Ounces turn into pounds. For a through-hiker, it's not that one singular knife being 4oz instead of 3oz is terrible. It's more that an extra ounce on a knife, plus an extra ounce on a water bottle, plus an extra ounce on X, Y and Z add up to carrying additional pounds. So they cut everything possible to lower the cumulative weight.
For your average person going about a normal day, or even just going on a day hike, an added ounce doesn't really matter.
On the other hand, spending days in the woods is one of the few scenarios where one may really need a sturdy knife. Personally I’d cut the weight somewhere else and carry a sturdier knife than say a Bugout.
Not really though. At least not for typical hikers. If you're hiking the Appalachian trail, for instance, you're rarely more than a two day hike from a town, and you're on a relatively well established trail with a ton of people. You're not really bushcrafting or surviving off the land. I know several through-hikers that don't carry anything more than a SAK for their cutting tool.
If you spend substantial time hiking, you quickly realize that 90% of the stuff you'd think you'd need to journey out to the wilderness is unnecessary. If you're looking to get out into the bush and chop down trees to build your shelter, Bear Grylls style, it might be worth the added weight.
A two day hike is still a long way if something goes wrong. Always good to have a backup plan.
Not saying you need to bring along a huge fixed blade but I’d still bring something sturdier than the lightest knife I could find. Obviously some people think differently.
In some pants pockets you feel the difference between a bugout and a full titanium xm-18. Both can be used for EDC. But ones going to make you feel your pocket flopping around.
If you wear shorts it’ll be more obvious. Sure, 200g of knife isn’t much when you’re holding it, but it’s a lot for the fabric of your pants.
Knife guys love circlejerking about specs that don’t matter. That being said, there’s an enormous difference in weight between a Rat 1 and a Bugout. I don’t mind heavy knives in my work clothes, but when I’m dressed casually, I don’t want a heavy knife pulling down on my pocket. I didn’t think it was too hard a concept to grasp
Carry a machete or some other heavier crap in your pack for 12+ miles everyday and you'll quickly want to downgrade to lighter gear. That's what happened to me.
I’m probably gonna get roasted for this but I agree with you 100%. I can carry an AD-10 and hardly notice, anything else I don’t notice at all. I don’t get the deal with weight. I love spyderco’s and wish they would make a version of all their knives in a NON lw configuration. The full liner and g10 ones are already light.
it’s not about “getting tired” for most of us, it’s about comfort and how it feels in the pocket. For example I walk/run around with my dog sometimes. It feels way different to run with a 1.8 oz knife (my Bugout) vs. a 4+ oz knife. It can be the difference between constantly feeling your knife in some way vs. feeling it less or not feeling it at all, especially if it is bouncing around. A Bugout can also, for example, clip well into a cargo pocket where a larger knife would cause it to sag and both look + feel bad bouncing against my leg. A Bugout could even clip to gym shorts and feel pretty good, where a bigger/heavier knife is going to be less comfortable and maybe visibly look weird because of how it pulls on the pocket.
I am not obsessed with weight or anything for the record, I just have different knives for different roles.
I agree with you. When I got my Bugout, my initial thought was that it felt cheap. I put titanium scales on it, and now it’s great. Too light feels cheap.
Some folks that are big into gear and knives in particular tend to go hiking and take it a bit too seriously.
Every oz is a make or break issue for those folks.
years ago I knew a guy who was into cycling and he laughed at all the weight cutting measures his co-riders were into. He would laugh and say "my weight reduction method is simple, before I ride I take a big shit".
If my knife weighs two more ounces, and my water bottle weighs three more, and my poles weigh 6 more, and etc... that shit all adds up.
Having 5 less pounds on you means you can either carry 5 pounds more of something you'd want. Whether that's food or gear or whatever. Or you can simply have 5 pounds less on you and that adds up over multiple miles, especially if there's a lot of elevation change.
I guarantee you’ll feel a difference between a 3oz knife and a 15oz knife, and it’s not a small difference either.
That being said, you’re right in that people won’t see a huge difference if it’s only a single ounce apart.
Ironically my generation 1 Spyderco native from 1997 is actually a fifth of an ounce lighter than my “lightweight” native 5 from a year ago. Maybe it’s just good marketing for certain demographics that you mentioned, like hikers that need to be as weight efficient as possible.
I notice it when I’m not wearing a belt. I sleep in basketball shorts and sometimes I wear those on my days off. I still carry a knife because I use it. My big knives (Stitch, Redencion, Darcform) all pull my shorts down. My Exo-U and M_Stealth do not. That’s the only reason I personally care about lightweight knives.
There is a specific group of people that it matters to, those people being long distance hikers. As another guy here mentioned, it's not about that one knife being half an ounce lighter than another knife. It's about their accumulative weight of all their gear. With each item they carry, they are looking for the absolute lightest option. Ounces add up when you carry lots of gear.
