up and take a few pics.
Never was a SEAL, and I make no claims of being an expert bushcrafter...but my knives have been tested by me.Doing real "survival tasks...
Done with a Mora and hatchet..
Fire..
Batoning a sapling
Making traps
More batoning
Making notches for more traps.
Tight curls for a fuzz stick..
Checking the Heat treat of John's O1
Not fine Indian carving but I was able to turn a branch into something usefull.
(I still need practice)
Carl Levitian
member
I have to go with Todd on this.
A small cutting tool in combination with a compact hatchet is going to outdo any over hyped knife for the role of survival. If you just look back on thousands of years of human history and what they used in primitive living, the small knife/hatchet combo keeps poking it's head up again and again.
I made the mistake some years ago of getting interested in primitive tools, and when I learned what can done with smaller tools and the right techniques, I ended up selling off and giving away my bigger knives.
I looked at what gear Osti the iceman was carrying, and it as basicly the same as the French canoe voyagers and the fur trappers of the mountain man era, and most times inbetween. If theres one example of people leaving civilaization and having a go of it in rough conditions, the fur trappers are it. They seemed to prefer a light cuttiing tool like a plain 6 inch butcher knife, and a hatchet/tomahawk for the chopping. When I toured the mountain man museums in Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah, rellics from that era showed a very different selection of tools than Hollyweird and Jerimiah Johnson would have you believe. One of the most popular knives in the fur trade was a short 4 inch pointy pattern that looked like a slightly overgrown paring knife, called a Cartoushe or something lke that. The Russells Green River knives actually came in at the tail end of the mountain man era, and did not see the use that we think. Mostly it was English Taylors Eye-Wtness and IXL and other Sheffield brands. But the 'hawk was a recognized and nessesary item on the frontier. From the Cumberland Gap era in the 1700's to the 1800's, the choice in tools didn't change much.
The small hatchet when sharp, can skin game, clean fish, do other fine cutting jobs when used right, as well as the chopping jobs. Choking up on the hatchet head, and using it as an ulu, I managed to field dress and later skin a nice deer as an experiment. Qautering the deer took only a few minutes with the small hatchet. This is why the puuko evolved into a light cutting tool with no blade guard. 1,000 years ago all through Scandinavia, the Norse pattern belt ax was the tool for most of what you did. People going about their daily lives in a cold harsh land, used a small hatchet for a great deal of things that the knife magazines push the hyped big sheath knives for. If it gets right down to it, you really don't need much more than an inch and a half to two inches for most things you cut. I watched a park ranger give a demonstration at Mesa Verde on a road killed deer, and he skinned a hunch of venison and sliced into strips to show how it was dried, with a single flake of obsidian. That sparked my own interest in simplifing. Since trying knapping, I've found that 1 1/2 to 2 inches is fine for 98% of what we do.
If I have to survive anywhere not tropical, I'll take a hatchet. If I want a knife for use on game I'll flake one if I have to. With a good quality hatchet and a pocket knife like a sak with a saw blade on it, I can't see how you won't be prepard for anything. If it's tropical, I want the really big knife; a machete.
A small cutting tool in combination with a compact hatchet is going to outdo any over hyped knife for the role of survival. If you just look back on thousands of years of human history and what they used in primitive living, the small knife/hatchet combo keeps poking it's head up again and again.
I made the mistake some years ago of getting interested in primitive tools, and when I learned what can done with smaller tools and the right techniques, I ended up selling off and giving away my bigger knives.
I looked at what gear Osti the iceman was carrying, and it as basicly the same as the French canoe voyagers and the fur trappers of the mountain man era, and most times inbetween. If theres one example of people leaving civilaization and having a go of it in rough conditions, the fur trappers are it. They seemed to prefer a light cuttiing tool like a plain 6 inch butcher knife, and a hatchet/tomahawk for the chopping. When I toured the mountain man museums in Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah, rellics from that era showed a very different selection of tools than Hollyweird and Jerimiah Johnson would have you believe. One of the most popular knives in the fur trade was a short 4 inch pointy pattern that looked like a slightly overgrown paring knife, called a Cartoushe or something lke that. The Russells Green River knives actually came in at the tail end of the mountain man era, and did not see the use that we think. Mostly it was English Taylors Eye-Wtness and IXL and other Sheffield brands. But the 'hawk was a recognized and nessesary item on the frontier. From the Cumberland Gap era in the 1700's to the 1800's, the choice in tools didn't change much.
