Looking for my 1st quality Bushcraft...

A

Andrew Jadatz

Joined
Sep 25, 2019
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I really like LT Wright Outback, but understand its not stainless. I'm on ocean shores a lot and afraid of effects of salt. Should I still get LT Outback or are their quality equivalent (build, steel etc.) with stainless steel? Thank you.
 
Hi, my advice is to go for a stainless knife. I do a lot of work near the sea,(as on the coasts) and non stainless steel knives, will suffer with getting a dunking in salt water often unless you can reliably keep it clean and that really means exclusion of the salt, the chloride ion is what will corrode it over time, especially under a handle scales if they can not be removed for cleaning.
 
That will happen with stainless, too, if used in that environment and properly not cleaned.
 
Thanks for both of your inputs. Yeah salt is tough, even when I think I got everything clean - I didn't. Looking at Gough Resolute Mkiii with DLC coating. Wonder if DLC will do the trick with protection. Expense knife though...hunt continues. Thank you.
 
The Outback looks very similar to Battle Horse Knives Smoky Mountain Razor which I happen to love. I don't know of any production knives in stainless with a similar blade profile and handle shape.

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With the L. T. Wright Outback being 3V vs the O1 on the Battle Horse Knives, I'd definitely go the LT route for toughness and improved corrosion resistance if I had it to do over again.
 
What about a TOPS? They make a bunch of knives that might work for you (Brothers of Bushcraft for example), and they use good 1095 carbon steel. They powder coat the blades so theres less of a rust issue. That might be the best of both worlds.
 
Thanks, good updates! More thought in getting a quality bushcraft knife than I anticipated, but I'm learning a ton.
 
Not technically a bushcraft knife but it can serve as such, look into the spyderco waterway. The design is intended for kayak fishing but it still works pretty well as a woods knife as long as wood processing isn't a need from the knife, similar to how a Kephart works. Amazing slicer and pretty decent ergos, IMO.

LT does use AEB-L and it should perform pretty well against stain-resistance, but the waterway is worry free, including the pins and sheath.
 
That looks like a nice knife but for salt water this one may work really well. It is the Fallkniven SX line of knives they just came out with. It has a black coating that is 83 on the hardness side with a cobalt stainless blade at 60 Rockwell. You could also take off the handles for cleaning or if you wanted different handles have some made to fit. I'm looking at the coated SX1 myself with a 5" blade. Check them out they look pretty tough as well. This is the F1X below with a 4" blade I believe.

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ANother vote on the coated f1x. I have the original non coated version and it will process wood, brain fish and then even fillet one. I did forget to wipe it down one day and got some small rust spots, but that was my fault.

The coating would have helped my forgetfulness and the new sheath on the x series looks to work better. I like plastic sheaths for knives that will be around water. I think all the X series is CoS rather than the already good vg10 so that is probably a plus too. I’m new to good steels so haven’t moved further than vg10 yet as it’s meeting all of my needs :)

I do have a Spyderco waterway in the post also though. The lc200n is supposed to be on par with vg10, but essentially rustproof! It will be my saltwater knife so I can continue being forgetful (easy to do when hauling in fish). There’s a video on YouTube of the Waterway processing wood.
 
Ian also looking into my first quality fixed knife. I have read that the Bark River knife in elmax is a good choice. I’m looking at the gunny or the bravo 1.25 as possible choices.
 
After bead blasting the micarta handles of my Bark River Aurora LT, I now love it, and the Elmax is excellent.
 
hhmoore said:
That will happen with stainless, too, if used in that environment and properly not cleaned.
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Yes that's right too as all stainless steels will corrode over time from affects of the sea. Especially ones at high HRC values.
 
I live 2 blocks from a bay.i have not had a problem with my 1095 knives. I have had cheap surgical stainless steel rust just from opening the front door
 
I would recommend finding something in LC200N,it has great corrosion resistance yet still has surprisingly good edge retention..It’s much better than the H1..Spyderco uses both H1 and LC200N in their Salt line..they also use LC200N in their Autonomy 1 and 2 automatic knives...I have an Autonomy 2 and it’s an amazing knife,it’s one of my favorite side folding autos
 
If you have patience or get lucky, keep an eye out for an AEBL blade from Adam Gray "AA Forge". Fanstastic knives if you can grab one.
 
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