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K-Bars Dear knife people....step on in.

I just bought a half faced crow jr I like it also and it would not bother me to carry it at all.
 
HFB or GTFO

And GBPSE.

Breacher Jr BTW, is, in my kid’s words, “awesome sauce”.
Needs the Woodland cerekote or its not as cool. She is 9, so she knows her stuff.


There is also a US made Gerber that may be decent. Nothing insane. Not sure I like the grip. But its $80, so bummed but not really bummed if something happens. And has retention in sheath.
Cant remember name. Box is on shelf in said kids closet and she is asleep.
 
It’s going to depend on the blade you choose. You can certainly accomplish mounting it on those grommets. If you had to you could drill more holes into your drop leg rig to give yourself more lashing points. Look for blades on the narrower side. With drop point tips. I’m assuming you want something for stabbing....
 

The hole pattern is also setup for malice clips and teklok I believe.

I'd suggest mounting it somewhere else though. While that looks OAF, it doesn't look very secure, and probably get caught on shit constantly.
 
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Like you, I carried a number of larger knives on deployments over the years but the only one that got used regularly was the small pocket knife I used to open MREs and other small tasks. Ka-Bar was usually the popular choice but I find them a bit large. This is the one I have on my plate carrier and have it tied in next to my rifle mag pouches. I would not want a knife handle sticking up in front of my sidearm but that’s just me. I have the non-serrrated Grozo. You can find them on eBay for around 350 if you are interested.


That guy in the pic is also carrying batteries ON the upper right sleeve.
Unless it's a diversion and the "batteries" contain the little Tabasco bottles...
 
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Most decent kydex sheaths are going to have some holes that you can tie it to your holes in the holster mount with paracord or a bungee. I’d probably stick to something in the 3-4” blade length range for carrying there.

For value it’s hard to beat ESEE, $125 gets you an ESEE-3 and it’s a hell of a knife. Benchmade makes some nice fixed blade knives too. If you want to spend a little more Chris Reeves, Strider, and Bussee are what I’d look at. Arizona Custom Knives is a good place to find those if you don’t want to wait. A lot of the knives on their are preowned but not used and you can buy them for regular price or a little less. $400-$500 is probably what you can expect to spend for something nicer like that.
 
Here's a twenty year old post in which Duane Dwyer, who founded Strider with Mick, offers a sheath designed for a 6004. So I know I'm not misremembering. I just cannot find any pictures. It really was the hot set-up among the coolest "operators". I'll keep looking.
 
I got one of these.....

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I want to hate it but it seems to be the utility knife I most often use to pull out of the safe a beat on in the yard. Their Kydex sheath is pretty functional with its spring clip , easy to attach to a belt so that is probably the attraction.

You could probably mount this sheath on your leg panel....

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I bought one of these....

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It is the HK MK23 of knives kind of a weighty beast, small but at almost .25 inch thick steel its has a weight penalty.......wish I could get a great Kydex or canvas sheath for it.

Knives are kind of useless until you need a knife.

Im liking these for a utility knife....


Forget the tactical crap....only good functional work knives are interesting.

I think Esee knives actually have the ability to mount to other pieces of kydex and they follow that Scandanavian "useful" knife recipe.
 
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ive been running recently a Kabar mk1.....its a good utility sized knife while still being big enough to shank a bitch.


Honey Hole has one of these from WWII, great shape, customized with some sailors rope work......wants over $200 though.

Its tempting just because they are such a great little utility knife.
 
My go to knives guy- dabbles in making them but uses them like some use their phone- he’s a butcher, a fishing guide and a whitetail guide. He has said for the last several years that Strider knives are the best value and well made and durable. He has literally 1000s of knives including about 30 Randels .
I know this is more about sheath options at this point in the thread but hey o figured I’d throw out some pearls of wisdom from my “knife guy” whom makes his living with them and uses them hard.
 
@TheGerman I don’t typically run a knife on my belt but threw this on real quick because it’s a pretty easy solution.

Blade tech sells a device called the tek lock.


