Thought @ putting this in Blade forum but wanted more survival focus rather than tactical/combat.

Looking for a good survival and bushcraft knife.  My focus is on quality and function.  Requirements are @ 4” blade (could be slightly longer) , 90 degree spine and full tang.  Function to cover processing wood, carving, and dressing game.  Something traditional / mountain man that is a good all around knife and under $200 if possible.  Lastly I have smaller hands so will need handle to accommodate accordingly.

Curious what y’all would recommend based on experience.  And advice on requirements would be appreciated if something seems off.  Any thoughts on the LT Wright Bushcrafter?

I really like my moras.

Esee-4 seems to fit the bill. Why spend $200 if you don't have to?

Mora carbon garberg.

this

Buck Vanguard.

Another vote for the Esee 3 or 4.

Bark River Bravo 1

Hard to beat an ESEE 4. A Becker BK16 would be a good choice too.

Fallkniven F1

I keep a LT Wright Knives Genesis - Flat Grind in my hunting pack, but I also have several Mora knives, a garberg, and two or three bush craft blacks on other packs and for general use.
All of them are fine for bush craft stuff, unless you want to chop down a tree.
Never used a Esee, but I would not hesitate to buy one if I had the need.
If I was going to take one out and knew I was going to beat the tar out if it would be one of the Mora
bush craft blacks, only because I would not be to upset if I lost or destroyed it.

i used a Bush craft black to split seasoned wood for a fire and all kinds of other things just to see how it handled it didn't touch up the blade at all. then a buddy shot a moose and needed some help taking care of it.  Do to me being a sucker and he never having experience butchering big game my bushcraft black got used to breakdown an entire moose.  Still cutting strong and hasn't been sharpened.

With that said I really would like a LT Wright Brushcrafter HC.

Randall Model 26.

+1 for the ESEE 4.

ESEE 3 maybe if hands are really small.

The Mora Garberg is also nice, build a little different.

The ESEE 3 and 4 have the same handle.  Which honestly is a little small.  The Knife Connection sells replacement scales that are a little larger and more contoured if you go with the standard model. I find the ESEE HM models much more comfortable and more suitable for outdoor use.

In addition to being shorter, the 3 is made of thinner blade stock.  It's a great slicer, but not as good of a choice if you are really beating on it.

Becker BK-2

ESEE 4. Or if you don't care for the extra weight the ESEE 5 is a tank!

The ESEE 4 with replacement handles from The Knife Connection is my most used outdoors knife.  I have average sized hands and I thought that the stock handles were a little small.  You can get the knife for about $80 and it has a no bullshit lifetime warranty.  Pretty hard to do better than that.

Since you want a 4" blade, I'd go with an ESEE-4HM. I carry an ESEE-3HM for the same general role, but with the shorter/thinner blade as I live in a desert and use it more for animal stuff than wood stuff.

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Ontario Blackbird SK-5 (w/ custom kydex sheath). I find a 5" blade more useful for this role.

I never could get comfortable with those pilot's knives.

My Bark River Kephart is my favorite.

An ESEE 4, only with The Knife Center scale upgrades.  It doesn't handle well for me with stock scales, but is great with the extended ones.

A plain Mora is hard to beat.

I have stacked up Moras. They are everywhere in my gear, vehicles, kitchen etc.

How about a 28??  

Randall 28 by FredMan, on Flickr

And here's my F1 with the micarta.

Fallkniven F1 by FredMan, on Flickr

Here in the PNW it's wet much of the time.  Fire starting is a bit more complicated when it's raining and everything is wet.

I used my ESEE-6 (with -5 handles) to get this going.

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Survival?  Bushcraft? Get the Martin Knives Bushcraft-Survival knife



Over your budget, but there are tons of options under $200.  As much as I like the Scandi-grind for wood working, I would recommend a more conventional v-grind (full, flat ground blade), or even a convex grind that I personally prefer.  If you end up getting a higher end Scandi-ground blade, pick up a Mora or two and practice sharpening them.  They're not hard, but they do required practice and patience.

General consensus and preference is for straight-clip, drop pointed, or even spear pointed blade profiles, but honestly, just about anything will do.  I do prefer those styles purely for their tip strength if you have to bore any holes, etc.

ESEE handle sizes will favor you as they do seem smaller.  I've never had an issue with them and I have average sized hands.  Don't underestimate handle comfort.  It's hard to know what works without putting them to the test, but it's one of those aspects that you'll know it when you feel it.  Handle comfort becomes important for those larger/longer carving chores, running an assembly line to carve parts, or skinning and gutting larger game or a lot of small game/fish.  I prefer to carry a flatter handle, but for constant use, a slightly oval handle design is often more comfortable if your using your knife of hours.

Don't overlook the sheath.  Some knives have very simple sheaths or little thought put into them.  Most of my serious blades have aftermarket/custom sheaths.  You want the system to work with how you carry your knife, it does need to be comfortable, accessible, easy to re-sheath, and secure.  I do like to integrate a Firesteel and pouch for a small sharpener like DMT or Fallkniven's DC3 or 4.  I like heavily waxed/stiff leather or Kydex.  I like to be able to re-sheath the knife one-handed or at least easily.  The biggest mistake most make when using a knife is they often set it down to use both hands which will end up in loss or injury.