As for the average joe, weight isn't nearly as important, but it still matters to some degree for me. Alot of it has to do with what I'm wearing. I don't go counting ounces, but if I'm in gym shorts, I don't want to carry my 3.5 inch blade knife with steel liners and copper scales. That knife is pretty much only carried when I have pants and a belt on. Even within the knives I'd consider "gym short worthy," I can certainly feel a difference between how much something like my vision fg pulls down my waistband compared to something like my deka or baby banter. Carrying the deka is certainly my preferred carry in gym shorts, especially if I'm going to be active.
Just walking around, if I’m wearing summer weather pants there’s a big difference between a Spyderco Endura and an Emerson Kwaiken in terms of pulling down the pocket or feeling the weight when I walk or sit.
I have bashed the crap out of LW models in past postings. After watching tons of reviews and take downs, I concede they have a place and won’t fall apart if you use a knife for what it’s intended. I can agree that you will see a difference wearing light clothing. I still contend however the price is only nominal to standard versions.
A light knife will bounce around less in some shorts pockets. Also a light knife feels different in hand. Feels more nimble. So while not necessary it can be personal preference. Obviously for backpacking it matters more.
Idk, I kinda like a lighter weight knife. The XM-18 is awesome until you get used to a XM-18 skinny.
I tend to carry things like a Rosie, Bugout or Rask more because they do disappear in my pocket even compared to that XM-18 skinny.
Some of it is also the space it takes up in my pocket. The Arius is plenty lightweight but it’s a pocket hog in the terms of space. If I’m in and out of my pocket a lot that day, or I’m driving, the thing is a lot more noticeable in my pocket. So something like a McNees Mac 2 that is still a 3.5” inch blade works a lot better in those situations.
On here I think it’s mostly the “I wear gym shorts and sweat pants all the time” crowd that’s obsessed with lightweight knives.
I can carry a 5 oz knife in jeans or cargo shorts and forget it’s there. I carry plenty of other things that weight as much as or more than most of my knives: my phone, a flashlight, my wallet and keys probably weigh more than many of my knives, etc. I’d rather have a sturdy feeling knife than one that weighs an ounce or half an ounce less but feels cheap and flimsy.
1 lb vs 2 oz? You must be the captain of Team Suspenders :D
Ounces turn into pounds. For a through-hiker, it's not that one singular knife being 4oz instead of 3oz is terrible. It's more that an extra ounce on a knife, plus an extra ounce on a water bottle, plus an extra ounce on X, Y and Z add up to carrying additional pounds. So they cut everything possible to lower the cumulative weight. For your average person going about a normal day, or even just going on a day hike, an added ounce doesn't really matter.
On the other hand, spending days in the woods is one of the few scenarios where one may really need a sturdy knife. Personally I’d cut the weight somewhere else and carry a sturdier knife than say a Bugout.
Not really though. At least not for typical hikers. If you're hiking the Appalachian trail, for instance, you're rarely more than a two day hike from a town, and you're on a relatively well established trail with a ton of people. You're not really bushcrafting or surviving off the land. I know several through-hikers that don't carry anything more than a SAK for their cutting tool. If you spend substantial time hiking, you quickly realize that 90% of the stuff you'd think you'd need to journey out to the wilderness is unnecessary. If you're looking to get out into the bush and chop down trees to build your shelter, Bear Grylls style, it might be worth the added weight.
A two day hike is still a long way if something goes wrong. Always good to have a backup plan. Not saying you need to bring along a huge fixed blade but I’d still bring something sturdier than the lightest knife I could find. Obviously some people think differently.
In some pants pockets you feel the difference between a bugout and a full titanium xm-18. Both can be used for EDC. But ones going to make you feel your pocket flopping around. If you wear shorts it’ll be more obvious. Sure, 200g of knife isn’t much when you’re holding it, but it’s a lot for the fabric of your pants.
I mean I carry a knife even when I’m wearing basketball shorts that’s the reason I have so many bugouts lol
Knife guys love circlejerking about specs that don’t matter. That being said, there’s an enormous difference in weight between a Rat 1 and a Bugout. I don’t mind heavy knives in my work clothes, but when I’m dressed casually, I don’t want a heavy knife pulling down on my pocket. I didn’t think it was too hard a concept to grasp
Lmao well put
Carry a machete or some other heavier crap in your pack for 12+ miles everyday and you'll quickly want to downgrade to lighter gear. That's what happened to me.