The small hatchet when sharp, can skin game, clean fish, do other fine cutting jobs when used right, as well as the chopping jobs. Choking up on the hatchet head, and using it as an ulu, I managed to field dress and later skin a nice deer as an experiment. Qautering the deer took only a few minutes with the small hatchet. This is why the puuko evolved into a light cutting tool with no blade guard. 1,000 years ago all through Scandinavia, the Norse pattern belt ax was the tool for most of what you did. People going about their daily lives in a cold harsh land, used a small hatchet for a great deal of things that the knife magazines push the hyped big sheath knives for. If it gets right down to it, you really don't need much more than an inch and a half to two inches for most things you cut. I watched a park ranger give a demonstration at Mesa Verde on a road killed deer, and he skinned a hunch of venison and sliced into strips to show how it was dried, with a single flake of obsidian. That sparked my own interest in simplifing. Since trying knapping, I've found that 1 1/2 to 2 inches is fine for 98% of what we do.
If I have to survive anywhere not tropical, I'll take a hatchet. If I want a knife for use on game I'll flake one if I have to. With a good quality hatchet and a pocket knife like a sak with a saw blade on it, I can't see how you won't be prepard for anything. If it's tropical, I want the really big knife; a machete.
This is my go to field axe.
I too have experimented with its ability to stand in for a sheath knife. Yes, if I keenly sharpen the edge it can skin, or fuzz sticks and act as an ulu, but it does so at the cost of the edge being durable for its main job of chopping wood.
What the experiments showed to me was the importance of having a good sheath knife on hand.
My selections ranged from $15.00 to $240.00, so there is no reason one cannot have a decently performing knife while camping and whatnot.
Just for the record, I'd be fine if all I had on me were my Benchmade 610 and my Victorinox Forester. Les Stroud has tackled tougher treks than I have using only a multitool.
That's just not how I'd prefer things given the choice.
I too have experimented with its ability to stand in for a sheath knife. Yes, if I keenly sharpen the edge it can skin, or fuzz sticks and act as an ulu, but it does so at the cost of the edge being durable for its main job of chopping wood.
What the experiments showed to me was the importance of having a good sheath knife on hand.
My selections ranged from $15.00 to $240.00, so there is no reason one cannot have a decently performing knife while camping and whatnot.
Just for the record, I'd be fine if all I had on me were my Benchmade 610 and my Victorinox Forester. Les Stroud has tackled tougher treks than I have using only a multitool.
That's just not how I'd prefer things given the choice.
boats you bring up some pretty good points. I am less experienced with knives then I am with something like handguns or rifles, and I am new to this arena of outdoor tools. And, I did sort of buy that SEAL pup knife because it looked cool, but for what I am going to use it for (just camping and hunting here and there) I think it will suit just fine. another knife that i really like as a skinning knife is the Buck 4 inch blade Omni hunter. the steel is alright on it, tends to dull easily, but it is a really good skinning knife because of the big belly.
I guess it just depends on the person on what you would like or dislike in a knife.
So is 440 type steels better then steels like AUS 6 and AUS 8?
I guess it just depends on the person on what you would like or dislike in a knife.
So is 440 type steels better then steels like AUS 6 and AUS 8?
bikerdoc
Moderator In Memoriam
For steel education may I suggest,
Spyderco education
A. G. Russell
and
cutlery science
All good sites to learn about steel.
Spyderco education
A. G. Russell
and
cutlery science
All good sites to learn about steel.
