Upcoming Camping/Hiking with a fellow member

[Hammer1270]

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Had so much fish we had to take some home with us...

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Had some great ribeye steaks when we got back.

My mouth is a waterin Good Guy,,

[Blackhawkgirl]

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Let me tell you , my brother and I were treated so well at Mr. & Mrs. GoodCouple's home . They opened up their home to us , we enjoyed the Jack Russell's and the love they showed us .

The food was great Breakfast & Dinner and 1MoreGoodGuy is married to such a nice and kind and thoughtful lady .

Looks like she is an awesome cook!

[CowboyColby]

Sounds like a great trip. Glad ya'll were able to get together and make it happen. Enjoying the pictures and stories.

[1MoreGoodGuy]

Sorry, I've been very busy lately and I haven't had time to post more details about the trip but here is a quick one...


On the drive home, I was kind enough to show Welder516 and Bigk how to handle a traffic stop in Texas.

The trooper who pulled me over was very professional and I was let off with a warning.

[1MoreGoodGuy]

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How many knives do you take with you when you go camping?

One?

Two?

Three?

More than three?

Could I get by with just one knife? Sure, but what's the fun in having just one knife with you when you can have many knives with you???

I like knives so I usually don't mind packing/carrying more than one knife when I go on an outing.

Right now, I'm experimenting with a 3 knife system. I'm getting ready for when Welder516 and his brother come down for our 6 day camping trip to Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma and I'm figuring out which knives I'm going to take with me.

My 3 knife system breaks down like this:

1. Specialty Task knife = can be any size
2. Mid-sized knife = 3.5" to under 6"
3. Large-sized knife 6" or greater

For my specialty knife, I chose the Tracker T-2 which falls in my mid-sized knife range with about 4.5" of blade edge. This blade excels at making curls and other chopping/carving/splitting tasks.



I gathered some of my favorite mid-sized and large-sized knives. Since I haven't started making my own leather sheaths, I was looking for a mid-sized and large-sized knife combo that would fit in a piggyback sheath that I currently own (seen here on the right).



For the mid-sized knives:

BK-17
Camillus ST6
Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B)
Tops Overlander
ESEE-4



For the large-sized knives:

Tops Longhorn Bowie
Tops Silent Hero
Tops Operation Badger
ESEE-6



I like each one of these knives and any mid-sized/large-sized pairing would work well together.

For my next camping trip I ended up choosing the following:

For the Specialty Task knife I went with the Tracker T-2

For the Mid-sized knife I went with the Tops Fieldcraft B.O.B. The Camillus ST6 is the most ergonomic and I really like the curved blade...The ergonomics of the ESEE-4 is a close second and is very well balanced and has the most comfortable size to weight ratio IMO. The BK-17 is sturdy yet feels very light weight. The Tops Overlander only has a 3.5" cutting edge but is built like a tank. The Tops Fieldcraft B.O.B. has the scandi grind blade, bow drill divot in the handle, the pommel has a scraper designed for striking a ferro rod and the knife just seems to me to be the one knife in the Mid-sized group that is best suited to be a solo knife for an extended camping trip.

For the Large-sized knife I went with the Tops Operation Badger. The Tops Longhorn Bowie is the most well balanced and most comfortable grip. The Tops Silent Hero feels strong yet light in weight but the handle seems too narrow for a knife this size. The ESEE-6 has a great size to weight ratio and is very comfortable in the hand. The Tops Operation Badger has a nice size thumb ramp which is one feature I really like on a knife. It is also built like a tank and is pretty comfortable in the hand.

Here is my Three Knife System:





This wasn't a win/lose battle of which knife is best...it was more of a battle of which knives do I want to take with me on this trip. So as of right now, these are the three I'm taking. Am I taking more knives than I need??? Not a chance...it's not a question of need...

So how many knives do you take when you go camping?

What are your favorite knives for camping?

What features do like in a camp knife?

What size knife do you prefer for camping?

So now that the trip is over, I thought I'd share with you which of the 3 knives I utilized the most.

The clear winner for knife used most frequently is the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B). This however wasn't a surprise for me...I tend to gravitate towards knives that are in the 3.5" to under 6" range.

This was the first time I had the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B) out in the field and I must say this is an excellent knife that performed well. I had a feeling that I was going to be using this knife a lot so I packed an extra sheath so that I could ditch the piggyback sheath and just carry the one knife. I used a nylon sheath that came with my BK-17. The sheath also has a pouch that I used to hold my Leatherman Wave and a ferro rod & striker.

So, the knife, multi-tool and ferro rod combo is going to be the new kit for the next outing...I'll probably bring a few extra knives on that trip but they will all be in the same size range as the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B).

Thanks for reading.

[welder516]

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So now that the trip is over, I thought I'd share with you which of the 3 knives I utilized the most.

The clear winner for knife used most frequently is the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B). This however wasn't a surprise for me...I tend to gravitate towards knives that are in the 3.5" to under 6" range.

This was the first time I had the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B) out in the field and I must say this is an excellent knife that performed well. I had a feeling that I was going to be using this knife a lot so I packed an extra sheath so that I could ditch the piggyback sheath and just carry the one knife. I used a nylon sheath that came with my BK-17. The sheath also has a pouch that I used to hold my Leatherman Wave and a ferro rod & striker.

So, the knife, multi-tool and ferro rod combo is going to be the new kit for the next outing...I'll probably bring a few extra knives on that trip but they will all be in the same size range as the Tops Fieldcraft by Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B).

Thanks for reading.

1MoreGG has some of the coolest gear with knives included , the water filtration set-up was neat and very effective for having lake water as our drinking source . (unlimited supply)

[1MoreGoodGuy]

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1MoreGG has some of the coolest gear with knives included , the water filtration set-up was neat and very effective for having lake water as our drinking source . (unlimited supply)

We used was a GravityWorks 4 liter filter that was I modified by adding a Sawyer mini filter, charcoal filter and some valves.

I don't have any good photos of it but it can be seen hanging on the tree here:







And this is the collapsible jug we filled:

[welder516]

Great pics and conversation .

[jeanlouise]

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Great pics and conversation .

Good memories welder. Those pictures are wonderful and poignant at the same time.

I'm still praying for Scott, his wife, family and friends. It's so hard for those that are left behind to pick up the pieces and carry on.