Hi folks,

I'm new to the forum but not to the site. This will by my first post...so hi everybody! After reading Doug's spectacular writeup on knife selection, I decided to update my lacking selection (which admittedly was selected for the wrong reasons at the time. ie: price, what was available, and impulse buys with no research).

After a 6000km road trip through the US, I had the opportunity to get some good deals. Unfortunately I found very few of the knives recommended by Doug but did find some which I liked and would like to know what the community thinks about my purchases. I'll explain what drew me to each of them to try and avoid the 'what were you thinking?!' replies.

I did try to search for these knives in the forum in case they were already discussed so if I'm resurrecting an old topic feel free to slap me.

Kershaw 1630 Cyclone: I wanted a very sturdy folding knife for every day carry. I found the Cyclone to be as sturdy as any folding knife I'd held. It's a bit on the heavy side with Aluminum scales but that brings certain peace of mind in a folder for me. I never thought I'd own an assisted open folding knife but it's larger than what I'm used to in a pocket knife and the wide blade combined with my stubby thumbs make it a welcome feature. I don't know much about the Sandvik 13C26 stainless used except that it's Sandvik's standard for surgical knives and razor blades. I also liked the fact it has a hole for a lanyard and a reversible pocket clip (I'm a lefty as well as a Canadian!)

Gerber Freeman S30V Hunter: Had Doug not promoted S30V steel so well in his knife writeup (and selected it for use in his custom designed knives) I may have overlooked this knife. The second I picked it up and felt it's (lack of) weight despite it's seemingly sturdy construction, I was sold. Time will tell if the heavy leather sheath is better than the outstanding Benchmade cordura sheath but I liked the feel of the Gerber much better than the competition...very basic. And with the dark plated metal and Cocobolo wood scales, it's a good looking knife too.

Gerber LMF II Infantry: I must have been running high on testosterone that day but I also bought the LMF II. I was fascinated by how heavy and robust it is yet at the same time comfortable and not in the least bit awkward. It's definitely heavy but I think that's what I wanted...something I know will survive the worst. Doug mentions this knife as simply OK in his writings but doesn't elaborate on it's shortcomings. I can only assume he meant the weight and the serrations on the blade.

Well that's it. Please let me know what you think. I'm mostly interested in knowing that these are good knives and not junk before they let me down in a dire situation.

Thanks in advance,

Dave Tameling

maybe you should buy one or two (cheapies) recommended knives like a mora/ opinel/okapi/...and then use them and then decide? if you can "survive" without a sebenza...then you're in business...
"sebenza doth not maketh man"...victorinox doth!"

haha

pyp

I have many 'cheapies' already but had decided to step things up to the next logical level. I already own a Mora and numerous fixed blades and folders but none of them are durable enough that I'd trust them completely to be a 'survival' knife.

In this case I've already made the decision. I'm just looking for a little postmortem peace of mind.

Dave

what, may i ask would you be using the knives for?
survival?
and what do you mean by survival?

like an all-round/multi-purpose knife?
or just a ready-eddy kind of stab one stab all knife?

if it were just survival, then the knife you had in your hand/pocket would make sense...

very difficult....

therefore i always advocate...one Swiss Army Knife- Matches-and a good light to guide me by... (a lighter can and will let you down)...

from here i can plot...

no offense...just my two cents...

I'll be using these knives for everything one might use a knife for as I hope for them to be my main EDC knives (with the fixed blade only for camping/hiking/fishing/etc)
By survival I mean I need to know I can trust these knives to not break, bend, get dull too quickly, rust at the first sign of moisture, give me blisters, etc should I ever be in a situation where they could be my only tool. I don't pretend to know exactly what that could be and with any luck I'll never be in such a situation...which is why I like to cover all bases.
Multipurpose...always. I tend to measure a knife why what it can't do. The more jobs a knife can't do, the less value it has to me. This is generally why my multipliers or cybertool are always close at hand. I'm also a big promoter of using a knife for the job it was intended. Which is why when I'm out in the rough I carry a separate saw and
an axe or some other chopper. This is likely also why I own so many knives...some are better at some jobs than others...unfortunately I can't carry them all.

If a knife is junk and I'm carrying it around oblivious, I could be asking for trouble and would rather chalk it up as a loss, put it in the drawer with the other OK knives and get something else.

I think your three choices are just fine. I've given more than one consideration for my collection.

Hmm, realistically speaking pretty much any knife made by a reputable manufacturer today is probably good enough at what it's supposed to do. Even something as inexpensive as a Mora or SAK should be entirely sufficient in most survival situations, at least when used with common sense. Obviously your choice is going to depend on several factors, for example what kind of blade you can EDC and what you'll need it for.

There is no such thing as an indestructible knife. I'm not even sure I'd want one. It definitely wouldn't be my priority. IMHO a knife should cut well and should be practical for most tasks that I'm going to encounter in my particular environment. Anything else is pretty much secondary.

Actually it is possible to make a knife with a thick blade that can take an extreme amount of abuse before it falls apart. However, in order to achieve that you'll need to make the blade profile overly beefy, so much so it's going to cut very poorly. In other words you'll end up with a somewhat sharp crowbar that just sucks as a utility knife. IMHO a knife is much too valuable an asset in a survival situation to be abused as a shovel or crowbar. In any case, if you really need to dig a hole or break a lock you'll soon find out that even an oversized "survival" knife with a 1/4" spine is lousy for that kind of work.

All are great choices for multiple purposes. I lean toward the Gerber LMF as a really stout knife is important to me to handle tougher jobs. None of them should be used for digging or as a pry bar unless absolutely necessary as damage is likey to result. I know of two sharpened prybars: Cold Steel SRK or a British Army jungle knife (and it's really heavy).

and the worn out cliche' is "a survival knife is the one that you have on you". One night on the highway, mine was a 3" Kershaw Blackout to remove debris and damage from our car after hitting 6' of truck tire rubber late at night. I would rather have had my 7" Kbar in D2 for this little job. It was at home.

I've decided to attach the LMF II to my pack (BOB normally or whatever bag I take when adventuring out of doors) as an emergency/backup heavy hitter knife. Unfortunately the sheath is SO complicated as it's designed to attach to MOLLE (and similar) gear. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to attach it to anything without using a million straps (and not the straps it came with...those seem to be only good for attaching it to your thigh or calf).

I think I'm just going to have to remove the MOLLE part (which fortunately is easy to do), buy some narrow webbing straps and use the slots in the plastic portion of the sheath to rig it custom like. I'd be saving a lot of weight this way too as the MOLLE part of the sheathe is pretty heavy considering it's all cordura.