Your favorite knife brand

Oh yeah, I have a Mora 2000 that's been my go-to general purpose crafts/camping/whatever knife for well over twenty years now, and it's still my favorite bladed tool. Deceptively simple design, top notch materials, it's simply got everything just right IMO. There's also my tiny little carving knife, which is a real beauty, but it's built for a fairly specific purpose (precision carving and whittling) and not much good for most general tasks so sees much less use.

The KO-2 dagger, Sterkh folder and limited edition DV-2 survival knife I have from Kizlyar are all amazing - and amazingly cheap for their quality!

And of course there's the Benchmade Mini Griptilian I keep in my pocket for everyday use.

But overall it seems Mora is the brand I get the most actual use out of...

(And of course everybody up here has bucketloads of their cheapies, sometimes quite literally, 'cos they're cheap enough to abuse and throw away without a second thought, yet more than good enough to get any job done that can be done with a knife. Look around any garage, workshop, construction site or such and you'll probably find a dozen or two.

If your into XL large knives (5 1/2" to 6" blade, and even some 7 1/2" monsters), then Cold Steel not only excels, but are the only game in town.

Legacy Arms/Hanwei makes some big knives/seaxes/bowies.

I'm of the impression that howler was referring specifically to folding knives, in which case he would be more accurate in terms of well-known brands, but still incorrect. I have a JJ Martinez navaja with a 9" blade, for instance.

Before I bought anything from Cold Steel, though, I'd prefer to have a Wild Steer W'Estaing: www.wildsteer.com/en/folding-knives/26-w-estaing.html


My WX is a thoroughly overbuilt knife, one I only wish I could justify carrying. It's just too bulky alongside everything else in my pockets and I'm not gonna clip it on my belt in place of a fixed blade, even if it would do the same job, when the reason I carry a fixed blade at all is in the event I can't open a folder. Especially as most of my folders are manually operated and require the use of both hands.

There are other big folders out there, too.

Yup, and I always wanted a machete folder but CS only makes that tiny espada xl.

EDC Benchmade folder, crooked river, gorgeous great steal and shaving sharp.

For backwoods you can't go wrong with esee-6, although I'd highly recommend a new pair of grip scales as the set it comes with is basically a block. I carry both of these when backpacking/camping and the esee holds up no matter what torture it goes through.

For more spendy/custom style stuff Miller Brothers or John Gage are both tops.

Yup, BIG arse folders.  Now, by big, I was mainly referring to the 5 1/2" bladed animals, and not the 7 1/2" beasts (which I don't own, but would still like to purchase and fondle).  I REALLY need to point out those $35 dollar Aus-8 Voyagers (Clip and Vaquero) to you, as they still might be available (though I doubt it).  They are durable (bomb proof, actually), light, well designed, and feature a world beating Tri-Ad lock.  All this, and they are very easy to carry in your pocket.  That Wild Steer looks like a pretty cool collector knife, but you can have piles of these CS XL knifes lying around, almost like you would a Mora.

Aside from Timo's post, I've had trouble finding many long folders. Few retailers offer the option of filtering by blade length, and each manufacturer has its own hoard of models and variants, so tracking down a knife with X" blade is tricky to say the least. I assure you, though, they're out there.

Another point that's sure to come up is most of these tend to be quite pricey. Cold Steel may have the win there, but I'm not convinced their knives are truly the end-all in build quality many seem to hold them as.

I did mention my own JJ Martinez, at 9", but it was also 150€+ and I wouldn't consider it an EDC-qualified knife due to that size. Even in fixed blades I find anything over 6" excessive and impractical. I've tried several, but I've settled on 5.5" or thereabouts being the best compromise. My folders run 3.5-4" simply because I don't need them any bigger than this. I use the big JJ Martinez in the kitchen, in the rare event I prepare real food.

A number of Spanish knife makers offer the more classical designs with blades over 5" long, but those don't really hit the modern "tacti-cool" market like Cold Steel, Benchmade, Spyderco, etc.

Eh, I have no desire to give Cold Steel money when I could get a knife I actually like from just about anybody else, but that does seem like a good offer to anybody who might actually be interested.