Vonderek
Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,537
This appears to be a wilderness survival thread but I think "survival" means different things depending on locale and scenario. For me, my first survival knife/tool would be my Leatherman Wave. My bushcrafting skills are limited to what I learned (and have forgotten) in the Boy Scouts 30 years ago so if I found myself in a wilderness survival mode I would be in very big trouble indeed! I suspect any survival I will face will be in an urban or suburban environment and a multi-tool would be infinitely more valuable to me.
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Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow
member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2007
- Messages
- 13,146
Thanks a lot to the OP, Boats, Arfin, Todd and others for some great ideas - espec. Boats!
Here is a good, albeit dated, primer. It goes over the basics, but it has no information on steels like S30V, CPM 3V, VG-10, H-1, or any of the Chinese steels out there that either didn't exist or weren't on the domestic market when it was written.
http://www.knifeart.com/steelfaqbyjo.html
I would consider 440C better than AUS anything, but it rarely appears in knives anymore as there are more modern "high end" stainless steels that have replaced it in mass manufacture.
As the FAQ I linked says, there is a rough equivalence between AUS and 440 series based upon chemical composition with the 440 steels holding a small carbon edge (better) for the most part:
AUS6~440A
AUS8~440B
AUS10~440C
One rarely sees AUS-10 or 440C anymore, having been supplanted by ATS-34, 154CM, VG-10 and S30V on the high end, but still being too specialty manufactured to be on mid-to low level knives.
AUS-8 is usually seen on foreign sourced (Japanese and Taiwanese) knives hovering in the $75-100.00 range, as you have found out. The domestically sourced 154CM usually competes here too, for slightly higher prices, but provides a better steel for the dollar too. One also sees various knives using 12C27 Sandvik from Sweden, which I believe slots in like being a 440A+ but not quite to B or AUS-8.
AUS-6 usually appears on foreign sourced knives from Japan and Taiwan that used to sport AUS-8. 440A is the competitor that appears on domestic knives like the KaBar Next Gen F/UK. This steel is serviceable, but like I think I demonstrated, for just a few dollars more, you can do way better than this and get into a VG-10 laminate.
On the low end is where people are getting taken for a ride. Here you have a cocktail of mostly imported knives from China, some featuring featuring mystery steels, though I have to say that name brand manufacturers such as Spyderco's Byrd subsidiary and CRKT have made the integrity somewhat less suspect.
8Cr13MoV is a Chinese analog to AUS-8. The problem is that there is the similarly designated 3CR13, which is an analog to 420J2--the absolutely most garbage stainless steel used as blades. Let's put it this way--a top of the line manufacturer, like Benchmade, uses 420J2 as liners in their folding knives, not as blades. Since people are unfamiliar with Chinese steel designations, they wind up thinking they got a deal on price when they actually got taken on quality. The absolute minimum blade steel one should purchase is 420HC, the HC standing for "high carbon," and like I stated earlier in the thread, Buck is the major company that makes serviceable knives out of it because their heat treater, Paul Bos, is a world class technician who maximizes the potential of that limited steel.
If one must really have an inexpensive fixed blade, I steer them towards the Moras, which are excellent values with long track records of performance. the carbon steel ones use 1095 and the stainless ones feature 12C27. The stainless ones are a bargain compared to what is used for blades in the rest of the sub-$30.00 stainless steel market, especially considering that most are less than twenty bucks.
They just don't look cool, these few being as "badass" as they get.
http://www.knifeart.com/steelfaqbyjo.html
I would consider 440C better than AUS anything, but it rarely appears in knives anymore as there are more modern "high end" stainless steels that have replaced it in mass manufacture.
As the FAQ I linked says, there is a rough equivalence between AUS and 440 series based upon chemical composition with the 440 steels holding a small carbon edge (better) for the most part:
AUS6~440A
AUS8~440B
AUS10~440C
One rarely sees AUS-10 or 440C anymore, having been supplanted by ATS-34, 154CM, VG-10 and S30V on the high end, but still being too specialty manufactured to be on mid-to low level knives.
