I'm looking for a new decent bushcraft knife, I want a medium sized fixed blade for me to carry on day hikes and camping. My spending budget is under 100 dollars. The knife I'm looking at right now is the Bark River Fox Hunter now that I've found it for only around 100 bucks.

The blade shop has the Benchmade fixed griptillian for 68 bucks. I haven't found it less than 100 anywhere else. Good price for a good knife.

http://www.thebladeshop.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=391

I personally like the helle Fjelkniv

http://www.ragweedforge.com/HelleCatalog.html

scroll down, a great knife for a decent price, great turnaround time, and costomer service

The benchmade griptilian is available on ebay for around $65 pllus shipping

Any knife with a Scandinavian grind is generally recognized as being better for carving and bushcraft.

There are a lot of options ranging from an $8 Mora to the ~ $500 Ray Mears Woodlore knife.

I carry an anza knife in the field I have carried mine now for over ten years. you can look at them here http://www.anzaknives.com/
or you can find them on ebay but be careful of Pakastani knock offs
Anza knives (I own several) are all hand made and of excellent quality and most of mine were way less than 100 dollars.

Try a knife from rat cutlery. http://www.ratcutlery.com/

I have a RC-4 on Pre-order and it ships mid March. 100 dollars out the door from knivesshipfree.com

Hacksaw is right, go with a Scandinavian traditional grind, single bevel like no. 3 on the picture below. No silly micro bevel as you find on kitchen knives or more modern knives when sharpness is sacrificed for resilience so that you don't have to sharpen it too often. The Scandinavian grind is easier to sharpen anyway and you don't need specialized systems to maintain the edge.

But the most important point is that the large flat bevel will allow you to shave wood more easily for making feather sticks, when a secondary bevel will act like a ski on the wood and it will be more awkward to shave wood.

Also pick a knife that has almost no guard. Guards are for fighting only. Look at butcher, filet, kitchen knives etc, they don't have a guard that would get in the way in some applications.

And get a carbon steel blade so that you have the option of making fire with a flint or a piece of quartz found in the woods and charcloth...

If you are handy with tools (or can wrap paracord), you could look at Jantz Supply. They sell completed blades, you just add the handle material. You can get a nice 4-5" blade for $12 or so. I have ordered from them several times, great service and quality...

i would suggest a Frosts Mora Stainless Steel Clipper Knife 860 they are cheap but dam fine knives. they take an edge very well and keep it, sharpening is easy to. i like em so much i put 2 in each of my bobs and keep acouple in each of my car kits as well.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FROSTS-MORA-CLIPPE...7QQcmdZViewItem

if you don't want stainless steel they do them in high carbon steel to. i highly recommend you get one. they make great gifts to.

Mora... There are more expensive blades out there, but if you lose a Mora you won't feel like the world has ended.

I carry a Mora and a Tramontina Machete. Low price point, but they do the job and have proven themselves.

For something all purpose, do whatever you want, only fixed blade to carry, and cheap, I think I'd look at one of the inexpensive Mora's, or I'd get a Kabar with a kydex sheath, in a length and color you liked. Altrernatively, I'd buy Kukri from coldsteel.

Hhhmmmm, I seem to have already bought these.

Anyway, a good knife is something you are fully prepared to both abuse and take care of. It's kind of like a drag racing car. If you are not fully-prepared to risk breaking it by just stomping all over it, and do so with a lot of ummph, because you know you are not that likely to damage it, then why have it. A knife is a tool that needs to be able to take abuse, and you need to be willing to dish it out.

At the same time, it should be something that you not only are willing to take care of, but enjoy taking care of. Like shining a old pair of shoes you find as comfortable as slippers, and to which you are loyal.

Any of the above can be that kind of knife, and for $100, you can buy all three, and have money left over.

Jackel, I agree with your recommendation of the Mora Clipper.

I saw this post and held off comment because it sounded like Brandon was interested in a more custom style knife. An $18.00 rubber handled/plastic sheathed/mass produced Mora is far from custom.

