You are never going to go hunting but you want a simple to maintain knife, this could be your answer!

 You are never going to go hunting but you want a simple to maintain knife, this could be your answer!

So how does one choose a knife?

By watching Bear Grylls?

Certainly NOT

If hunting is not your thing and neither fishing too but you feel you must have a fixed blade knife for your outdoor pursuits, then let me recommend the following style of knife:

You may consider the following:

It is just an opinion.

THE WESTERN STYLED TANTO

Wanger/Linder SuperEdge 8 Worker

Here's why:

Because they are just simply the easiest type of blade shape to maintain. The reason being is that all edges are basically straight and thus require the least amount of hand sharpening skills. End of story.

Many will buy a drop point style knife

LionSteel M7

 or even a knife which features possibly two different sections of blade such as a belly and a recurved (concave) edge, 

FKMD Fox Knives Parus

Cudeman Boina verde

only to find when it comes to sharpening they simply make a mess of it and either stop using that knife once it is blunt and buy another one, or send it out and pay someone else to sharpen it. Or whilst being able to sharpen it, never being able to restore the edge to what it was like from the factory or even close to what it was like, OR BETTER!

 Assuming one likes camping and hiking there may be an interest in maintaining that knife of yours but not to the extent of buying some fancy pants knife sharpening device which costs tens times the price of your new knife, unless you are chasing that cosmic sharp edge, then read no further. 

I suspect some manufacturers really put super high Rockwell ratings on their knives as having nothing to do with the end applications but rather as a marketing thing, in that the person who buys such knives, may not even go camping or hiking, for example but not limited to: the person who wears diving watches but never even goes swimming let alone goes diving. Ok we will call them collectors and this is fine. So a collector probably won't be using that knife all of the time so it would remain sharper for a longer period due to it's high HRC, all things being equal and thus they would be very satisfied with their purchase/s.

But if you like camping 

I like camping and doing extreme stuff like taking the palm heart (where legal LOL)

and would like to at least prepare your own food and have a feeling for days of past in the wilderness then you will want to carry a fixed blade knife and actually use it for something other than cutting A4 printer paper! 

The Western styled tanto 

Halfbreed Blades MIK-05P

is by  far the easiest type of blade to maintain. The easiest blade to maintain is also going to be the easiest knife to actually want to use.

BCT

Differences between the Extrema Ratio ONTOS and the ONTOS II

 Understanding the Differences between the Extrema Ratio ONTOS and the ONTOS II

Let's take a look at them!

Above, the mighty Extrema Ratio ONTOS

Seen above here: The New Extrema Ratio ONTOS II (shown is the N690 Expeditions version, there is also a Böhler S600 Tungsten alloy version as well-more on this later) . 

So what's the difference?

In order to understand the difference between these 2 models we will discuss the finer points of the original ONTOS, a knife which is still a current model from Extrema Ratio.

The Ontos was conceived as a hardcore military survival type knife 

and as such it's design reflects this. A Western styled Tanto, which had a convex ground edge placed upon it. The main part of the blade however is not totally straight and has the slightest curvature to it; combine this with a similar slight curvature of the tip cutting section and you have a formidable cutting piece. 

In order for excessive strength capabilities, the blade width is 6mm and a type of sabre grind, with the spine being reduced in two  key regions, (see below)

one just behind the tip to give this model fair to good penetrative abilities despite it's blade thickness. The spine is further reduced in a region after the hilt where alternating serrations have been placed, 

enabling it's capacity to quickly cut cords. The ONTOS is extremely capable of hard tasks and due to it's overall weight can also be used to chop effortlessly. 

Before I go any further, if you have not seen my extensive reviews of the ONTOS over the years then please check them out under the Play list of Extrema Ratio knives @BushCampingTools.

 

The geometry of the ONTOS is thus totally suited for such tasks as chopping hacking, cutting, levering, hammering, skinning and butchering, along with fire starting tasks. With a hand ground convex edge, the knife edge retains good functionality with heavy work on dirty objects and can easily be maintained in the field. 

