"I recently bought a Hungarian made Kalishnakov bayonet with metal sheath...." <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I've been happy with the Cold Steel Voyager series. You can get them for about half retail through discount dealers, gun shows, etc. At that price they're a good value.

Fancier knives are wonderful but they're really for connoisseurs; there's not much functionality advantage.

I have to disagree with you on expensive knives being only for connoisseurs especially when it comes to more expensive knives and the hardness of the steel and the resulting ability of the knife to hold an edge. When I pay $100 for a SOG it's for the rc56-58 steel that is extremely difficult to dull, not to mention the best grip I have ever felt on a truely full tang knife. On a side note I just bought an RSK (rc58-60!!) because this thread made me curious. I am pretty hard on my knives and think that S30V steel blade was worth every penny (and probably more). We'll know for sure after I take it hiking this weekend. I always look for the hardest possible steel I can find when shopping for a new blade. If you want to know how hard I am on my knives... the last knife I ruined was a Kershaw Leek. I tore up the serrations while cutting a battery cable. I had no choice. I was stuck on the side of the road and had to get to work right away. If it had been better steel it probably would have survived. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

One of the reasons I have preferred carbon steel over stainless in the past is the ability to resharpen them easily.

If a blade is so hard that it resists becoming dull, then isn't it also more brittle and subject to breaking, and also wouldn't it resist easy resharpening?

Resharpening at home with time and convenience on your side may be great for a hard knife to sharpen, but easy retouching in the field appeals to me.

Bountyhunter

Thanks to everyone for your input. Since my original post, I have decided not to go with either the Gerber Gator or Freeman folder.

After having taken some of the suggestions here to heart, accompanied with some more research, I believe I'm going to go with either a Benchmade Griptilian Mini or a Gerber EZ Out.

In the past I have been a major believer in the "you get what you pay for attitude", but I have determined that there ought to be a reasonable balance. I really can't justify spending $100 or more on a knife, put I don't want a piece of junk either.

Thanks again to everyone, I'm learning alot from the input here.

Go with the mini-grip, can't go wrong with that.

Steel doesn't have much to do with making an expensive knife expensive, and anyway edge retention isn't that big a deal since you can always re-sharpen the knife. You might want to carry a diamond plate or even a piece of sandpaper so you can resharpen. For serrated edges I guess you need a sharpening cone. Spyderco and Cold Steel will resharpen your knife for free if you send it back to them, so maybe Kershaw will do the same. Best knife deal IMO: the Frosts of Sweden 760 and related models, 4" fixed blade with Scandinavian grind, $10 or so with crummy plastic sheath.

If you can find one I suggest a Gerber Bolt Action Utility.It's around $40 and has a secure lock.It is a 3 inch stainless blade in a Zytel handle.It is a decent blade for the money.
BOATMAN
John

I never have to resharpen in the field because my knives don't get dull that fast and I do use them hard. I would never want to carry a sharpening stone in the field (although sometimes I do). I travel as light as possible and would rather choose a hard steel knife that does not require field sharpening. On a side note my Kershaw was not repairable. At least not possible to get it where I would want to carry it again. I gave it to a co-worker who had never owned a pocket knife, always admired it and did not mind at all that the serrations were all but gone. The serrations were all but completely removed from it from the battery cable incident.

You are absolutely correct that sharpening hard steel is a major pain but since it doesn't have to be done that often it's really not so bad, especially with a good high quality sharpener like a Lanskey. You are also correct about the hard steel blades chipping/breaking as I found out this weekend with my new Benchmade RSK MK1. I somehow put a very tiny chip in the blade while at camp. I think I did it while prying open the lid on a Sterno can which the Benchmade documentation clearly states is not an intended use and voids the warranty. In defense of Doug Ritter and his fine hard-steel knife though, it is an extremely tiny chip which I will easily hone out in about an hour with a fine stone. Also, even though the blade chipped from the way I used it, it was still literally razor sharp over almost the entire blade after a lot of hard use including digging small starter holes for tent posts in extemely dry, hard ground with a lot of rock. I was even able to slice Katadyn Micropur MP1 water purification tablet in half on a rock right through the foil packaging. This is something I have attempted in the past with single-edged razor blades and the RSK did a better job due to the drop point blade shape that was still holding a razor sharp edge, even after a day and a half of very hard use. Today it's Monday and I'm back at work and most of the blade still shaves the hair on the back of my arm. I wouldn't even consider bringing a field sharpener for this knife unless I was going to be gone for a week or longer and doing a lot more digging, prying, and cutting on rocks. Plus if I was in the feild for a week or longer then I think I'd have time to sharpen even the toughest steel with a small diamond sharpener. Since we consider most survival situations to be three days to one week at most, I see no need to carry a sharpener in your kit if this is the knife you carry.

I realize there are benefits to both hard and soft steel but all-in-all after about 25 years of working with almost every variation of field knife known to man, I'm giving Doug's Benchmade RSK MK1 two thumbs up! It's extremely hard steel (hardest I currently own at rc58-60), very light weight at 3.6oz and is one of the few folders that has a locking mechanism that I actually trust for really hard usage.

Thanks Doug ... It was worth every penny!