There's been a lot of talk in the knife community about White River knives being the best survival knives in the world...

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Heffeb

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There's been a lot of talk in the knife community about White River knives being the best survival knives in the world. Personally, I do not have one, and I just heard of them reading an article just a little while ago. They seem to be good, but overpriced. Does anyone have any experience with these knives? I'm interested in learning more about them. For instance, take the White River Knife & Tool Firecraft FC4 survival knife. Is that a good knife? It costs $250.00. What's so great about it?
 
I must've missed this, somehow. They do have a sub-forum here. That I do know.

Anyway, keep it light. Threads like this have a tendency to go downhill fast. Let's see how long we can stay on course.
 
Heffeb said:
There's been a lot of talk in the knife community about White River knives being the best survival knives in the world. Personally, I do not have one, and I just heard of them reading an article just a little while ago. They seem to be good, but overpriced. Does anyone have any experience with these knives? I'm interested in learning more about them. For instance, take the White River Knife & Tool Firecraft FC4 survival knife. Is that a good knife? It costs $250.00. What's so great about it?
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I had a FC5 and it was a superb knife. Did everything I wanted it to do in spite of being S35v which I don’t like for hard use fixed blades. I sold it to buy a Carothers and while I feel the Carothers is a better all around knife, I sometimes miss the FC5.
 
I also must’ve missed all this talk. That said, I do love my white river knives, and I do not think they are overpriced at all for what you get. The fit and finish on them is some of the best I’ve seen, they come screaming sharp, great blade steel, and they’ve never let me down.

The Sendero Classic is probably the one fixed blade knife I would grab if I could only have one for the rest of my life. The Sendero Pack is an incredible little scout carry EDC knife. An M1 backpacker lives on my fly fishing vest at all times so I can grab it super quickly and I use it all the time when fishing.

-Mike
 
"Best" isn't a word any one manufacturer reserves the right to
Gotta consider categories
White river is an amazing company
Best in the world?
No

I've used their knives for everything
Carving wood, prying, digging in the dirt
My fiance has kept a White River small hunter in her purse since I bought it for her a year ago
It's all scratched and scuffed up, I have no clue what she uses it on but it's going super strong
Still wouldn't call it best in the world
But highly recommended
 
White River makes fabulous knives, yeah, and most of them fall into the Survival/Hunting category. I don't know if there's a "lot of talk" about how they're the best survival knives in the world," though.

They are definitely in the running for production knives in the genre, I'd have to say, and if anything, criminally undervalued and under-known with not enough talk as they deserve.

The fit and finish is stellar, and the mirror stonewash finish they do is about the nicest factory knife blade finish I've seen. Every one I have owned was screaming sharp, they come in lovely and thoughtful designed boxes, and they've had great if quiet collaborations with some of the big custom names like Ken Onion and Jerry Fisk. It's a well-run family company and they do custom shop versions of their production knives.

Dunno what's not to like, really. Their Backpacker and Knucklehead designs are arguably best value for the type of knife and if anything under-priced.
 
Really like the Model 1 and the Sendero Classic.

Best in the world?

Maybe for some folks they are, but it’s really not a title that can be claimed like “World Heavyweight Champ”, etc., because what makes a knife “good/best” is different for different people.

It’s like claiming that a particular country makes the “best food”.
 
I carry one of two Sendero Classics every day. I have an M1 Caper for a box knife, and a Todd Begg collaboration Recondo. THIS is the knife the SOG Pillar wishes it was!

Somewhere I missed all the talk where anyone said they were the best in the world. But they're really nice folks, who happen who make damn good knives.
 
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I think they make some high quality knives and among the better fixed blades around for their price, but I don't remember ever hearing any conversations about them being the best. There's a case for the M1 Pro Backpacker being the best of its class, but the MKM Makro might have something to say about it.

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I’ve got a couple. M1 Caper in S35VN and an Ursus 45 in 3v. I think the caper is perfect. I know several guys that have them, we all have different size hands and we all love them! I didn’t like the edge on the Ursus so I put one on it that was better for me. The rest of the knife was great. I dig the kydex sheath with a dangler and a fire steel that matches the knife’s scales. They’re both comfortable to use and a good value IMO.
 
Fantastic knives. I’d love to get one of the M1s exclusives they did in MagnaCut!
 
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