Can you recommend a knife?

[TreeMonkey]

Dear all,

Can you please recommend a knife for general bushcraft purposes for around £30 or so?

Do they even exist for such little money?

Tasks I imagine using it for include; feather sticks, general tool carving, bark stripping, possibly skinning on rare occasions perhaps.

Obviously there's tons of knife's on ebay but I'd rather try out a recommendation from one or more of you.

Hope you can help! Cheers all!:)
Tom (TM)

[Scotty]

Got to be a lapp puuko! Very good knives for around £30

[Falcon]

Gary's got one or two options on this page.....
http://www.bearclawbushcraft.co.uk/trading/tools.htm
Either a pukko or Clipper probably best....you might have a bit of change too...:wink:

[oldsoldier]

A Mora knife works great too, & is cheap. I have one, and it hasnt let me down yet. For the price, you can get 3 or 4.

[puffin]

a mora'd be my bet, cracking knife for 8 quid! i've just got one as a back up to m' new n lovley F1

[JP]

Go for a frosts mora bud, they may be cheap but all of the expence go's into the blade. you can perfect your sharpening skills with it also with out wearing out an expencive job. Also if you fancy it you can remove the plastic handle and re handle it and make a leather sheath for it by cutting the plastic one down as a blade guard then wrapping it in leather glueing it on and stitching it to make an authentic looking personal knife for around a tenner! Cheap as chips!
Send me a PM i may be able to sort you out ;)

[TreeMonkey]

Just logged in a .....WHAT CAN I SAY.....you guys are freakin wicked!:You_Rock_Emoticon:

I litterally wacked that thread on their last night not expecting much so soon! So big-up (as they say in the Kent/Sussex hood!) - Scott, Falcon, Old Soldier, Puffin and JP!!!!

Thanks SO much for your suggestions of the Mora and Lapp!

If anyone else has any other thoughts - do keep'em coming as I'll no doubt get the bug and want more! So chuffed! Cheers all! Tom

[Shinken]

For 30 quid it has to be a clipper!

[grummit]

for £30 3 clippers they are realy good and you wont cry if you lose it

[Scotty]

I don't know about a clipper, I think I prefer the original mora training knife over it. Better control for someone new to knife skills and they just feel more substantial in my hands.

[TreeMonkey]

I've seen a Mora Frost Knife for £8.50 on ukkitmonster.com - Would this do the trick for a first knife?

Seems so cheap that I've nothing much to lose ...other than £8.50....and a bit of pride of course!

Cheers to the Clipper recommendations - I'll look in to those now too. Thanks peeps.

[JP]

They sell the clipper on kitmonster too £10.50 its the one issued by the swedish army and has a better handle material, IMO for the extra couple of quid you cant go wrong.

[hanzo]

If my exchange rate calculations are correct, you could probably get a Mora ($10 US) for slicing and more delicate knife use, and Tramontina ($10 US) machete for chopping and heavier knife use, and a Bahco Laplander saw ($23 US) for sawing for about £30.

Probably leaves you enough for a pint or two.

[TreeMonkey]

Hanzo,

Thanks for the info mate! I've checked out the Tramontina and found one on www.springfields.co.uk (http://www.springfields.co.uk) for just £7.95 - cheap as chips as we sometimes say!!! :)

If anyone's had good/not so good experience of these it would be interesting to hear.

I'm now the owner of a Frosts Mora and now I just need to get out next weekend and use it! I'll let you know how I find it. Can't believe just how sharp it is - will have to learn how to keep it that way!

Thanks again everyone. Tom

[JP]

Practicing sharpening is as important as practicing using it buddy, a blunt knife is a screwdriver as we say, keeping good sharp knife is key to any knife work, and practice makes perfect, get a decent set of waterstones from axminster there pretty inexpencive for a combo set they usually have them on offer.Its also handy if you can get someone to teach you how to use them, its easy enough to explain but its easier to show and have a go, monkey see monkey do eh lol \\:D/:wink:

[TreeMonkey]

LOL! I see what you did there - v good! :lmao:

Well - not being one just to talk about it, I took myself off to Bewl Water in Sussex today, sat in a field and attempted to make feather sticks!

