One Knife to Rule Them All!?! - The Perfect Knife

I've been on the lookout for quite some time for my perfect knife. I'm not talking about an every day carry (EDC) pocket knife, like my Kershaw Skyline, but my perfect outdoor fixed-blade knife. The one knife that does it all - fine carving, batoning, chopping, food preparation, striking a fire-steel, etc - one that's comfortable to use, not too heavy, holds a good edge, and able to take a beating and still come out on top.  I want all this without breaking the bank. If possible, I would like to stay under $100. Maybe that's asking too much. Can any one knife fit that bill?

 

A few knives I've played with thus far are:

Ka-Bar Becker BK7

I really like the overall size of this one - big enough for some light chopping and plenty tough to baton. I took it backpacking last summer to New Mexico and it served me well. 

My two gripes about it though are that its heavy (I'm hoping to move to lighter weight backpacking) and its a bit big for finer carving tasks. 

Ontario RAT 3

I've not really used this one out in the field much but I've kept it by my wood burning stove and used it to baton wood to kindle my fire. I actually broke my first one doing this but Ontario replaced it. 

It's a bit short for much serious baton use and it's fat belly doesn't seem like it's helpful in finer carving projects. 

Mora Companion

I really like the Mora knives. They are wicked sharp, easy to sharpen, inexpensive, comfortable to hold, and great carvers. 

Some of the negatives are that they are not full tang (maybe more like 3/4) making me nervous for batoning, their spines are not well finished making them poor for striking a fire steel, and they are so light weight that they are pretty much worthless for chopping. 

Mora Heavy Duty Companion

This is my most recent purchase. It has the same basic info from the standard Companion, just a substantially thicker blade. I'll be keeping this by the stove to see how it handles batoning and will bring it camping next month. 

Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie

This knife is a beast! It is absolutely huge, placing it at the top for chopping and batoning. It is comfortable in the hand, has a super sharp tip, and seems to hold an edge well. 

Negatively, because it is so large it is practically worthless for finer work, and definitely more weight than I want to carry on a backpacking trip. 

Ka-Bar Fighting/Utility

I really like this knife. If I had it to do over again I'd go without the partially serrated edge. 

Again it's a bit heavy for backpacking and probably a tad large for finer work. I also don't like the rat-tail tang. Because the tang is so much thinner I bent it a bit with some heavy batoning. 

Well that's my journey thus far. I think I'm concluding that there really can't be one end-all-be-all knife. If I want a good batoner/chopper it'll take a big, heavy, full-tang blade. If I want a fine detail carver and food prep cutter it'll mean a smaller overall knife. In the end I can probably make the smaller knives, like the Moras, fill most backpacking/camping/bushcraft roles. 

Get out there!

~Rhyno 

New Knife - Ka-Bar Becker BK7

I just got this little beauty last week. I was able to take it out the other day and put it through a little bit of wood splitting using the baton method. It performed wonderfully. 

The seven inches of steel with the full tang through the handle plowed well through several logs making some nice kindling for the fire. I was wanting a knife that fit between my smaller blades (I.e. The Ontario RAT 3 and Remoras) and the beefy nine inch Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie. I have a Kabar Fighting Utility Knife that is also a seven inch blade that I loved for backpacking but the rat-tail through the handle simply won't allow it to handle batoning through wood.  It's a great all around knife but now has a slight bend in it :(

 

I was trying to decide between the BK7 and the Ontario RAT7.  It finally came down to price.  The BK7 was around $68 on Amazon and the RAT7 was around $95.  Looking today the RAT7 has jumped to $106 and the BK7 is about $70.  In the reviews I scoured I couldn't find one that seemed decisively better than the other.  On the BladeForum in the Kabar section they, of course, raved of the BK over the RAT.

The BK7 seems to be a nice compromise for size and weight constraints.  My plans for this blade are backpacking and general outdoor use. Here's what their website says about it...

 

"The ultimate BK&T all-purpose utility knife was designed specifically for soldiers and adventurers requiring a sturdy but lightweight combat knife that can stand up to hard use.
Made in the USA."

I'll probably put some type of lanyard on it so that I can choke down on the handle for a bit of extra length for chopping.  It doesn't have the heft of the bowie but it definitely holds its own in the chopping department.  The blade stood up well but of course the coating began wearing off pretty quickly - which it to be expected.  I want this for a hard use knife not a show piece for display (although I think it only looks cooler with the wear and tear).  Hopefully I can get out in the woods soon for some more fun.  I'll let you know how it handles.

