Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters BEST hunting knife for $100 or less?

I'm not sure that it's the "the best" but you might want to check out the Grohmann #1

Why invest that kind of money into a cheap Chinese blade?

So that no one is tempted to believe what isn't true, the big blade on a Havalon Titan is not Chinese. It is AUS-8 steel, which is a Japanese steel with a relatively high carbon content. It is used in most SOG knives and many, many, many others. The replaceable 60A scalpel blade is made in India. This is what your doctor most likely uses when he does surgery on you. But then, I suppose you could tell your surgeon not to use it.

(As I talk to doctors who are also hunters I learn that most of them use a scalpel in the field, and those who do not know about Havalon are very happy to learn about it.)

Steve.

Poor edge retention. I guess that's why so many knife makers use it. Havalon's AUS-8 is cryo-hardened, if that makes a difference.

Keep in mind, in reference to your comment on the "upside" of the Havalon blade, it's the scalpel blade that's replaceable, which is not AUS-8. It's a proprietary stainless formula Havels provides to the medical industry.

Steve.

So that no one is tempted to believe what isn't true, the big blade on a Havalon Titan is not Chinese. It is AUS-8 steel, which is a Japanese steel with a relatively high carbon content. It is used in most SOG knives and many, many, many others. The replaceable 60A scalpel blade is made in India. This is what your doctor most likely uses when he does surgery on you. But then, I suppose you could tell your surgeon not to use it.

(As I talk to doctors who are also hunters I learn that most of them use a scalpel in the field, and those who do not know about Havalon are very happy to learn about it.)

Steve.

What a bunch of posturing nonsense. Well doctors know best and would you believe it.... Product validation on surgicals scalpels related to medical devices is done by skinning deer! If you don't believe it, have your surgeon stop operating on you with the ultimate solution to skinning a moose and die.
How dumb.
The product is liked by a certain segment, but good god man.

So are you saying the blade is Aus 8 or not? You suggest both in the quote. Either way Aus 8 is among the worst performing steels for edge retention.

And I know from these posts and from my contact with actual people that not everyone who criticizes Havalon knives has actually used one.

Well, smallfry, what's dumb is to take one parenthetical statement and generalize from that. The whole point of the post was to correct a wrong statement about the origin of the steels in the traditional blade and the replaceable blade on the double-bladed Titan model. In referencing the origin of the replaceable 60A blade, I mentioned it was a scalpel used in the medical industry. So far, everything I stated was factual.

Notice that I separated the next sentence (also a factual statement) by paragraph break and parentheses. Based on that sentence it's wrong to assume that surgeons are the only group to use and like Havalon knives, but since they use scalpels every day and are adopters of the Havalon knife, their word is worth something, maybe not to smallfry, but it is worth something.

Countless guides use them too, and that happens to be a key group that bought into the knife when it first hit the market. I've seen guides who don't know how to field dress a deer; perhaps many of us have. But as a group they are heavy users of hunting knives and I've heard some pretty amazing testimonials from some of them.

I myself had doubts about the Havalon knife, until I used it. It made me wish I had one years sooner. And I know from these posts and from my contact with actual people that not everyone who criticizes Havalon knives has actually used one.

Steve.

Steve,

I've used one, a Piranta, tried it, and can understand the appeal.

Having said that, I do not care for them for a few reasons. Foremost, I had to change a blade in cold rain with bare hands. The change went fine without incident, but I could easily see a fumble causing a severe cut. Were I to use a Havalon again, I'd only change blades with a multi-tool. If I have to carry a multi-tool, I'd just as soon carry another decent knife. Second, they are more hassle to clean after use, which is also why I no longer use a folder of any kind. Last, I've seen someone else using one and the blade snapped when he tried to remove a rear quarter. Was it misuse? Too much lateral torque? I don't know, but trying to fish out the broken bit of blade goes back to my first point.

As stated, to be clear, I can see the appeal of the Havalon, and would use one if something better was beyond my budget or were I unable or unwilling to sharpen a blade. But, a good fixed blade is my preference.

3. That you check out the new blade remover. It eliminates the need for pliers or any other blade removing tool. It completely encloses the sharp edge of the blade so it's impossible to cut yourself. With this simple tool the knife literally drops away from the blade.

But a $10 off coupon from Cabelas just made up my mind for me. That plus 20% off the Buck/Alaskan Guide Vanguard SV30 leaves me with enough to also pick up a Victorinox Camper as a hunting pocketknife!