advice for a somewhat knife newfag

>>913994
Knives:
First step: fall for the Morakniv meme. They are cheap and good, as long as you don't get one of their bushcraft larping knives. The mora classic and the mora companion are pretty good and not ridiculousi n price, and the mora companion is one of the cheaper ones, coming in at like $10. As for care, don't hit it against rocks, if you have a carbon steel blade (they make stainless and carbon steel knives depending on what one you get) try to keep it dry and wipe off the blade if it gets wet so it doesn't rust. Sharpen it every once in a while if it gets dull (Look up knife sharpening on youtube, although you might want to specify for scandi grind, because that is what they use). It's actually pretty easy to sharpen scandi knives because sharpening it at the correct angle is really easy. other than that, don't be stupid, don't cut towards yourself and don't use it to scratch your dick or whatever. The great thing about moras is that they are cheap but are really good for what you pay so they still last a long time, but again if you fuck one up, you're only out $10.

As for axes, you really don't need a hatchet most of the time, since you can really just gather dead wood by hand very easily. I usually don't bring a hatchet with me and don't really miss it, unless maybe I'm making a huge fire and need to hack up some big branches. But that is not to say hatchets aren't nice. I would say they aren't necessary, but they do make processing wood a lot faster. If you like them, go ahead and bring one. I would say that Husqvarna mikes some very well-priced and quality hatchets for about $40, so you don't really need to fork out $200 for a Swedish Larping axe by Hults Bruk or whatever unless you're rolling in dough. I would say If you get a hatchet, just look up some vids online on how you to use them for whatever it is you want to do, or sharpening. You will need to sharpen your axe eventually.

>>914011
But if you for whatever reason can't shell out $40 for an axe, I found out by accident that the $10 hatchet by Graintex is surprisingly good, although you will need to profile and sharpen the edge out of the box. The fiskars axes as well, as much as a lot of people hate on them, they are a surprisingly good low-end option for axes.

>>914011
This is the best and most respectable answer to a knife thread ever. and not just bc dubs.

>>914014
Also m8 if you don't have $40 for a hatchet is it bc that's allocated for other gear or you're really short on cash?

Because I lack a lot of gear. I have most of the essentials. Fire starter stuffs, canteens, axe, knives, lavish bag, sleep sack.. etc.

I just lack a lot of essentials like my own tent and some other shit like food and toilet paper.
So I thought for a trip I have coming up in March I'd make the people going out with me take on the list of essentials or give me the cash for the gear we need. Basically splitting the load,
If you can't afford solo survival get a pack.

advice: quite being a moron and reads the threads labeled "knife thread" and "axe thread"

good lord

>>914099
curse you auto correct, quit not quite

>>914099
This is the best and most respectable answer to a knife thread ever.

>>913994
just read, man, spend some time educating yourself. it's that simple.

don't just ask - i want a knife

ask - i want a knife BECAUSE. because you wanna make notches and traps, because you want to be able to make divots, or split wood, cut rope, or because you're gonna be doing a lot of skinning

if you want a woods knife, stay within classic parameters,

3-5'' blade length, 4'' is ideal IMO

Scandi grind if you intend to do a lot of woodwork,

Drop point or spear point blade shape with a straight portion of blade (ie not a continuous curve) for functionality.

A comfortable handle, finger grooves etc are for fighting knives, you want one that won't give you hotspots from use.

At entry level knives GENERALLY speaking you'll get better performance from carbon steel than stainless.

IMO the only reason to go stainless is if you're around salt water a lot, a v humid climate, do a lot of food prep or butchery/skinning, sensitive to metallic taste carbon steel can impart in food, or you're just lazy.

tl;dr gonna do some base reading and come back with a less stupid question ?

>>914011
>>914014
this is perfect, thank you anon.

>>914099
i havent seen any lately, but thats a good point, i was being stupidly lazy last night

>>914129
want sure where to start with base reading but this has helped along with some stuff online, so thanks.

>>914011
this, for my knife, i use a mora blade aswell. shave with it and such.

just a fiskers by the side, it's cheap, and a good started if youi want to learn something about handling your axe. will need regular sharpening though, i just see that as a plus.

Since this is a noob thread, I'll ask a question here too: What's an average lifetime of a DMT honing stick? I have a DMT "mini-hone" sharpening stick for about 8 months now, I sharpen everything from my small Opinel to various abused chef knives I buy for pennies on second-hand stores with it (shit saves lots of money). When is it time to be getting another one?

>>914842
Depends how much you use it.
>When is it time to be getting another one?
When it stops abrading steel away effectively. There's no definite answer because there are so much variables: what steel you're sharpening, how much and how often do you use it etc.

>>914270
you can start by following the knife threads here but you're gonna have to discern between a lot of retard, armchair-expert, and general autistic opinions on knives. You can browse knife forums, or the knife section of bushcraft forums, but then it's going to likely be more accurate information, but the opinions are going to be just as fudd like for the most part.

Best thing to do is buy a knife you like the look of, use it, decide what you don't like about it and what you do, and then drop a bit of cash on a 'nice' knife based on your own experiences. Everyone has different needs, lives in different climatic zones, with different sized hands. There is no perfect knife.

>>914842
is there any wear showing on the stone itself? is there any decrease in sharpening performance?

AFAIK with DMT you can wipe them down if it's impregnated with steel from sharpening. That's what I do with my ceramic rods, anyway.

If you're doing a lot of sharpening, maybe worth looking into a set of wet stones along with a flattening stone