Looking for a knife for my brother. Any Ideas.

Hello,

I'm looking to buy my brother a knife for his birthday and I was wondering what people would suggest. I have mine from awhile ago and I'm not sure what is out there to purchase. I've been out of the market for years.

He asked for a knife that would be good around camp, but he also expressed that he wanted the knife to at least be functional in a mountain lion/brown bear attack situation.

I didn't tease him too much but I understand what he is looking for.

If anyone has any suggestions and wants to help here is the criteria :
1) Carbon Steel. Unless there have been some amazing new alloys I'd prefer to buy him the tried, true and easy to sharpen High Carbon Knife. (He isn't near the ocean)
2) Must be a fixed blade knife
3) Blade at least 6 inches long. (but not "too" long i.e. must be good to use around camp)
4) Full tang
5) No annoying saw blades on the back of the knife. Knife guards aren't needed either as the wildlife shouldn't be fighting back with knives, although I wouldn't exclude a great knife just because it had a guard. One never knows when my brother will be assaulted by a mountain line that has taped a knife to its paw.
6) Must be of GOOD quality.
7) Price range is $50-$300 US


About my brother: He lives in a major city but does go out on camping trips, hikes, and canoe/kayak trips in very remote areas of Canada (usually Northern Ontario). He is moderately knowledgeable for a camper(i.e. practices proper bear/camp etiquette etc and knows it is incredibly unlikely to even see a bear running away from you). He basically wants a do-it-all knife that is beefy and yet not too unwieldy so it can be used around camp.

I'm open to any suggestions and figured this is the forum to ask for this type of help.

With much thanks,

-NIM

KA-BAR Becker BK-7

Lots of folks will say "Mora!"

Well, I'd agree, but go with more than the $10 ones. Get a decent quality. Good blade shape, light weight, fairly solid, it would "stick" well.

Since you have a large budget.


http://www.knivesshipfree.com/Bravo-2

I'd highly recommend you take a look at Doug Ritter's RSK Mk3.

http://www.equipped.org/rsk_mk3.htm

Its not carbon steel, but it is a superior semi-stainless S30V steel. Fantastic stuff - same steel used in the Mk1 folders.

Great steel, great tough handle material, excellent blade shape, decent sheath.

Its also not a 6" blade, but a good camp knife doesn't need that long a blade.

The Mk3 is designed to be used, but it is a beautiful knife too.

I second JZ's notion. Because of your stipulation for a blade at least 6" long, here's another vote for the Bark River Bravo 2 (7" blade). I have several "Barkies" and they are impressive. You're going to receive about as many suggestions as there are knifemakers.

If I had to pick just one of my knives, like Ken K I'd grab Doug Ritter's MK3. It's nicely balanced, substantial but not too heavy and I like the extended tang. An elegant tool. But the blade length falls short of your specs. And I'm not planning on fending off carnivores with it.

I'd bet that your brother would be delighted with the Bravo 2. It's beefy, but if you are thinking of stabbing a bear with it...beefy's good.

http://www.dlttrading.com/bark-river-knives-bravo-2.html

The Bravo 2 measures 12.25" overall with a 7" blade made of ultra durable A2 tool steel achieving hardness of 59HRC. Blade is a beefy .215" thick and the knife weighs approximately 14.5 oz. Comes complete with a deluxe Sharpshooter leather sheath.

$194-254, depending on the handle material you choose. DLT Trading has provided excellent service.

If I came to face-to-face with a mountain lion or brown bear armed with nothing but a knife I might drop dead of a heart attack.

A good camp knife will not be the best aid in cleaning ones' underwear after repelling a cougar or bear attack...

Joking aside, the KA-BAR that Russ pointed out looks like it may be a good knife purchase for your brother.

i know i sound like a old busted record that keeps skipping but,try Ragweed Forge and under the Helle Listing look at the Laplander knife.under a $100 and made for people who butcher deer and hack wood in everyday,real life situations.

About handle bars: Those old fashioned "hunting daggers" have huge handle bars because everything becomes slippery when covered in blood (or so I'm told).

That being said, a protruding knob between the edge and the fingers should be plenty "handle guard" for your brother. Something like the handle on that K-BAR 7. It also looks like the scales on that handle can be shaped with a rotary tool to suit individual hands. (That handle look a bit too squarish to my liking, but it is kind of hard to tell from internet pictures... )

6 inches is too big a knife for me, so I'll express my ignorance on those and wish you luck finding your brother a nice present. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be good enough to not be left home. The features of a "perfect" knife is something your brother can tell you once he has used that knife for a couple of years...

+1 on the Becker BK-7
I have had one for 5+ years and it is rock solid and holds an edge very well

Yours is not the same as the new BK7 thou, it was made by Camillus with 0170-6 and the new one is by Kabar with 1095. Kabar hardens their own knives on the soft side so I'm guessing they are doing the same with Becker.

