I've been wondering if I should buy what appears to be a nice knife with handy survival equipment stashed in the handle & sheath--the Aitor Jungle King II ($85). As a kid I got a neat looking $10 survival knife with stuff in the handle and a whetstone, but the blade was junk. The Aitor appears to be of a much better quality, and I was intrigued by the recommendation on
http://www.donrearic.com/slingshots.html

So, should I get a "survival knife" with survival equipment, or a quality folding knife (Benchmade?) and a small survival kit (altoids container) with necessary essentials? That's what I'm hoping to get your advice on.

A solid folding knife would be more around type of the blade that you would take with you almost everywhere, plus it comes handy since due to its size you will have it on you most of the time. Fixed blade even if bit stronger may not be welcomed in certain areas.

Get a good Benchmade blade like Griptilian 551 which are not that expensive. Supplement that with nicely stocked tin and you are in shape. I think that most of the guys here started with a folder and a PSK.

Matt

Could you please tell us where you found an Aitor Jungle King II at 85$. Because I've been looking to replace mine (lost it in the woods <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ). Because when I was looking for a new one, I found them at around 150$us and more. The one under 100$us where cheap knockoff. Be careful they are not "Gaitor" knife see the following thread for advices on survival knife:
http://www.equipped.org/scripts/showflat...amp;amp;fpart=1
or search for "Gaitor" in the last few weeks.


Stefan

The cheapest I've found is $84.95, from http://www.landrysguns.com/Pages/Aitor/Aitor.htm

Thanks for the link.

But the more I read on the this site, the more I think I'll go with a fixed blade and a PSK instead of an all-in-one survival knife. This way you don't have all your eggs in the same basket.

But the kid in me still dreams of this Aitor knife. The goodies that came with it (ferorod, slingshot, cord, etc) where of good quality. The skinner knife that comes with it is nice.

If you buy it, I recommend that put an extra attachement between the handle and the sheath (maybe a ranger band). That is how I lost it. I was bushwacking and the wrist cord got tangled in some branches, when I pushed through, the knife snapped out of the sheath without me noticing <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> . So I still have the sheath with the skinner, but no knife <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />.

Stefan

I agree completely. Gimmicks are just that and nothing beats a good folder and a PSK...except perhaps a good fixed blade and a PSK...haha I had one of those knives with the hollow handle inspired by Rambo and it was junk...looked impressive but I wouldn't have trusted it to save me. For the money, you good buy a good becker and have money left over to buy all sorts of goodies.

I would ask how much experience you have with field knives? When people become interested in our endeavor, the first priority is a knife. Nothing wrong with that, it is an essential item, perhaps the most essential. But there is another aspect we all succumb to; the salivating, ego filled, subconscious reptilian brain twitch to get one Oetzi, King Arthur, D'Artagnan and James Bowie would lust after. Cutting a steak or baling string is one thing. Using a knife your life may someday depend on quite another. I would pick up an Opinel and a Mora. Practise fieldcraft, sharpening and maybe most important the mindset of carrying a knife 24/7 safely and discretely. If you make a mistake your only out a small sum. Read our forum and others online. Profit from all of our mistakes and don't repeat them. Thats called education and progress. Then, and only then, with a nice basic kit assembled with all that money you've saved go out and buy something that tickles that reptilian brain <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Go with a Mora and put the other $75 into a nice PSK. If you don?t have much experience with a knife in the woods go with a small sheath knife, something under 5 inches (the one I?m wearing right now is 3.25?) if you have lots of experience using a knife in the woods you will already know that most of the things you will need a knife for a small knife will do better. If you want a big knife get a hatchet or a machete. Now you must excuse me while I slip into my Nomex coveralls so the big knife Rambo types can flame me. Hope they don?t cut off any thing that they will miss later trying to strike a spark with that really BIG Knife!! [color:"red"] [/color] [color:"green"] [/color] <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

The main problem with the hollow handle knives is blade strength. Without a full or partial tang you are likely to break that blade off the handle. Do you really need a knife with minimal survival equipment in the handle? If so, get a Randall #18, it is sturdy. Cost is very high and you could wait about 40+ months to get one! I prefer a nice solid, fuill tang knife with about a 4 to 5 in blade. Survival gear is in a small pouch and/or the pocket. Just my thoughts. Cheers

No reply over a few days from the source I cited, so maybe it's not authentic. I made sure to ask if what they were selling was the authentic Aitor or a reproduction Gaitor.