AUS-8 is usually seen on foreign sourced (Japanese and Taiwanese) knives hovering in the $75-100.00 range, as you have found out. The domestically sourced 154CM usually competes here too, for slightly higher prices, but provides a better steel for the dollar too. One also sees various knives using 12C27 Sandvik from Sweden, which I believe slots in like being a 440A+ but not quite to B or AUS-8.
AUS-6 usually appears on foreign sourced knives from Japan and Taiwan that used to sport AUS-8. 440A is the competitor that appears on domestic knives like the KaBar Next Gen F/UK. This steel is serviceable, but like I think I demonstrated, for just a few dollars more, you can do way better than this and get into a VG-10 laminate.
On the low end is where people are getting taken for a ride. Here you have a cocktail of mostly imported knives from China, some featuring featuring mystery steels, though I have to say that name brand manufacturers such as Spyderco's Byrd subsidiary and CRKT have made the integrity somewhat less suspect.
8Cr13MoV is a Chinese analog to AUS-8. The problem is that there is the similarly designated 3CR13, which is an analog to 420J2--the absolutely most garbage stainless steel used as blades. Let's put it this way--a top of the line manufacturer, like Benchmade, uses 420J2 as liners in their folding knives, not as blades. Since people are unfamiliar with Chinese steel designations, they wind up thinking they got a deal on price when they actually got taken on quality. The absolute minimum blade steel one should purchase is 420HC, the HC standing for "high carbon," and like I stated earlier in the thread, Buck is the major company that makes serviceable knives out of it because their heat treater, Paul Bos, is a world class technician who maximizes the potential of that limited steel.
If one must really have an inexpensive fixed blade, I steer them towards the Moras, which are excellent values with long track records of performance. the carbon steel ones use 1095 and the stainless ones feature 12C27. The stainless ones are a bargain compared to what is used for blades in the rest of the sub-$30.00 stainless steel market, especially considering that most are less than twenty bucks.
They just don't look cool, these few being as "badass" as they get.
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No, they didn't. The SEAL Pup doesn't meet the tech spec for the testing, blade length too short.
The full sized SOG Seal 2000 is the one that was tested, with a classic KaBar or the Camillus version as the benchmark. IIRC, the Buckmaster, Model 184 may or may not have taken part too.
From SOG's advertising literature:
The SEAL Team knife, formerly known as the SEAL Knife 2000, evaluation program included:
Tip breaking stress--(Don't break your tip).
Blade breaking limit--(Don't break your knife, they all can break).
Sharpness--(One can do better than AUS-8 or 6).
Edge retention--(See above).
Handle twist off force--(Spend what it takes to get a decent full tang knife with a handle that cannot twist off).
Two week salt water immersion test--(The carbon steel Titanic is still recognizable 98 years after it sank--two weeks is nothing because most rust by then is still cosmetic).
Gasoline and acetylene torch resistance--(Uh, yeah, those are everyday occurrences the civilian buyer should concern himself about).
Chopping--(Buy a hatchet).
Hammering--(Use a rock for heaven's sake).
Prying--(One would think this redundant after the blade breaking test. Make a digging stick).
Penetration tests--(Okay, I admit this is no job for a puukko in a military context, but great penetration comes at the expense of a more fragile tip).
Cutting six different types of rope and line--(Something any knife with decent sharpness, edge retention and good edge geometry should have no problem with.)
Plus an intense hands-on competition in the field--(Apparently a field strewn with gasoline fires, rope, and runaway acetylene torches).
Includes Nylon sheath. (Indeed).
From SOG's advertising literature:
The SEAL Team knife, formerly known as the SEAL Knife 2000, evaluation program included:
Tip breaking stress--(Don't break your tip).
Blade breaking limit--(Don't break your knife, they all can break).
Sharpness--(One can do better than AUS-8 or 6).
Edge retention--(See above).
Handle twist off force--(Spend what it takes to get a decent full tang knife with a handle that cannot twist off).
Two week salt water immersion test--(The carbon steel Titanic is still recognizable 98 years after it sank--two weeks is nothing because most rust by then is still cosmetic).