Went pretty well and I took a couple of pics on my pony camera phone.

Got home 30 mins ago, carved a hand drill in and in moment of non thinking, sliced my index finger! Monkey?....more like muppet!

Thanks for the advice re sharpening JP! Despite cutting myself today, for the most part I did listen to your advice re cutting in to open air and with confident strokes - HONEST!

Practicing sharpening is as important as practicing using it buddy, a blunt knife is a screwdriver as we say, keeping good sharp knife is key to any knife work, and practice makes perfect, get a decent set of waterstones from axminster there pretty inexpencive for a combo set they usually have them on offer.Its also handy if you can get someone to teach you how to use them, its easy enough to explain but its easier to show and have a go, monkey see monkey do eh lol \\:D/:wink:

[hanzo]

Hanzo,

Thanks for the info mate! I've checked out the Tramontina and found one on www.springfields.co.uk (http://www.springfields.co.uk) for just £7.95 - cheap as chips as we sometimes say!!! :)

If anyone's had good/not so good experience of these it would be interesting to hear.

I'm now the owner of a Frosts Mora and now I just need to get out next weekend and use it! I'll let you know how I find it. Can't believe just how sharp it is - will have to learn how to keep it that way!

Thanks again everyone. Tom


Aloha Tom,

I have had a Tramontina machete for years and it is a nice chopper. Small branches can be chopped through with one chop, thicker ones may take a little more. Since the blade it thin, it splits wood very easily with a baton. I think it is the safer way to go than taking a swing to split a log. Make it extra sharp close to the handle and you can shave fuzz sticks with it and use it as a draw knife. It works well limbing branches, although I like my kukhkuri better for that. That curve is useful.

All in all, pretty handy and robust. And since it is so dirt cheap, I would not be adverse to digging with it if I had to. Or anything else that might ruin a knife.

I have chopped up a fallen tree with the machete for all night firewood before. It took a bit of work, but the machete was able to section off a tree that was about 18 inches in diameter and about 10 feet long. Sorry not metric. We can be so barbaric on the other side of the pond you know. We set up the two of the logs in kind of a "T" formation with one propped on top of the other, started our normal fire under the top log and once the big log caught, we had a nice fire all night long. That tree gave us a couple of nights worth of fire. Ah, fun times.

We just used the resources at hand. One fallen tree for a couple of nights fire. In a survival situation, I wouldn't recommend that approach as it is a lot of effort. I would just gather smaller wood that would not require that kind of effort and time. We were also in no hurry for the logs to ignite and started a smaller fire first. I thought that was a pretty big job for a machete, but it worked.

[TreeMonkey]

Aloha H,

Cheers for your input again, I think I'm sold. That said - I've not even learnt to use a Mora without cutting myself so God only knows what I'll do with a Tramontina!

Lol!:icon_hang

[hanzo]

Just make sure you keep your limbs and any dangly bits out of the swinging arc of it.

I use mine as a chopper. I think for light to medium chopping, it is safer than an axe. I split wood with it with a baton so no swinging there. Just be careful what is under the machete when you baton. For example, toes.

You can use it to shave fuzz sticks, clear a trail, anything really that you would use a large knife for. Since it is fairly robust and very inexpensive, I would have no qualms about using it to dig with either.

As with any tool, be careful and keep it in good working order.

[TreeMonkey]

Just make sure you keep your limbs and any dangly bits out of the swinging arc of it.

I use mine as a chopper. I think for light to medium chopping, it is safer than an axe. I split wood with it with a baton so no swinging there. Just be careful what is under the machete when you baton. For example, toes.

You can use it to shave fuzz sticks, clear a trail, anything really that you would use a large knife for. Since it is fairly robust and very inexpensive, I would have no qualms about using it to dig with either.

As with any tool, be careful and keep it in good working order.

Thanks Hanzo! I'll certainly excercise caution and having had a weekend's survival training which, in part, include knife and Axe work - I think I'm in a safer place than I was before.

Always learning hey! Take it easy mate and thanks.