Thanks for your input KenK!

You involuntarily touched a sore spot by mentioning the Ritter Rsk knives. I've been meaning to purchase one or two for years, especially the Rsk 1 Mini, and now that I've made up my mind, they're gone out of production and the Ritter Rsk 1 is on sale for exorbitant prices on Ebay...

The Rsk 2 is indeed a little too big for me, not only for practical reasons but also for social ones. The area where I intend to use the knife is fairly settled and I don't want to raise too many eyebrows by toting around a big blade.
For the same reason I would avoid any "tactical" looking knife.

Don't you worry, one can keep talking about knives for ages...

I know this can easily seem like an iteration of the evergreen discussion "If you can carry only one knife, what would it be?". The difference here is that I don't plan to get stranded on a desert island anytime soon, but I would like to have only one knife, or as few as possible, for a very mundane reason: I use to travel 100 miles away from home with 3 friends in a small car already filled to the brim with supplies, and I can't afford to bring my whole kitchen with me.

I'm aware that a single knife can't possibly excel in every task I mentioned earlier. I'll content myself with a good all-rounder.

I think I'll put the Mora 748 on the test for the next couple of outings. Eventually, as soon as I can afford it, I think I'll settle with a two-knives setup, a bigger bushcraft style blade for chopping and a smaller paring knife for more detailed work.

You could do a lot worse than the item carried by our ancestors during the 19th century - the Green River Knife, which apparently included a bunch of blade shapes, but was generally sturdy,pointy, with a good cutting edge. Many look for all the world like butcher knives. There is a lot of info if you google....

I'll bet your proposed setup will work quite well. Our distant ancestors did just fine with flint and chert cutting tools.

I LOVE the Ritter Mk1's and Mk1 Mini's!! I've actually got the original fullsize and mini, orange scaled fullsize & mini, the Mk4 Gentleman's knife, and the limited runs Mk1 D2 and M4. So very sad to see it is no longer available.

I actually have two Mk2's. One I bought for myself when first available (I'd had the BK10 for quite a few years and it just wasn't what I wanted - the Mk2 hit the mark on the head) and the other was a gift from my wife (who apparently didn't know I'd already bought one). Shhhh, don't tell her!!!

Ken K.

Rubbing salt on the wound here, KenK...

Sorry!! I would think that used Rittergrips would come up for sale once in a while. Maybe?

Well, I figure when my wife & I have left this world my kids will find the knives and drop them off at Goodwill along with all the other perceived crap. Sigh.

If I know I'm going soon (!) I'll post here so you all can start watching my Goodwill for some great knives at even better deals, because Goodwill also won't know what they are.

Ken K.

I love the perspective that hikermor brings. When the trend is to buy the latest, greatest, most tactical equipment, he's like, I can do it all with flint and some duct tape...

Better than average knives do not need to cost an arm or a leg. I’m not sure if it excels at bushcraft and it wouldn’t be my first choice for kitchen duty ...
TOPS Air Wolfe

...but it only cost me a beer (largish stout). Nice piece of sharp steel, sits in the lower drawer, as not new as the day I got it.

I admit I like tactical goodies as much as anyone, but there are times when old stuff comes in handy - when for some unaccountable reason, you don't have your trusty blade handy. Stone tools (flint, chert, or obsidian) can be razor sharp, sharper even than the finest steel edge, but they are very fragile and don't last very long. Resharpening is possible and fairly easy, but that is another story...

If you don't happen to be a master flint knapper and you need a sharp edge, just grab a handy hunk if chert and bust it up, selecting a handy sharp edged piece, and slice away. Whole elephants have been butchered in this way.

Really good flint sources were highly valued and widely traded. It is easy to imagine our ancestors sitting around a campfire, hotly debating the merits of Alibates Flint vs. Yellowstone Obsidian, much as we do D2 vs 154CM, etc.

Are you speaking from personal experience? And then wouldn't it be mastodon instead of elephant? Lol.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find flint, chert, or obsidian in many areas. Sometimes you may need to settle for any kind of rock you can break. It may not be suitable for filleting a fish, but they will chop a tree.