Gerber E-Z Out

Gerber made a good job with this one; great design and quality at reasonable price. I've been using this knife for over 10 years now and its a really nice allrounder. Lately this knife has been my choice of second knife while hunting; my non-game knife. I prefer carrying one drop point fixed blade taking care of the game (game knife) and one clip point folder managing the other knife activities during the hunt (non-game knife). The E-Z Out is perhaps not the most fancy looking knife but it's robust, reasonable light and easy to handle. I like the elegant shape of the blade and if you keep the edge sharp it really gets the job done nicely. Today the E-Z Out legacy lives on in the DPSF and the Rescue; two tactical modells with serrated edges.

Total length: 200 mm / 115 mm
Blade length: 89 mm
Blade width: 25 mm
Blade thickness: 2,5 mm
Weight: 75 g
Blade: ATS-34 clip point blade with a straight plain edge and a hole for thumb opening
Handle: Glass-filled polycarbonate nylon with rubber inserts and a steel tip down pocket clip

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Opinel No 10

The history of the traditional French knife Opinel starts in the 19th century. The folder series No 1 to No 13, also called Tradition, is built on a simple and stylish concept. The knives are usually delivered with a carbon steel blade or as on this one; a stainless steel blade from Sandvik. The blade locking devise consists of a robust safety ring that by turning locks the blade tightly. The Opinel is, if you ask a Frenchmen, of course the ultimate allround knife, just as we Swedes love our Mora knives. I especially appreciate the Opinel knife's light weight and thin blades.

Specs
Total length: 230 mm / 131 mm
Blade length: 98 mm
Blade thickness: 2 mm
Weight: 70 g
Blade: A thin Inox Sandvik stainless steel blade with nail groove and a smooth clip point shape
Handle: Beech with a natural finish

If you want to read ore about Opinel and their knives; take a look in Vapentidningen no 1 - 2015 in wish I have written an article focusing on the Opinel history and the Tradition knife series.

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Anders Petter Backaryd 20

Anders Petter delivers good quality kitchen knives at reasonable prices. This chefs knife, the Backaryd 20, is a nice allrounder in the kitchen. The knife is well balanced, easy to clean and I like its good cutting edge.

Total length: 340 mm
Blade length: 200 mm
Blade thickness: 2 mm
Material: Molybdenum steel, handle and blade all in one piece.
Total weight: 198 g

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Valor Super Sport

To be honest I didn't think much of this folder when I first got it, but in cases like this I love to be proven wrong. The little knife has shown good quality; the mechanism and plastic details is still going strong. This folder has been tagging along for some years now. First it served as my duty knife while working in a gun store. It cut open tonnes of boxes and wrappings during that time. After that I've used it as an EDC when hunting and fishing. Today this Valor works as a back up knife lying in my rifle bag.

Specs
Blade material: Stainless steel
Blade length: 70 mm
Blade thickness: 3 mm
Knife length: 94 mm / 163 mm
Handle thickness: 12,7 mm
Knife weight: 85 g

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Fällkniven F1 mm

This is in my opinion one of the nicest looking knives in the world; perfect size, balance and shape. You really feel the quality when you pick this piece up. This specific knife; Maroon micarta, is not fabricated any more, its a more exclusive version of the standard F1. Mod. F1 is the official survival knife for pilots within the Swedish Air Force since 1995. The combination of the Maroon micarta's handcrafted beauty and balance and the survival knife's capability makes a perfect match in this knife. On Fällkniven's webpage you can see what F1 modells that is offered today.

Knife length: 210 mm
Knife weight: 180 g
Blade: Drop point
Blade material: Laminated VG10 stainless steel
Blade hardness: 59 HRC
Blade length: 102 mm
Blade thickness: 4,5 mm
Edge: Convex plain
Handle: Full broad tang with steel guard
Handle material: Steel and Maroon micarta
Handle length: 108 mm
Sheath: Three models; all-covering pouch type, one hand operated zytel or Scandinavian loop style
Sheath material: Thick black leather or zytel


Welcome to Jonas Vildmark Bushcraftcenter, we offer classes in  Bushcraft - Survival - Jägarexamen and Motorsågskörkort.

