Trail Knives
The trail knife, in military garb the field dirk, is a knife that takes me back in time to the Arizona wilds. The idea of this knife is based on the trail needs for a medium-large blade in wild environments. As a teen and young adult, the needs were primarily as a light chopper, brush cutter, and backup knife for animal defense or finishing game.
It's best paired with a fine small slicer, but can work fine for cutting food. The blade is ground in a full convex, and handles notching, fuzz sticks, and regular cutting chores with aplomb. With the mass of a 3/16, distal tapered, convex blade, chopping ability is really very good for the length and slim profile. Batoning is a breeze, of course.
The forward part of the handle forms an integral partial guard and the long angles handle profile provides a maximum of comfort and security when chopping. I prefer to using lanyard tubing for pinning the handle all the way through, as a forward lanyard mount is very useful when chopping.
One primary task of this blade is for defense against attack by a random critter. You don't want to have to use it, but if you do, this knife will serve well. It's also a handy finishing knife for hunting, especially bow hunting in areas where carrying a sidearm is disallowed.
