My First Knife Purchase – First Impressions

We get questions on Facebook from time to time about the things we share and post. Even last week, someone suggested our blog name wasn’t “manly” enough to be taken seriously and professionally. Welp, we’re not professionals, we’re women who still consider ourselves novices, as we continue to learn share and grow our skills. We always welcome comments and feedback – how else do we improve and grow? We watch hours of videos and read dozens of posts every week trying to find, summarize and share info that can help other women like us. Men, you’re welcome to read our stuff too, just know that we’re finding things with women in mind.

Now that I have that off my chest, I’ll share my first knife purchase, it’s not terrible, but I didn’t buy the right thing and I thought this could help you, too. My focus for the past few months is really about learning to make fire without matches. Hell, before I started learning about bush craft and survival skills, I could barely make a fire with a Duraflame log. I didn’t understand the concepts of tinder, kindle, and fuel — but with each fire I make, I’m getting a little better. Which brings me to my knife. Since I’ve been fishing for years, I’ve always had some kind of a pocket knife or tactical knife in my gear – but they SUCK for processing wood.  Even after sharpening the little one, I couldn’t even carve a feather stick (see this video from Survival Lilly if you don’t know what that is).  So I started watching videos about knife suggestions and things to look for. We have regularly monthly budget to add to our prep and survival gear – and one knife could eat into that pretty quickly. So I wanted to balance function AND price.

I thought this seemed like a good compromise – The MTech USA MT-20-12 – it’s a hunting knife but the blade looked like it would be right for batoning wood to make kindle too. For under $13 (at the time I write this) the price was hard to beat. First, it seems like a very sturdy. The sheath is awesome. But it doesn’t feel good in my hand. I only had to hold it for a minute to know it wasn’t going to be right for that.  YES in an emergency I can make it work. But I wanted something that I could use on a regular basis as I improve my skills. Bottom line – the handle is too short. I think I have average sized hands, yet the base of my pinky extended to the knob of the handle while trying to pull it out of the very  awesome sheath. I’ve posted pictures for you below.

Well, it’s back to researching again for the next knife. I think I’ll head over to the local camping merchant so I can see what it feels like in real life.

I will probably keep this one – as a back up.  It’ll cost about $5 to send it back.  If I decide to try any wood batoning with it, I’ll come back and me make a post to let you know.  Thanks for staying tuned. Keep being Cheeky, too. We can be committed to caring for ourselves and our family, without taking ourselves to seriously and without putting up with the B.S. of those who think we’re nuts.