Video by: gideonstactical

Knife on deck: Gerber LMF II Survival Knife

This really hunky knife you’re drooling over right now is the Gerber LMF II Survival Knife. It’s a 10-inch knife that weighs 11.5 ounces. The drop point blade is 4.84 inches long, partially serrated, and made out of 420HC stainless steel.

The LMF II’s handle is made out of glass-filled nylon with TPV overmold; it has lanyard holes that allow it to be easily converted into a spear. One of the unique things about the LMF II (whether you’re talking about the Infantry model, the ASEK one, or this one) is that it has a pointed buttcap that can be used as a hammer or a glass breaker AND it’s physically separated from the tang in order to provide shock absorption and protection from electrocution.

Video by: cutlerylover

Knife on Deck: Ka-bar BK2 Becker Campanion

This beast of a knife you’re looking at right now is the Ka-bar BK2 fixed blade knife. If you’re looking at this review and video, you’ve probably already wondered why this particular knife is so popular. We’ll list down the pros and cons of this bad boy later on. For now, let’s go through the specs.

Video by: gideonstactical
Knife on Deck: Buck Hood Punk 0065BKSBH

Today’s knife review of choice is the lightweight little brother of the Buck Hoodlum--the Buck 65 Hood Punk knife--the prince of the campsite. From the tip of the blade to the butt of the handle, this survival knife measures 11 inches and weighs a measly 7.4 oz. Include the sheath and you’re at 13 oz. You’re not going to tire out using this knife!

Let’s talk some specifics though.

The Blade

With the Hood Punk, you’ve got a 5160 powder-coated steel blade measuring about 5 5/8” with a 57-59 HRC. The 5160 spring steel is very similar to 1095 but is tougher and more durable. The high carbon spring steel does mean that you should expect a little bit of rust to show up especially if you’re living in a humid area. The flat, gray powder coating on the knife is definitely not a heavy duty, long lasting job, so it won’t take too long to wear some of that coating off.

When you get a chance to hold this piece of royalty in your hands, you’ll notice that the 3/16 inch blade thickness is consistent from butt to tip. The blade itself is a pretty classic, slight clip design. It’s got a great amount of belly with a nice full, flat grind, and this is why we say the Buck Punk is the prince of the campsite. The full, flat grind with all that belly is great for feathering, whittling, slicing, and food prep in general. Buck grinds all of their knives at 13-15 degrees, so this blade is sure to give you a really aggressive grind angle for any work you’re going to do around the campsite.

The Handle

The Buck Hood Punk is hollow-handled and covered with micarta handle scales. The screws make it easy to take on and off and the hollow handle creates a little bit of space that can be used to carry matches or tinder (super useful in a survival situation). The main complaint about the handle is that the micarta scales are a little rough. A file is an easy fix to that issue though.

What else? The handles are equipped with a shock mitigation system to give you a bit of ease with heavy use. The grip is very comfortable and cups the hand well. The thumb ramp and finger choils make for a comfortable hold whether you’re choking up on the knife for more detailed work or a more relaxed grip for slicing or carving.

Other than the sharp-edged micarta handle scales, the only other potential negative about the handle is the thumb ramp. Some knife enthusiasts say it’s completely unnecessary while others are disappointed that it has no jimping. For most people, though, it’s not really a problem.

The Sheath

The sheath for the Buck 65 Hood Punk knife is a bit of a conundrum. It’s got some neat features. There’s a pocket on the front side that’s big enough for a multi-tool, mini survival kit, or even a sharpener. It’s M.O.L.L.E compatible and comes with 550 paracord so you could lash it around your leg or a velcro attachment system so you can attach it to your belt without having to take your belt off. It’s pretty flexible for different carry styles.

For the knife, the sheath includes a big, plastic insert and dual lashing to keep it in place. There’s a snap strap that fits around the handle as well as paracord with lashing to keep the knife pretty sturdy in the sheath.

Gideonstactical is not alone in his feelings about the sheath being bigger than what the knife needs. If you bought the knife wanting to take advantage of all of the features sheath, then the sheath is a great part of your purchase. However, if you bought the knife because of how streamlined and lightweight it is, the sheath will be a bit of a disappointment.

Gideonstactical recommends a 6 inch Spec Ops Sheath as a great alternate sheath option.

Performance

The Buck 65 Hood Punk knife is a great all around camp knife. Being a smaller knife, it’s not a great chopper, but it performs better than most knives its size. It’ll definitely get the job done, but you’re also going to spend a good bit of energy.