I have a dresser drawer full of knives; from imported garbage to custom mades, but I now find that when I wear a fixed belt knife for bushcrafting it is usually the Clipper, either stainless or carbon. They just seem to fit my hand well and do the jobs I ask of them. I even keep one in the kitchen to use as a paring knife, my wife does not like it because it is "too sharp". The only thing I do not care for is the plastic sheath but I have not got around to making a replacement leather one yet.

Lots of great knives on the market (I checked out the Bark Rivers Fox Hunter and the Helle Fjelkniv) and some day I should buy myself an attractive scandi-grind knife, till then I will just keep using the Clipper.

Mike

http://www.knifeoutlet.com/shop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=FALS1

There is a review at cutlery science for the Fallkniven S1 (might be slightly larger than your looking for though);

http://www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/s1_f1_wm.html

The Laminated VG10 has good toughness, edge and anti corrosion characteristics.

http://www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/blade_materials.html#S_VG10(lots of good info on the lastest materials tech)

There are lots of excellent knifes around. I like the Helle Odel knife as well (nice traditional bushcraft look). Doug Ritters RSK Mk3 is excellent also but slightly more expensive than the $100 you've specified.

Ragweed forge is great. I reciveid my order 2 days after I placed it and shipping was actually less then the actual cost(I looked on the box) i highly recomend them

I know its above your price range, but I'd encourage you to consider saving a few extra pennies (OK, dollars) to include the Doug Ritter MK3 fixed blade knife. It is a truly fine knife with a combination of features that have meet my outdoor needs very well.

I know a lot of folks out there prefer carbon blades, and I understand its benefits, but I myself appreciate the rust-resistance of the S30V steel.

+1 on the S30V. My Gerber Freeman Hunter is by far my favorite knife for outdoors use...I still can't deny that when working with wood an $8 carbon Mora outperforms it.

I think if you go with the Bark River Fox Hunter you won't be disappointed. I have the NorthStar and several others. The NorthStar is very similar with a slightly different blade shape. The grinds are convex and not hard to maintain once you get the hang of it. Bark River's customer service is outstanding as well.

I'll add a vote of confidence for Ragweed Forge as well.

I had more than a few questions, and "Ragnar" gave me answers and helped me quite a bit.

I purchased a Järvenpää Aito Puukko from him, which has turned out to be one of my favorite bushcraft knives.

I also got a Helle Fire, A Frosts Mora (#740-MG), and a Clipper from Ragweed Forge and I'm happy with all of them.

All of the above have the classic Scandi Grind, which as others have noted, is great for bushcraft.

I also have a SOG Seal Pup Elite (Partially Serrated), SOG Seal Pup Elite (Straight Edge), and a Becker Brute. I take the SOG SPE Straight Edge, Brute and the Aito Puukko into the field for bushcraft. The SOG and Brute are usually relegated to heavy duty use such as chopping, batoning, and so on while the Puukko handles the more delicate or detailed stuff.

Well, I guess I also carry my Leatherman Charge XTi as well, but truth be told I don't use its blade all that much in the field for bushcraft. I have used it for many other things out there though.

if you know of any pawn or resale shops near you, I'd recommend digging around. I got a brand new Cold Steel SRK for fifty dollars. You just have to know what you're looking for.

Brnadon,
THe Fox River is one of BRKT's most lauded knives. I've got a Highland Special, which is (very) similar, and a Northstar, which is in the same class. You'll like the convex grind when it comes time to sharpen it (once you've found your groove with convex sharpening). Beware though, if you get a Bark River, it's like eating Lay's potato chips............

With that said, I couldn;t fault the recommendations for a Mora or the Helle....especially the Helle (though my tastes lean toward the Symfoni)

Good Idea Erik,

Hit the second hand/Salvation Army Stores also, I have had some great knife finds there (have to sort through a lot of junk though).

I was at a garage sale once and found a Grohmann/Russell Canadian Forces #3 "Jump" Knife in the "free" bin! It had a broken tip so after a little filing it became my drop-point caping knife.