Gasoline and acetylene torch resistance--(Uh, yeah, those are everyday occurrences the civilian buyer should concern himself about).
Chopping--(Buy a hatchet).
Hammering--(Use a rock for heaven's sake).
Prying--(One would think this redundant after the blade breaking test. Make a digging stick).
Penetration tests--(Okay, I admit this is no job for a puukko in a military context, but great penetration comes at the expense of a more fragile tip).
Cutting six different types of rope and line--(Something any knife with decent sharpness, edge retention and good edge geometry should have no problem with.)
Plus an intense hands-on competition in the field--(Apparently a field strewn with gasoline fires, rope, and runaway acetylene torches).
Includes Nylon sheath. (Indeed).
Start over the top ad campaign.....
Want a REAL survival knife! CETME bayonet!.....
Mine made some extra vents in a basement heat duct. Keeping me from freezing last winter.
Stabbed through a stuck oil filter, and acted like a crowbar to get it off. So I could change it. And get out of my garage!
Punched tons of air holes in an old steel computer case... for no reason at all!
End ad campaign.
But as good as this knife is. It's a bayonet. Kinda sharp, won't shave. And poking holes in things is not survival skill (it is fun)
I would take a mora over it if I was stuck in the woods. Or something similar.
Want a REAL survival knife! CETME bayonet!.....
Mine made some extra vents in a basement heat duct. Keeping me from freezing last winter.
Stabbed through a stuck oil filter, and acted like a crowbar to get it off. So I could change it. And get out of my garage!
Punched tons of air holes in an old steel computer case... for no reason at all!
End ad campaign.
But as good as this knife is. It's a bayonet. Kinda sharp, won't shave. And poking holes in things is not survival skill (it is fun)
I would take a mora over it if I was stuck in the woods. Or something similar.
And the reverse is true for me.
As I hate people
, I avoid places where they congregate. I would be in very big trouble indeed in a urban area, 'till I were able to get to the woods.You are correct though, different tools are needed for Urban survival. A multitool is a great start.
...
"Boats" beat me to it ... definitely a Mora ... usefulness does not come in a cheaper or lighter package.....
My top3 in order of size.
Glock M81
Any Mora, or the Martiini pukko knife
Folder? Opinel.
.... these three will do what knives 50x the price
will do too ... and i don't feel samurai enough to
carry a 2000+$ Balbach knife into the woods....
After all there will be no one around to brag to about
those 600 layers of wild-damascene made from
the cannon also used in the M1Abrahams
.... I bought a whole sale-display of Moras on a flea market
for like 8$ a piece. All my friends were given one.
"Boats" beat me to it ... definitely a Mora ... usefulness does not come in a cheaper or lighter package.....
My top3 in order of size.
Glock M81
Any Mora, or the Martiini pukko knife
Folder? Opinel.
.... these three will do what knives 50x the price
will do too ... and i don't feel samurai enough to
carry a 2000+$ Balbach knife into the woods....
After all there will be no one around to brag to about
those 600 layers of wild-damascene made from
the cannon also used in the M1Abrahams
.... I bought a whole sale-display of Moras on a flea market
for like 8$ a piece. All my friends were given one.
Gordon
Member
Well if I had to have just one this 10" Blade 2" wide and 1/4" thick Mad Dog Sitka only weighs a pound sheathed. It can act as an axe, can be batoned to split logs and slice up animals and one heck of a nasty cutting tool. Combine it with a Victornox Multi tool and you got it all. The Sitka is not cheap and they are hard to get. If I was buying store bought I would go RAT cutlery in a minute.
moxie
Member
The trio concept is really the way to go. If you foresee any chance of needing to make firewood, you'll be glad you brought a hatchet. I would likely add a good folding saw to my kit as well in this case. And if you get a splinter, or tear a fingernail, you'll be happy you brought that SAK. Just make sure it has a corkscrew as well. You don't go afield without a good bottle of wine, do you?
