Reddit reviews Morakniv Companion Heavy Duty Knife with Sandvik Carbon Steel Blade, 0.125/4.1-Inch, Military Green (M-12494)

I'd recommend saving 30$ and getting yourself a Morakniv Heavy Duty Companion blade. About 20$ on Amazon, much better for bushcraft and general camp tasks. Link here.

Mora companion HD. 4.83 ozs with sheath and there are plenty of YouTube vids of people beating on them without any problems. The bonus is that it's less than $20

Even cheaper in Carbon Steel

Edit: or carbon with a thicker blade

Check out the Mora Companion HD Carbon for fixed and Opinel #8 Carbon for folding knife.

Both should be OK importing into Canada.

Ka-Bar Becker BK2 short of the mythical 'valyrian steel', this is the knife you would pick up when you see the Night King proceeding. Failed torture test.

Morakniv Companion HD Think Sweden without the girl with the dragon tattoo but a dragon waiting to shave you on a budget. Bang for the buck, come razor sharp out of the box.

No, these aren't EDC, even though you could carry them around.

Condor Bushlore
Morakniv Companion HD

If you wants tool to get out of a car buy a car hammer. If you want a knife for camping get a fixed blade like a Mora Companion.

So get this and this, that's way under your budget. I got the two-pounder and I love it.

Mora, Mora, and then another Mora. You can find the Heavy Duty carbon steel version for 15 dollars if you watch for deals. Seriously. Why even bother sharpening them, at that price they are almost disposable. But then there's the fact that they are great knives, so yeah sharpen that thing and use it forever.

If you don't like it, or want something different then you are only out $15. It's not a matter of why, but why not.

Have you seen the price on some of the "specialist" versions? They're outrageous.

Here's two almost identical blades, but the "bushcraft" has a blackened finish and different handle for 3x the price. Any of the moras besides the standard old versions are all overpriced from what I've seen.

Morakniv Companion Heavy Duty Knife with Sandvik Carbon Steel Blade, Military Green, 0.125/4.1-Inch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_FY61wbG6GZAKF

Morakniv Bushcraft Carbon Black Tactical Knife with 0.125/4.3-Inch Carbon Steel Blade and Plastic Sheath https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009O01H0Y/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_c061wb6NWB39Q

It's definitely enough for a nice knife, though you might want to go a bit higher for a great knife. The KaBar BK2 is actually designed with things like batoning (hammering the knife through wood as a kind of faux hatchet using another piece of wood against the blade of the knife as the hammer itself) or chopping. It's a bit over $60, currently available for $69 to be precise, but as long as you don't flat out abuse it (prying heavy things, for example) it'll serve you well and quite possibly for the rest of your natural life.

At a lower price, you can get the Condor Bushlore, which at $35 is a perfectly valid choice that will serve you well indeed.

For an even lower price yet, the Mora Heavy Companion is from one of those few cheaper knife companies that does incredible work. I wouldn't baton with it, honestly, but even if you did it'd probably hold up just fine.

At a more expensive range, the Ontario Rat-5 is an amazing bushcraft knife. The Fallkniven Pilot Survival Knife is also an amazing knife. The Benchmade Bone Collector is spectacular knife made in D2 tool steel, one of the better steels available at that price. Another amazing knife is the Spyderco Bushcraft made in O1 tool steel. Finally, the Benchmade 162 is a pretty amazing knife.

One thing you'll notice about all of these knives with the exception of the Pilot Survival knife and the BM 162 is that they're all carbon steel knives. Carbon steel is a lot tougher than stainless (with a few very, very rare exceptions I'd never trust a long knife to be stainless steel) with the trade off of being a lot more of a hassle to take care of, since it needs to be regularly cleaned and oiled.

If you want a fire starter, carry a magnesium fire starter. With the carbon steel knives, you can probably strike it against the back of the blade to create the sparks you'll want and if not (like with some of the coated ones) you'll be carrying the striker anyway.

