>>1218141Let me preface this with; A lot of this is down to personal preference and how you use your knife. I'm not an ultra light minimalist bushcrafter, nor a warrior who straps 150lbs of gear to him while going /out. But I tend to be more gear heavy because my normal trips are from a base camp, and normally only a few hours hike/paddle from camp, and only for a few days. So I like big heavy knives.
First off the cross guard. It looks nice, but can get in the way. I often like to hold my knife in a saber grip with my thumb on the spine. Or sometimes my pointer finger on the spine for drawling the knife across a surface in a straight line. Or even pinching the spine with thumb and pointer for fine cutting tasks.
The hallow grind is pretty and good for slicing, but flat grinds or thin convex grinds are stronger and support the edge better.
The polished woods and plastics are classic and look great, but get very slippery when wet or with some cloves. Micarta and G-10 offer more grip.
The Stick tang. While more than strong enough for most bushcrafting tasks, a larger encapsulated full tang, or ideally and exposed full tang, is much stronger. While I don't really condone battoning, it's nice to have the option and not having to really baby the knife.
The sheath. Once again, leather sheaths are classic and look great.. But canvas, plastic molding, or Kydex sheaths don't retain water (as long), drain better, and have more easy options for carrying in places other than on the belt.
S30V, while not outdated per say, it's a more brittle steel, something that is better for an EDC knife. Steels with lower chromium content like D2, A2, CPM-3v, O-1, 1095, 5160, ect... Are better sorted for woods use, less likely to chip out if you accidentally hit a rock or some metal. And with a good coating these steels need less anti-rust maintenance then a non-coated stainless blade.
