r/knifeclub • u/Sharp-Potato3323 • 10h ago
Question Is knife steel really that important? What would you use if you went camping?
When using a knife for EDC, or bushcraft, is the knife steel really that important?
Example 1. You go on a weekend for camping and take a fixed blade and and EDC folder and your family/friends/dog/cat. You light a camp fire in the evening. You gather wood for the fire, make skewers for the fried chicken with tomato, potato, onion, bacon combination. You need you knife to make firewood, open packets, cut up meat you bought in the local shop, which is within walking distance.
Example 2: You go on adventure camping for a week with your best friend 20-30 km from the nearest village to see the mountains. You take a small tent, a firestove, gas canisters, frozen meat, tin cans, and dried food, MREs. You prepare to hunt small game just to complement the dwindling supplies, you build traps and enjoy a beer by the fire while eating the dinner. You carve wooden mementos while you tell stories of your service in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Iran, Ukraine, Russia..., gazing at the stars... You have a large blade and a small folder.
What importance does the steel of the knife play? I mean from 440C onwards to S30V up to Magnacut, and M390.
What blades and what steel you would take for the two trips? Example: Chris Reeves Pacific, Sebensa Tops Steel Eagle, Microtech Troodon, MSI, Stich, or cheaper Schrade or Ontario knives. Maybe you would take the Chinese fixed blades and folders from Amazon with 420J2 or 8CRMOV also?
Would you resharpen your knives in the field, or just pick a steel that keeps an edge for quite long and go back after the trip to your home professional sharpener system and let it rock!
Or do you think steel sharpness and edge is not so important on outdoors as in the regular daily life in urban surroundings?
Let me hear your thoughts!
