The perfect lightweight backpacking folder – a knife in search of a problem

[admin]

In the very near future I’m off to my annual autumn mountain trip.
As usual the plan is to go high and steep, unless weather dictates we retreat to a less ambitious backup plan.
We’re not planning a full blown climbing trip, but some climbing is inevitable, so obvioulsy weight is an issue.

update: image removed due to hot link restrictions
-Our playground if everything goes as planned (picture borrowed by tinderangel.no)

I’ve been playing around with the idea of a «perfect» hiking folder for the light and fast kind of trips where you don’t really know if you’ll need it or for what, but chances are you will. I’m typically not one to gravitate toward larger knives, but as one of the most typical scenarios I can forsee would be food prep, some blade length would be advantageous.
This is obviously not super important, and mostly a solution in search of a problem, but for sake of discussion I thought I’d drop it here so anyone who finds the topic slightly interesting can join in and twist their brains around it.
My ideal knife would be something like;

• 3.5-4 inch cutting edge
• light weight
• easy open (one hand, opening hole is my preference for difficult conditions)
• Very corrosion resistant (H1, LC200N or similar would be best, but anything that can sustain about a week of high humidity and total neglect is good enough)
• secure in hand (grippy / high texture)
• secure in pocket (accidents can be critical, a blade under spring tension in closed position might be preferable, i.e. back lock, axis lock or similar. Tip down could also be preferable. Good and secure clip)
• affordable/good value (fair risk of loss)

Knives I’m considering, none of them are exactly to preference, but fairly close:

• Manly Peak One (50$, 14C28, 4oz, 3.7in BL, hole, G10, ambi clip (also available in D2/CPM154/S90V, but from what I understand about steels, 14C28 would be the better option for this application))

update: image removed due to hot link restrictions

• Cold Steel Air Lite (85$, AUS-10A, 3.2oz, 3.5in CL, thumb stud, G10, ambi clip)

update: image removed due to hot link restrictions

• Spyderco Pacific Salt 2 (101$, H1, 2.9oz, 3.39in CL, hole, FRN, 4-way clip)

update: image removed due to hot link restrictions

There’s really no clear winner to be declared from the specs alone. Any thoughts on these or other models with regards to my planned use?

This will obviously not be settled in the time available befor my upcomming trip, but if I get some input now, maybe I’ll have something ready for my next adventure.
That also means I need to use one of my existing folders and compromise heavily on some of the desired features for this trip.
If I give the different features equal weight, I guess my 940-1 comes closest, but it is $272, actually domestic prices have skyrocketed lately to a NOK value equalent to about $500USD. I’ve almost never used it either, and being in pristine condition I’m slightly tempted to sell it instead of putting through hard use… what do you guys/girls think? Sacrifice my 940 in the name of (pseudo) science or sell it and secure my pension?

*) all knife pictures borrowed from makers home page

[Author]

Posts