Practical use knives

 Practical Use Knives

Seen here is a jumble of practical knives. The manufacturers are: Work Tuff Gear, Wanger Linder, WithArmour and Extrema Ratio. You will note that no blade exceeds 6.5". With the exception of the WTG knife, all are of stainless steel. Although the WTG model is now available in Böhler  K329. With the exception of Wanger Linder, all of the above manufacturers also produce ginormous (quality) knives for those who just have to own one. For example the mega sized destroy all monsters Zeki Menacho beast from WTG (shown below).

or

The super excellent FKMD RIMOR, which IS a big knife and CAN handle the wilderness just fine but overkill for general hiking and camping.

This is what no one wants to acknowledge.

"Most people will never require the use of a big knife. Big knives are only practical in serious wilderness and even then there will be little difference between a modern big knife's performance and that of a locally made parang or machete. The main difference being cost and that cost difference could easily equate to over one months food and or accommodation/transport in the tropics". 

I've been on many a tropical adventures and let me tell you I've never taken anything more expensive than a multitool with me, in fact the single most expensive item other than a shit hot expedition tent, was an almost indestructible carbon fibre take down fishing rod (because it was def mission critical as we were on an island with no boat!)

If you are not doing this sort of thing then possessing the kind of knife shown in these images, you will not suffer on any other kind of adventure from lack of a practical knife. In fact for all hiking and camping purposes on known trails, a small knife is best. This definitely goes for hunting purposes as well unless you intend to butcher an entire elephant!

What makes a Knife Practical?

Shown above are ALL practical and great knives to satisfy ALL outdoor activities.

Not in any order, here are 4 pretty good reasons to what makes a "practical carry knife":

1/  Ease of carry

If it's a pain to carry then more than likely you'll leave it at home or in the trunk fo the car. No so with the Kizlyar Supreme Dominus (AUS8) Kraton grip

2/ Ease of maintenance (no tools required). Unfortunately MOST knives do not satisfy this criteria unless using an over moulded TPE or Forprene or Kraton type grip permanently affixed to the tang. (see below).

The Kizlyar Vityaz T (AUS8) sporting an over moulded TPE grip. There are Zero parts to come loose or fail. Also this knife has an incredible temper and quite a different bevel angle of 15 degrees.

The superb skinning knife from WTG 

3/ Comfort during excess use (no gloves required)

No acute edges to be found on the handle of Extrema Ratio's Sethlans

OR on this beast, an all day user

4/ Can be used to eat with and prepare all foods.

Simple un coated D2 tool steel, resistant to most food stuffs, even acidic pineapple juice. (Manly Knives (Bulgaria) Model Drugar.

Ego knives (Bulgaria) Perfect EDC knife (made with D2) with a super ergonomic grip and concealed lanyard hole).

A practical knife is an uncoated knife or a knife coated with a food safe material such as certain PVD compounds. Since an uncoated knife (if stainless steel) will basically be un-reactive to any food acids, water, (fresh or salt).

A practical knife should not possess areas which are difficult to keep clean and free of food particles and or raw meat/fish/guts.

To be totally honest after all the years of camping, trekking and hiking around the globe, a synthetic handled knife is one of the most useful items to carry. The exception being on length here is that, my trusty ONTARIO Spec Plus clip point has been one of my most trusted camping knives albeit at 7" length, it fairs well in the Australian bushland and cut it's teeth in the Western Australian wild coastlands along with  New Zealand's wild regions.

Remote beach Australia (WTG Lamigo) in D2.

Manly Knives (Bulgaria) Drugar  A Wanger design. German D2 perfect for cutting close to or in the dirt. Mushrooms, Amethyst Deceivers, Boletus edulis, Lactarius. sp.  Totally at home in the "European forests"

The Superb Kizlyar Supreme YETI (PGK steel)

More than strong enough for the Aussie bush after hacking  down a palm tree to get at the edible "palm heart", the Kizlyar Supreme STURM

But I want a strong knife?

All of the knives shown here in this blog are MORE than strong enough even for THE most arduous tasks (just watch my reviews) however if you want some extra assurances......

Can you have almost indestructibility with a  small size knife? Sure you can, see here for just 3 examples. 

This is one super heavy duty small fixed blade from the Super Edge series) Wanger Linder.

New from With Armour, the CAJO I BK,  a San mai constructed scandi ground powerhouse of a knife using their WASTEEL. 420J2 sandwiching a Vg 10 core.

The mighty Kizlyar Supreme URAL, Above and below) , a full convex ground hunting and camp knife. Built like a tank!

Coastal duties with the Extrema Ratio T4000C (yes, it's a coated blade in this instance and I also own the Satin finish version (totally food safe). Do as I say, not do as I do!

Limited edition WTG Mini Nomad made with Hitachi ATS-34. A superb small knife. 

BCT