Low Budget Full Tang Knife?

[z_bumbi]

Low budget: Mora 511. Cheap, a lot of colors other than black. Sharp from the start and easy to shapen. It's not for heavy batoning and slashing.

Slight higher: hultafors ok4. Full lenght tang, 3,2 mm blade, sharp from the start, easy to sharpen. Can be used for batoning. The sheat has a built in loop for a firesteel.

Not longer low budget but cristmas is around the corner.
Sissipuukko: secure leather dangler sheat, sharp, the newer ones have a thinner blade (the older ones have different grind), comfy handle.
Jägaripuukko: secure leather dangler sheat, sharp, 4 mm blade with two different heat treatment so the blade can withstand a lot of abuse. If you break it you have done something very naughty with it.

 

[chimpy leon]

This has prompted me to look about but as I thought, there really isn’t anything about for a small budget.

There is the Cold Steel GI Tanto that is full tang, currently under £25 and the 1055 mid carbon steel appears to be well received but that is neither 4 inch blade nor probably the style that would “please” everybodys taste. It does make a stronger case for itself for someone willing to put the time in and modify it like a lot of people do.

 

[Jared]

Condor Terrasaur http://www.condortk.com/productos-detalle.php?producto=116&cat=81

1095 has a plastic over moulded handle but the tang does go all the way through. Can find them for £43-£45

 

[snappingturtle]

A green river / hunters dadley can be had for under £20 there full tang not stick and considering there history and the time of there use, it is one of the first wilderness knives so should be good for some thing

 

[mikehill]

Which inexpensive full tang knives with blade length between 9 and 10 cm do you recommend to beginners and why?

Bung me a fiver and I’ll send you one .. really ;-)

 

[Billy-o]

I see there is some love for the Mora Garberg out there .. not quite to my taste and looks expensive for what it is, but a full tang apparently

 

[Janne]

EKA also make some fulltang knives, at a competitive price point ( compared to the somewhat utilitarian Garberg)

 

[alrob]

Steel will ,real steel and schrade make quite a few full tang knives at bargain prices some with d2 steel .I myself have a manly patriot which i paid £45 direct from bulgaria d2 steel and kydex sheath

 

[z_bumbi]

As TS is in germany there have to be a ton of used scouting knives floating around. Most (all?) made in solingen.

 

[snappingturtle]

I see there is some love for the Mora Garberg out there .. not quite to my taste and looks expensive for what it is, but a full tang apparently

I have one, there very good and the plastic sheath system is ace, but not cheap as it is the top of what Mora do

 

[Feurio]

Are you aware that Mora offer a “heavy duty” version of the companion? Almost full tang, ridiculously cheap, easy to sharpen and pretty lightweight.

 

[Janne]

What is the definition of 'full tang' ?

Rat tangs run all the way through but are not exposed top and bottom.
For me, a Full Tang means that the metal is exposed all around the handle.

 

[Feurio]

What is the definition of 'full tang' ?

Rat tangs run all the way through but are not exposed top and bottom.
For me, a Full Tang means that the metal is exposed all around the handle.

and right you are. I just wanted to point out that the rat tang in the "heavy duty" version is almost as long as a full tang, and therefore will be robust enough for @Erbswurst.

 

[Janne]

The benefit of not having metal showing at the top is that if the handle is made from a nice cushioning polymer, it is also cushioned on the spine side.
Nicer to use hard!

 

[Erbswurst]

An interesting point.

May be the Skandinavians are absolutely right with their traditional design.

It's incredible, how complicated it is to understand that simple tool...

 

[Janne]

Different customs in using it.
And how to see it. A tool? An ornament? Collectible?

I think the rat tang was developed because people were dirt poor in Scandinavia, and steel was expensive.

 

[Erbswurst]

I collected knives untill I organised a youth exchange with young Kossaks from Novosibirsk.

I think, the collection is well used and the Sibirian Kossaks nowadays are very well informed about Scandinavian knives.

;0)

Now a days I collect cheap knifes and compare them: Mora, Hultafors, Opinel, French fishing knifes like Flashmer.

The most expensive knife I own today is a simple but original Laguiole.

But usually I use a Victorinox Compact. For me the optimal trekking and traveling knife.

In the end I will end up with Victorinox folding nail scissors I guess.

;0)

 

[Broch]

As someone that made knives from files at school (yes, believe it or not, we were shown how to make knives in metalwork when I was at school! - including heat treatment) I wouldn't dream of trying to buy a decent full tang knife at low cost. I'd buy a good blade blank (many for less than £20) and fit a handle.

I have rat-tail knives, partial tang knives …. but when I'm working in the wood and need a tool to do the job, it will always be a full-tang knife.

 

[Erbswurst]

My point is, that I am interested in equipment for beginners, a self explaining plug and play solution for young people.

I buy and test cheap equipment to become able to write a beginners equipment list with inexpensive but long lasting equipment that is independent from special offers, help from others, national circumstances.

I look for stuff everybody can order in the internet and use it out of the box.

I can't recommend a 13 years old boy I met in a bushcraft forum he should make his own knife.
He will not own the tools and usually he will not be able to do that without help of adult persons.

 

[Janne]

I think the problem is the quality vs cost.
You can buy a cheap full tang Asian made knife off the internet, but you do not know the quality. Can be decent, or maybe not.
If it is not good, so bad steel, bad hardening, no edge retention, badly designed blade or handle, or a combination, then that cheap knife becomes very, very expensive.

I would never recommend a full tang knife for a youngster. He/she should be used to treat and use a knife properly.
If you use a knife but you need a full tang or you would break it, then you should have used a pry bar or an axe.
If you break the tip during extraction of a nail, it is not the knife that is badly de#igned with a tip that is to thin.
Yeah, did that this summer......

That is where brands designed like a classic Mora come in handy. The thin rat tail will teach you.
Most of my generation and older broke a Mora or two du4ing our early days.
Today they are much, much stronger, except the Classic which has the old fashioned tang design.