Just back from a 14 day trip in Canada and it was interesting to record what everyone had chosen to carry. Some interesting choices, and some industry standards.
Expedition Blades
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That's what I thought looking at Paul's blade design.... wouldn't be my first choice
I am surprised that people brought Mora Companions and not Garbergs.
I highly recommend to try to break a Companion before you leave into deep woods. One can break them easily.
They may be a good choice for survival training but they are every thing else than secure survival knives.
I highly recommend to try to break a Companion before you leave into deep woods. One can break them easily.
They may be a good choice for survival training but they are every thing else than secure survival knives.
Why would I try to break my only knife? What ways have you broken a Mora Companion in the woods that have net been designed to make the blade fail, prove a point or have been user error? Any pictures or primary evidence would be appreciated.
The weak usual Mora Companion was in a German bushcraft forum the most recommend knife. Well, it cuts good, no question, but the lighter Opinel No8 Carbone cuts very well too.
OK, I wondered about how weak it is, put the blade between a staple of wood boards and put a bit pressure onto the handle in the wrong direction and it snapped immediately how expected.
It's a nice carving knife for beginners or a good food preparation knife or whatever but for sure no survival knife. If you carry additional a hatchet it shouldn't matter but if it's all you have in a serious situation I wish you good luck!
If you want a photo, break it yourself and shoot one! Easily done and surely worth the gained experience.
OK, I wondered about how weak it is, put the blade between a staple of wood boards and put a bit pressure onto the handle in the wrong direction and it snapped immediately how expected.
It's a nice carving knife for beginners or a good food preparation knife or whatever but for sure no survival knife. If you carry additional a hatchet it shouldn't matter but if it's all you have in a serious situation I wish you good luck!
If you want a photo, break it yourself and shoot one! Easily done and surely worth the gained experience.
No need to break anything yourself when the YouTube aficionados have done so already in many imaginative ways.
The common theme seems to involve batons and large pieces of knotty seasoned wood, or using the knife as a tree step.
Whether that is a problem or not comes down to why you carry a knife, where, and with whom. My own experience carrying knives on group canoe trips in Sweden and Norway, and winter courses with Mors in Canada, has been that the heavy, thick and durable knives I took were unnecessarily robust. With a group, where we were, with all the other gear, there was no need for more than a standard Mora Companion.
@Erbswurst likes the level of durability of the Garberg, but if you talked to Busse fans, they would not consider it large or strong enough to be a “survival knife”. There isn’t much objective threshold for when a knife becomes an acceptable “survival knife”.
Anyway….who makes the two full tang things with brass bolsters? I have seen pics before but don’t remember the maker.
Whether that is a problem or not comes down to why you carry a knife, where, and with whom. My own experience carrying knives on group canoe trips in Sweden and Norway, and winter courses with Mors in Canada, has been that the heavy, thick and durable knives I took were unnecessarily robust. With a group, where we were, with all the other gear, there was no need for more than a standard Mora Companion.
@Erbswurst likes the level of durability of the Garberg, but if you talked to Busse fans, they would not consider it large or strong enough to be a “survival knife”. There isn’t much objective threshold for when a knife becomes an acceptable “survival knife”.
Anyway….who makes the two full tang things with brass bolsters? I have seen pics before but don’t remember the maker.
Did any issues arise with any of the knives during your 14 days in Canada? Was the primary function of the knife as a survival tool or was it just a useful cutting accessory 'on the list'?
When I was in Norway one year, I bought a cheap Mora look-alike with a stainless blade for my fishing - it was about £3!
When I got home I was curious about the quality (it had done all I wanted on the trip) so I cut the handle off; the tang went into the handle for all of 20mm!! Perhaps not a knife you'd want to rely on in the wilds
With carbon steel yes but some martensitic stainless ones are very weakly magnetic.
What I remember from the x-ray pics the width of the tang also changed.
With a light coloured handle one might see trough though with strong light.
Those are the rarely seen Paul Kirtley PK1 knives by Raven Armouries. A very slow rate of production apparently. A chunky beast to Paul's specification... Like a chunky Woodlore. The wood handled one is the prototype and the black micarta version is the production version and Paul's own.
No knife issues in the real world. Minor food prep but this was to be avoided to stop transfer of food smells from knife to sheath and make them attractive to bears. This was taken very seriously and el cheapo plastic sheathed kitchen knives were used in the main.
Some Line cutting of jammed line when lining through rapids, some tent peg making for tarps and general bushcraft.
Sap collecting for cuts and scrapes to hands.