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Morakniv Clipper 840

This is a great all round knife for when I'm going about out at the cabin and in the woods. To us Swedes the mora knife lye close to our hearts even though I think we sometimes are a bit spoiled having these praiseworthy high quality cutting tools lying around in each drawer. I remember myself as a kid collecting all the moras I could find at the homestead. I polished them all, painted the handles in different colors and then I wear them all around my belt almost like a mini skirt. The Clipper feature a 2 mm thick carbon steel blade with a short tang, but I have never had any problems with this knife failing me. Quite the opposite; the Clipper is a joy handling when carving and bushcrafting.
The red Clipper 840 is the carbon version and the blue Clipper 860 is the stainless steel one.
Unfortunately the Clipper was discontinued in the early 2011. The Clipper series was then replaced by the Companion MG and the Craftline HighQ. The newer "clipperlike" knives has a long tang and blade thicknesses between 2-3,2 mm. If you'd like to read more about the Morakniv history I'd like to recommend you to take a look at one of my earlier magazine articles by clicking HERE. Other post I've published about Morakniv's products you can find by clicking HERE.
These are all great knives and it warms my Swedish heart having the mora kniv as a part of our culture.

The Clipper together with some of it's younger siblings (from the top down); Clipper 840, Craftline HighQ Allround, Companion and Companion Heavy Duty.

Specs
Manufacturer: Morakniv AB, production in Mora Dalarna Sweden
Model: Clipper 840
Blade material: Carbon teel C100, HRC 59-60
Blade length: 97 mm
Blade thickness: 2 mm
Blade width: 20 mm
Edge profile: Scandi Grind with a 23 degree angle
Handle material: Black rubber and red plastic
Handle thickness: 20,4 mm
Knife length: 215 mm
Sheath: Black plastic
Knife weight: 74 g
Total weight (knife and sheath): 102 g
Price: 69 SEK (Sweden 2010)

Welcome to Jonas Vildmark Bushcraftcenter, we offer classes in  Bushcraft - Survival - Jägarexamen and Motorsågskörkort.

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Cold Steel Master Hunter

Cold Steel's Master Hunter is a discreet rough neck that blends in in most situations; hunting, woodlore and tactical. The nice long and grippy handle feels secure in all conditions and if it calls for it; the Master Hunter can take on barb wire, tin cans and tiers, trust me I've put this knife through hell during my military service. But stuff like that wasn't in my scope when conducting the bushcraft knife field test 2015. 15 different tough forest knives compared to each utter. You can see the test by clicking HERE.

The Master Hunter
The clean design of the knife indicates this is a serious tool. A robust drop point blade fixed in a Karton rubber handle with a hole for the lanyard. I got this knife back in 1994, then there were two different blade thicknesses to choose from and I picked the thickest. When you look closer at today's Master Hunters you can see that the structure of the handle has slightly changed since the 90's. The Zytel sheath you see in the pic below is a custom job made by Eric E. Noeldechen in Canada. I ordered the sheath from Eric to enable quick one hand operation of the knife. In the 90's the Master Hunter came with a pretty boring Cordura sheath but today you get a factory made Conceal-Ex sheath. You can also get the knife with a gut hook in the product called Master Hunter Plus. The Cold Steel Master Hunter has become a classic for both hunters and military, and lately also bushcrafters has gotten fund of this trooper of a knife.

The Master Enjoys the Woods
It's of course with warm nostalgia I've conducted the past year's testing of this knife, as this knife has been my companion during many adventures in the past. However the Master Hunter ended up in 8th place in the bushcraft knife field test. The long straight handle is also nice to do whittling with and I would say that this knife handle has the most gripy rubber handle out there on the market. I'm guessing the Master Hunter have done better in the test if I had the newer sheath at hand, but the test includes the Cordura sheath from the 90's that I never really gotten along with. The Master Hunter is a classic model that I think will be around for a very long time.

