>>989763I don't know if you already have your answer, but my suggestion is yes, you definitely invest in something expensive. A good knife will last you a long, long time. They perform so much better than cheap ones, even to the point that they are a joy to use. What knife to get really depends on what you will use it for the most. If you intend on doing mostly carving with maybe some other tasks, then I would go for a scandi ground knife such as a condor bushlore, any helle knife, a tops bob, a spyderco bushcraft, benchmade bushcrafter, or a puukko made by varusteleka (they also sell some puukkos from other brands, too). If you are doing a large variety of things, including batoning, shelter making, and just general camp tasks, a flat ground knife such as an Ontario blackbird sk5, an ontario cerberus, a tops pasayten, and my personal favorites, which I think you should get and the ones you have pictured, ESPECIALLY KNIVES. If I were going to be building a lot of shelters, doing a lot of batoning and lots of very tough work, I would go for an ESEE 6 as it is long and heavy enough to chop and baton well, it is able to be choked up on for carving and finer tasks, and it is just great for general camp tasks. If you're not going to be batoning or chopping very much, I would go with the ESEE 4. You also talk about not wanting to damage the knife. A great thing about ESEE knives is that if you break it in any way whatsoever, they have a lifetime warranty, so you just send it in and they will replace it for absolutely free. Great thing! If you go ESEE 6 I would also carry an Opinel to do very fine tasks like whittling, because the ESEE 6 is slightly too big to do very fine tasks, but can still do carving and feathersticks.
BUY AN ESEE, STUPID
