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Comment by wyager | Hacker News Reader

I use a knife all the time while hiking - good luck cutting a salami with scissors. That said, the ka-bar is not worth the weight. I really like my benchmade hidden canyon.

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Ultralight hiking tip: You can cut meat and cheese with fishing line.

Still like to carry a knife, though!

HN suprises me all the time with little gems like this.

I’ve always got by with a simple folding spyderco knife. Small. Lasts forever. Does 90% of jobs when backpacking or around the house, etc. a ka-bar is a fine car camping knife though. Meant to take abuse and be a multi purpose heavy duty tool. We mostly overland and car camp these days. Different tools for different purposes and all that.

Dragonfly and you’re done for 95 percent of tasks.

I use a $4 folding "outdoor" pocket knife from Wal-Mart. I have used it for cooking, digging holes, cutting branches, rope, plastic, fabric, tightening screws, fixing zippers, opening cans of food, hammering random things... I honestly can't remember the last time I sharpened it, it doesn't seem to be dull yet.

Problem with folding knives for camping is they get gunk in them.

Ka-bars are kind of a meme. They are made fairly cheaply. You won’t find knife enthusiasts (eg USN) recommending ka-bars.

Folding knife does get a little messy but I have backpacked thousands of miles with the same one and it is never a practical issue.

Haha salami is what I worry about. But there are knives for under an ounce. And at any rate, I don’t mind eating the salami log straight up

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