Okay, I know it sounds like heresy, but I'm looking for a cheap fixed blade belt knife, but good enough quality that I can actually use it for a while before it falls apart.

A fellow Wilderness First Aid instructor (actually, she was my instructor-trainer) had a technique that she demonstrated of using a hunting knife to chop logs for firewood. She had a number of fairly inexpensive knives (they had a molded red plastic handle, if anybody knows what they are) that she used for this demonstration and would let the students have for their practicals. Obviously, she didn't want to risk a $500 Sebenza doing this <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> so the knife had to be cheap enough that she didn't mind (too much) if it developed legs and walked off, or broke under the stress, but was good enough quality that you could actually use it for practice.

I mean, sure, you should buy the best equipment you can afford, but what if the best knife you can afford is on sale at Safeway? <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Any suggestions for a good, inexpensive "demonstrator" knife?

Hard to beat the $20 cold steel bushman with a cord-wrapped handle for grip. It chops great and is nearly indestructable. Carbon blade holds an edge fairly well and takes one easily. The epoxy coating is lousy on the stones though. Still for $20 for a sheath knife with a 6+ inch blade and enough heft and haft to chop well...

Yeah I'm a broke scotsman.

Sounds like a Mora, inexpensive but a solid value in a knife.

This is a $9 red wood handled one from Ragweed forge.



Here is a plastic handled version for $12.



You could do a whole lot worse than these for a lot more money. Solid workhorse knives IMO. Knives of this sort are available in many different blade lengths and handle materials, all good values. Batoning these through wood is a great technique.


http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html

Sigh, cloth them ,send them to school and they still don't pay attention <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />. Your instructor definitely used Moras.The noted Canadian survival instructor Mors Kochanski uses Moras. This moderator has Moras stashed everywhere to supplement his primary blades. What Mora could one ask? Ragnar is away until the third week in August. There are several sources for these knives. www.knifeforums.com has some lively threads and resources in Canada. Check out the outdoor survival forum.

I´d definitely go for a scandinavian blade. I used a Martinii for more than a decade for fishing and hunting before I switched to a custom made knife. I was really satisfied with it.

Well, I think I just came perilously close to being the first person in history to ask a stupid question <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I did a search to see if I could find any Canadian sites that sold these knives (no point buying an "inexpensive" knife from a USAn web site if I have to sign away my first-born child to pay the exorbitant Customs and Excise fees to Uncle Jean <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> ) and found a site in BC that sells some pretty nice-looking inexpensive (not "cheap"; my faux pas) knives. One of them looked like the one my instructor-trainer used; the manufacturer was listed as "Erikson". So (here comes the stupid question of the year award) I was about to ask if "Erikson" was a good manufacturer, when I went back to Ragnar's web site and realised the knife that had been recommended to me was "The Mora Knife from KJ Eriksson". So I suppose I'm safe in assuming that Don Dickey simply misspelled "Eriksson", especially as that very knife appears in the KJ Eriksson AB online catalogue. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've decided not to go with the "classic" wood-handled Mora, as it doesn't come with a guard. As I stated in my original post, part of the reason I want to buy some of these knives is to allow students to use them when I teach Wilderness First Aid, and it's one less excuse for them to cut their fingers off. I always say, when you're teaching First Aid, it's bad form to maim your students, and it's downright embarrassing if you kill one <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> So I'll probably go with the ugly bright red synthetic handle

(I know, you're probably wondering why someone who doesn't even recognise the name "Ericson" - even misspelled - is qualified to teach Wilderness First Aid. That's just one of the reasons I recommend anonymity on the Internet) <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />