nikto

your knife need not be and should not be used as a prybar, wedge, etc. Indians didn't/couldn't do such things, and you can easily carry something that does a far better job, as in a machete, chisel, etc. If I gotta clear a lot of stuff just to make a campsite, I'll rather seek a better site for camping. Brush like that means ticks and leeches. When you're hiking, you're supposed to start looking for a campsite about halfway thru the afternoon, not at dusk!

nikto

scandi grind is a half arsed attempt to make a 1/4" thick prybar into something that can be used for skinning and slicing meat. it aint what butchers choose. :-)

John in AR

What a scandi grind excels at is use on soft woods; it lends itself to that better than to use on seasoned hardwoods. It works well for a lot of people’s purposes as a camp/fire-making/shelter-building knife, because in most of north america, soft woods are what are most often encountered in those activities. Feathering sticks for fire, cutting shelter support poles, etc; soft woods are what’s generally involved.

I don’t think I have a scandi-grind knife, but I can’t say for sure. My second-favorite woods knife is a fallkniven krut with a kind of a convexed scandi grind; and my primary woods knife is a Marbles Ideal with a convex grind. They work fine for my purposes, as the convex is both very tolerant of use and crazy sharp once you get a feel for sharpening them. I really prefer the marbles, but am coming to more & more lean toward the krut.

Other grinds are fine as well; no particular love or hate for any of them personally.

John in AR

Can't resist - the fallkniven on a crossdraw gunbelt I made for my Uberti .45LC; made out of a tool belt from Home Depot or Lowes, don't recall which:


Punched slots every 3/4" along the back for threading leather strap to make the bullet loops; they really should be more like 5/8" or so, but it'd been a long time since I'd done one. Added a ~$35 holster from ebay and called it good. Less than perfect, but it's really more of a playing or woods-walking setup than anything truly serious-purpose oriented anyway.

Toy I suppose, but without toys life is less fun, and I want to get in my fun while I can...

nikto

it's done to "justify" charging you $300 for a "handmade" item, which basically does nothing better than a small cold- chisel and a $3 Old hickory butcher knife will do. And you'll be a lot better able to skin/cut meat, and you wont have to worry about breaking your blade when you're batoning the chisel. :-) Also, the chisel can make slots, etc, much more easily and much more safely than can be done with the knife, and it can be used to cut mild steel, like a padlock hasp.

. A hand chain saw, used as a bow saw, is many, many times safer and more efficient than any chopping tool, on anything thicker than your thumb (vs machete) and it's a lot lighter, more compact, and quiet, too.

Take the $200 saved with this info, buy yourself some cheap beef, a vacumn packer, some dessicant packs and teriaki sauce and make yourself a BIG pile of jerky.

John in AR

What's done; the scandi grind? The krut is an unnecessary expense, but the same could be said of television, upholstered furniture, and dress shoes. Much like guys who buy unnecessary sports cars or lake houses (of which I have neither), it's an enjoyment thing as much as a functional thing.


Don't know what would make someone think that, unless they thought the krut was over-thick or something. I looked it up and the krut is a whopping 0.06" thicker than my old buck 119. It's thicker than a kitchen knife, but not anywhere near some of the 5/16" behemoths out there.

Fact is, while the krut isn't my favorite woods knife, it's absolutely the best-cutting woods knife I have. For hunting & skinning, I mostly use a gerber freeman, but that's because I prefer the finger-grooves and guthook on the freeman. But other than not having a guthook (which an old hickory also doesn't), it can do everything my preferred freeman skinner can do, and much more.

Only thing I don't like about the krut is the handle. Main reason that it's not my favorite woods knife is that the handle on my old marbles ideal is somewhat larger and just fits my hand better. Main reason I use the freeman for hunting, is the guthook. The krut is "between" the marbles and the freeman in size, weight, and blade thickness; so it would objectively be the best of the three if having to make an "only one" choice.

As far as being less able to skin or cut meat than with an old hickory or most other knives, that makes no sense at all. It also makes it obvious that you've never used one, and that's ok; I'd never used one either until three or four years ago. The krut cuts like a light saber. It not only shaves paper, it shaves designs in paper. It's by far the best edge-retaining, best edge-taking knife I have. It's crazy sharp and crazy strong both; it's cobalt steel for goodness' sake.