It has a bunch of holes on the back side to fit various sheaths and then will clamp to your belt and lock so it can’t come loose without being deliberate. Pair that with the Esee knife of your choice and it works the way you described it. The Esee sheaths are great because you can lock the knife in with the slider and it has plenty of holes to lash it to whatever.

This is an Esee 6 on the belt and you can see the tek lok on an Esee 3 beside it. I’d reco an Esee 5 for hard use. It’s in between these sizes and is like a sharpened crow bar.

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dont let the fact that you dont like the sheath or the way it mounts, their are people that make kydex sheaths to your specs. you send them your knife and they will make whatever you want. its all about the knife and as others have recommended carry on your week side or on your vest where you can get it with both hands as a knife is one of the best handgun retention tools you can have.
 
I got one of these.....

View attachment 7575815

I want to hate it but it seems to be the utility knife I most often use to pull out of the safe a beat on in the yard. Their Kydex sheath is pretty functional with its spring clip , easy to attach to a belt so that is probably the attraction.

You could probably mount this sheath on your leg panel....

View attachment 7575825

I bought one of these....

View attachment 7575821

It is the HK MK23 of knives kind of a weighty beast, small but at almost .25 inch thick steel its has a weight penalty.......wish I could get a great Kydex or canvas sheath for it.

Knives are kind of useless until you need a knife.

Im liking these for a utility knife....


Forget the tactical crap....only good functional work knives are interesting.

I think Esee knives actually have the ability to mount to other pieces of kydex and they follow that Scandanavian "useful" knife recipe.
I have the BOB, in 1095. It's tough as nails and easy to sharpen. It's an awesome heavy utility knife. I've baton split, multiple pieces of oak firewood, with mine and it was still shaving sharp. I highly recommend them.
 
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Thats made in Russia, you spy, you.

The other trick is, so if I find a knife, chances are it wont have a sheath that does what I want it to and/or retention on it will suck. How do I fix that problem?
Have a custom Kydex sheath made. Lots of folks do it and it’s relatively inexpensive.
 
Let me preface this with - I know somewhere between jack and shit about knives. Even though there were mega points on the Team Board for 'knife someone', my closest combat experience with a knife was watching some tard mount some gigantic and unauthorized knife on a leather sheath on his belt, catch the handle of a door jamb while running through and having it twist and stab him in the side/back of his thigh.

If you were going to get into a knife fight with me, I'd probably just shoot you, because all I'd have is whatever shitty 1.5 inch blade comes on a Leatherman multi tool.

So with all of that said, help me along on my first unnecessary tacticool expedition where I finally get to feel like the total noob sandwich asking a question they have no fucking idea about. Also, pictures of you in your field gear are greatly appreciated.

So here is what I'm after to see if we can get it to work well, or if itll just be a rolling dumpsterfire.

On my pistol belt, I use a Safariland 6004 shroud with a Safriland holster attached to it. Shroud looks like this:

View attachment 7575232

What I am trying to do, is to find a decent sized knife (but not some gigantic survival thing or some 900$ custom deal) as well as a sheath that will secure it, where the sheath has a loop that I can thread the belt that the shroud is on through, and then attach the sheath to the 2 vertical holes in the shroud on the forward side.

I'm looking for suggestions on both, but dont need some giant knife or tacticool bulky as fuck sheath. Any ideas?



P.S. - Why are knife people so weird?
I have an ESEE6 on my 'war belt'.
 

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I can give some general direction.
Somewhere near the length of 4" is entering from tool knife to field knife. I prefer length of around 5.5". I do not kill anyone with it, but it gets along with batoning, everything done for quick field meals.

With width, the difference between tool and field use runs at 0.12".

Knives are very simple tools, they cut.
What you want with different changes is to make it have longer blade which gives more edge estate, longer reach, more pry force.

The longer it is and the more prying force is used, the thicker it needs to be. 0.15" is regular, 0.2" thick. Goes up to 0.24", where it is made pretty much mainly for batoning. Thickness does not impede usual cutting tasks very much though, at least with scandi and scandivex geometry.