The Buck Punk is a sturdy piece of steel so for batoning, anything 5 inches or less in diameter is going to be a piece of cake. The finger choils also give a nice grip for feathering and slicing. If it ends up being a food slicing knife, it’s not going to turn your food into baby mash.

Why We Like the Buck Hood Punk 0065BKSBH

The buck 65 hood punk is overall an awesome, lightweight backpacking/camping/survival knife. It’s incredibly tough and durable; it’s a knife that will last you a lifetime. As a Buck Knife, you know that it’s made in the USA, and, as usual, has Buck’s “forever warranty.” Interested in checking it out? May I present to you the Buck Hood Punk 0065BKSBH.

Video by: cutlerylover

Knife on deck: Cold Steel Super Edge 42SS

The first thing you’ll notice when the video begins is that it looks like a giant is holding a survival knife. Relax and breath easy. What you’re looking at is the Cold Steel Super Edge 42SS. It’s 4 5/16 inches long and weighs .8oz without the sheath (under 2 oz. with the sheath). The blade is a beautifully serrated 2 inches of Cold Steel AUS8 steel.

This little devil was designed to be fairly incognito. If you look at the design of the Secure-Ex sheath and the Kray-Ex handle of the knife you can just let your imagination go wild with the number of places you could carry this. The most obvious ways to carry this knife is as a neck knife or as a boot knife, but the options are endless.

Some suggestions:

• on the zipper of your hoody
• on your purse (if you are a female or a purse carrying man)
• on your backpack
• on your fanny pack (you 80s-loving weirdo)
• on your BOB
• basically anything with a zipper or string or lace-up option

The Cold Steel Super Edge 42SS is:

• lightweight
• compact
• and very, very sharp

Overall a great performing knife.

More Specifically

So what specifically did cutlerylover have to say about it. First, he really likes to use it as his boot knife. He laces it through the front of his boot or sneaker so that it rests on the tongue of the shoe. In fact, he says that no-one has ever noticed it there unless he’s pointed it out.

As a boot knife, it’s great. As a neck knife, the Cold Steel Super Edge leaves something to be desired mostly because of the handle. Why?

1. The handle is made of Kray-Ex and is very grippy. Offhand, this seems like a great feature, and it is, unless you’re wearing the Cold Steel Super Edge as a neck knife. The grippiness makes up for the small size of the handle for a confident hold, but that grippiness does not do well with neck skin, chest hair, or t-shirts. The handle seems to do a twisty love dance with anything that it touches.

2. Second complaint about the handle is that the guard makes the knife a bit bulky for a neck knife. The sheath has to bulge out in order to fit the full guard of the Super Edge, which makes it a little too bulgy for the ideal neck knife.

For a neck knife, cutlerylover prefers either the Brous Blades Silent Soldier or the CRKT Spew.

Cold Steel Super Edge Serrations

The blade of the Super Edge is serrated, alternating a scallop edge with micro-serrations. While a fully-scalloped serrated edge might be preferred, the micro-serrations of the Cold Steel Super Edge are about as good as they come. Often, micro-serrated knife-edges fail because the serrations are too deep. This results in the knife to catching while you cut through things. Deep serrations are also difficult to keep sharp enough to function well for very long. The Super Edge’s micro-serrations are fairly shallow which allows them to stay sharper for longer and helps them not to catch as often on whatever you’re cutting.

Cutlerylover says that in his opinion, the knife, under constant use, would last for 5-6 months before needing to be resharpened. At this point, he throws his away. We all know that it can be challenging for anyone to sharpen serrations, let alone return the serrations to a factory edge.If you don’t feel like tackling the project of re-sharpening a serrated knife, we recommend turning the serrated Super Edge into a straight-edge!

Why we like the Cold Steel Super Edge:

It’s a great, inexpensive, incognito, always-carry-with-you knife. Laced to your shoe or bag or shirt as a regular accessory, you’ll always have a knife with you even if you end up in an unintentional survival situation.

View the Cold Steel Super Edge on Amazon!

If you're looking for a survival knife that will give you an outrageous bang for your buck, you'll definitely want to look at the Schrade SCHF3N extreme survival knife. Schrade knives are generally known providing a high quality knife at lower-end prices.

The Schrade SCHF3N survival knife, in particular, is one of the most popular ones in their extreme survival series. We’re going to look at exactly what features this knife has and how it performs in the field.

Features of the Schrade Survival Knife:

We’ve already come up with a list of the most important features that any dependable survival knife should have. If you want to learn more about what they are and why we chose them, you can read about it here. So, how does the Schrade SCHF3N rate on our checklist?