Specs
Manufacturer: Cold Steel, Inc based in Venture California USA and production in Japan
Model: Master Hunter 36JS
Blade material: VG-1
Blade length: 115 mm
Blade thickness: 4,8 mm
Blade width: 28,6 mm
Edge profile: Full flat grind with a primary edge angle of 32°
Knife length: 236 mm
Handle thickness: 22,2 mm
Sheath: Black Cordura
Knife weight: 177 g
Total weight (knife and sheath): 234 g (Cordura sheath)
Price: 1795 SEK (Sweden 2016)

To see other posts I've written on Cold Steel products; click HERE.

Welcome to Jonas Vildmark Bushcraftcenter, we offer classes in  Bushcraft - Survival - Jägarexamen and Motorsågskörkort.

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Böker Counterfeit Folder

This is a counterfeit and I'm guessing it's made somewhere in Asia. Böker is a well known high quality knife brand that of course is tempting for a pirate to copy. On Bökers counterfeit page you can see more copies. But if I try to overlook the moral aspect of pirate copying this knife is relatively good. It's pretty well balanced and fits good in my hand and slips nicely down my pocket, using the tip down pocket clip while hiking. The knife is not beautiful but it works so far. Will be interesting to see how long it will last. I encourage you to try avoiding counterfeits both for the moral aspects as well as the big risk of being disappointed in the products performance.

Length: 196 mm / 117 mm
Weight: 127 g
Blade: 80 mm long black stainless steel clip point blade with one thumbutton on each side
Handle: Camouflaged aluminum handle plates with a black pocket clip for tip down carry

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Silky Nata 240

Silky's Nata 240 is a hard working friend when you have some light lumberjacking to do out in the bush. This robust machete is heavy but well balanced. I like the handle's good grip and the nice blade shape. Another good feature is the quick lock conecting the sheath with the belt loop. This makes it easy to choose if you want to carry the tool on your hip or inside the backpack. The Japanese axe Nata comes in four different sizes, from 150 mm to 240 mm blades, and comes in bouth single edge and double edge (as on the knife I used).

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Knife length: 425 mm

Knife weight: 680 g.

Blade: Rectangle shaped

Blade material: Stainless steel

Tang: Hole

Blade length: 257 mm

Blade width: 50 mm

Blade thickness: 5 mm

Edge: Straight plain.

Handle: Two pieced, able to dismount

Handle material: Black rubber

Handle lenght: 180 mm.

Sheath: Robust rectangle shaped sheath with quick lock loop and a push button safety
Sheath material: Aluminum, plastic and leather
Sheath length: 398 mm
Sheath weight: 200 g.
Total length (knife in sheath): 440 mm
Total weight (knife and sheath): 880 g

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Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops

When you need a fixed blade knife but for some reason have to choose a folder; this is a good pick. This is a very robust liner lock folder from Smith & Wesson. I've carried this knife in the jungle and it lives up to its catchy name. The rough handle of the Extreme Ops gives a nice grip even when wet. I also really like the tight folding mechanism. But the fact that I can't find any information on this specific model makes me suspect this could be a counterfeit. If you recognise this model and have some information for me; please let me know.
Counterfeit or not; this knife has done it's job well so far.

Total length: 226 mm
Weight: 190 g
Blade: Drop point blade with thumb buttons on both sides
Blade material: Brushed stainless steel
Blade length: 97 mm
Blade width: 30 mm
Blade thickness: 3 mm
Edge: Straight plain
Handle: Finger grooved and jagged with tip down clip carry
Handle material: Composite material and metal
Handle length: 130 mm
Link: Smith & Wesson

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Indian Kukri set

This is a nice looking Kukri set; a bargain I made on a flea market. The knives are intended just for show, but I guess the bigger one could deliver quite a decent chopping blow if sharpened and used in the field. You can really make good deals on these type of knives in some market places. But bare in mind that many of these kukris are just souvenirs.

