Knife Help

[Desert Reprobate]

Here ya go
http://www.blindhorseknives.com/

[MedicineMan]

http://www.ofagear.com/index.php?mai...products_id=58
$1.50 and 8 grams

[MedicineMan]

Most of us backpackers are point A to point B types. Whether we do it at break neck speed or an easy cruise we are still trying to get from this road to this shelter or from this water source to the next post office and so on.
When sitting and observation occur it is usually on a quick lunch stop or in the shelter. Time is often always on the mind or up front in the back of the mind. Some become 'mile monsters' and often their goal is to complete a section, complete the thru, and do it within a certain amount of time....there is another way to experience the backwoods.
So why this on a knife thread?
There are some of us who will go out with minimal gear-minimal to the point where an ultralightweight backpacker looks very well equiped. The goal is to manage our environment in closer approximations to what a frontiersman would have done, ultimately what a Crow,Shawnee,Blackfoot,Cherokee,etc. would have done.
That knife again.
I've been bushcrafting since I started backpacking--but generally not at the same time. My bushcrafting experience like many began with a very involved Scoutmaster who thought the Scout Field Manual was just as important as the the Scout Manual...so cordage,lashing, frapping,sharpening, and multiple ways of generating fire were part and parcel of our Scouting experiences along with trapping and navigation. Bushcrafting is a huge area, in the old societies individuals would find an area they especially like and specialie in it, be it the potter, the bower, the basket maker and so on....we do the same thing today just that those skills of old are the bushcrafters hobby now. My personal love is wild and medicinal plants-which I think would take several lifetimes to even approach what a Creek would have known by adulthood.
Nothing against the big ugly military knives designed to porforate many layers of a human.
Now as backpackers/hikers we need/should know some rudiments of bushcraft just in case. Notice I use the term bushcraft and not survival though they share much common ground. The survival term though gets you associated with militias and bomb shelters and abortion clinic bomber types.
But as a hiker you know the rules of three--if not then bad on you. The rules of three apply to bushcrafting too and that is where the big knife comes in.
OK its not that big....not big enough to want to stab anyone but big enough, well just big enough to do camp chores and make that quick rudimentary shelter that will drastically affect those rules of three.
Of course in this day and time when we see anyone in the woods with a 'big knife' on the belt we via liberal indoctrination think 'survivalist' or para-military and then think nut job. I do too if it is a rambo looking knife, but a knife as outlined by Mors in his classic book on bushcraft that has no finger gaurd, has a blade around 4 inches long, etc. doesn't raise my eyebrows.
Conversely when I'm on a 5 day trip on the AT and having dinner at a shelter and see a fellow backpacker with even a Frost Mora I have to wonder how that helps him/her in any way with an alcohol stove and his freezer bag dinner!
OK back to that other way; plan a trip and instead of doing point A to point B (I know your like me and want to add more AT miles) plan a trip where you are dopped off at A and in 3 days will be back at A just via C,D,E,F.....the national forests have lots of room for this type of experience.
What you carry with you--hmmmm, now that's the fun part isnt it? Well def. a map since you aren't going to be on a maintained trail, maybe not even a trail at all...better than the map is knowing how to use it and the compass--hiking on the AT is relatively void of the chance of getting lost; in a bushcraft experience getting lost and then found again via your own hand is quite desired. Think you could spend 3 days out without bringing a tent? a tarp? Time of year is critical as is place if you decide to give it ago....just don't be stupit! and good luck.
Backpackers or military--there is another way

[Mongoose2]

I carry the Swiss card lite and a small lockblade

[garbanz]

Unless you're going to try to use it as a hammer and hatchet (which I don't recommend) you might find a more functional fixed blade knife in the Swedish Mora style. Agile, blade of 3-5 inches, about 4 ounces average, comes with a waxed sheath. Tough, capable knifes the Samis and Laps have used in the arctic for centuries.

These small light blades look to be the backpacker's ticket. They're reasonably priced too. Good clue Bearpaw!