Knife Advice Needed

[Steve]

I am looking to buy a knife that would be a good all around knife to carry on a 2 week hike. It needs to be able to do some light batoning, cutting, skinning, carving, and general purpose work. Has to be full tang and able to hold a decent edge for the entire trip. Reasonable weight with a durable sheath. Maybe 4" - 6" blade length. Prefer straight or partially serrated blade. Looking at a KaBar 1211 or maybe a Gerber LMF. Want to keep the price in the $100 range.

Suggestions?

 

[ISP 5353]

ESEE 4HM

 

[Tryin']

Some are gonna scoff, but in my opinion the Schrade SCHF36 Frontier is the best value going.

We have three that we have absolute beat the tar out of for the past five years. Batoning, sheet metal punch, improvised ax, trenching, deer dressing, you name it. Heck, i even carved a spoon with it because I was told i couldnt. And because it's $35, it's hard to wince when you ding it up. The included sharpener is perfectly functional, as is the sheath. Again, we have used the stuffing out of these with NO issues. It's a budget package, for sure, but it's my go-to every time I head into the back country.

Amazon product ASIN B07JHD2FMM

 

[NoAdmiration]

As a hiker and backpacker I can tell you that you almost never need this kind of knife.

A swiss army knife is generally the most useful, seriously scissors and a toothpick! The added weight of larger knives is generally not worth it. There are not a lot of reasons to do the activities you mentioned unless you are going out of your way to practice those skills.

If you really need to do those things, a Mora companion HD would work well for skinning and carving.

A light weight fording saw will be much safer for wood processing. A hatchet or ax is the proper tool for splitting, but you probably wont need to do that. Batoning is a survival technique, somewhat unsafe and usually damages your knife.

If you really want one knife, the best weight to performance knife for woods stuff I have is the Glock baronet with the root saw. You will need to do a lot of work reprofiling the blade to get a good cutting edge but it's an inexpensive tough knife.
I have super fancy Benchmades and Spydercos but with few exceptions a Mora is more than enough. I like the Ukrainian knives made by BPS. they will do most of what you want but I think they are too thin to baton with unless you really have too.
Of course a good Kukri will do everything you want.

But really you can do just fine without 2 to 3 pounds of knife weighing you down.

All that said, knives are cool so get what you like.

 

[Edged Tools]

slightly smaller than you're looking, but I could get you into a brand new ESEE 3 for that, shipped.

If you find something that fits what you're looking for better, I'd be happy to give you a quote on it. Send me a PM and let me know

 

[Hassiebawked]

I bought a Buck brand knife like 20 years ago. I can’t remember the model number. Black handle. Like like a hunting knife and a survival knife had a baby. I’ve tortured that thing and still have it.

 

[Edged Tools]

I bought a Buck brand knife like 20 years ago. I can’t remember the model number. Black handle. Like like a hunting knife and a survival knife had a baby. I’ve tortured that thing and still have it.

They have a few like that, really good knives

Look kind of like this?