Big knives

[Stone14]

What big knife you got, why did you buy it?

Im looking to buy a large knife, something that, 'if you could only have one sharp blade in your survival pack what would it be' a do all/ most jobs kind of knife. From skinning animals, carving to chopping dead trees down.
Looking on youtube for ideas the same few seem to pop up alot but thought I'd ask here.
I'm aware the law disallows such knives in public without good reason, and the police have a level of discretion as to what good reason may be. So no need for any 'its illegal to have one etc'.

What you got?


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[Mesquite]

Nothing you'd describe as a 'big knife' simply because I've never seen the need for one.

My spyderco bushcrafter and SFA or outdoor axe does everything around a camp that I might use a big knife for

 

[Damascus]

Kukuri, without a doubt, had one for the last 44 years, given to me by a Gurkha in Belize!

 

[TeeDee]

What big knife you got, why did you buy it?

Im looking to buy a large knife, something that, 'if you could only have one sharp blade in your survival pack what would it be' a do all/ most jobs kind of knife. From skinning animals, carving to chopping dead trees down.
Looking on youtube for ideas the same few seem to pop up alot but thought I'd ask here.
I'm aware the law disallows such knives in public without good reason, and the police have a level of discretion as to what good reason may be. So no need for any 'its illegal to have one etc'.

What you got?


Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

No disrespect intended - and I'm not calling your abilities into account , but do you feel you have done much bushcrafting? and if so , what blade did you use for that period?

 

[Great egret]

I have a Pohl Force mk9 as seen in the movie Last Blood because i wanted to have a BIG knife in the collection. There are some youtube video's of people actually using it, and if it was the only knife i owned i guess i could use it. Batoning will be easy, but fine work like carving a spoon is going to be a real pita

 

[Robson Valley]

I lost a cheap 8" Bowie. Never sharpened well so it had become the camp knife for splitting wood, stirring stew, flipping steaks and pounding tent pegs. I can do just about as much with a Fiskars camp hatchet.
In my day pack is a 3" heavy old Kershaw locking folder which is great for food prep and field dressing game. It sharpens well and holds a useful edge.

 

[BigMonster]

Absolutely not trying to discourage you from playing with a big knife, just sharing my opinions. Big knives are only good for chopping, you won't be able to do any carving, food prep or other camp chores. Also they get heavy real quick and you will more and more often decide to leave that pound of steel at home. So most people use a 4-6 inch knife for knife duties (maybe some light splitting) and a saw plus hatchet for wood processing.
If you want big and effective look in to Scrama.

 

[homesicksteve]

What BigMonster said....

'cause one tool can't do everything.
Anyone tried slicing raw carrots with a Mora ?

 

[PREPER]

British army survival knife used for fixed camp batoning, it has now been sharpened by someone more skilled than me to a razor edge.
Too good for batoning now, has a mini survival kit attached to the sheath and become a favourite in my 'collection'.
Preper......

 

[TeeDee]

The question for me regarding big knives is does the geometry of the blade change substantially??

I think its been covered here before but Form does follow Function

A light weight Machete is ideal for daily use in a jungle environment

A medium weight axe is ideal for chopping limbs off tree

A heavy Maul is ideal for splitting log rounds.

Alongside that is the Mass of the tool - an English Billhook has some length and mass and does its job quite well.

I guess what I'm saying is I don't get Big choppers unless the mass and blade profile changes substantially.

I have a couple of Skramas and they are certainly lengthy but I wouldn't say that they are fantastic choppers. ( Unless I'm misreading what a chopper should do )

 

[MikeLA]

Never liked axes so I wanted a jack of all trades big blade bought a Chris Caine tool/parang. Like everything took a while to be good with its use, also used in the past a Kukri and a my first knife the mod survival knife. All excellent when used a lot.

It’s a personal thing find axes to heavy, more dangerous for me.