The Ontos comes with an option to attach a small pouch which one can place a "survival kit" and diamond sharpening plate. I of course got rid of most of the stuff in this tin and replaced it with my own materials. Needless to say it is fully Molle compatible and also features a leg strap and like all of their scabbards there is much attention drawn to the quality of the stitching and robust nature of their design.

Now what about the new ONTOS II?

Above image showing the Böhler S600 version of the ONTOS II

Ok, so other than a name change, I feel the ONTOS II is a totally different knife than that of the ONTOS. It has been designed for an entirely different market/end use. 

For a start, the blade features a full flat grind which by default results in a substantially thinner profile than that of the ONTOS. One notices the blade is lighter in the hand and this of course has it's benefits for a knife which is practical to be used all day and not just brought out for an imminent survival situation and or emergency. The Blade of the ONTOS II has been re-engineered for cutting tasks. The tip is no longer that of a Western styled Tanto and more of drop point with good curvature which will allow for use as a skinning knife (if you had to). 

The serrations have disappeared and this region can now be used to break dead wood without unnecessarily dulling the primary knife edge (see my Kizlyar Supreme Survival knife reviews where Kizlyar Supreme also feature such a section on their spine of their survival knife). 

They (Extrema Ratio) have however left a good chunk of spine unaltered in order to provide a flat surface for light hammering and or striking surface for a baton. However, the ONTOS II is now basically in the large "camp knife" category- yes it can like all large knives be used in a "survival situation but why would you since if you plan to stay on a deserted tropical island (as I have) you would instead choose the Ontos as weight is not a consideration if one is not on the move.

With 2 options available, a N690 "Expeditions" model, equipped with molle/pals compatible sheath and a Malice strapped pouch and fire steel, what more do you want for your camping/hiking trip? Ok, so what more do you want?

How about the S600 Tungsten alloy tool steel version? What on earth are you are talking about???

Well here's the scenario, you like going out into the wilderness, you will be cutting stuff, all sorts of stuff and you want to move as light as you can for as long as you can then you may not take a sharpening device with you want an edge which will hold up against the most abrasive stuff you can throw at it like cutting mushrooms close to the ground where there is a high probability of the edge contacting stones etc. 

Then you want to process some wood and the only wood is stuff laying on the ground. This wood will never be as clean and free of dirt like fresh sawn timber or dead wood still on the tree, plus you may not have a choice here. Essentially you are taking a big knife made with a steel, of whose edge will resist damage to a greater extent better than N690 all things being equal. 

Now you are saying, heck why no just harden N690 to over 60HRC? Well if one does this then any stainless properties will go out the window because the higher the HRC for N690 the less resistance it has to corrosion and heck that's why you would choose N690 for such a knife if you plan on working in wet/damp conditions all the time and not a high probability of keeping the blade dry, then this might be case just to use a HRC 58 knife. That being said, S600 is not corrosion proof and one should keep it dry. So where will S600 shine? 

I'd say in dry dusty (and hence abrasive) environments, where little or no water can be wasted just to sharpen a knife. So in other words an arid/desert (as an example but of course not limited to) environment. So one's knife edge needs to stay sharp for longer in between being able to actually put it against a stone/device. 

There are of course trade offs with all high HRC knife steels and that is it will, by physics, take longer to sharpen compared with a lower HRC56-58 hardened and tempered blades. With S600 it has a proven edge stability-after all it is a tool steel which is used to cut other metals including other steels!

So if you don't know, what is in Böhler's S600?

So taken directly from Böhler's site

Just look at that elemental composition! It is of course the high Molybdenum (Mo), Vanadium (V) and Tungsten (W) percentages which give the S600 it's amazing characteristics and partake in carbide formation with the Mo also contributing to the overall toughness.  S600 is an alloy which can of course be hardened in the vicinity of HRC 65-67! at a tempering temperature of 540C, however, in the case of the Extrema Ratio ONTOS II S600, we have a more respectable and practical HRC of approx: 64, which is super hard but not insanely hard!  The S600 has also been cryogenically treated for optimal grain structure. Vanadium carbide generation and WC generation provide the basis for wear resistance with Mo improving the toughness.

More to come in the field so stick around!