Knife 1: Medium fixed blade kukri
Knife 2: Large fixed blade kukri
Length 1: 229 mm
Length 2: 325 mm
Weight 1: 123 g
Weight 2: 285 g

Blade 1 & 2: Kukri shaped blade with engraving
Material 1 & 2: Polished steel

Tang 1 & 2: N/A
Length 1: 154 mm
Length 2: 225 mm
Width 1: 34 mm
Width 2: 44 mm
Thickness 1: 5 mm
Thickness 2: 6 mm
Edge 1 & 2: Convex plain

Handle 1 & 2: Hand shaped wood handle with lion shaped butt
Material 1 & 2: Metal and wood
Length 1: 80 mm
Length 2: 105 mm

Sheath 1 & 2: Black leather sheath with belt strap
Material 1 & 2: Wood, leather and metal
Length 1: 185 mm
Length 2: 265 mm
Weight 1: 34 g
Weight 2: 65 g

Total length 1 (knife in sheath): 250 mm
Total length 2 (knife in sheath): 353 mm
Total weight 1 (knife and sheath): 156 g
Total weight 2 (knife and sheath): 351 g

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Franklin Mint Collector Pocket Knife

This is a good looking folder that is best suited to be kept on the shelf as an ornament. The knife, offered by Franklin Mint, comes with a small collectors bag and a collectors certificate. This knife is one of a series of folders of the same size but with different motives on the handles. This knife's motive is a bear fishing for salmon.

Knife length: 175 mm
Knife weight: 146 g
Blade: Drop point blade with nail nick
Blade material: Stainless steel
Blade length: 71 mm
Blade width: 20 mm
Blade thickness: 2 mm
Edge: Straight plain
Handle: Finger grooved, engraved with bear and salmon motive
Handle material: Plastic and metal
Handle length: 104 mm

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Buck General 120

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This is in my opinion one of the most beautiful clip point blades ever produced. This classic also got smaller siblings in the Special 119, Pathfinder 105 and the Woodsman 102 . The Buck General feels light when you pick it up. I would have preferred a bit more weight in the blade. The original Buck General is not manufactured anymore but a tribute knife called Boone and Crocket can be found at Buck. I'm glad I found this knife for a reasonable prize on the used market. Today the old Generals are highly attractive on the collectors market.

Knife length: 305 mm
Knife weight: 241 g
Blade: Clip point
Blade material: Stainless steel 420 HC
Blade length: 191 mm
Blade width: 29 mm
Blade thickness: 4,5 mm
Edge: Straight plain
Handle: Finger grooved with guard and butt of aluminum
Handle material: Black phenolic and metal
Handle length: 114 mm
Sheath: One push button lock and one leg strap
Sheath material: Black leather
Sheath length: 360 mm
Sheath weight: 178 g
Total length (knife in sheath): 360 mm
Total weight (knife and sheath): 418 g

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Bayonet m/96

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An old Swedish bayonet used on bolt-action rifles m/1896 and m/1938 manufactured in Sweden (Carl Gustafs stads Gevärsfaktori and Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag) and Germany (Waffenfabrik Mauser Oberndorf a/n). This bayonet can also be used on the automatic rifle Ag m/42.
A lethal weapon back in the days and today a beautiful ornament. Or why not sharpen up your m/96 bayonet and use it when out hunting wild bore.

Knife length: 330 mm
Knife weight: 280 g
Blade: Dagger point
Blade material: Stainless steel
Tang: Short
Blade length: 207 mm
Blade width: 24 mm
Blade thickness: 5 mm
Edge: Straight plain
Handle: Hollow cylindrical with guard and mounting ring
Handle material: Steel
Handle length: 123 mm
Sheath: One button lock and one metal spring lock
Sheath material: Steel and leather
Sheath length: 425 mm
Sheath weight: 208 g
Total length (knife in sheath): 425 mm
Total weight (knife and sheath): 488 g

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Crossnar Wood Penknife 10649

This is a price worthy little Crossnar knife from Aceros de Hispania. Unfortunately this nice folder has been discontinued. This is a knife to carry on days when size matters. A elegant dense little knife that fits perfectly in any small pocket, for instance inside that little pocket over the right hand pocket on your jeans. Despite its small size, unfolded this knife feels quite big. This makes this snug little beauty one of my favorite Every Day Carry (EDC), although I usually pick a clip point before a drop point in my EDC's.