Never said I baton with it. I've only baton'ed wood twice in my life, and that was just to see what all the fuss was about. In our area, the woods are much more scrub and brush than big trees; I've never once wished I could baton a piece of wood when camping, and certainly never HAD to.


...I don't think I've ever made slots in things while wandering around in the woods.


Again, this is a woods-walking and camp knife, not some mad max, behind-enemy-lines, SERE tool. In my GHB gear in the truck, I do have other things (small two-ended prybar, good multitool with hardened cutters, lockpicks, bumpkeys, water purifier, NVD's, nested camp stove with fuel, all manner of 'stuff'); in addition to the normal tools in the toolbox. But I don't carry all those things when woods walking or camping; and that's all this knife is about. For that matter, a couple of open-end wrenches from the toolbox will break open most typical padlocks, and even some 'high-security' ones.

(Security and "bad thing prevention" is what I do for a living, John. Just because someone doesn't fixate on crisis after crisis in every internet post, doesn't mean that they're unaware of them or unable to deal with them. It's my job. This post got interrupted by a phone call from a guy who needed help (yes, on a saturday) retrieving video from a DVR on some sony 1080P night-vision cameras we installed for him. A guy who has govt helicopters land on his property. A guy who - as big as I am and as strong as I am - could pound me into a bag of pudding. Security stuff, emergency stuff, life-safety stuff; it's the core of my working life. I just don't let it permeate and shape my every thought as you seem to.)

Life does have its "holy crap" subjects, but those are by FAR the minority. Life is mostly made up of hum-drum daily-life stuff that must be walked through, and may as well be enjoyed along the way.


On this we agree. In my GHB gear I carry a folding, locking fiskars limb saw rather than a bow saw or chain saw, but same principle.


I already have a vacuum packer and two dehydrators, but thanks. I do find this odd and inconsistent advice though. $200 pounds of cheap beef would be around 65 lbs of meat which would typically yield around 15-16 lbs of jerky.

Thing is, you can buy 15 lbs of commercially-made jerky for just $100-$150 or so more than the cost of the raw meat in your approach. And not have to mess with processing (trimming, slicing, salting, drying) 65 pounds of raw meat in my kitchen.

When I mentioned spending something like 9 hours smelting enough lead for several years worth of handgun bullets, you repeatedly gave me grief about how my time should be worth more than that. I don't know off-hand how much time would be involved in trimming, slicing, salting and drying 65 pounds of meat; but it would certainly be more than that.

So now you're saying that our time shouldn't be worth more than that.

nikto

you have a better source of jerky than me. it costs $1 an oz here. and I never see anything like a 3 to 1 reduction in weight, either.

nikto

The whole point of the "survival knife" appears to be batonning. :-) it's a crock of it.

John in AR

On 'reduction' during drying, 4 to 6 ounces of jerky per pound of meat is the most commonly-encountered outcome that I'm familiar with. I've seen as high as 8 oz (2 to 1) and as low as 3 oz (~5 to 1)

Source-wise, Bronco Billy's online; $225 for 10 lbs including shipping. If you can get it for a $1 per ounce, that's even better. Fifteen lbs is 240 oz, so buying locally at your $1 per oz would actually be cheaper still; only $240 for 15 lbs of commercially-made jerky.

John in AR

That, I can't say one way or the other. Maybe for some, but not in my world.

nikto

when I want designs in paper, I can use scissors. :-) never encountered any paper to be cut in the woods. This country was settled with ordinary butcher knives, and before that, stone knives. Obviously, nothing fancier is needed. Your life aint riding on it. You aint Delta force in Borneo.

John in AR

This country was settled by guys carrying muzzleloaders without silencers as well.

You really don't see the hypocrisy here..? You say that there's no benefit to a knife any better than those owned by a 1700's migrant, yet you're adamant that for some reason we'll be dead in no time if we're carrying a rifle other than your (and my) personal favorite.