 

[moocher]

I must admit seen several Chris Caine for sale and been tempted they look nice but I doubt I could use one .
I know our knife laws prohibit carrying big blades , so is it accepted that European bushcraft is knife /saw/axe . ?
But looking abroad you see native people using the machete /parang types on camp duties and hunting/foraging . Even holding it with their toes.

 

[ESpy]

I know our knife laws prohibit carrying big blades , so is it accepted that European bushcraft is knife /saw/axe . ?

Not quite. They prohibit any blade, but good reason can be a valid defence - there's an exemption for folding, non-locking blades under 3" in length. But even then you can be charged for carrying it if there's believed to be grounds.

The knife/axe/saw combination is mostly about bushcraft fashion. Yes, there's an element of "less" threatening about it, but it still falls under the same legal restrictions. By and large it depends on what you're trying to achieve with the tools.

 

[Broch]

We've had long discussion about the knife/axe/saw thing before and, to be honest, there's a lot of subjectivity in the opinions.

If I'm on my own, or travelling, I always have a SAK and, if I'm on private land with permission, I'll use a smallish (4 - 5") full tang knife. That combination will prepare all the fuel I need for my personal cooking etc. and allow me to do basic whittling.

If I'm at a fixed camp with others, between us, we'll have an axe and saw simply to prepare more fuel and have a bright fire for staring into and/or warmth. Even then, I rarely deal with wood over 3" so the knife is nearly as effective as the axe for splitting (not as much fun though). Cutting to length is where the saw comes in of course and something like the Laplander will do for a small fire but becomes tiresome for a lot of work.

The only time I need a 'big' knife is when I'm working in the wood - for snedding and single stroke trimming when coppicing for example. I don't particularly get on with billhooks so a large, quite heavy, knife is my tool of choice.

 

[marcoruhland]

the question is: why

you could only have one sharp blade in your survival pack

size, weight, money...
so in general the "oto" question is stupid noone limits you (only in gaming tv-shows) so take 2-4 sharp tools ( smal fixed kneckknife: whiteriver FC35PRO, multitool: leatherman charge-tti, all-round standard sized fixed for the belt: cold-steel-master-hunter san mai, and may be a large tool axe/ machete/ sword/ tomahawk/ breaching tool: hultafors aby, cold-steel-gurkha-kukri-plus-in-3v or dawson machete magnacut, fox atc something you need a backpack to carry for

and for the tv-show (no fighting/ war or apocalypse) as oto (knife no machete) i take my fallkniven a1xb 400g, 160mm blade (7mm thick lam cos) hrc60 ( carbide coating hrc83)

mr

 

[Kav]

My reply’ why not?’ Even seasoned bushcrafters see some shiny new
( or popular surplus item becomes de riguer) and have to have it. It’s the magpie/ Walter Mitty in us all.
I have an axe, Terava Skrama in Southern California. Between our drought, bark beetle and laws even my knives are lucky to open a food packet. And having to make periodic course adjustments with compass because Excalibur has you listing ten degrees to starboard
Is another right of passage. And then, every so often I have to bushwhack through hard chaparral
And that Skrama is superb!

 

[YEOLDOAK]

I bought a big knife after watching Sidney Poitier in the 1988 film Deadly Pursuit,
seeing Tom Berenger with an early Gerber BMF, they were simpler times then : )

​

 

[ESpy]

Ah, a sawtooth BMF. Mine's plain

 

[Nice65]

Well, the OP hasn’t been in since August, but this thing popped up on my YouTube feed. Many of you will be familiar with the Slingshot Channel and this guy always puts a smile on my face.

 

[Kadushu]

I like the RTAK II. It's not perfect, especially out the box, but I like the 5160 steel and grippy micarta scales. The edge bevel is typical OKC - so wide it's barely useable but after a regrind it's a nice slicey machete-ish knife. The handle is also strangely large but hasn't been an issue in use. I have a few OKC knives and the handles vary greatly in thickness and length, so much that I wonder whether they are designed by aliens who are just guessing at roughly what would suit a human hand.