Specs
Blade material: Stainless steel 420
Blade length: 52 mm
Blade thickness: 1,8 mm
Knife length: 73 mm / 125 mm
Handle thickness: 13,5 mm
Knife weight: 52 g
Price: 70 SEK (Barcelona 2010)

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Ontario RAT-7 D2

This is an very robust knife with a nice roomy sheet that makes it possible to carry the knife in many different ways. This knife is designed by Jeff Randall and Randall’s Adventure and Training (RAT) in cooperation with Ontario Knife Company (OKC). That collaboration ended in 2007 and today Ontario offer a similar knife in the RAT-7, and the company ESEE Knives offer a similar knife with their model ESEE-6 from the nice knife line ESEE. I got this knife at Miller's Surplus during my time in the states back in 2008. I've been carrying this piece for long periods in rough conditions often under water and surprisingly the carbon steel has been very corrosion resistant. This knife followed me for example during my adventure at Haigler Creek. The canvas micarta handle provides a secure grip even when wet and the blade has really hold up good. This knife have now been trough some inspiring dirt time and a beautiful patina has appeared.

Knife length: 315 mm
Knife weight: 361 g
Blade: Drop point, non-reflective powder coating
Blade material: D2 steel, Rockwell hardness 58-59
Tang: Full
Blade length: 180 mm
Blade width: 40 mm
Blade thickness: 5 mm
Edge profile: Full Flat Gind
Handle: Finger grooved
Handle material: Canvas micarta
Handle length: 135 mm
Sheath: One snap button lock, storage pocket, multiple attachment system
Sheath material: Cordura nylon and plastic insert
Sheath length: 365 mm
Sheath weight: 175 g
Total length (knife in sheath): 365 mm
Total weight (knife and sheath): 537 g


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Spyderco C41 Native Stainless Steel

A rigid folder with the powerful look of getting the job done. The knife is quite heavy but the tip up carry clip makes the knife carryble. The carry clip can be mounted on either side of the handle pending if you are right or left handed. I like the Spyderco C41 Native's clean rough design. This model is now a days discontinued.

Knife length: 177 mm
Knife weight: 128 g
Blade: Dagger point blade with hole for one-hand opening
Blade material: AUS-10 Stainless steel

Blade length: 77 mm
Blade width: 27 mm
Blade thickness: 3 mm
Edge: Straight, 50% plain, 50% serrated
Handle: Finger grooved
Handle material: Stainless steel
Handle length: 100 mm
Carry system: Pocket clip

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Karesuandokniven Moose Special

The Moose Special is a beautiful and well balanced knife. The design is a tasteful combination of modern knife shaping and traditional Swedish knife culture. The weight and size makes this a neat everyday knife suitable for us who like shorter blades. I've been using this knife since 1993 hiking and hunting. Back in the days when I got it I liked it so much I wanted to make it even more special, so I got a Gold Smith to make and engrave at brass plate with my initials to mount on the handle butt.

Specs
Knife length: 186 mm
Knife weight: 80 g
Blade: Drop point
Blade material: Sandvik 12C27 Stainless steel 57HRC

Tang: Long
Blade length: 83 mm
Blade width: 21 mm
Blade thickness: 3 mm
Edge: Straight plain
Handle: Slightly finger grooved
Handle material: Curly birch, reindeer antler and brass
Handle length: 103 mm
Sheath: Engraved leather sheath with loop attachment
Sheath material: Cow hide and plastic insert
Sheath length: 170 mm
Sheath weight: 43 g
Total length (knife in sheath): 210 mm
Total weight (knife and sheath): 123 g
Price: 300 SEK (Sweden 1993)

To see my other articles on Karesuandokniven's products; click HERE.


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