So I looked up TOPS knives again, and used their tools to select for knives I would actually buy.
4-8 inch blade
1/8 inch thick
No blade coating
(They only list 8- total- that fit the length and thickness constraints. And, of those only 3 are uncoated.)
(They list 11 knives with 4-5.5 inch blades that are 0.25 to 0.38 inches thick, more on this later...)
Dragonfly- 1095 steel. 4.5 inch blade. 0.13 inch thick. bead blasted. scandi grind. MSRP $180.
Pasayten Lite Traveler- 154cm steel. 5.25 inch blade. 0.13 inch thick. tumbled finish. flat grind? MSRP $225
I already have a spyderco bushcraft knife that mirrors the specs of the Dragonfly, but in what I consider superior O1 tool steel, and got it for $80, new. It also has the 90deg spine for striking a fire steel.
I also have a Busse Sar5 in the much superior INFI steel that mirrors the looks and specs of the Pasayten. I believe it was less than $200 as well, though I had to strip the coating and polish the blade. I think it was well below $200 because it was discontinued...
Blades to not need to be thick to baton through kindling- you can do it with an opinel- ask me how I know. 1/8 inch thick, with a decent steel and heat treat is more than sufficient. TOPS knives are thick because they cater to the tactical fantasy. (A four inch knife blade for wood chopping?
) I've got several knives that fit that bill. I don't carry any of them. My most used knives, by far, are a Knives of Alaska cub bear and the spyderco bushcraft knife. The Sar5 also gets some carry time in the woods- it was with my on my last hike-in/hike-out elk hunt- but it is heavy with the G10 handles.
If you like them, rock on, but I would liken TOPS as the meopta scopes of the knife world. (Maybe I'm the only one that stumbled into that thread...) They are just spend for what you actually get.
