recommend me a starter all in one knife

[Robson Valley]

The D.H. Russell Canadian Belt Knives are skinners, not GP camp knives. You aren't field dressing moose.

Buy something a lot cheaper at first. Learn to freehand sharpen it or never buy another knife.
Then you know what questions to ask about knife #2 and knife #3 and . . . . . . . . . .

 

[Billy-o]

All I’m getting when this new member posted his link to a knife is a Viglink. .

Is that French Erick?

 

[Janne]

Mora's are much loved, but they really are dreadful knives. It's why they get used and abused. People discover that they really don't like them ... its like personal They are uncomfortable for extended use and forever fall out of their rubbishy sheaths (the little carvers - 106 and 120 are nice though).
.

Really? Every, and I mean every, Swedish male the last 4 or 5 generations has bren using those knives. They get abused because they are tools. At a very affordable price point.

I can do everything I need with one. None of my Fällknivar can do the same.

Design fine tuned over many centuries.
Ugly - yes.

 

[Sundowner]

If you don't like plastic handles, get a Condor ? I think it's called the Condor Bushlore. Don't get me wrong, Moras are great, it's just the handles

 

[tombear]

The D.H. Russell Canadian Belt Knives are skinners, not GP camp knives. You aren't field dressing moose.

Buy something a lot cheaper at first. Learn to freehand sharpen it or never buy another knife.
Then you know what questions to ask about knife #2 and knife #3 and . . . . . . . . . .

I couldn't disagree with you more, the flat grind Russells are just slimmed down Nesmuk with a more ergonomic shaped handle. A dare say the ones with the original design, with the sabre grind is a one trick pony but that's not the one I recommended. The only thing Id replace mine with for GP work ( and I've tried a whole lot .of knives over the years so its not as if I've blindly stuck with it for 25 plus ) would be a custom model of the same thing, if I had money to burn. OK .sometimes I need a little more knife so guess what, I've a Grohmanns No. 4 flat grind, basically the same knife but scaled up!

Uwwww! I feel like someones kicked my dog, and i don't even have a dog!

I think I need a cup of tea and a lay doiwn!

ATB

Tom

PS Being serious for a moment, consider picking some stuff up second hand, I'm sure there will be plenty floating about, You will get so much out of learning to sharpen them and generally restore them, in whats basically a controlled environment that when you use them for real you will know more about them and will make less mistakes than if you just started using them straight out of the box. I've three sons and a wife who's a scoutmistress so i don't actually have any cast offs I get to keep but no doubt others can oblige.

 

[nitrambur]

All I’m getting when this new member posted his link to a knife is a Viglink. Similar to Skimlink, commonly used on forums, each click adding some cash to the poster.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VigLink

Don’t click it.

Just opt-out https://www.viglink.com/opt-out/

 

[Nice65]

Just opt-out https://www.viglink.com/opt-out/

Thanks. The link doesn’t lead to a knife for me. I get this.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Okay. Since I too got that Viglink thing, I have edited the post to go to a reliable source, and has an image, so on one really needs to follow a link off site.

 

[Janne]

Would that do?

https://www.heinnie.com/helle-alden

Moderator Note: The original link posted by this member went to a Viglink site, not the Helle Alden that was being discussed. Link changed to go to a reliable source

Thanks for the proper link!

Helle make great knives. I have handled several models, and would not mind owing and using them.
If you can, try to go to a shop and try it out, to see if the handle and general feel suits you.

 

[Robson Valley]

Russell belt knives were all the rage in western Canada, back in the early 1960's.
Hunting in western Canada is just as popular now as it ever was.
I have not met a resident hunter here since then who carries a Russell.
Maybe they are useful camp knives now?
I see a greater variety of brands in the market place these days.

A skinner is a specific knife that's a good thing to have.
Just as is a second knife for cutting off metatarsal glands on deer.

Field dressing a moose is a tedious process to avoid getting any hair on the meat.
Gut, skin and quarter a horse. The singular value in a knife is edge retention.

The best tool for quartering a moose in the field is not a little knife.
Use an axe, hatchet or an 18V DeWalt SawzAll.
Some guides run Stihl meat saws on Mazola corn oil.

 

[Billy-o]

Some guides run Stihl meat saws on Mazola corn oil.

That actually a fact?

Huh! seems it is ... you live and

 

[Robson Valley]

Yeah, it is a fact. Burnt corn oil has a smell all of it's own. You know how big a bull moose is.
The singular fact in field dressing that makes good meat a great meat to eat is chilling the meat as quickly as possible.

Gunshots mean gut piles and everybody in the district comes running, even the local wolf pack.
Then they hang around, calculating if they can push you off your kill.
So you and your hunting buddy take turns guarding. The other one does some cutting.
Ditzy little knives are for the kitchen and camp. Reciprocating saws are the choice in my district.

 

[Janne]

Butchering in the wild is 'butchery'.Large knives, axes,
Aprons, cut safe gloves.

I never used a chainsaw when I butchered an elk (Moose) but I can see the time saving.
I hate the bone debris a saw produces.

You get that on supermarket meat in UK. Looks like pink or reddish sticky mud.

I used three knives, one of them a lassic Butchers knife, of a shape Nesmuk copied and made into a knife bearing his name.

Nisbeths in UK is an excellent supplier of quality butchering equipment.

 

[grumit]

As has been said go with a mora cheap but good also worth a look is the cold steel Canadian belt knife I have one in my fishing tackle bag love it

 

[Billy-o]

Also the Buck LT 110 and 112 is getting a lot of love ... cheap, light. That 420HC steel is good, easy to look after/get sharp ... strop it on your jeans and it is a laser

 

[Robson Valley]

Elk and moose are quite different critters, both here, even bison.
Along with just about everything else hunted in North America except pheasants.
One knife just isn't enough from a practical POV.

 

[Janne]

In Europe what we call Elk is what you call Moose in N. Amercaland.
Cervus Alces.
European Bison (Visent or Wisent) is different from your Bison. Same genus, different species.
Not sure if they can produce offspring.

For the average person enjoying nature, within all the legal restrictions, one knife is enough.
Plus one spare if you are far away from closest civilization, which does not happen in UK much.

 

[Billy-o]

I don't think the OP mentioned needing a knife roll to section and pack out a downed Bison ... more canoe camping with the kids and all the whittling of sticks for tent pegs and cooking marshmallows entailed by that

 

[Janne]

No, he mentioned he needed our advice for one "multi task" knife.

Which, to be frank, can be satisfied with 99.9% of the knives out there.

A flint blade can do the same. A good one can satisfy 100% of his knife needs.
Humanity did that for tens of Millennia.

Somebody should start a thread "useless knives". Or maybe "knives with limited use".
That sounds better, not so definite.

Sadly, I own a few knives that fall into that category. Expensive were they too.

One day, when I grow up, I will sell them off, in bulk.

 

[french erick]

Hi Guys, currently reading through the whole thread and trying to work it out. Free hand sharpening refers to sharpening without a jig I assume? Billy-o is spot on. I'd like a nice knife to own but also just canoe camping and try my hand at caring some stuff by the camp fire. I don't hunt, I may gut an occasional fish (which I haven't done since my late teens).
It'll take me a while to sift through the info and googling the various models. The Swedish brand shortened to Mora seems the obvious one to go for as it is cheap, but I don't like their look. I'll still probably go for it to learn to sharpen things.

Keep suggestions coming.
Silly question but how many knives do you guys own? Is the right number n+1?