What's the primary role for 5 to 6 inch fixed blades in your knife usage? What tasks are knives in this size class especially good at?
Here is what developed for me: I use many of my fixed blades in the small and large categories, all the time. I rarely use any knife in this sort of medium 5 to 6 inch class anymore. In fact I've thinned mine out and the only one I have left--the Swamp Rat Ratmandu pictured below--sits at home and I never use it. Why? Because my smaller 3.5 to 4.5" fixed blade knives are easier to carry, let me do detail work easier, and do 95% of everything this knife can do. And if I know I want to do any real wood chopping or splitting, brush clearing, etc., my larger knives and machetes are far more efficient than any knife I've ever owned in this size class.
Bottom line: for my usage, knives in this class are not super useful. Not saying nobody should own one, just that I don't find them super useful. They're not great at small knife tasks, and they're also inadequate for large knife tasks. Anybody who's tried chopping through a 4" to 5" log with a knife like the one below, versus say a 10" Busse, a BK9, an ESEE Junglas, or a small hatchet, knows what I'm talking about. I'm not constrained by any sort of survivalist fantasy ("What if you could only bring one?"). I ALWAYS bring more than one
and would even if I were hoofing it during some natural disaster.
Just wondering --beyond special cases like combat soldiers who can only afford to carry one knife because of their heavy load-out, or putting a single knife in a bug-out bag for similar reasons--what's the compelling case for knives in this size class.
Here is what developed for me: I use many of my fixed blades in the small and large categories, all the time. I rarely use any knife in this sort of medium 5 to 6 inch class anymore. In fact I've thinned mine out and the only one I have left--the Swamp Rat Ratmandu pictured below--sits at home and I never use it. Why? Because my smaller 3.5 to 4.5" fixed blade knives are easier to carry, let me do detail work easier, and do 95% of everything this knife can do. And if I know I want to do any real wood chopping or splitting, brush clearing, etc., my larger knives and machetes are far more efficient than any knife I've ever owned in this size class.
Bottom line: for my usage, knives in this class are not super useful. Not saying nobody should own one, just that I don't find them super useful. They're not great at small knife tasks, and they're also inadequate for large knife tasks. Anybody who's tried chopping through a 4" to 5" log with a knife like the one below, versus say a 10" Busse, a BK9, an ESEE Junglas, or a small hatchet, knows what I'm talking about. I'm not constrained by any sort of survivalist fantasy ("What if you could only bring one?"). I ALWAYS bring more than one
and would even if I were hoofing it during some natural disaster. Just wondering --beyond special cases like combat soldiers who can only afford to carry one knife because of their heavy load-out, or putting a single knife in a bug-out bag for similar reasons--what's the compelling case for knives in this size class.
