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I disagree about the Tom Brown tracker; it wouldn't make a good hand spade! Maybe an anchor?
Good suggestions, but IMO when it comes to early knife purchases, the best thing you can do is buy something cheap - maybe you'll like Finnish Tommis or maybe you'll like beasts like the F1, or maybe something bigger and heavier. You'll only know with experience and you'll probably spend less buying a few cheap knives to find out what you like and don't like than buying a bunch of expensive knives you hate.
As far as I know, there is nothing like a consensus on "the" survival knife. Mors Kochanski favours a Mora, available for less than a fiver if you get one on sale. Cheap but very good knives. Quite a few people think that small knives are out of the question for one-knife survival, and you should go for something like a Leuku or Machete for ease of collecting firewood, shelter building etc.
Both 'survival' and 'bushcraft' are such ambiguous terms, what you need from a knife will vary hugely according to where you are and what you want to do. And then is the more complex issue of personal preference. I work better with a high scandi, some insist on convex or flat grind.
IMO nobody can tell you what knife you will like - people can say what works for them, and they can tell you what has good steel, heat treatment and geometry to an extent, but little more. The only thing you 'should' do IMO is start cheap, and really, you don't get a good knife cheaper than a Mora.
With regards to Bowies and similar, they're very unpopular with a lot of Bushcrafters but a lot of people can use a bowie very effectively. It's utterly untrue that they're inherently 'bad' for bushcraft.
I went on a bit of a tangent, but in response to your original question regarding what's better out of a Kabar and Tracker: Kabar. Kabar times infinity plus one.
Pete
Good suggestions, but IMO when it comes to early knife purchases, the best thing you can do is buy something cheap - maybe you'll like Finnish Tommis or maybe you'll like beasts like the F1, or maybe something bigger and heavier. You'll only know with experience and you'll probably spend less buying a few cheap knives to find out what you like and don't like than buying a bunch of expensive knives you hate.
As far as I know, there is nothing like a consensus on "the" survival knife. Mors Kochanski favours a Mora, available for less than a fiver if you get one on sale. Cheap but very good knives. Quite a few people think that small knives are out of the question for one-knife survival, and you should go for something like a Leuku or Machete for ease of collecting firewood, shelter building etc.
Both 'survival' and 'bushcraft' are such ambiguous terms, what you need from a knife will vary hugely according to where you are and what you want to do. And then is the more complex issue of personal preference. I work better with a high scandi, some insist on convex or flat grind.
IMO nobody can tell you what knife you will like - people can say what works for them, and they can tell you what has good steel, heat treatment and geometry to an extent, but little more. The only thing you 'should' do IMO is start cheap, and really, you don't get a good knife cheaper than a Mora.
With regards to Bowies and similar, they're very unpopular with a lot of Bushcrafters but a lot of people can use a bowie very effectively. It's utterly untrue that they're inherently 'bad' for bushcraft.
I went on a bit of a tangent, but in response to your original question regarding what's better out of a Kabar and Tracker: Kabar. Kabar times infinity plus one.
Pete
Excellent advice! That's exactly what I did.
Edit : A multiple of uses : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhCFbFRQIwU
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LOL
Haha hey Ginge beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I happen to think it's a beauty of a design both ergonomically and aesthetically but hey each to their own. Suppose it's more of a 'carry everywhere, do everything EDC knife' than "Survival" and that's why I also like the 3 inch blade as opposed to any longer, haven't got the cash for multiple knives. If this works as an every day carrier and out in the woods then it's just the ticket for me
Horses for courses.
To me, a little sub 3" folder made by a proper craftsman like Trever Ablett is much more appealing than a mass produced factory monstrosity like Spyderco folders. As you say though, each to their own.
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Is it just me who sees the irony in this comment?
Yeah, there is plenty of irony in that comment
I had both.
KaBar USMC 1217 was used (and loved) from soldiers and outdoorsmen since 70 years, and is still actually a good all-purpose knife. The Tracker is an interesting project, robust all the way, ergonomics of the handle is great, but i.e. saw on the spine is almost useless as the wire-cutting, and for good chopping power you need to reprofile the blade.
