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As seen in the pictures, this was my Axe/fixed Blade shortlist:
A Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe, a Becker BK 2 in Cro-Van 1095 with aftermarket micarta handles, Reiff F4 3v, Bark River Bushcrafter in 3-V with stag handles, and finally a Bark River Aurora in 3V with burlap micarta handles.
My folding knife lineup was admittedly, not what I would’ve brought if I planned a little better, but while not ideal, it was more than perfectly adequate for anything I could come across. They were: 2 Spyderco Manix 2’s, one in Magnacut, and one in Maxamet, the last knife was my seemingly ever-present Gayle Bradley 2 in M4; triple M!
While I like to batton with a knife as much as the next guy for fun, or when I don’t have a hatchet, carry weight is a nonissue when I’m not hiking 10 miles, so I prefer to have both. The GB Small Forest Axe is pound for pound one of the best small axes out there. It does not weigh a lot and can easily do double duty as a splitter, and can even take down small diameter trees. For bucking trees there are not many other tools that I would rather have. That being said, since it was not a survival situation or even camping, but rather used for a fire pit to enjoy at night, I find that battoning wood and making feather sticks is a really an enjoyable activity to help get into the outdoors mood. While all of the knives I brought would do a good job, weight notwithstanding, the BK2 has been rightfully described as a crowbar with an edge. The saber grind and thick blade make short work of splitting even small logs into fuel and kindling. And while it is not the best option for feather sticks, it will do it in a pinch.
One of my top three wood processing knives in my collection, is definitely the Aurora. When it first came out, I felt like it looked like an oversized steak knife, but until you actually use one, you can’t believe the comfort and function. It is an excellent battoning knife as well, and even though I do love me a Scandi grind and especially Bark Rivers Scandi-vex, the full convex may be my favorite grind of them all. It carves, makes notches, drills, and feather sticks, extremely well! Martin from our friends at Dutch Bushcraft boys turned me onto it with a video a couple of years ago even though I did not initially like the design. After using it however, I became a believer, and now I have several! Incidentally burlap micarta is one of my hands-down, favorite handle materials, due to its combination of grippiness without making hotspots, as well as its looks and durability. It should be on everybody’s shortlist for an outdoor knife, unless it gets wet a lot, as it can absorb moisture. Another thing that the Aurora has going for it, is that it is thin and lightweight, and does not take up a lot of room on your belt or in your pack.
The next knife, also one of my favorites, is the Bark River Bushcrafter in 3V, which is an amazing, amazing knife. It will do all the things mentioned above, although it cannot batton super thick wood due to its length, however, it is a better carver than the Aurora. I have made a couple of spoons and a spatula with one, and you really want the toughness of the 3V when you are carving the spoon bowl. I broke the tip off of a bark River EXT 1 in Cruwear due to no fault of its own, as it has a thin tip, but I’m wondering if it was 3V if it would’ve held up? By the way they fixed it beautifully under warranty, Thanks Bark River! Having the choice, I much prefer what some call quick tapered tips, where the full length of spine goes almost to the end, and forms an isosceles triangle rather than a thin tip. You lose a little bit of slicing ability, but these are not kitchen knives anyway. I would rather have the strength for drilling, piercing, and carving. For you hunters out there, if you need to pop a hip joint on large game, it has the strength to do that as well.
As I’m sure you have already noticed, I prefer a steel with a high degree of toughness for my outdoors knives. While my steel choice, this time was a little lopsided, other good choices are M4, A2, SK5, the old standard 1095, and for stainless, CPM 154, Elmax, and the darling of the knife world, Magnacut are hard to beat. We will discuss these in upcoming articles if the Lord wills it and the creek don’t rise!
1095, and 3V, are two of the toughest steels out there. Maybe just as important, you can sharpen them in the field unlike some of the very hard super steels that you find today. Don’t get me wrong. These super steels are great if you are not doing super difficult tasks and don’t have to constantly sharpen, and as long as you don’t hit something hard and chip one. 1095 is very easy to sharpen, and to quote one of my conversations I had a couple years ago with Mike Stewart from Bark River, he prefers 3V in an outdoors knife to Cruwear, because and I quote “if I need to touch up the 3V I can do it on a smooth river rock, that is not possible with Cruwear”. Obviously, this applies even more to the harder steels out there today. For a weekend vacation such as mine, or if you’re not going for that long or you’re close to home, the very hard steels are awesome! But if you’re gonna be stuck somewhere for a while, sharpenability is as important as anything else.