For sharpening, you'll want to get a decent sharpening setup and start stropping. A couple of easy sharpening systems would be the superior Spyderco Sharpermaker (usually available on Amazon around the $50 mark) or the Lansky Sharpening system which while cheaper isn't as good. You could take the time to learn how to free hand it, but most casual users don't care that much because it takes a long time to get proficient at freehand sharpening. Stropping is running the blade against something like smooth leather (usually smooth leather, actually) to remove burrs along the blade of a knife made by use and sharpening and the restore a blade to a better edge without removing metal. Stropping allows for a level of sharpness unachievable by sharpening alone and extends a knife's lifetime by allowing sharpness to be achieved for longer without removing metal from the blade. To learn how to strop, watch videos on YouTube or check out guides from the sidebar of /r/knives.

Finally, if you want a whistle, just carry a whistle. If you want a mirror for signaling, carry a small signaling mirror or mirror polish the knife you buy (a process where you sand the blade with increasing grit level sandpaper until it shines like the sun and you can see yourself in the blade).

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Let's see...

http://www.fedtacticaldirect.com/Kershaw-Camp-10-1077_p_49809.html

Kershaw Camp. Great kukri style blade on a budget that performs excellently.

http://www.bladehq.com/item--Kershaw-Cryo-Spring-Assisted--11101

Kershaw Cryo. Hinderer design for a cheap price! Small blade, but feels big in the hand. The Cryo 2, the larger version, will be coming out soon.

http://www.amazon.com/Mora-Made-in-Sweden-511/dp/B004GAVOUU/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1372063610&sr=1-2&keywords=mora

http://www.amazon.com/Mora-Companion-Heavy-Duty-Knife/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1372063610&sr=1-3&keywords=mora

Moras. 1095 carbon steel, strong and used to do a lot of good things in the woods. Very tough, very sharp, very cheap.

At higher prices, the BK2

http://www.amazon.com/Ka-Bar-Becker-BK7-Combat-Utility/dp/B001IPMG8K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372063915&sr=8-2&keywords=bk2

http://www.amazon.com/Ka-Bar-Becker-BK2-Campanion-Fixed/dp/B001N1DPDE


And of course, the tried and true classic Kabar

http://www.bladehq.com/item--Ka-Bar-Short-USA-FightingUtility--16358

A few to get you started, though, with knives, you generally get what you pay for. Generally, you'll want to figure out exactly what you want in knives, especially in how you use them to find the best deals and blades.


Collecting knives is an expensive habit that ends up going into 500 dollars knives and 1k customs. ;) Budget and collecting don't mix!

If you are looking for a knife, head over to a site like this and just check out their sale/clearance blades. I linked to a stainless steel one that has a good shape for cleaning fish.

If he really is a knife guy, then he will have personal preferences, so a blade might not be the best.

I would suggest picking up a Mora HD Companion (~$20 with sheath) which is my all time favorite outdoor blade. A Custom Strop (~$45) there are a lot of custom makers of those here (see other comments) and a sharpening system (If he doesn't have one, a Lansky is an excellent field sharpener for ~$40, otherwise a 1k/6k stone for ~$30. )

Mora companion is alot of bang for the buck.

You should pick up a few high value knives for the money. Here are a few that are worth way more than their price tag:

Mora Companion - this blade is incredibly useful for camp tasks and bushcraft projects, very strong even though it's not full tang (I've never heard of one breaking).

Ontario RAT Model 1 - This is one of the best folders I've used, at any price. For $26 you won't find a better knife.

Utilitac 2 - This knife comes in a ton of different styles, made by Ontario like the RAT, and of equally high quality. These knives are built like tanks, and can take abuse.

Schrade SCHF9 - Unlike the Mora, this knife is a huge chunk of steel. I doubt you could break it with a hammer to be honest, so if you're tastes run towards the bigger camp knife, this is it.

