Some good info

[essdee1972]

Good info on choosing survival / outdoor knives.

http://artofmanliness.com/2011/11/29/ho ... val-knife/

[xl_target]

An enjoyable read Esdee. Thanks

[Moin.]

Love the name of the website" The Art of Manliness"

Another very intersting article "Stop Hanging Out With Women and Start Dating Them". If I would have read this befoe I would have fathered a child by now

P.S: Jokes apart, a very interesting and informative read. Thank you for sharing the link.

Best Regards
Moin.

[Mark]

Interesting article, but out of principle I tend to never believe a man who's car has a floor that looks like this:


IMHO, a knife is not a hatchet and should not be beaten or pounded on. Also, while I am a big fan of the firesteel types of firemakers, he advocates keeping the back of the knife sharp enough to shave the steel. If you use the knife much at all that sharp edge plays hell with your hand.

Here is a picture showing the types of knives I prefer for outdoor use:


The one on the top is a cheap pink diving knife that I bought for my daughter when she was 4, it has a bright pink plastic sheath. At the time it was all I could afford but now I really wish I had sacrificed somewhere else and got her a decent knife as this knife has helped clean more deer than the majority of knives out there.


The next knife is a reground Buck "#119 Special", it was pretty much my first hunting knife back when I thought all woodsmen needed a big knife in order to survive in the woods. This one I got with a broken tip and a noticeable belly where someone had tried to sharpen it with a grinder. I was able to get it re-profiled to where it looks and feels nice, and I gave it a very light sandblasting so it looks not too bad. Anyway, for a fixed woods knife this is the style I like- about this long and with a useable point that is not too weak.

After a few years, I realized that I'd never had to fight any grizzly bears to the death yet but I'd sure used my knife to make a lot of sandwiches so I started using folding knives. The folder on the top is a Kabar, but it has a convex grind to the blade and while it is OK at skinning it is too thick to cut meat cleanly and it hangs up a bit so I don't really like to carry it but it makes a nice loaner knife when I have a friend down to hunt, he can carry this knife and I know he has a decent knife to use.

The next is an Opinel, it is a relatively cheap knife but it is light to carry and cheap enough I do not have to worry about losing or breaking it. As a result, I have this knife in my pocket a lot and it gets used quite a bit. It is a bit thin so one has to be careful and not pry with it but this would be a similar type of knife used by a lot of the true outdoorsmen of the late 1800's-early 1900's. If someone were on a budget but looking for a serviceable knife I would suggest one of these without hesitation. About the only major flaw is the wood can get wet and bind the blade from opening easily so I suggest oiling or varnishing the handle when a person first gets the knife.

Next one down is a Blade-Tech pro-hunter lite. I like it because of the pocket clip, the thinness and because it is easy to open. I carry this knife most of the time.

Last is a Buck #110 folder, I carried this for many years and was my favorite hunting knife until I got the blade tech, a person cannot go wrong choosing one of these as a hunting/camping knife in my opinion but they are thick enough to be uncomfortable in a pocket so a belt pouch is handy.

I would not feel comfortable pounding on any of these knives with a piece of wood.

Another excellent resource is the free E-book website www.gutenberg.org and search for old books using "camping" "woodcraft" and "campcraft" in the titles and you will find quite a few books from back when there really was a frontier, and you can learn quite a few tricks. Here is one- a recipe for making powdered lemonade was to squeeze lemon juice over sugar and let it dry, then use that as a powder. Pretty simple, eh?

Anyway, hope that was more interesting information and less sounding like a "lecture"!

Oh, one last little peeve of mine- only an idiot would suggest tying a knife to the end of a stick to make a spear, just sharpen the damn stick and keep the knife on your person!

[Mark]

Here are a couple of books to get you started:


This one is considered the classic and the benchmark:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34607/34 ... 4607-h.htm


Another good one from that era:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34773/34 ... 4773-h.htm

[TC]

Nice read. bookmarked the page...

TC

[Mark]

They are fast enough for me, but I am positive that a professional skinner/butcher would put me to shame time-wise. Realistically, it takes me about an hour start to finish and at that there is still a small amount of meat that I will still need to cut into steaks or grind or whatever. Someone who knows what he is doing, that is measured in minutes. At this point in my life, when I try to make faster cuts I usually wind up cutting something I wasn't intending to.

[winnie_the_pooh]

Mark,

Congratulations on bringing up your child the way children should be brought up.

Heard about these? http://www.swedishknives.com/

[Mark]

I have a couple of those Frost/Mora knives too (Well technically I only have one, as one I gave to one of my kids) and They are an acceptable but not outstanding knife in my opinion. However for the price they are a very good value for what you get.