There are many EDC ножи, but it is difficult for beginners to choose. Which ED knife has a good balance of price and quality? Himika, an outdoor girl who has a deep knowledge of Bushcraft, taught us one recommended for beginners!
Which of the many types of EDC knives is recommended?
If you go deep into camping, many people will be interested in bushcraft, which you can get from nature and enjoy the outdoors.
Ever since I started solo camp, I have enjoyed camps focusing on the work of breaking firewood, batoning, feather sticks that custom burning wood easier to burn, and burning fire with a fire starter.
The first step you need is an EDC knife, but there are so many different types that you can’t decide which one to use. So this time, I would like to introduce an EDC knife that I would like to recommend for the first one!
After all, we recommend the classic “Mora Knife”
Mora knives from Sweden are reasonably priced at around $30, but their quality is endorsed by the King of Sweden. The quality is highly evaluated and certified as a purveyor to the royal family, which is given only to the leading Swedish factories.
Among them, I would like to recommend a model called “Companion Spark”, but I will explain the reason carefully!
Affordable price that beginners can easily consider as the first one, and of course uncompromising quality. We will tell you about the three charms of “Companion Spark”, which has a good balance between these two!
Part 1: The blade is made of stainless steel, which is resistant to rust and has excellent blade retention.
The advantage of stainless steel is that it is resistant to rust, has excellent blade retention, and maintains sharpness. Therefore, for those who are new to knives, we recommend stainless steel EDC knives, which are easy to handle for both practical and maintenance purposes.
Part 2: The fire starter is stored in the handle (buttocks)
A fire starter is a tool that creates sparks by rubbing rod-shaped magnesium with a piece of metal called a striker. Also known as a metal match, this companion spark also stores it.
Instead of a striker, you can rub it with the back of a knife to create sparks. It is a big attraction to burn the fire with this one!
Part 3: Almighty blade thickness suitable for both cooking and batoning
Ножи Мора have blade thicknesses of 2.0 mm, 2.5 mm, and 3.2 mm, depending on the model, and the companion spark is just in the middle, 2.5 mm. The thinner it is, the more suitable it is for cooking, and the thicker it is, the more suitable it is for heavy-duty work such as batoning.
It is a “good point picker” that can be used for cooking and is also suitable for easy-to-break coniferous trees and thin firewood batoning.
Нож Мора-компаньон Искра
- Materials: Handle / Rubber, Blade / Stainless Steel
- Длина лезвия: около 104 мм.
- Общая длина: около 238 мм.
- Толщина лезвия: примерно 2,5 мм.
- Weight: Approximately 82g (weight of knife only)
- Аксессуары: Пластиковые ножны, зажигалка, паракорд.
Once you have decided on your first knife, let’s use it to check its performance. For the first challenge, we recommend batoning, which breaks dead wood or breaks thick firewood into small pieces to make firewood.
We will give a lecture on how to break firewood using the back of a knife!
Basics of “batoning” using an EDC knife
Tools necessary for batoning
The necessary tools are an EDC knife, a thick branch for hitting (ideally heavy and dense), a wood-splitting stand (a log or a stable and base), and work gloves. For this, prepare some branches for breaking.
It is important to note here that the branches for hitting the knife must be heavy and stiff, and the knife will not be cracked no matter how much you hit it. Choose dense branches.
Also, if the base used for chopping wood is unstable, you may be injured. When using stone or concrete, be careful not to hit the knife blade with the force of hitting it and spill it.
Batoning tips
Insert the base of the knife diagonally into the corner of the firewood.
Hit the tilted knife with a branch to make it horizontal.
After splitting the firewood by about 70-80%, add a twist and split it. The fragility varies depending on the density and the presence or absence of knots, so if you use too much force, you may lose your posture with the cracked force, or you may hit the wood-splitting table with a knife and spill the blade.
The trick is to stabilize your posture while hitting with moderate force. If you find it hard to break, don’t try to break it, but change to another firewood or dead branch and proceed with the work!
You can also do this with an EDC knife!
Once you get used to handling with batoning, let’s try the detailed work. For example, creating a crater that unravels a twine by scraping it with a knife.
You can use задняя часть ножа to scrape the surface of fat wood (a wood that has a lot of resin and is suitable for ignition) to make it a fire.
The surface of flammable bark such as birch can also be scraped off and used as a source of fire.
This uses the stored fire starter (though it is not shown in the photo because I pulled the fire starter toward you quickly).
Quickly pull the fire starter toward you as if rubbing magnesium on the edge of the back of the knife to disperse the sparks.
If you enjoy bushcraft outdoors to your heart’s content, take care of your knives for the next time you go out. Next, I will summarize the maintenance!
About caring for EDC knives
EDC knives are a companion to enjoy together, so take care of them as a habit. Then, I will introduce how to take care of it.
Sharpen with a whetstone to keep the sharpness
To keep the sharpness, it is safe to sharpen the knife regularly. After sharpening to some extent with the whetstone “Rough whetstone # 1000”, I finish it with “Finishing whetstone # 5000”.
Before sharpening, I always use a correction whetstone to level the surface of the whetstone so that the entire blade can be sharpened evenly at any time.
Shapton ceramic whetstone blade black curtain # 1000 medium whetstone
- Size: 210 x 70 x 15 (mm)
- Mass: 0.7kg
Shapton Ceramic Whetstone Blade Black Curtain # 5000
- Size: 210 x 70 x 15 (mm)
- Mass: 0.7kg
Keep the angle between the grindstone and the blade at 18-23 degrees, and grind from the root to the cutting edge so that your hands do not shake.
You can also use a leather strop for finishing.
You can also apply the compound to the leather attached to the wood and pull лезвие ножа left and right to sharpen it. If you’re new to grindstone finishing, this is an easy way to finish.
Sharpen while pulling so that the edge of the blade is aligned on the surface of the leather.
Suehiro Correction Whetstone Blue Medium / Finishing Whetstone Correction
- Size: 206 x 54 x 27 mm
- Mass: 632g
- Material: Whetstone: White Arundum
Protect your blade from rust with camellia oil!
You can protect the sharpened knife from rust by applying camellia oil for blades.
Black rose blade camellia
- Size: (approx.) Width 40 mm x depth 150 mm x height 40 mm
- Contents: (approx.) 100 ml
- Raw materials: Camellia oil
Berk River Leather Abrasive Abrasive Strop Compound
- Mass: Approximately 160g
Since stainless steel is rust-resistant, it may not be necessary to protect it with oil every time, but carbon steel etc. should be protected from rust by applying camellia oil every time you clean it!
If you find the first one, let’s enjoy the deeper bushcraft!
If you read this column and find the first EDC knife, be sure to step into the deep world of bushcraft. From shelters to cooking keys (hooks) and bonfires, you can create a lot of things using the dead branches around you.
I would like to introduce Bushcraft, which I have been familiar with for many years, in detail in a column at another time!
Please look forward to it next time!
Outdoor girls Himika
Born in Ishigaki Island. Fjällräven Official Ambassador. YouTube “Himika Channel” started in 2017. Since she has been active on Youtube, Instagram, writers, models and more. She now begins her mountain life while she enjoys camping, mountaineering, gravel bikes and more.
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