I assume you mean the $9 Frost Mora as the inexpensive sheath knife? http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/eComme...p;amp;SKU=FS860 I've never tried Frost--any good? I'm attracted by the price, and plan to get one! How about sharpeners? I've read the article on this site, which recommends Eze-Lap diamond sharpeners. Any in particular, and a good online sources? <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Try www.ragweedforge.com Ragner is a good guy with good prices and always gets the order out very fast. He sales many Nordic and other knives including the Mora’s which are made by KJ Eriksson and Frost.
I was surprised how much knife I got for that amount of money. I customized my wooden handled carbon steel knives by flaming the handles and putting turpentine and linseed oil mix on them. To seal the area between the blade and handle I used bee’s wax to keep it food grade and keep junk out of the handle area.
I have some of the Triflex, laminated and straight carbon steel blades but have not done enough testing to push them far enough to see the difference in them.
I use DMT sharpening stones on them followed by a leather strop and jewelers compound. These knives can be made to be very impressively sharp using the red stone followed by the green stone then the strop.
I think you will find www.outdoors-magazine.com has some very useful information regarding these knives and several different sharpening methods and the equipment available today.

The one and only major problem that I find with the traditional Mora style is that there is absolutely no guard and the handle is one with by its very shape and material (painted wood) encourages slippage when used by wet hands. Outside of that it's a great design.

Brian:

You could always grind down or use a rasp on the wood handle to create concave depressions, as well as putting ridges around the handle so it is not as slick.

Bountyhunter

Mora type knives w/ gaurds also the plastic handle ones

full selection of mora knives

Adam

Are Mora's blade tangs press fit into the wood or do they have anything holding the tang to the handle?

Bountyhunter

The standard, red handled Mora's are an engineer's worse nightmare. The differential tempered rattailed tang goes into a wooden handle with a securing roller pin hammered into the butt. Cut one apart and theres all kinds of empty space inside. But then Mors Kochanski had this decidely canadian field test of stabbing a tree and then standing on the handle as a test. Mr Kochanski used Moras. The slightly up scale versions with plain wooden handles and guards are a little better, but the sheaths lose the traditional deep security. The Moras with plastic handles are perhpas the best. The Mora 2000 is their idea of a survival knife. It has a larger blade with an interesting double thickness, very 'grippy' handle and good sheath. It is a bit pricey vs the competition, though EBAY sometimes has good deals. Frosts are excellent knives. Basically they offer the laminated blades some people prefer. But stainless, high carbon or laminated they all cut, are cheap, sharpen easy, are distributed in america by a great guy ( Ragnar) and teach the owner knifemanship while saving for something 'better.'

The standard wooden handled Moras can be made much better by simply taking them apart, filling the voids with epoxy, and reassembling them. Easy directions for same can be found here: http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/mora.html

M

Great info Mike. Thanks for sharing!

After Chris’ repeated praise of the Moras, I purchased the Triflex Craftsmen #780 ( http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html ) and really like it. Even though this has a bit of a guard molded into the handle, I’m a klutz and still could run my fingers forward and over the blade. Thus, I use a lanyard just big enough to insert the hand (without thumb)—this absolutely keeps the hand from sliding forward even if my grip is poor. If I am wearing gloves, I insert the index finger and as many other fingers as I can get into the loop of the lanyard. On very small knives, I use at least a pinkie or ring-finger lanyard. (A Primer on Lanyards at http://bill-hay.com/Lanyard.htm may be informative.) In all these cases, I can let the knife dangle from the lanyard if I need to use my hands—kind of like the HideAwayKnife ( http://www.hideawayknife.com/main.php ) that Brian purchased recently.

Pete