What is your absolute favorite combat knife?

Tamara,
The question did say combat knife... which in my family was originally a sax of about the same length. Now, if you want to talk swords, I've a custom hand and a half that has withstood a great deal of very physical abuse. I find it too long to wield properly inside the house, however, and it is really not much good for things like envelopes. In small knives my Gerber Guardian gets the nod.
 
Posted by ronin308:

thing I don't like about Striders is that the paracord wrapped handle would absorb stuff...namely blood n' guts. If you had to dress and animal with one of those things the sticky icky would be embedded in the handle. It might look cool but then it'll start to smell
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You can always rewrap the 550 para cord handle with a new one. I rewrap my Strider knives to fit my needs.
 
Let's face it - pretty much any sharp knife with any kind of point is the equal of any other of the same size when it comes to cutting/stabbing in a fight, and any knife, cheap or expensive, can be made plenty sharp and will hold its edge sufficently for the ten seconds (if that) of use it will get in a knife fight. I'd say get and carry the cheapest knife you can find that works for you, especially since you'll lose it and probably never get it back if it ever gets used on somebody.

Get and keep the good knives for everyday work and hunting, tasks that seperate the good knives from the not-so-good.

I think the relative rarity of defensive knife fights has led to a widespread phenomena in the vein of the mall ninja thing - lots of tactical gear that costs mucho dinero but confers few if any benefits over mundane everyday tools.

I'd carry a steak knife before I'd pay Strider prices for a piece that they didn't even to go the trouble of putting a handle on.

Oh yeah, I carry and quite like my Gerber - 3" EZ Out I think is the model. Under $30.
 
Cadwallader...............Your post kinda freaked me out ....it seems to me that you are suggesting that any old knife will do because it will only be used for ten seconds or so.

I suppose at a certain point your personal choice of blades would not affect the outcome of a knife fight but I don't feel that a combat knife is designed "exclusively" for fighting.

I think (and I may be wrong ) a combat knife is a knife that would be used in a combat situation.

This includes opening crates ,cutting through materials that are not designed to be cut,prying,digging,and countless other applications that are bound to occur when you least expect it.

Did the original poster ask what your absolute favorite "FIGHTING KNIFE"was ?

Well either way I think a high quality blade is in order and to suggest................what you said ........................................

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Let's face it - pretty much any sharp knife with any kind of point is the equal of any other of the same size when it comes to cutting/stabbing in a fight, and any knife, cheap or expensive, can be made plenty sharp and will hold its edge sufficently for the ten seconds (if that) of use it will get in a knife fight. I'd say get and carry the cheapest knife you can find that works for you, especially since you'll lose it and probably never get it back if it ever gets used on somebody.

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Makes me a little uncomfortable .........just my opinion.but I agree with you in a way.............as long as we are talking about QUALITY KNIVES.........not neccesarily super expensive but not some cheap import either.............do you agree?
 
Cadwallader is dead right. That is the very reason why, way back at the beginning of this thread, I specified an Old Hickory butcher knife. People are made of meat. The Old Hickory butcher pattern excells at cutting meat and only costs a few bucks.
Mega$$$ "combat knives" are like Rolex watches. If you have the money, buy what you want, but don't kid yourself that your $500 knife will kill someone any deader than common kitchen knife.

BTW, I own some very expensive knives, including a couple custom ones. I'd still use the Old Hickory w/o a second thought.
 
Randall Model 14 with the 7" blade. Or as previously mentioned Randall Model 1 with 7" or 8" blade.

Factory knife - Cold Steel Trailmaster bowie. Edge isn't bad and it is certainly big enough for Bagwell's favorite tactic, lobbing off excess body parts. That tends to get a person's attention when 3 or 4 fingers or a hand come off their arm. Should tend to take the fight out of most people.

cheap factory knife - any good machete. Sharpen it with a file and it is good to go.
 
I'd say get and carry the cheapest knife you can find that works for you, especially since you'll lose it and probably never get it back if it ever gets used on somebody.
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The original intention wasn't "What knife do you carry for defense?" or "What knife to you to build a shelter on a deserted island for 2 Playboy bunnies, an accountant, and a rabbi?" The question dealt with personal preferences for tools...more specifically, fighting tools. For example, I'm a sword buff...I could buy the 440 blades for $60 and break them in a few days or I could get a quality one that will last me the rest of my life.

I think the relative rarity of defensive knife fights has led to a widespread phenomena in the vein of the mall ninja thing - lots of tactical gear that costs mucho dinero but confers few if any benefits over mundane everyday tools.
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So a quality Mad Dog is a piece of mall ninja gear? Should I stop carrying my 1911 to carry a Hi-Point as well?
 
Golgo-13,

You said: If you have the money, buy what you want, but don't kid yourself that your $500 knife will kill someone any deader than common kitchen knife:

Do you really believe that a common kitchen knife will perform the tasks of a quality combat knife?

Are you basing your opinion on the fact that a well placed stab with a kitchen knife will give the same wound as a well placed stab from a $500 combat knife?

I guess I'll have to agree with you there but like I said in my previous post,there's alot more to a combat knife than it's ability to puncture RAW flesh.

Be honest,If your life was on the line would you choose a common kithen knife? :confused:
 
A lot of the mambo-jahambo surrounding "fighting knives" just doesn't send me. Armor piercing points that can penetrate car doors? Maybe if I was trying to stab a car to death that would matter. I see darned few people running around in metallic armor these days. Even fewer yet in metallic armor that I need to stab. Chisel edges? Eh. Exotic alloys? Another eh. Any decent carbon steel will do just fine.
For many, many moons there was no differentiation between "fighting knives" and "utility knives" because most people owned only a knife or two. Those knives were made out of low carbon steel and had no "combat " features. Guess what? Folks depended on them and killed each other with them. Dead as hell.
When I say kitchen knife, I mean any decent quality kitchen knife...such as an Old Hickory, not one of those $1.98 grocery store knives (though I'll warrant one of those will kill you dead too). A forged carbon steel blade with a riveted hardwood handle is plenty rugged.
If you want a sharpened, tanto-pointed, unobtainium alloy prybar with a carbon fiber handle, get one. Spend as much as you like. Pride of ownership and all that.
 