There are steels that have properties fit for a certain job. Mainly corrosion resistance vs toughness (chrome vs carbon content)

I suggest going for a high end steel, they cut pretty nice and usually have strength to do some job not necessarily meant for a knife.
As long as you have a diamond sharpener you are good to go with them.
 
I came across this picture and remembered this thread
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Here are a few, the ones that look chrome I made. They are polished 440C. .....back in the day I carried an Air Force survival knife on my harness upside down, thought that looked cool and I could get to it in a hurry, secured with electrical tape, never needed it thank God. Also a K-Bar on my belt, needed it quite often........digging holes to take a shit. The first 2 are my current comp rig(someday), made that knife too. I see a lot of kydex, it’s safe and looks cool, but it’s noisy when 2 piece touch or something hard scraps against them. Not tactically quiet like leather or canvas. As far as steel goes, 440c is a steel well designed for knives.
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Lots of great suggests like the KBAR and Tops. Another one to look at is the Esee 4. I have a couple Esee that I used to carry a lot in the woods, currently waiting on a replacement my Esee Isula I lost from my local knife maker but I have also been eyeing a couple of the Tops for woods use.
 
I'm just a common poor but recently discovered TOPs knives. Made not too far from me. They may have something that tickles your pickle. They are pretty basic steel though.
 
If it were me, I would be looking at the mora garberg.


Very low profile, great quality, and you can buy four of them for the price of a custom.
 
If it were me, I would be looking at the mora garberg.


Very low profile, great quality, and you can buy four of them for the price of a custom.
Indeed! Good stuff.

In the custom blade I like being able to pick top grade alloys and getting whole thing in the exact way I want it. Cannot wait to get my hands on it.

Of course, one does not need those, but it helps if you use it much and blades on the market do not offer features you want. One cannot order a custom knife based on one knife use. I could only form an opinion what I wanted after I had used few different knives.
I also like it when practical items are made beautiful, like art with a function.
 
Let me preface this with - I know somewhere between jack and shit about knives. Even though there were mega points on the Team Board for 'knife someone', my closest combat experience with a knife was watching some tard mount some gigantic and unauthorized knife on a leather sheath on his belt, catch the handle of a door jamb while running through and having it twist and stab him in the side/back of his thigh.

If you were going to get into a knife fight with me, I'd probably just shoot you, because all I'd have is whatever shitty 1.5 inch blade comes on a Leatherman multi tool.

So with all of that said, help me along on my first unnecessary tacticool expedition where I finally get to feel like the total noob sandwich asking a question they have no fucking idea about. Also, pictures of you in your field gear are greatly appreciated.

So here is what I'm after to see if we can get it to work well, or if itll just be a rolling dumpsterfire.

On my pistol belt, I use a Safariland 6004 shroud with a Safriland holster attached to it. Shroud looks like this:

View attachment 7575232

What I am trying to do, is to find a decent sized knife (but not some gigantic survival thing or some 900$ custom deal) as well as a sheath that will secure it, where the sheath has a loop that I can thread the belt that the shroud is on through, and then attach the sheath to the 2 vertical holes in the shroud on the forward side.

I'm looking for suggestions on both, but dont need some giant knife or tacticool bulky as fuck sheath. Any ideas?



P.S. - Why are knife people so weird?
I'm not weird, your weird :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

If you aren't going to use it as a screw driver or to dig and you want the non-poor spiffy knife I would look at a Microtech Combat Troodon. It even comes with a cool little case, it is an OTF so check state laws. Benchmade has an OTF that is also nice and reminds me of the Microtech Dirac Delta.

A good and legal in states are the CRTK line. Good steel, the belt clips are ok and screws need Loctite from my experience to keep from loosening and wallowing out the holes but other than that great blades.