Mike

Go with one of the Mora knives with the Scandi grind and you will be amazed at the aharpness and how strong the lightweight, laminated blade is. I really like my Frost's Mora knives, an exceptional value. I have a bunch of expensive knives and the Mora will perform along side any of the others!
Cost for a Mora, about $12. The sheaths are junk, but you can either make one or buy a custom one for a small fee.

Recognize that asking forum dwellers for knife advice is like asking a surgeon for surgical advice: you will be tend to be told that you need a very expensive one. Much of this land was pioneered with green river knives, an unadorned and metallurgically unsophisticated blade that seemed to do the job. Note the knife in askdamice's picture post to your right. Highly functional, carried by someone who seems to go into serious wilderness and has come out every time: not a boutique blade, i think, tho I may be wrong. Townsend Whelen carried a knife that he made out of a kitchen blade in his youth. It is lots of fun to talk about how many blacksmith angels can dance on the head of a san mai 3 layered steel blade-but the thrift shop kitchen knife will serve you well, and position you to make future purchases and join the ranks of the cash-poor, blade-rich community of which many of us are members.

Just a note about the Clippers though, from Karamat, they recommend the Progrip handle of the Clippers in operations where gloves are used because of the friction from the thermoplastic rubber... http://www.karamat.com/supplies.html

nursemike brings up something I've been thinking about lately:

What would the traders, trappers, and other pioneers of the past would carry now, if they had the choices we do today? From what I've read, most were very particular with their blades and tools, carrying what they thought to be the best that they could afford. (Even the humble Green River knives were considered to be some of the best mass produced knives of the time period.) Like you mentioned though, many also got by just fine on whatever they could scrounge together or make themselves. (I have a friction folder a blacksmith made for me that's about as simple and cheap a design as they come, yet has no problem shaving hair off my arm.)

While I don't know for sure what they would do today, in my mind I think they would be a lot like many of us. Keeping an eye out for the best gear at the lowest price and sharing stories of gear that works and gear that failed. With that said, what works for one doesn't always work for another. If it did, we would all have the exact same stuff.

(Hope that isn't too far off topic )

I have a Ranger Knives RD6, SOG Seal Pup (part serrated) and a SOG Field Pup which I am selling to a friend to pick up a Benchmade 151 . I thought the Field Pup was great for $42, but I'm 6'4 with big bear paws and the 151 fits me better.

The RD6 is wonderful but bigger than what you are looking for. I think serration is nice in an EDC but in the field its better to have that part of the blade for carving.

I will stand to be corrected if necessary, but what always gave me pause about Mora blades is you'd be hard pressed to use them for batoning/splitting wood. I understand this isn't a day to day requirement for a knife, but I find it comforting that I can get dry kindling and shavings from the inside of a thick branch even when everything is soaked.

On a different note, I whole heartedly agree with the other posts in regards to avoiding knives you'd be afraid to abuse if necessary.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works has many of the moras mentioned in this thread as well as many other brands. If you order on line from www.eknifeworks.com they offer free shipping on all orders of $10 or more. I have ordered several items and the orders have always been shipped promptly and the service has always been very good.

Interesting diagram. I think I recognize several of the grinds (hollow ground, saber, etc.), but I wonder if you wouldn't mind enumerating them?

It's from Wikipedia:

Typical grinds

1. Hollow ground — A common grind where a convex hollow is removed from both sides of the edge. It produces a very sharp edge but being so thin the edge is more prone to rolling or damage than other grinds. It is unsuited to heavy chopping or cutting hard materials. Straight razors are hollow ground. This grind is used extensively in mass produced knives.

2. Flat ground — The blade tapers all the way from the spine to the edge from both sides. A lot of metal is removed from the blade and is thus more difficult to grind, one factor that limits its commercial use. It sacrifices edge durability in favor of more sharpness. The Finnish puukko is an example of a flat ground knife, as are most forged-blade kitchen knives. A true, flat ground knife having only a single bevel is somewhat of a rarity.