I learned this lesson years ago with one of my other passions; shooting. I went through this stage as much of us did shooting 44 magnum, 357 magnum, 12 gauge shotgun, slugs, and rifles such as 375 Weatherby, and 450 nitro almost exclusively. After a while, I realized I had almost as many giggles just shooting 22 and saved a lot of money and my shoulder in the process!
Admittedly, I have not used the Reiff knife very much and brought it along to try to put it through its paces. My limited initial impressions, as well as indications from other users are that it is extremely capable. I will do some testing with it in the future and tell you all about it! I can say that it is built like a tank, and the handle is oversized which is something I always appreciate with my meaty paws!
As hinted above, my folding knife choices probably would’ve been slightly different if I spent more time on it. The Gayle Bradley 2 is almost always in my jeans pocket these days, so it just came along as a matter of fact. It is great for almost everything, including: self defense, light outdoors and bushcrafting work, and makes great feather sticks! It also happens to be a great carver. The problem is I don’t like to bring it around water or where I am sweating excessively. The M4 simply rusts and corrodes very easily in my experience, as it did when I didn’t stay on top of it hiking in Pennsylvania. This is the trade-off for the amazing scary sharpness and toughness that it gives you, and to my mind, it is more than fair in that regard; you just have to keep it dry, or wipe it down after use.
The Manix 2 in different iterations is one of my most carried knives and I have a lot of time behind the blade. The ball bearing lock is more than adequate in strength for most tasks, and it is great for fidgeting! I brought the one in Magnacut on purpose as it has been my dedicated pool and fishing knife for a better part of the year. While it is definitely excellent stuff, more stainless than most, and keeps an edge for a long time, it is not my primary saltwater and chemical knife.
Before you all start grabbing pitchforks and trying to run me to the windmill, please let me explain.
My journey for a waterproof knife started back when Spyderco came out with H1. It was very exciting times, and I remember seeing someone on YouTube leaving a knife with that steel in the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City for a year. There was NOTHING on it. Great advertisement! Pretty indestructible in terms of rust and corrosion, but it had one huge flaw. it was so soft that I actually bent the tip of mine on a plastic bottle cap! Because of the extreme malleability, it would not really hold an edge.
Fast-forward to one of my favorite steels LC200N! Now if H1 was a 10 out of 10 in corrosion resistance, this is a 9 out of 10. Now what you have to understand is that in real world applications, that may make not a lick of difference, unless you are using it around a nuclear or chemical plant! The exciting part is that it has much better than average edge holding ability. It became one of my go to steels, and is still my top choice for being around saltwater and chemicals. You could also do MUCH worse for an all-around EDC steel in general. I hope to discuss it with you all in an upcoming article, but in short; I have yet to stain it, and I have tried.
This is where the limitations of Magncut become evident. Under regular circumstances where moisture is involved. It is pretty amazing stuff. It also has better edge holding ability than the LC200N. However, I will try to show you in pictures where there is some staining involved, and there was actually surface rust that at least wiped right off. I’m not sure if it was because of excessive sweat, excessive moisture, or cutting open chlorine shock for my pool, which the LC200N just laughs at. In any case it is still amazing stuff. It just has not replaced my LC200N for certain applications.
As for the Maxamet, there is not much better out there except for maybe Rex 121 15V?and a couple of others, in terms of edge holding. I have not had to sharpen it yet and I’m not looking forward to it either! That being said, it is in my pajama pants almost every night because I am in the house and don’t have to worry about moisture. It also stains and rusts very easily. When I go somewhere water is involved, I usually carry the exact same knife, a Manix 2 in S110V. It is more than stainless enough for most applications and that also has amazing edge holding ability. The Manix line is VERY slicey, and does great double duty, as a utility and food prep knife.
I hope this gives you a good idea of my vacation knife thought process, and gives you some ideas of what you may be looking for when you go on your next little getaway.
As always, stay sharp, and please feel free to leave your feedback, or even start a discussion on the forums if you would like some of our community to jump into the discussion.
Wishing you all a great week! 