While I have mostly been using an ESSE 3, Mora 510, or one of my Martin Knives customs the most recently, I have too many others that would easily suffice: Bark River, Fallkniven, Rod Garcia's Skookum Bushtool, Habilis Bushtool, (formerly) BHK knives, TOPS, etc.

I know it sounds trivial, but knife appeal is important.  All knives will function adequately but may require different techniques.  What is important is to buy decent quality (you requirements are spot on) and something that appeals to you so you'll enjoy carrying and using it.  Learn to sharpen and sharpen well; not only on a bench, but in the field.  Don't get your panties in a wad about steel type.  There are a lot of knife geeks and steel snobs who rarely use their knives but tout the composition and %0.0004 better performance parameters.  Heat treatment is more important than knife steel composition.  Higher carbon steels are often less forgiving, but even the less expensive stainless steels can be hardened to very solid performance.  Bottom line, just don't get caught up in the hype.  A quality manufacturer or knife maker will maximize the performance of whatever steel they're using.  I've used carbon steel around salt water and it will tarnish the blade and require more frequent maintenance and sharpening, but it would dissolve in a magical puff of smoke.

Knife size is always a heated debate, but your 4" blade mark is pretty much the "bushcraft" standard.  I really love the larger bladed knives and own several, however blades over 5" rarely get carried on the belt as they end up being too cumbersome, get caught up or get in the way.  These 4-6" bladed knives are about the right mix of size and efficiency for a tool...and they often are about the limit of a belt knife, which is the intended design.

Good luck, and you'll get a lot of good recommendations here...

ROCK6

I like the Moras.

But you might take a look at the various 'Kephart-pattern' bushcraft knives as they are extremely practical.  They run from el cheapo to quite spendy, but with the blade itself the makers generally follow the same length, shape, and thickness as Kephart's two originals  -  one blade @ 4"-4.25", the other at 5".

http://www.thetruthaboutknives.com/the-original-kephart-knife-examined/

I like my Mora Bushcraft.

Also like my ESEE knives.

Lots of good suggestions above.  A very Loooooong time ago, (late 60's?) I found a Puma "White Hunter" knife lying on the ground.

One of the best all-purpose knives available.  You will find more practicable/more economical alternatives mentioned above, but none better than my "free" "White Hunter".

Maybe a good combo would be a good Mora and another knife.

Another vote for ESEE.

Yup

That 28 looks great!

I have a White Hunter and a Puma Bowie, both are pretty nice.

Mora has expanded their offerings.  Some now have a full tang I think, I don't own any of the expensive moras.  I have a dozen or more of the "cheapish" moras.  From the rat tale tang with a wooden handle to some of the blue handles that won't let your hand slide onto the blade to some of the orange ones that can't be lost even if you try, moras do a dang good job.

Stock sheathes are ok, plastic and just make sure you snap the knife into it.

I highly recomend watching some youtube and other vids on sheath mods and just make a sheath.

I spent all kinds of money on knives and this and that.  For all I want to do a mora will do.  For lot of wood cutting, get a folding saw or something.  Quieter and easier on you and the tools.

Nothing against esee and other stuff.  I have who knows how much money in knives.

One thing I will say, is if you want to have something you will cut onions and tomatoes and stuff up with then play in the kitchen and learn that thick blades suck in the kitchen.

I'm one who also believe is having a full tang, but logically and practically, it's not essential.  I've often wondered if full-tang knives are for moronic Neanderthals who only have a hammer and see every problem as a nail

Last year in Afghanistan, I was working with several coalition forces, and the Swedes were one of them.  One of the Swede NCOs worked at their "Ranger School" and did the survival training...we naturally talked knives, a lot.  The Swedish Ranger School still issues their trainees the Mora 2000:





As you can see it's not a traditional rat-tail tang, but not a full tang either; simply a partial tang.  The Swede (actually an immigrant son from Lebanon and who's wife is Latvian...) said he has never seen that knife "fail" outside of purposeful destruction (such as melting the handle off and literally hammering it into ice).  He did say the use and abuse the hell out of them (oh, and they "baton" with them too).  He said they do everything from wood work to build traps, build shelters, firewood/tinder prep, game/fish gutting, chip ice, dig in the dirt, etc.

So, while I still prefer a full-tang fixed blade, I have zero concerns about using even rat-tail tang Mora for serious knife tasks.  That Swedish contingent gifted me that Mora "Survival Knife"; great group of troopers and it was a great gesture.

ROCK6

Full tang is the way to go.

I must have gwo dozen different knifes my most used are 3.5-4.5” blades. 8-9” length, not too thin, not too thick.

RMJ Range 37 is my go to knife, I do squirrel deer and turkey with it, I have a winkler field knife thats too heavy for anything other than chopping, I just ordered an RMJ Tsati to try out its somewhere. etween those two.