3. Sabre ground — Similar to a flat ground blade except that the bevel starts at about the middle of the blade, not the spine. It produces a more lasting edge at the expense of some cutting ability.

4. Chisel ground — As on a chisel, only one side is ground (often at an edge angle of about 20 – 30°) whilst the other remains flat all the way to the spine. As many Japanese culinary knives tend to be chisel ground they are often sharper than a typical double beveled Western culinary knife. (A chisel grind has only a single edge angle. If a double bevel has the same edge angle as a chisel grind, it still has two edges and thus has twice the included angle.) Knives which are chisel ground come in left and right handed varieties, depending upon which side is ground.

5. Double bevel or compound bevel — A back bevel, similar to a sabre or flat grind, is put on the blade behind the edge bevel (the bevel which is the foremost cutting surface). This back bevel keeps the section of blade behind the edge thinner which improves cutting ability. Being less acute at the edge than a single bevel, sharpness is sacrificed for resilience: such a grind is much less prone to chipping or rolling than a single bevel blade. In practice, double bevels are common in a variety of edge angles and back bevel angles.

6. Convex ground — Rather than tapering with straight lines to the edge, the taper is curved, though in the opposite manner to a hollow grind. Such a shape keeps a lot of metal behind the edge making for a stronger edge while still allowing a good degree of sharpness. This grind can be used on axes and is sometimes called an axe grind. As the angle of the taper is constantly changing this type of grind requires some degree of skill to reproduce on a flat stone. Convex blades usually need to be made from thicker stock than other blades.

There are literally hundreds of options to go with as well as hundreds of opinions that will be given to what is the best. I carry different knives depending on the location I'm going out in. My normal carry is a heavily modified Rat-7, a SwissArmy Backpacker, and a Norlund Boyscout hatchet I rehandle to a straight handle. In western Canada a hatchet and a heavier blade comes in very handy, but next month I'm going camping in Arizona where a hatchet would be better replaced by the Ontario 12" machette I modified down to 9" and reshaped to fit me.
Total Costs: Rat-7 96.00$ and about 20 hours modifying
Backpacker 43.00$
Norlund hatchet 20.00 with about 5 hours rehandling and 10.00$ materials
Machette 25.00$ and 5 hours modifying

Everything I carry is under a hundred bucks and I could do most jobs with any one of them on their own. Bottom line is ask around and see what friends are carring, borrow it for a few hours and try it out, go to the knife shops and handle them. You can't know what will feel good in your hands from a picture.
Lastly, if a knife isn't exsactly how you like it, don't be afraid to try modifying it to suit you, a prodyction knife is made for the general public but with a few mods it can be made to fit you.

For those of you that have the Frosts Moras - are there any of these that float? I was thinking of getting one of the stainless models as a "kayak knife" for my friend who is a total water maniac. I see one of the models (I forgot it's number) has a hollow plastic handle, so there might be floating potential there. Anyone know?

Hey Crogan, thought you could sneak in without me noticing? Welcome to the fire, friend.

I had the great pleasure of spending Sunday afternoon by a fire in the woods with this chap. He's top-notch and his re-worked Ontario machete is SWEET.

-Blast

Welcome Newguy!!!

"...his re-worked Ontario machete is SWEET..."

Maybe he can post a pic???

Sunday was great and looking forward to doing it again Blast. I'll bring my laptop to work tomorrow and see about posting some pics of all my toys. Even got some pics of a few Moras I've rehandled. :-)

Can't wait...

Hi Crogan,

Welcome to the ETS Forum!

I am eager to see your re-handled Mora's, I am interested in changing the grips on a couple of mine.