Between these two, I would prefere KaBar.
I can see the irony too
IMO, it contains a fair bit of truth as well
okenest:Kind regards
Mick
take all this advice onboard. i think the best advice is to get a mora knife learn to use it and save some money to get something nice when you have gained the experience, you could even get one made for you, there are plenty of knife makers out there( myself included) that dont charge silly money for a hand made knife.
heres 2 bushtools i recently made, the green handle one sold for £115 and the other for £95. not a fortune!
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I own a Ka-bar 5 inch knife (small black military style). Tough as nails, cheap and dependable. Despite having better scandi grind knives I often end up carrying the Ka-bar; I think primarily because I trust that it will hold up to any task I use it for. Which I think makes it a good survival knife, not the best, but certainly not the worst.
Well if you wanted to try a cheap big military/"survival"/tacticool type knife you could always look into the "magnum camp bowie" on heinnie, (found them through too much spare time and access to the internet.) Moras really are incredible especially for the price though and you could even look into getting a mora viking if it was just to see what suits you (they're about £2:50 from clas ohlson.) i own a becker bk7 (made by ka-bar not camillus.) It's a lovely knife and for any fiddly stuff i can't do with the becker i either use my svord or the little skeletonised knife that comes with the bk7. Whilst most people on here don't seem to like big knives they do seem to know a lot about them so all advice on here will be good advice or maybe check out british blades if you still need a little help. Once you find the right knife you'll know i think so it shouldn't be too hard could even try and find people near you who would be happy to have a little play day and let you try a few out. I think that's the end of my wall of badly written responce i hope it helps in some way.
Well the Tom Brown Tracker needs to be re-profiled before it'll work well, and even then it's a big compromise. It has that straight edge section but it would be nice to be able to use your whole blade for knifework instead of just the one section (which is probably why combo edges aren't well liked). The other part is like an axe except it has no long handle to help you swing it which means it's not very effective. I'd imagine it would be like using an axe as your knife all the time.
So as an axe it's not very good and as a knife it's not very good, this leads me to the conclusion that this would be a bad choice for a survival knife. I guess the only thing it does that could be considered good for a survival knife is be a compromise, ya I just said that was bad but if you only have one knife in a survival situation, it would be great if it could do everything, even if it didn't do everything perfectly. The thing is, there are other knives that work better than the Tracker for that kind of all purpose role and you'd probably be better off with one of those.
The Ka-bar on the other hand is actually a knife. When you first get it, it may need to have the edge thinned a little to make it cut better (or so I hear). Now it won't cut as well as a scandi, there's no denying that but it will cut. There's always a compromise, if you use a scandi, the edge is thin and more easily damaged but it cuts very well. A sabre ground Ka-bar won't cut as well as a scandi but will have a tougher edge.
So I guess I'd suggest doing what Hoodoo said, make a list of what you'll use that knife for and then decide what you need. Will you need to use this knife for hacking down small trees and splitting wood (tracker, BK9, ESEE junglas, an axe)? Will you need it for finer cutting tasks that require a very sharp edge (puukko, Mora)? Or maybe something that can be used to split reasonably sized wood but still be small and effective enough to use for finer tasks (Ka-bar, ESEE RC-4/6, BK2/7). Only you can decide which knife is best.
So as an axe it's not very good and as a knife it's not very good, this leads me to the conclusion that this would be a bad choice for a survival knife. I guess the only thing it does that could be considered good for a survival knife is be a compromise, ya I just said that was bad but if you only have one knife in a survival situation, it would be great if it could do everything, even if it didn't do everything perfectly. The thing is, there are other knives that work better than the Tracker for that kind of all purpose role and you'd probably be better off with one of those.
The Ka-bar on the other hand is actually a knife. When you first get it, it may need to have the edge thinned a little to make it cut better (or so I hear). Now it won't cut as well as a scandi, there's no denying that but it will cut. There's always a compromise, if you use a scandi, the edge is thin and more easily damaged but it cuts very well. A sabre ground Ka-bar won't cut as well as a scandi but will have a tougher edge.
