Best bargain gear

I was whittling out a spoon that I burned out last Friday, using my Frost’s Mora knife. Looking at the $11 knife I wondered if there was a better bargain on a solid performing bit of gear.

What do you think?

A good solid knife is hard to beat no matter what type. If you have a knife and some skill, there are a number of additional things you can make with it. So, I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would be a better bargain... Except perhaps the knife of your choice bought on sale. LOL

I guess I will be the one to say it...P-38 (the canopener, not the pistol or airplane). It really only does one thing, but it does it well, and for sure doesn't cost much...

i wish i knew where to buy a Mora...

my micra was cheap... aka rescued from a *junk* drawer

www.ragweedforge.com tell Ragnar I sent you.

katarin, follow the link from Chris Kavanugh and buy a mora from Ragnar. Wait, don't buy one, buy at least a few. He charges the same price to ship one knife as he does to send one. he also has good prices on Opinel knives, which are inexpensive folders with locking rings (if you buy a knife as large as an OP-6) from France. I'm not fond of most things from France, but these are a good value.

I'm with OBG on the P-38, although I prefer a P-51 because I find it easier to use. Both can also do several jobs, not just open cans, such these on a list I found: 1. Can Opener, 2. Seam Ripper, 3. Screwdriver, 4. Clean Fingernails, 5. Cut Fishing Line, 6. Open Paint Cans, 7. Window Scraper, 8. Scrape Around Floor Corners, 9. Digging, 10. Clean Out Groove on Tupperware lids, 11. Reach in and Clean Out Small Cracks, 12. Scrape Around Edge of Boots, 13. Bottle Opener, 14. Gut Fish (in the field), 15. Scale Fish, 16. Test for 'Doneness' When Baking on a Camp Fire, 17. Prying Items, 18. Strip Wire, 19. Scrape Pans, 20. Lift Key on Flip Top Cans, 21. Chisel, 22. Barter, 23. Marking Tool, 24. Deflating Tires, 25. Clean Sole of Boot/Shoe, 26. Pick Teeth, 27. Measurement, 28. Striking Flint, 29. Stirring Coffee, 30. Puncturing Plastic Coating, 31. Knocking on Doors, 32. Morse Code, 33. Box Cutter, 34. Opening Letters, 35. Write Emergency Messages, 36. Scratch an Itch, 37. Save as a Souvenir, 38. Rip Off Rank for On-the-Spot Promotions, 39. Bee sting removal tool (scrape off w/ blade).


One other thing I love, that is inexpensive as all heck, that I have in my BOB, and I think everyone should have and know what to do with is yeast. It's cheap, and it's found and cheap in just about every grocery store. If you know what you are doing with it, you can use it and make more of it at the same time. You can take something that does not taste good and make it taste delicious, and you might be able to make a decent beverage with it, in which nothing pathogenic can grow.

i'll second Chris on Ragweed.it's the only place i'll buy knives on the web..

As Kris and others have noted, Ragweed forge is a great place to purchase knives. Ragnar is also good about answering questions about his products.

I sent 4 emails to Ragnar and never got a reply...now the knife I want it out of stock.

I've since ordered similar product from www.bensbackwoods.com . So far I've been very happy with the customer service.

I know you'll all think I'm nuts, but the really dirt cheap ($3.29/dozen) whistles from the link below are pretty darn decent - though they aren't pealess. Great for kids!!

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.do?Ntt=IN-20%2F45&requestURI=searchMain&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=0&x=29&y=11

You may also think I'm nuts in saying that the S30V knives that Doug Ritter has designed and sells are really amazingly low-priced for knives with that steel, with some fairly well-known exceptions (like the some of the Cabelas S30V knives).

That is especially true for the fixed blade Mk3. Until somewhat recently it was nearly impossible to find a lower cost S30V fixed bladed knife.

The Frost Mora would be on my list of quality gear for a bargain price.

In the pocket knife field, I have always considered Victorinox SAKs to be very good knives for the money. The one in my pocket right now has been carried every day for the past 25 years. There are a few nicks and scratches on the scales and the logo has long ago worn off, but if I don't lose it, I expect it to last longer than I do.

It is easy to overlook some of the lowly gear, but when you think about it, a BIC lighter for about $1 is a real bargain. While I carry a fire steel and waterproof matches, I light most of my fires with a BIC.