That might be, haven't Rockwell tested the blade, but note that it's 1095CroVan, which I assume is 1095 with chromium and vanadium added. What would those add? Carbides?

BTW, I went with the BK-9. There's always a smaller blade around. A Doug Ritter folder or a Roselli from Ragweed, usually more than one. Hard to beat a purpose built knife with a Scandi grind for carving. The folder is always either in my pocket or in my hand.

How about a #22 scalpel blade without a handle?

In a nice plastic pouch with some other stuff.

Can I have dibs on the knife after he tries to test out this functionality?

I was reminded of the scene in the first Indiana Jones movie where the guy came out twirling his swords showing off his prowess. Jones just shrugged his shoulders, pulled his gun, and shot the guy. A bear would do something similar to that when faced with a camp knife...

I guess it depends if the goal is a presentation knife or a hard-use bush knife.

If it's the latter, a Cold Steel Bushman (fixed blade version) might be an option. Inexpensive, very sturdy, and carbon steel to boot.

I have handled a couple in stores, but have not had a chance to field test one. I did note that the handle should probably be wrapped in some sort of material to increase grip and reduce the chance of blisters.

My $0.02.

Vanadium at small amount give steel a smaller grain structure, not sure about chromium but I think it does the same thing.

Kabar spec their USMC knife at 56 (thou no longer listed on their website for some reason), since Becker use the same steel stock and made at the same plant I can't imagine it's different.



I had a bushman and the steel is VERY soft, chopping some branches caused the edge to flattern, they probably did it on purpose so it wouldn't break when used as spear and easy to sharpen with just a rock or something.

Thanks for the review. There is no substitute for hands-on experience.

For my money?
RAT Cutlery RC-6 Fixed 6.5" Plain Blade

I like a smaller blade myself but I have heard lots of great things about the reliability of RAT.
Todd

ToddG beat me to it by a few minutes, but the ESEE (RAT cutlery) RC-6 seems to fit the bill perfectly. Tough as nails.

And on the off chance something happens to it, they have a lifetime no questions asked warranty. (made in US also if that sort of thing matters to you).

Ohhhhhh....did not know about the warranty...I am thinking that rat with the 3in blade is ALL mine!

I actually DON'T like those no question asked warranty, it only means I'm paying for the bone heads who beats their knives to death just for fun. I take care of my knives but pay the same amount to the warranty pool, so essentially I'm being penalized for treat my knives well.

That logic only holds if there are lots of knives coming back for costly warrantee work. If the no questions asked warrantee is more of an advertising thing than something that costs the company money, then neither you or the potential knife abusers are paying much of anything extra.

My guess is that once you've advanced beyond buying those 14" Rambo-survival-alligator-knifes at the mall NinjaMart, and are spending upwards of $50 on a knife from a decent manufacturer with a name that Bubba and JimmySue wouldn't recognize, you are probably no longer an abuser. I'll bet there aren't all that many RAT cutlery knife owners running around yelling "Hey y'all, watch this!"

Quite alright, everyone is entitled to their own opinion (misguided as it may be).

But you are in luck, because you can buy the exact same knife from Ontario (the RAT-7), and save ~ $10-20 depending on where you buy it from. There isn't much of a warranty, so you aren't paying for "bone heads" replacement knives.

WOW. I DID ask in the right place.

Thank you everyone for the ideas and keep them coming. I am just starting to research some of the knives suggested. I appreciate the quality of the knives presented/proposed.

Keep it coming and thank you!
-NIM

True, unless both Ontario and RAT are willing to let us know the return rate of the same knife we are all just guessing here. But I'm basing mine on how warranty works for everybody and haven't seen any numbers suggesting otherwise.



It's simply how the economics of warranty works, I don't see you providing any evidence to the contrary.

C'mon guys, agree to disagree and let's get back to the OP, S.V.P.

http://www.scrapyardknives.com/knives.htm

You might also check out Scrap Yard Knife Co (sister company of Busse and Swamp Rat; Scrap Yard is the more utilitarian of the 3 companies). Everyone I've talked to has had very high opinions of all of their knives (VERY tough knives). Several of them should fit your criteria and price range.

Edit:
Chris Reeve Knives has a couple of very nice knives also, though they are out of s30v stainless. Its a good steel, holds an edge well, and since he doesn't treat it as hard as a lot, it should sharpen pretty easily. (if I remember right, he was one of the knife makers that CPM was corresponding with when they designed s30v, so he should be able to work it well).

http://chrisreeve.com/

Another edit:
Swamp Rat has a knife right now that is 5 3/8" for sale/preorder (Ratmandu is its name). Their business model is a little weird (you have to pre-order, they only make a model or two at a time, but they make good knives as well.
details here
http://www.swampratknifeworks.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=006937