 

~Rhyno

Ontario RAT-3 - Knife Review (A Couple of Problems Right Away)

I recently bought an Ontario RAT 3.  I have some larger knives like the Ontario Marine Raider Bowie and the Kabar Fighting/Utility Knife but I was wanting something in a smaller package yet more substantial than the ever praised Mora.  My intended use was general camp use and an EDC knife for my bag.  For general camp use I wanted a full tang knife that could withstand batoning firewood and other lesser chores.  I was disappointed by my Kabar recently when I noticed that it now has a slight curve to it from batoning through firewood.  This really only makes sense since it is not a full tang, but rather a rat-tail tang knife (i.e. the metal runs the full length of the knife but only a slimmer portion than the main blade).  As can be seen in the pic below, the RAT3 has a full tang - it is one solid piece of metal with micarta scale handles attached to it.  Overall the handle portion of the knife should be even stronger than the blade. 

 

The blade length is a little over 3.5 inches (or a little over 9cm) from the handles, with the actual cutting edge being just over 3  inches (or 8cm).  The overall length is about 7.5 inches (or 19cm).  I won't go into all the specs as they can easily be found elsewhere.  Although I find it amusing that Ontario adds an extra centimeter to their described length.  As I stated I just got this knife and wanted to share a couple of things I found so far in my limited experience. 

 

The first thing I noticed was that this particular blade came extremely dull from the factory.  I had no danger at all of cutting myself as I ran my finger down it's "edge."  There seem to be mixed reviews from others - some getting theirs extremely sharp, others finding theirs dull.  This is an unfortunate quality control aspect from Ontario.  We get knives and expect them to be sharp - period.  A dull knife is pointless.  In working to sharpen it I found that I needed to work on reprofiling the edge a bit.  I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and the angle of the RAT 3 simply would not work well for this system.  I used a hand stone and made a bit of a finer edge then worked it over on the Spyderco.  I can now cut hair with it, but find that I still have a bit of a struggle with the curved portion going up to the tip.

 

The second, and more troubling, problem came when I was using this knife to baton some pre-cut kindling for my wood burning stove.  The knife cut beautifully, as I was certain it would.  The full flat ground edge made short work of my kindling turning it into the pencil-sized and smaller pieces I was looking for to start my fire.  My problem arose when I set the RAT 3 on my lap and found that two of the three screws that hold the handle scales in place had fallen out.  In order to shorten my story let me say that I had a bit of difficulty putting the screws back into the brass inserts and getting them tight enough without stripping them.  I did strip out one a bit and bent another, but was able to get them back together and was even able to add some blue locktite yesterday.  Hopefully this will solve my problem.

 

On the plus side, I immediately emailed Ontario and got this reply yesterday,

 

I am sorry for the problems you encountered with your RAT 3 Knife.

 

We will send you out some replacement inserts and screws.

 

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

 

Thank you,

Diane

 

I am very impressed so far with their customer care.  I will write more later if/when they send me the inserts and/or screws.  Good job Ontario! 

 

My plan now is to keep these extra screws with me in my pack so that I can fix the scales on the go if I need to.  Also to that end I added the allen wrench to my sheath with a bit of gorilla tape so that I can fix the knife in the field.

 

 

As can be seen in the pics the black powder coat finish is wearing off, but I expected that (although not so quickly after so little batoning) and I actually like the way it looks.  I got this blade for use, not as a show item.

 

 

The powder coating is ground off on the blade and a chip or two on the spine from whacking it with a small log :) - but the blade is in perfect condition.

 

I added a small piece of paracord to the butt so that I could loop this around my pinkie allowing me to choke down on the handle so as to get better leverage for a swinging/chopping application.  This is a very small blade so it's obviously not the best chopper in the world.

 

 

I don't have very large hands so this smallish knife fits well, and yes, I cut my knuckle with the RAT 3 and that's why I have a bandage on it (obviously that was after I sharpened it).

 

Despite these setbacks I am overall quite pleased with this knife.  I'd rate it an 8 out of 10.  Hopefully after continuing to use it I'll be able to raise my rating to a solid ten.  Only time will tell.

 

Get out there!

 

~Rhyno