For fixed blades, the old Buck Nighthawk was a good blade. TOPs knives are nice https://www.topsknives.com/
Randal is very nice! Jason Knight now has a knife line that should be really nice https://www.knightelements.com/ he is one of the most well known knife smiths (I have one knife made by him). Burt Foster makes a really cool knife called the Darkside https://burtfoster.com/collections/laminated-steel/products/ardmore-darkside-edc
 
Since @TheGerman decided on a knife like five days ago, and I have no idea what this thread has turned into, I figured I’d randomly update everybody on my deal with @TxWelder35 .

I met a friend of his at a gas station here in Oklahoma (not that kind of story) where I traded that cheesy Benchmade for well over 100 high quality 136 Scenars. Shown here with a Raker knife for scale and envy. 😂


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I 2nd the esee 1 of these are my daily carry the other is my daughter's she carries when we're outdoors. The RD6 rides on my pack. All of them have taken a beating and haven't let me down.
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Since @TheGerman decided on a knife like five days ago, and I have no idea what this thread has turned into, I figured I’d randomly update everybody on my deal with @TxWelder35 .

I met a friend of his at a gas station here in Oklahoma (not that kind of story) where I traded that cheesy Benchmade for well over 100 high quality 136 Scenars. Shown here with a Raker knife for scale and envy. 😂


View attachment 7579970
$45 worth of bullets for a $200 knife, hey done deal!
 
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I’m not an operator and I don’t own a battle belt. I’ve also been around long enough to know to be careful jumping into a @TheGerman thread. I figure I would throw my $.02 in anyway.

My field/hunting/steak knife is a Bark River Bravo 1 in 3V steel with an older kydex sheath. I prefer a burlap handle scales. They have a semi rough texture when dry and when your hands are wet or bloody while dressing deer the burlap gets sticky.

Ive read the discontinued kydex sheath’s retention is good enough to parachute with. Seems like BS to me but Marine force recon have supposedly used this knife. Not sure how best you could secure to your belt.

It feels good in the hand. The size is great in the field. The 3V steel is tough enough to abuse. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as a sharpened pry bar if the need arose.

Versions are made with up to 5.5” blade length if longer is desired.

I carry mine weak side when hunting or out in the field. A pistol always rides strong side. Otherwise it hangs in the kitchen and is used for meat carving or steaks.
 

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Bark River Bravo 1 carried just left of centerline to the support hand side in a custom kydex articulating sheath. Can be drawn by either hand. At one time or another I have carried on my armor or drop leg, but have come to favor belt carry.
 
Emerson commander it’s a folder not what you originally asked for but highly recommended it. For fixed blade I seent this lol and want one. Might be your answer.
 

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Here's an example of another guy doing this, but his custom(?) holster is only attached via the holster body. I'm guessing it flaps when he runs which is what I;m trying to avoid.

The other concerns are, I think the handle is too big, and it doesnt look like theres barely any retention to it (but could be something inside we're not seeing).

View attachment 7575278
Bet that is a Randall on the holster.
 
I switched from a regular buck 105 to the Game skinner from outdoor edge years ago. I can hold the knife between my fingers while I grab or pull at things. It also puts your hand in a good position for working with less fatigue. The whitetail skinner is about 1/3 smaller. The steel holds an edge and it cuts extremely well. Snap retention isn't stealthy to unsnap but works well. Also, I believe that the whitetail skinner was the blade that "Tom Berenger used to cut Charlie Sheen in the movie Platoon if you need a tacticool tie-in.
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I've been eyeing up this knife. What type steel is it?
How grippy is the handle?
its a 1095 blade.....which is what Kabar uses on all their fighting knives......decent steel, easy to sharpen....but nothing to write home about..

the grip is fine, its Kraton, which is essentially a hard rubber......it has grip without being "tacky"......i use it as a dive knife and havent had any issues with it.
 
its a 1095 blade.....which is what Kabar uses on all their fighting knives......decent steel, easy to sharpen....but nothing to write home about..

the grip is fine, its Kraton, which is essentially a hard rubber......it has grip without being "tacky"......i use it as a dive knife and havent had any issues with it.
Not all. Some have D2.