Thanks for the link. I do have a Field Pup and it's an awesome knife! At $15 it's probably the best knife out there. Shame it's the leather sheath; the nylon one is much better. Truly, there may not be a better knife for under $20 than that little SOG. Perhaps a little too expensive for my application but it bears consideration. I think the main issue I may have would be that it might be a little bit too bulky for my needs, but it might work.




I'm in trouble already! I realize that batonning remains controversial. When camping or hiking when I am building a fire, most of the time I prepare kindling by batonning it. I find I can split wood much more accurately and safely with a knife than with an axe. It's just a more precise method, at least for me. True- you could probably build a hundred fires in good conditions without having to split any wood at all. But in bad conditions, especially when it's wet, any wood you scrounge may need to be split to get at the dry part. In a survival situation you probably wouldn't want to risk your most important tool unless you had to but you may have to.




Well, the number is somewhat arbitrary. True, I could spend more on the knife and less somewhere else. Or simply spend more altogether. The problem is price creep- a little more for the knife, a little more for the mirror, a bit more for a better space blanket, etc. and suddenly your $30 kit is $50. I have to draw the line somewhere.

The Mora and Opinel knives both skate in just under $10 delivered and are both very good knives IMO. Not just good cheap knives but good knives, period. Especially the carbon ones. Not so crazy about the Opinel INOX, though. A Mora SS is a bit better.

Thanks for all the suggestions! There are a few out there that I hadn't heard of (a real shocker, knife geek that I am!) and a couple deals that I hadn't seen (especially the $15 SOG...I paid $35 for mine!).

The paring knife idea does have some merit; a bushcraft knife is really just a knife. Few of them have serviceable sheaths, though, something I need for this kit unless it's a folder. Adding a separate sheath would drive up the cost a bit. I would prefer to get a number of the same knife as opposed to a mish-mash of different blades for consistency.