Knife selection

by Aaron
(Ireland)

My outlook on knife selection is try and suit the knife to the job as closely as possible, I know, not always easy! But you can narrow your odds of having the "right" knife by having two or more knives.

1: Larger, heavy duty, shelter material cutter etc (older, lighter carbon V Cold-steel Kukri was my own pick). I know there are people already shouting at the screen weight, weight, weight! Overloading can turn into a problem very quickly, that's why I went for the thinner blade model rather than the one they do with a blade as thick as the trailmaster bowie.

2: Smaller bladed sheath knife for just about every thing else(I have a Helle Odel laminated blade for this, careful with these, SUPERNATURALLY sharp) Anything by Mora, Brusletto, Fallkniven, or other scandi type knives are good for this. Just a few words of caution on these, the handles can be quite small on these, fitting "in" your hand with little protruding from your hand making it difficult to alter your grip safely. This can be made worse because most of these knives dont have much of a guard to prevent your hand coming to the edge. Once you're used to them you'll wonder about any other choice, but can be tricky. The Helle Odel has a bigger handle than most and weighs next to nothing. I personally pick two knives because they cover a broader range of tasks better than any one knife can.

Another consideration is, if you pick out the best knife in the world that will cover every job as well as my two (good luck with that, let me know and I'll buy it) and it's being used for a heavy chore and unknown to everyone there is a tiny flaw in the blade hidden from everything except xrays and that blade cracks off an inch above the guard.

YOU'VE JUST LOST ALL YOUR KNIVES!

Dont say it could never happen, I've personally seen a tool steel bladed knife, shaped by hand with a file and sandpaper, professionally heat treated, and broken as I described through normal use. The odds are it was simply a flaw from the steel mill, one in ten million chance. Think about it though, You are where you really need your knife and you're looking down at a grey cracked edge of steel where your knife blade used to be. I'd rather be able to take another blade off my belt and carry on working.