I carry a 'fighting knife' when I'm hiking/canoeing/scrambling about in the Great Back of Beyond, and a long time ago when Uncle Sugar was paying me to wear a salad suit and hike/scramble about the foreign parts of the Great Back of Beyond.

I've used knives as pry-bars to shift pallets on the decks of C-130s; I've cut rope from finger-sized to forearm-sized; pried rocks out from under sleeping bags, campfire holes and caves; chopped branches for fires, splints, insulation and bedding; I've used knives to pry cartridges out of balky chambers, bust open packing crates and field-dress everything from rabbits on up.

Quite frankly, I tend to be rough on my knives. I travel light when I wander, and while a $1.95 Tiajuana Special just might, indeed, kill someone just as dead as a more expensive model, when I'm three days away from civilization and suddenly faced with one of those, "Oh, DAMN" situations, I don't want to be betting my life (or someone elses' life) on a knife worth $1.95.

That's just me, though.

LawDog
 
Alright TFL, what is your favorite combat knife and why? Function? Balance? Strength? Pure nostalgia?
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Doesn't sound like he asked "what is your favorite camping knife?" If we are going to define combat to mean just about anything that involves using a knife, then the question becomes so broad as to be pointless.
Spend as much as you like. It's your money, which I've said several times now.
 
Golgo-13

Let's change things around a bit.........If you don't mind?

The original question.......................................................

quote:
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Alright TFL, what is your favorite combat knife and why? Function? Balance? Strength? Pure nostalgia?
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Let's replace the words COMBAT KNIFE with COMBAT RIFLE or COMBAT HANDGUN or COMBAT BOOTS or COMBAT ANYTHING.


Comat rifle-Ruger 10/22......Inexpensive and If you shoot someone in the head10 times with it they will die.

Combat handgun-beretta 21a cheap and lightweight and it can kill a man.

Combat boots-Payless shoes, well they are cheap and you can walk or run in them.

I would love to hear your answers to those questions,really I would.

Can you see where I'm going with this?I think you are being stuborn and I think you will somehow find a way to make my analogy seem stupid.

I'm just trying to say that sometimes you get what you pay for!And if my life were on the line I'm paying for the best I can get!And if I didn't have the money for it I would make due with what I had.

Anyway,I think I know your kind and I am pretty sure I'm not gonna win this argument!....You remind me of my father! :)
 
And by the way Golgo-13, anyone who would go into battle with a kitchen knife sounds like a guy I would want on my side!:D
 
Posted by: Cadwallader

..I'd carry a steak knife before I'd pay Strider prices for a piece that they didn't even to go the trouble of putting a handle on..
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Heck, I'd carry a $40 KaBar knife but given the choice, my trusty Strider is the one I carry all the time. I've been around knife fighting since I was a kid, taught by my grand pa to knife fight. Me and my brothers used wooden knives at each other back then.

I like Strider knives b/c they are built like a tank and most of all it is extremely reliable. :)
 
Santino,

My point (and Cadwallader's too, I think) is that above a certain minimum level of quality you run into diminishing returns. Is a $500 kustom-killer-knife (w/ black taktikewl finish) better than a $40 Ka-bar? Yes, no doubt about it. Fit and finish should be flawless on the more expensive knife, it should hold an edge better than the Ka-bar, etc. Is the more expensive knife 12X better in purely practical terms? IME, almost definitely not.
I used to collect knives, I've owned and used hundreds. Some factory, some handmade, a few custom. IME, the difference in performance between any decent factory knife and a Mega$$$ custom job is narrower than you might think. In other words, there are lots of reasons to own the high-end knives, but performance alone isn't one of them.
If a Randall, Mad Dog, Busse, or what have you makes you happy and makes you feel more confident, buy and enjoy.
If it is made out of decent steel and fastened together sturdily, it will do for me.
 
Does it even need to be a decent piece of steel? Guys in prisons make do with less and are quite capable. It is a lot like diminishing returns.

A 40oz of Old E will get you as tanked as a couple shots of Courvoisier?

With proper shot placement will a FMJ killem as ded as a ultrafancy top of the shelf HP?

Me making these points is just as silly as people who state "why u gotta spend so much on gear? It aint gonna make u kewl OR a warrior." It's almost like McGuyver (or however) would on purpose carry around a wire and bit of fuzz just to show everyone he was King Minimalist Man That Could Still Conquor the Concrete Jungle Without Expensive Gear.

One thing that is good about Strider and Busse... they stand behind their product. You can pry with it and if it breaks they will make it right. But a lot of good a warranty will do you on the other side of the world? That's why it's good to have a solid product.

And yeah, Strider offers a 'handle' for the people that don't understand their rationale behind the design. Are katanas cheap swords in the same vein or does the silk wrap and manta skin make them OK?

And for the record... my "combat knife" is a Cold Steel Peacekeeper bought on sale. Striders, Busses, etc. are far superior in every respect - IMO.
 
krept- I agree with most of your statements, but I have a question: What is the rationale behind the Strider design? I know you can use the paracord for something else in a pinch, but I'd rather just carry that length of paracord tied around the sheath. Paracord + bloodn'gutsonyourknife = mess. That's just my take though.
 
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