Water, high calorie food, full tang survival knife, fire starting materials (I have flint/steel, lighter, and waterproof matches), basic first aid kit plus anti-diarrheal tablets, gauze, medical tape.

That was how I started my kit and looking back I think I'd start with those same basics again.

I'm sure you'll get a million opinions on a starter knife, but this was super cheap and the first knife I got in my kit. It's a beast for the price: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NZVZ3E/

Mora, good and cheap though I might upgrade to the $17 one soon.

Guys tend to get all enthusiastic about the dramatic stuff like knives. Sure, a knife is important in your kit, but it's just one of a bunch of items. Keep it simple and concentrate on the big picture. Unless you are going to study Krav Maga, or MCMAP it won't be used for much more than cutting rope or maybe dressing an animal.

Wow, that's a lot of cash for a piece of steel. A lot of sailors swear by Mora Knives which have a high carbon core within a more flexible lower carbon blade, allowing it to hold an edge but not be brittle. I'm not saying it's "best" but I'm not sure I'd spend over $40 on a knife unless I used it every week.

Edit:

I carry a kershaw. Here is one under $20, that is nice.
https://www.amazon.com/Kershaw-3840-FreeFall-Folding-Knife/dp/B00AU6NRJU

Pre-Edit.
Mora.
https://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E
You won't regret this knife. it is great.
That said, just realized this is EDC. Apologies - this one is not something that fits in a pocket.
Opinel is also a great suggestion.

I don't think you can find a better knife for the money. $17 on Amazon when I picked mine up. There is nothing about this knife that would lead you to believe it was $17. http://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1407359237&sr=8-4&keywords=mora

just saw the heavy duty mora has dropped by 4 dollars to $14.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NZVZ3E

They make a "heavy duty" version of the Mora Companion; significantly thicker blade. http://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Carbon-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E

I baton the living crap out of everything any chance I get, never oil it, haven't sharpened it, and it's still sharp enough to do rough carving/whittling. It's damn impressive considering the price.

So I am going to get a Mora blade, it is between these three, that are all close to each other!

http://www.amazon.com/New-Swedish-Mil-Mora-Knife/dp/B004TNWD40

http://www.amazon.com/Mora-Companion-Heavy-Duty-Knife/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=pd_sbs_sg_2

http://www.amazon.com/Mora-HighQ-Robust-Knife-Carbon/dp/B00816PZ8W/ref=pd_sim_sg_1

At this point the $5 differences aren't an issue, what would be my best bet of those three?

http://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382540279&sr=8-2&keywords=mora+knife

http://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Ambitious-Black-PlainEdge-Knife/dp/B004MMSDHO/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1382540355&sr=8-9&keywords=spyderco+tenacious

http://www.amazon.com/Opinel-No8-Carbon-Pocket-Knife/dp/B002SCUO04/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382540386&sr=8-2&keywords=opinel

http://www.amazon.com/Svord-Peasant-Knives-Knife-Handles/dp/B004HV3A3W/ref=pd_sim_hg_15

All good quality knives under $30

Morakniv

Swiss Army

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There's a difference but it's only a few ounces. I currently have a benchmade that I bring with me, so I don't have a lot of room to talk but I will be switching to the swiss army.

Get yourself a Mora knife. They are cheap, and sharp as a razor. You can get a fire steel and some fire starter packs as well.

I'm going to guess that you have gotten trapped in terminology again. I think you want a folder for EDC (Every Day Carry). If that is the case, try one of these - they are great knives, and even if you decide you don't like something about it, you have only spent $20 to have gained the knowledge.

If I am wrong and you want a fixed blade, take a look at the Mora offerings (like this one).

• water and some rations
  
• a good knife ( http://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military-4-1-Inch/dp/B009NZVZ3E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464310278&sr=8-1&keywords=Morakniv-Companion-Sandvik-Military )
  
• maps
  
• a sturdy hiking stick (has several uses)
  
• quality compass