Moke

So here are the Ontario and the Rat-7, The machette started out as a 12" D-ring handle with I chose cause the D-rings have a slightly thinker blade then the economy. I sanded the power coating off both and reshaped both blades to my liking. Machette got a new Paduk wood handle as well.
Next is a simple 15$ ColdSteel Finnbear I rehandled in Paduk wood and stoled the sheath idea from Bark River. It holds the knife, a small flashlight, and a space pen and sits right in my back pocket.
My first rehandled Mora in green linen micarta with a Leatherman attached to the kydex sheath I made for it.
Second one using same micarta only I sunk the blade in a little further to have a nice little plam knife.
This one for Blast. My Kukrihouse 10" Kukri that after dropping it had to rehandle it and happen to have some elk antler laying around, sheath was a idea hatched between me a local shoemaker.

The pictures don't do them justice, especially the Finnbar and accompanying flashlight/pen/sheath. How does the elk handle feel on your kukri? You didn't have it along on Sunday.

Oh, and you left out your hatchet!

-Blast

Ok, here's the Norlund camp hatchet story..... I was in a second hand shop in Phoenix and came across an old rusted Norlund hatchet with a broken handle. Bought it for 20$, then cleaned it up on the belt sander, profiled the head a little thinner to have a bit better biting ability. Rehandled it with a straight tomahawk-style handle, gave it a bit of a burn pattern with a propane torch and soaked it in linseed oil for a few days. Turned out rather well I'd like think.

The last one is my favorite because this is the first knife I made from scratch myself. The blade is 154cm steel with a flat grind edge. Blade is 6.5" long with an overall length of 12". Handle is stabilized walnut with a plain leather sheath.

I love the hatchet. That's my favorite style of head on any chopper.

I really like to Norlund but my Granfors wilderness hatchet has a really special place in my heart as I've carried it for years before the Norlund.

This hatchet talk makes me wonder if my Cabelas order will ever get here. I can't wait to get my hands on that Snow & Nealley Penobscot kindling axe.

The Norwegian fishing knife Hellefisk has a cork handle. I guess it makes it float as with the vintage life raft survival knife that has a blunted tip and the sheath glued to the life raft and probably used to cut parachute cord.

There are Mora blades without handle available, maybe you can manage to make your own bulky hollowed cork handle and put an extra long lanyard to prevent it from floating away:

http://www.ragweedforge.com/HelleCatalog.html



The WWII life raft survival knife:

Thanks for the tip on that knife. However I was just wanting to buy a decent, but inexpensive, knife to give as a small token gift to my friend. That cork handled model is more expensive than I was wanting.

So I ended up ordering two Frosts Moras after reading how people here like them so much. A carbon steel Clipper #840 for myself, and a stainless Craftsman #760 for my kayaking friend.

You could always drill a small hole in the butt of the handle and through a few wine corks and attach them with a small piece of 550 cord. Would more then suppore the weight of the knife in water and be a rather interesting conversation piece where I'm sure more then one person will say "wow, cool idea!"

If you look at the Mora's on Ragnar's website, the #S-2 and #761 definitely do not float. I think that for a knife that would float, you'd need to use a smaller blade with a larger handle. I might use the pic of the WWII liferaft knife and the cork handles as guides.

It might be fugly but you could use a foamy boat key chain on the lanyard.

Frosts Mora Stainless Steel Clipper Knife 860 sinks like a stone i drilled out a lanyard hole for paracord one

How about if you took a large knife handle and made a mold of it, took one of the smaller mora knife blanks set it inside cork, even wine corks, then set that inside the mold, followed by some spray foam insulation. If it does not float, make the mold larger and spray in more foam.

Got the two Frosts Moras today. Not bad at all for $10 knives! They appear sturdy, strong, and ultimately quite functional. The appearance is basic, but nice enough. Functionality over cosmetics was what I was looking for, and exactly what these Moras provide. They are bigger and beefier than I expected.

The sheaths are not works of art. The one that came with the Clipper #840 is decent enough, very serviceable. But I don't care for the one that came with the Craftsman #860, you can't just "drop" the knife right in. You have to work a bit to get it lined up just right otherwise it drags and hangs and shaves off bits of the plastic sheath. I think they tried to make it too small.