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What do you use your knives for?

Ystranc

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There are more uses for a knife than I can list, meaning that certain types of knives have become more and more specialised eg. Boning and filleting knives with their long flexible blades or heavier broad skinning knives with inflexible blades....hunting knives sometimes being a combination and a poor compromise between the two.
What do you use your knife for and what characteristics do you look for in a knife? What compromises will you accept or do you carry more than one?
 
So many out there to choose from these days Mike.

Personally....I have a Martini 3inch camp knife general use around camp.
A Smith and Wesson pocket knife........without doubt my favourite.
For wood collection and battening I used a Silky saw and a GB "Wildlife hatchet.

To be honest I could quite easily just carry the hand hatchet.......very versatile and has a very keen edge.
 
I always carry a Swiss Army knife of some description, both legal and versatile but not much good for dressing bunnies or food prep because it's hard to keep something like that clean. My personal preference for a camp knife is a short scandie ground knife which isn't particularly thick or broad... I also love my opinel knives but have snapped my fair share of them by asking too much of them (my opinel saw is an inch too short now)
 
i gave up on meat decades ago so my knife choices are pretty simple: a wee leatherman for small fiddly things, a stainless Opinel #8 for food prep, a good bush knife for general work and fire prep (these days it's a Rob Evans Kochanski Tribute), and a machete or billhook when i've got shrubbery to abuse or the need to prep a lot of kindling.

an axe is handy if there's sizable wood to be broken down -- at base camp for a few days for example -- or i'm doing spoon or bowl carving.

i'd love to be able to justify carrying a good bowie knife or the like but in all honesty such a thing would just be troublesome bling for the casual outings i get up to these days. if i was back in the boreal forest for any extended time -- i wish! -- a big blade would definitely find it's way onto the list because it would be legal, it would work as bush knife and machete rolled into one, and (let's face it) it would be sweet to have one on my hip again. nothing quite says "i belong here" when you're in the deep woods like 12" of viscously sharp steel. great fun for a bit of throwing practice too if the afternoons are dragging on a bit and in need a little "pep". :D
 
i'd love to be able to justify carrying a good bowie knife or the like but in all honesty such a thing would just be troublesome bling for the casual outings.
Very true, it's difficult enough to justify any fixed blade without it being an "impressive" blade. I sold my large Karl Schlieper hunting knife because I could never take it anywhere.
 
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