Someone already mentioned a P-38 can opener. Real cheap, but does the job.

Wendy's Spoons. Free when you eat at Wendy's. Comes wrapped. Great for eating beans out of a can.

Wow, sorry to hear that, Hacksaw. The times I've dealt with Ragnar he's been helpful and very quick to reply.

I'm holding to the theory that something went wrong electronically. When the bark handled Aito comes in stock again I'll try again.

For now I'll be able to play with the Puukko/Leuku combo Ben sent me. Should be waiting for me when I get home.

I ordered a bare Frosts blade too. I'm going to try to handle it myself...speaking of bargain.

"...Clean Sole of Boot/Shoe, 26. Pick Teeth, 27..."

Might I suggest that you reverse those???

"...Wendy's Spoons..."

Speaking of spoons, MRE spoons last forever!!!

I simply cut and pasted a list I found elsewhere, but I will accept that suggestion. Picking my teeth with a can opener is a practice I'd like to avoid.

'Specially right after cleaning the soles of your boots with it!!!

Same rule goes for a SAK tooth pick. Pick your teeth THEN clean your fingernails.

Ziplock freezer bags (one quart and/or one gallon) and heavy-duty plastic trash bags. Their uses are limited only by your imagination.

Mora knives, the P-38, Zip-lock freezer bags, good quality SAKs. Those are all good calls.

The Bics, particularly the mini-Bics, are IMO well on their way to making most match safes and flint bars obsolete. Carry three mini-Bics, one of which is wrapped in a bit of waxed card stock and sealed in foil tape, and the odds are you will never use a match or flint. I learned how to make fire with a fire-bow and a couple of other deep-woods methods but in the end I really think I will never have any practical need of those methods. As boring and unexciting and unheroic as it may seem flipping a Bic works.

Three tiny lighters is a cheap and easy standard to set. Even the youngest untrained survivor can get good results with them.

I will add:
Trash bags. Buy the thicker, larger and tougher commercial versions and you get a lot of bang for your buck. They can become sleeping bag, bivy bag over a sleeping bag, shelter, ground sheet, raincoat, emergency warming shelter if you slip in a candle, field expedient backpack, and if all else fails, a body bag.

Triangular bandage. Usually a 30" square piece of cotton muslin. So simple you can economically make your own. It pays to experiment with the size you like most. You can do a lot with a simple piece of good cloth. It is a bandage, tourniquet, hat, emergency footwear.
Tie the corners up and you have a bindle, a simple cloth container for your gear. Add a stick and you have the picture of a hobo from the 30s. And you learn that a bindle-stick is indeed an efficient way of carrying a light load.

Pillow case. A simple large discount store, cotton/poly pillow case goes for $2 on sale but it is a nice sack and becomes a workable backpack. A potato, flour or gunny sacks will also do but it has been a while since i have seen any of these. A piece of light cord with the ends tied to the bottom corners completes the deal. The cord allows you to stuff gear in the sack and then loop the middle of the cord using a clove hitch over the open end. You end up with a tightly closed sack with two arm loops and a workable backpack.

Light line is always valuable. A lot of gushing noise about 440 cord gets made but any good nylon or polyester 3/16" or 1/4" line will work for most jobs. At about a third the cost. There is nothing particularly special about 440 parachute cord. Not for what it goes for. It is usually either overkill, overbuilt and overpriced for the job, or sixty years behind the state of the art for critical applications. Even for the narrow job of shroud material on a parachute it is increasingly seen as old-school.

Hardware store tarps. The 6' by 8' and 8' by 10' models are often on sale. I recently got a pack of two 8by10s for $7. And they were the silver/brown type and a step up from the cheaper, but still good, all-blue models. Two tarps, a little light line, a couple of sticks and stakes and you have a whole lot of warmth and shelter for a little money.

Dickies work clothing. For sale, and sometimes on sale, at Wal-mart and Sears are long wearing and inexpensive clothing. The thicker denim wears like iron. The thin cotton/poly blends dry quickly. Bottom line being that they often work about as well as many military and expensive camper high-tech alternatives at a fraction the cost.

Keep in mind that plastic trash bags (and ziplock or WalMart bags for that matter) can also be cut into a continuous strip and twisted into incredibly strong cordage.

Re plastic: can make a solar water still.