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Knives?

Norboo

.22LR
I have no knowledge about knives other than few leatherman multi tools.
I want to put together a bug out bag and looking for few good knives and tools.

I came across an article in a survival magazine and wanted to know if this is any good.
Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Bubba blade penetrator.
 
NO, good knives don't need an infomercial to sell them as guys already know about them. Benchmade, ESEE knives, RAT cutlery, etc. If I could only have one knife in a BOB, an ESEE 4 or 5 would likely by my choice.
 
Get the best one you can afford. Benchmade. Esee, kabar, crkt, or a nice older camillus....
 
If you don't want to break the bank, I'm a big fan of Kabar/Becker and Ontario Knife Company. They are very well made and have served me well on backcountry camping trips. Couple of my favorites are the Ontario RAK and their SP8...
 
I'm with @John A. ........ I like Buck knives. I like Shrade/Old Timer/Uncle Henry. Case XX, Camillus, Kabar. Gerber. Even the older Marble's and Remington knives. For all of them though, I'd stick with something made in the US instead of china.

With that said though, Benchmade, Becker, Ontario/RAT, Busse, Adventure Sworn..... all make really good stuff too.
 
Camillus Carnivore

I had wanted to check one of these out for a while now and tonight I was able to handle one. I immediately noticed how much heft it has and that it has a full tang handle. It is a bit shorter than my old Sheffield machete. I am guessing this one is about 18 inches long altogether and about 12-14 inches of cutting surface *guess-timating.

After I brought it home, I fell in love with the saw serrations. They're offset like a chainsaw blade and very sharp. I have no doubt that it will perform that function very well.

The machete edge isn't the sharpest that I have ever seen and I plan to sharpen it better with my Smith brand sharpener.

The handle is a hard plastic, much like most AR15 furniture is these days. It feels a bit slick to be honest and stipling would be an added plus in all fairness.

CM19236n.jpg
 
Bear in mind, the blades are notorious for snapping in half if you do much chopping. Keep it to light cutting or chopping and you should be okay

a449edc01c30be9307e6d65bd6739e68.jpg
 
I've been collecting for awhile; you can look at my list in this thread for some ideas... very few run more than $150. http://www.mossbergowners.com/forum/index.php?threads/a-collection.15794/#post-218692

Made in U.S.A. used to be a qualifier or disqualifier in knife production; but really means very little anymore because even the best manufacturers have knives made in China or Taiwan under strict scrutiny of American quality control employees.

In fixed blades almost anything from KA-BAR, Ontario, Cold Steel, TOPS, Gerber, Condor, Kershaw, Buck, CRKT, SOG, Boker, and to a bit lesser extent Schrade will be sufficient for most purposes. Those are a few of the more reasonably priced (good blades < $150) makers. Typically, carbon steel is superior to stainless in fixed blades.

In folders there are too many to list, but there are many to consider in that same list; carbon versus stainless is less important with folders because the pivot point will fail long before the blades in either type of steel.

You can copy and paste any of the knives in those lists into Google or any search engine to do some comparisons and to see the actual knives... shopping blades is fascinating to me, so have fun with it.
 
Camillus Carnivore

I had wanted to check one of these out for a while now and tonight I was able to handle one. I immediately noticed how much heft it has and that it has a full tang handle. It is a bit shorter than my old Sheffield machete. I am guessing this one is about 18 inches long altogether and about 12-14 inches of cutting surface *guess-timating.

After I brought it home, I fell in love with the saw serrations. They're offset like a chainsaw blade and very sharp. I have no doubt that it will perform that function very well.

The machete edge isn't the sharpest that I have ever seen and I plan to sharpen it better with my Smith brand sharpener.

The handle is a hard plastic, much like most AR15 furniture is these days. It feels a bit slick to be honest and stipling would be an added plus in all fairness.

CM19236n.jpg


I have seen a couple broken ones as well......I handled one floating around and it felt ok. I told the guy I liked it but would like it better if it had a flat spot with no teeth so I could beat on the spine with a rock to split and cut big wood.
He picked up a big heavy cut green limb (we were on a fire) and struck it once into a log......he was left standing with the handle and the big stick......it broke at the handle, one big hit with a piece of wood.
You might like it for something, just dont beat on it
 
Thanks for the heads up guys.

I may just take it back for a refund.

I had much greater expectations for it. Considering the heft of the blade, I expected that it would have been much better than to break off cleanly. That is just simply poor metal composition.

Pot metal breaks.

Steel doesn't ordinarily. It'll typically bend.

Oh well, I still have my old Sheffield machete. I've hacked and beat stuff with it since I was a kid.
 
Thanks for the heads up guys.

I may just take it back for a refund.

I had much greater expectations for it. Considering the heft of the blade, I expected that it would have been much better than to break off cleanly. That is just simply poor metal composition.

Pot metal breaks.

Steel doesn't ordinarily. It'll typically bend.

Oh well, I still have my old Sheffield machete. I've hacked and beat stuff with it since I was a kid.
One thing to consider with cutlery is the heat treatment that determines hardness and toughness. They're both descriptive of a blade's durability, but in different ways.

A steel blade snapping rather than bending isn't necessarily a result of poor manufacturing; the most expensive, best built blade on the planet will snap if it has been hardened so much that it becomes brittle... but blades that hard are designed to be that way because they are for slicing, not impacting. Obviously your Carnivore was designed to be a high and frequent impact blade, not a slicer; so the fact that it snapped under what would be considered normal use for its design obviously points to it being defective.