Hey Boats, you seem to be REALLY knowledgeable about knives, my friend is offering me a Spyderco Dayhiker for 30 bucks, should I bother with it?
http://www.thespydercostore.com/Spyderco-Dayhiker-Plain-Edge-Knife-p/fb19p.htm
its attractive, but I dont want to waste my time with it if a 10 dollar mora would be better.
Can i get your opinion on it?
Thanks man.
http://www.thespydercostore.com/Spyderco-Dayhiker-Plain-Edge-Knife-p/fb19p.htm
its attractive, but I dont want to waste my time with it if a 10 dollar mora would be better.
Can i get your opinion on it?
Thanks man.
Madcap_Magician
Member
If the Dayhiker isn't too beaten up, that's a very good deal.
On steels:
AUS-series and 440-series stainless are roughly equivalent. The former is Japanese and the latter is American.
AUS-6 is roughly equal to 440A, AUS-8 is roughly equal to 440B, and AUS-10 is roughly equal to 440C. The Japanese ATS-34 is usually comparable to the American 154CM, both of which are high-end stainless knives. The high-end steels are generally harder (65-72 on the Rockwell C scale). Correspondingly they also take longer to sharpen, but hold their edge longer. The 440A and 440B type steels sharpen quickly and dull quickly.
Carbon steel is pretty much carbon steel, but for knives the most common one is probably 1095. 10xx carbon steel is a simple, but good steel that is suitable for a wide variety of cutting implements.
My personal favorite steel is the VG-10 that Spyderco uses in the majority of its knives.
In a nutshell, IMHO, you will notice a huge difference in quality between knives made of 440A stainless versus those made of 154CM. This is only partly the materials, though, since knifemakers who use the low-grade stainless are probably less likely to be able to make a functional blade with a good edge, whereas those who care enough to use high-grade materials probably also exhibit better craftsmanship and quality control.
You will notice less of a difference, IMHO, between the varying "super steels," some examples being ATS-34, 154CM, S30V, VG-10, BG-42, etc.
On steels:
AUS-series and 440-series stainless are roughly equivalent. The former is Japanese and the latter is American.
AUS-6 is roughly equal to 440A, AUS-8 is roughly equal to 440B, and AUS-10 is roughly equal to 440C. The Japanese ATS-34 is usually comparable to the American 154CM, both of which are high-end stainless knives. The high-end steels are generally harder (65-72 on the Rockwell C scale). Correspondingly they also take longer to sharpen, but hold their edge longer. The 440A and 440B type steels sharpen quickly and dull quickly.
Carbon steel is pretty much carbon steel, but for knives the most common one is probably 1095. 10xx carbon steel is a simple, but good steel that is suitable for a wide variety of cutting implements.
My personal favorite steel is the VG-10 that Spyderco uses in the majority of its knives.
In a nutshell, IMHO, you will notice a huge difference in quality between knives made of 440A stainless versus those made of 154CM. This is only partly the materials, though, since knifemakers who use the low-grade stainless are probably less likely to be able to make a functional blade with a good edge, whereas those who care enough to use high-grade materials probably also exhibit better craftsmanship and quality control.
You will notice less of a difference, IMHO, between the varying "super steels," some examples being ATS-34, 154CM, S30V, VG-10, BG-42, etc.
I'm OK with just a Mora knife and a machete.
Survival is about what's in your mind, not what's in your hands. You can lose your knives and all your gear, but will still retain your knowledge. There are people who have survived hundreds of days at sea with nothing but a knife & tools made out of a tin can lid and some unraveled cloth.
Survival is about what's in your mind, not what's in your hands. You can lose your knives and all your gear, but will still retain your knowledge. There are people who have survived hundreds of days at sea with nothing but a knife & tools made out of a tin can lid and some unraveled cloth.
dom1104,
$30 for a Dayhiker in good condition is pretty good. Oughta jump on that before he changes his mind.
$30 for a Dayhiker in good condition is pretty good. Oughta jump on that before he changes his mind.
LJ-MosinFreak-Buck
Member
I only use three main knives for the important tasks, but I got quite a few that I'll actually use.
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