I have a straight up bushcraft knife, I find the blade too thick for anything other than carving, batoning, or feathering; def not a kitchen or hunting knife.

Esee

I just got a carbon steel Terava Jaakaripuukko 110 from Varusteleka. It's definitely worth checking out if you like puukkos, especially for $31 (w/o a sheath). Initial impressions:

• I have small/medium sized hands. The handle is comfortable for me.
• It came extremely sharp.
• It feels very solid without feeling cumbersome. It handles nicely at kitchen task.

It easily sliced semi-frozen London Broil yesterday, in preparation for making it into jerky.

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The meat is currently in my dehydrator. Can't wait for it to be finish drying.

Today I cut up some vegetables to go into the crock pot for chili tomorrow morning. I think it would work better on veggies if it had a full saber grind, but it's still very usable for this task. It's 0.17" or 4.5mm thick at the spine.

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The rubber handle cleans up easily.

I still need to get out an try it on wood and also for things like cleaning a fish or skinning an animal. But my first impressions are good.

BTW, I didn't get one of Varusteleka's sheaths. I'm sure they are decent but I am left handed, so I'm using a lefty sheath from Ben's Backwoods that I already had.

All - thank you for the insights and recommendations!  Clearly Mora and ESEE seem to be terrible choices  Y'all have given me some good things to think about and will post an update to OP once I've made a purchase.

@ROCK6 - Thanks for sharing your insights and really appreciate the extent of your posts.  The idea of getting a cheaper mora to practice sharpening is a great idea! The 2000 seems like a great imidpoint between the basic mora and the Garberg.

@SeaDog951 - Did you get the leather sheath offered with the Genesis and if so how do you like it?

@Mainsail - That's a badass picture with the ESEE 6!  Where did you build the fire without running into any issue?  Every park/forest east of Seattle seems to have no fire signs!

@Actiondiver and @FredMan - I'd probably drop the Randall my first time out and be super pissed!

I went out for a fire starting exercise and went to the Olympic Mtns area in the National Forest outside Quilcene; I think it was early to mid April and around 45° outside.

It had been raining for about a week, and was actively drizzling when I started, so everything was soaked.  My initial attempts were pretty dismal; I was able to whittle off the wet outer bark and some wood, but it was time consuming and by the time you got dry wood in your hand, the wood you'd already processed was getting wet from the drizzle.  I got a small fire going but it wasn't hot enough to dry out anything else.

At that point the processing was doing 10X more to keep me warm than the fire ever would.

Then I found a rotten stump, and the big ESEE-6 was able to dig it apart until I hit the pitch-wood.  After that it was easy.

The worst part was all the bending and being stooped over for long periods wrecked my back, and took several days to recover.

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This is what a bushcraft knife should look like- not clean and pristine.  

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Lot's of good suggestions. To add to the pot, check out survive knives.

They use primarily CPM 3V and 20CV- good and bad.  Hold an edge for a long time, but hard to field sharpen.

Since we are in the Survival Forum, I submit that the first and foremost Survival knife should be a decent skinning type knife, since that blade configuration will allow almost all tasks, and provide ideal configuration for skinning game.  Knives modeled after the Puma "White Hunter", as long as well-made, will do nicely.

In conjunction with that, I suggest a small, multi-purpose knife, perhaps some good variant of the MORA series of knives.

Finally, I suggest a high quality Swiss Army knife, like the Military types, not too over-built, for frequent use.

I do not usually recommend carriage of multitools for field use (unless one has specific reasons for including such) because most of their tools do not pertain to most field uses.  If one needs a specific tool, for some reason, it is almost always lighter to carry such specific tools in lieu of a multitool.

In any event, one will need a device to sharpen all these tools, and that has been something neglected in ths conversation.  Along with such a device, one will need the skills/practice to confidently use such a "field-use" sharpening device.

Unless one's trek is very short, one can expect on sharpening any (or all) of one's cutting tools.  This sharpening includes axes.

No cutting tool is worth much if it has become dull.  Sharpening in the field, with effective, lightweight, devices is essential.  Surely the subject of a different thread.

This.  Unless you are really into custom knives or have a very specific set of wants, spending more is pointless.

I'd avoid the 5, it's stupid thick while being too short to make use of the thickness.  The 6 is a better all-around if you want something larger.

The 3 has a nicer blade thickness than the 4 but the length of the 3 is slightly small for really using outdoors, imho.

I appreciate your concurrence on some of my recent posts.  As a longstanding, valued, informed, member here, your opinion has some meaning to me, and perhaps to others.

Thank you.

I hope that anyone that finds me out in error in any way will call me to account; Doing so will be a service to me, as well to others.

Not that you are necessarily in error I have just found that for me a blade that is 4.5 or shorter is ideal.  For me any larger and I am not going to bring the knife along which does me no good in a survival situation.  One knife I have seen that I really like and wish I had gotten was the Blade-tech folding ulu.