Hardness represents the resistance to deformation from impacts and abrasion, as well as its ability to keep an edge... a primary quality for cutlery.

Toughness represents tensile strength, or the amount of force that can be applied to the object before it has a catastrophic failure; essentially its flexibility... also a primary quality for cutlery.

Unfortunately these 2 characteristics typically work against each other in cutlery; the harder you make the steel, the more brittle it gets, and hence is more susceptible to chipping, cracking, or outright snapping... a chipped edge or broken tip is a little more difficult and time consuming to repair. If you have a very low hardness rating the steel more easily absorbs pressure and will bend rather than break, but often returns to its original shape; also the edge might roll or dent, but won't chip off or break... it's more pliable. A compromised edge is more easily fixed and resharpened. However, it's much harder to get a really sharp edge on this blade, and it also has to be resharpened often... not cool when in the field trying to clean and dress an animal.

The trick is getting the perfect alloy and heat treatment that embodies the best combination of attributes of both hardness and toughness. Everyone wants a knife that can get and stay very sharp, but also one that can take a bit of a beating without failing. Ideally I try to buy blades that measure between 55 and 60 Rc; seems to be a comfortable medium for knife blades. If you look at ax heads, they typically only register 45-55 Rc hardness, because repeatedly impacting hard wood and knots would routinely chip harder, more brittle edges; while the softer steel would just roll, dent, or become dull, which is easily remedied. Basically, higher Rc for dedicated slicers, and lower Rc for designated beaters; although poor forging or heat treating can mean broken blades regardless.

Blades on certain kinds of cutlery, like real khukuris and swords like Katanas and Wakizashis, actually have different hardness ratings at different points of the same blade; very hard along the edges for superior edge holding and cutting power, but much softer along the spine so the blade has some flex and won't snap during high velocity, high energy impacts. After a battle is over the blade will obviously have chips and knicks in it; but the guy wielding the blade will actually still have one to repair around the campfire that night... can't fix a blade that has snapped in half during the fighting; and anyone that happened to during the heat of battle is probably dead anyway.

My Khukuri in 5160 carbon has an RC of 58-60 along its edge, 45-46 at its belly, and only 22-25 along its spine. The hamon on a Katana visually shows the area that has the higher hardness rating; maybe 58 Rc or so along its edge and only 40 or so along its spine. Even my Spyderco SALT has a higher Rc along its edge than its spine.
 
and JA , looking closer at your pic, the teeth on the one I saw break were different. I think sometimes companies evolve a product.....it might be worth hanging onto since you already have it
 
One thing to consider with cutlery is the heat treatment that determines hardness and toughness. They're both descriptive of a blade's durability, but in different ways.

A steel blade snapping rather than bending isn't necessarily a result of poor manufacturing; the most expensive, best built blade on the planet will snap if it has been hardened so much that it becomes brittle... but blades that hard are designed to be that way because they are for slicing, not impacting. Obviously your Carnivore was designed to be a high and frequent impact blade, not a slicer; so the fact that it snapped under what would be considered normal use for its design obviously points to it being defective.

Hardness represents the resistance to deformation from impacts and abrasion, as well as its ability to keep an edge... a primary quality for cutlery.

Toughness represents tensile strength, or the amount of force that can be applied to the object before it has a catastrophic failure; essentially its flexibility... also a primary quality for cutlery.

Unfortunately these 2 characteristics typically work against each other in cutlery; the harder you make the steel, the more brittle it gets, and hence is more susceptible to chipping, cracking, or outright snapping... a chipped edge or broken tip is a little more difficult and time consuming to repair. If you have a very low hardness rating the steel more easily absorbs pressure and will bend rather than break, but often returns to its original shape; also the edge might roll or dent, but won't chip off or break... it's more pliable. A compromised edge is more easily fixed and resharpened. However, it's much harder to get a really sharp edge on this blade, and it also has to be resharpened often... not cool when in the field trying to clean and dress an animal.

The trick is getting the perfect alloy and heat treatment that embodies the best combination of attributes of both hardness and toughness. Everyone wants a knife that can get and stay very sharp, but also one that can take a bit of a beating without failing. Ideally I try to buy blades that measure between 55 and 60 Rc; seems to be a comfortable medium for knife blades. If you look at ax heads, they typically only register 45-55 Rc hardness, because repeatedly impacting hard wood and knots would routinely chip harder, more brittle edges; while the softer steel would just roll, dent, or become dull, which is easily remedied. Basically, higher Rc for dedicated slicers, and lower Rc for designated beaters; although poor forging or heat treating can mean broken blades regardless.

Blades on certain kinds of cutlery, like real khukuris and swords like Katanas and Wakizashis, actually have different hardness ratings at different points of the same blade; very hard along the edges for superior edge holding and cutting power, but much softer along the spine so the blade has some flex and won't snap during high velocity, high energy impacts. After a battle is over the blade will obviously have chips and knicks in it; but the guy wielding the blade will actually still have one to repair around the campfire that night... can't fix a blade that has snapped in half during the fighting; and anyone that happened to during the heat of battle is probably dead anyway.

My Khukuri in 5160 carbon has an RC of 58-60 along its edge, 45-46 at its belly, and only 22-25 along its spine. The hamon on a Katana visually shows the area that has the higher hardness rating; maybe 58 Rc or so along its edge and only 40 or so along its spine. Even my Spyderco SALT has a higher Rc along its edge than its spine.

damn.....I love this stuff
 
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