BCT

Linder knives SUPER EDGE 8 Worker

 WANGER Linder knives SUPER EDGE 8 Worker

Fully made in SOLINGEN Germany!

The Linder SUPER EDGE 8 WORKER is one seriously heavy duty western styled tanto blade made with Japanese Hitachi ATS-34 steel. 

The edge is as described "SUPER" and the proof is in the pudding as they say, this particular knife of mine did the following:

Yes, that's right, this essentially 5mm thick blade 

it sliced straight through that chunk of brass you see in the upper image, with no noticeable damage to the edge of the blade, either visually by eye or by running one's thumbnail across the edge to detect any evidence of edge damage! 

This knife of mine was on display at this years IWA 2025 at the Dirk Wanger Linder stand. Dirk kindly "donated" it to the cause!

The Linder SUPER EDGE 8 WORKER comes in either a black TPE grip 

or Linder's blaze orange TPE which they call "Easy Track" coloration. 

TPE is highly chemical resistant and this grip is super ergonomic. The original LINDER company worked hard to design and produce such a grip, which BTW has a keyway-ed tang and the lanyard hole liner goes all the way through the tang. So there is no chance of the handle parting company with the blade.

The Linder SUPER EDGE 8 WORKER design is from Dominik Graf and bears his logo of the "bear paw". 

The HRC is between 60-61 and the ATS-34 has  been vacuum hardened and cryogenically treated for optimal microstructure.

From my experience with many of the Linder range both prior to Dirk's acquisition and his own models of the Super edge series, these ATS-34 knives are super performers.

The Linder SUPER EDGE 8 WORKER has been designed with "heavy duty use" in mind and as such the tip is capable of extracting "buried arrowheads" from that tree "that got in the way" on that archery trip last week! 

Although, all jokes aside I don't plan on planting any of my arrows into any trees on the next archery trip, although, it's always possible and I have done it on one occasion when the arrow passed clean through a wild goat (dropping the goat where it stood) and embedded itself into (of course) the only tree stump to be found! Being in Australia, where those tree stumps seem to made out of steel, the spring steel of my broad head was, believe it or not, no longer in any way shape or form going to be used for hunting again!

Ok, so with this heavy duty western styled tanto tip this knife begs to used and is no show piece! 

There is a no nonsense Kydex scabbard and "Tek Lok style" quick release belt clip. The security of the knife within this scabbard is very good and inserting this knife you can feel a positive lock up.

The Geometry

The Wanger Linder Super Edge 8 Worker (that's a mouthful!!) main edge is ever so slightly curved. The blade itself represents a sabre grind and the full thickness of the spine occupies a little over half of the width of this blade, thus a very strongly constructed blade.

As mentioned the steel of choice here is Hitachi's ATS-34, a well-proven martensitic stainless steel capable of great HRC. These models hardened to HRC 60-61. The edge is bevelled and there are almost no noticeable grinding marks when using a X10 hand lens to examine the edge.

Whilst the milling marks are clearly visible under high magnification of approximately X12  magnification, the edges are free of grinding marks (but not dust LOL!).

Despite being a big chunk of 5mm ATS-34, this knife has great balance and feels very sturdy in the hand. 

This knife also came with a small fire steel. You'll see it later, nothing great to write home about but none the less it was housed in a kydex mini sheath. No striker as the spine of the Super Edge 8 Worker is acute enough to strike ANY steel.

It was pleasure to collaborate with Linder knives those years back and it came as a semi-shock at the time to hear that they had closed their doors. I say "semi" because it was clear the writing was on the wall when the company who had a long standing history as a manufacturer in Solingen started to sell other companies knives. It was however fantastic news to see that production has not only continued but a new injection of designs and ideas have arisen with the Wanger Linder name we see today and the continuation of the Super Edge series and as was evidenced at the Wanger Linder booth at IWA 2025 just recently in Germany.

I was a firm believer that the "Super Edge series" was what the original Linder needed to take them into the modern market place, keeping the usefulness of models designed to be used and not just looked at. Few production knives have come my way which were deadly sharp out of the box, so sharp I've managed to cut myself by a few clumsy moves, Linder and Wanger Linder knives were/are in that category.

Field reviews coming soon......

BCT