So I guess I'd suggest doing what Hoodoo said, make a list of what you'll use that knife for and then decide what you need. Will you need to use this knife for hacking down small trees and splitting wood (tracker, BK9, ESEE junglas, an axe)? Will you need it for finer cutting tasks that require a very sharp edge (puukko, Mora)? Or maybe something that can be used to split reasonably sized wood but still be small and effective enough to use for finer tasks (Ka-bar, ESEE RC-4/6, BK2/7). Only you can decide which knife is best.
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i have to agree with previously mentioned opinions im not familliar with either knife other than pictures but you cant beat a decent parang or kukri,
personally i like the rat cutlery knives even if they lean towards the combat knife section as mentioned before you cant plan for survival but for bushcraft in the uk you should consider axe (gransfors bruks by choice) and a mora or similar (allthough mora,s can be a little thin for some chores and have a tendancie to snap) team those 2 up with a neck knife and your covered and much as you can be.
ofc you can allways make your own.....want to see what £20 and 3 weeks work can get you ?http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=658858&posted=1#post658858
personally i like the rat cutlery knives even if they lean towards the combat knife section as mentioned before you cant plan for survival but for bushcraft in the uk you should consider axe (gransfors bruks by choice) and a mora or similar (allthough mora,s can be a little thin for some chores and have a tendancie to snap) team those 2 up with a neck knife and your covered and much as you can be.
ofc you can allways make your own.....want to see what £20 and 3 weeks work can get you
?http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=658858&posted=1#post658858
Buy something not too expensive. Then learn to use it. Properly.
Then, and only then, will you truly understand how 99% of tasks can be achieved with 99% of knives. It's how easy those particular tasks are to complete with a particular knife that determines the right knife for you and the work you want to do with it. By using your knife properly you will learn about any shortfalls it has for the sort of tasks you want to use it for. You'll learn about your own shortfalls too.
If the knife is too light for chopping the way you want to, you know your next one willbe that bit heavier/bigger. If it doesn't have a sharp enough point to make tiny holes in carving and whittling work that you want to do, then you'll know what to look for next time, etc etc.
You may find that you don't get on well with the type of grind your knife has. We don't all want a 4 1/2" Scandi ground blade, so you can look at others for the big spend later on.
Work out exactly what you think you'll be doing with the knife. Look at what others are using for those tasks, and ask both yourself and them why they chose that particular style of blade. THEN make decisions.
As per my comments above... How refreshing to see that in print from someone else
I can't think of much that can be done with a 'clone' that I can't do perfectly well with an 8" or even 10" bladed knife, but I can think of plenty that I can do with the bigger blade that I'd struggle to manage with the smaller one.
They're not for everyone, I know, but nor are Scandi ground clones
Oops, did I justokenest:
Then, and only then, will you truly understand how 99% of tasks can be achieved with 99% of knives. It's how easy those particular tasks are to complete with a particular knife that determines the right knife for you and the work you want to do with it. By using your knife properly you will learn about any shortfalls it has for the sort of tasks you want to use it for. You'll learn about your own shortfalls too.
If the knife is too light for chopping the way you want to, you know your next one willbe that bit heavier/bigger. If it doesn't have a sharp enough point to make tiny holes in carving and whittling work that you want to do, then you'll know what to look for next time, etc etc.
You may find that you don't get on well with the type of grind your knife has. We don't all want a 4 1/2" Scandi ground blade, so you can look at others for the big spend later on.
Work out exactly what you think you'll be doing with the knife. Look at what others are using for those tasks, and ask both yourself and them why they chose that particular style of blade. THEN make decisions.
As per my comments above... How refreshing to see that in print from someone else
I can't think of much that can be done with a 'clone' that I can't do perfectly well with an 8" or even 10" bladed knife, but I can think of plenty that I can do with the bigger blade that I'd struggle to manage with the smaller one.
They're not for everyone, I know, but nor are Scandi ground clones
Oops, did I just
okenest:
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