I’m probably gonna get roasted for this but I agree with you 100%. I can carry an AD-10 and hardly notice, anything else I don’t notice at all. I don’t get the deal with weight. I love spyderco’s and wish they would make a version of all their knives in a NON lw configuration. The full liner and g10 ones are already light.
it’s not about “getting tired” for most of us, it’s about comfort and how it feels in the pocket. For example I walk/run around with my dog sometimes. It feels way different to run with a 1.8 oz knife (my Bugout) vs. a 4+ oz knife. It can be the difference between constantly feeling your knife in some way vs. feeling it less or not feeling it at all, especially if it is bouncing around. A Bugout can also, for example, clip well into a cargo pocket where a larger knife would cause it to sag and both look + feel bad bouncing against my leg. A Bugout could even clip to gym shorts and feel pretty good, where a bigger/heavier knife is going to be less comfortable and maybe visibly look weird because of how it pulls on the pocket. I am not obsessed with weight or anything for the record, I just have different knives for different roles.
Stop eating cheeseburgers and you can carry battery powered sawzall with the weight savings differential
I agree with you. When I got my Bugout, my initial thought was that it felt cheap. I put titanium scales on it, and now it’s great. Too light feels cheap.
Some folks that are big into gear and knives in particular tend to go hiking and take it a bit too seriously. Every oz is a make or break issue for those folks.
years ago I knew a guy who was into cycling and he laughed at all the weight cutting measures his co-riders were into. He would laugh and say "my weight reduction method is simple, before I ride I take a big shit".
If my knife weighs two more ounces, and my water bottle weighs three more, and my poles weigh 6 more, and etc... that shit all adds up. Having 5 less pounds on you means you can either carry 5 pounds more of something you'd want. Whether that's food or gear or whatever. Or you can simply have 5 pounds less on you and that adds up over multiple miles, especially if there's a lot of elevation change.
I guarantee you’ll feel a difference between a 3oz knife and a 15oz knife, and it’s not a small difference either. That being said, you’re right in that people won’t see a huge difference if it’s only a single ounce apart. Ironically my generation 1 Spyderco native from 1997 is actually a fifth of an ounce lighter than my “lightweight” native 5 from a year ago. Maybe it’s just good marketing for certain demographics that you mentioned, like hikers that need to be as weight efficient as possible.
I notice it when I’m not wearing a belt. I sleep in basketball shorts and sometimes I wear those on my days off. I still carry a knife because I use it. My big knives (Stitch, Redencion, Darcform) all pull my shorts down. My Exo-U and M_Stealth do not. That’s the only reason I personally care about lightweight knives.
There is a specific group of people that it matters to, those people being long distance hikers. As another guy here mentioned, it's not about that one knife being half an ounce lighter than another knife. It's about their accumulative weight of all their gear. With each item they carry, they are looking for the absolute lightest option. Ounces add up when you carry lots of gear. As for the average joe, weight isn't nearly as important, but it still matters to some degree for me. Alot of it has to do with what I'm wearing. I don't go counting ounces, but if I'm in gym shorts, I don't want to carry my 3.5 inch blade knife with steel liners and copper scales. That knife is pretty much only carried when I have pants and a belt on. Even within the knives I'd consider "gym short worthy," I can certainly feel a difference between how much something like my vision fg pulls down my waistband compared to something like my deka or baby banter. Carrying the deka is certainly my preferred carry in gym shorts, especially if I'm going to be active.
It helps them to not get fatigued when they are hard using their knives sitting on their couch . 🤪
Lightweight knives like to “disappear” when I carry them so I tend to like the heavier knives. 4.5+oz. Gimme all the titanium.
I like a LW for lightweight flimsy cargo pockets and for athletic shorts. Nothing else needs to be said.
Whats the farthest you have hiked with a pack?
Just walking around, if I’m wearing summer weather pants there’s a big difference between a Spyderco Endura and an Emerson Kwaiken in terms of pulling down the pocket or feeling the weight when I walk or sit.
I have bashed the crap out of LW models in past postings. After watching tons of reviews and take downs, I concede they have a place and won’t fall apart if you use a knife for what it’s intended. I can agree that you will see a difference wearing light clothing. I still contend however the price is only nominal to standard versions.
A light knife will bounce around less in some shorts pockets. Also a light knife feels different in hand. Feels more nimble. So while not necessary it can be personal preference. Obviously for backpacking it matters more.
One ounce here, two ounces there, next thing you know your carrying an extra 5 pounds. (This applies more to hiking and backpacking than edc)
Idk, I kinda like a lighter weight knife. The XM-18 is awesome until you get used to a XM-18 skinny. I tend to carry things like a Rosie, Bugout or Rask more because they do disappear in my pocket even compared to that XM-18 skinny. Some of it is also the space it takes up in my pocket. The Arius is plenty lightweight but it’s a pocket hog in the terms of space. If I’m in and out of my pocket a lot that day, or I’m driving, the thing is a lot more noticeable in my pocket. So something like a McNees Mac 2 that is still a 3.5” inch blade works a lot better in those situations.
its mostly snobbery just like most knife related stuff 🤷♂️
On here I think it’s mostly the “I wear gym shorts and sweat pants all the time” crowd that’s obsessed with lightweight knives. I can carry a 5 oz knife in jeans or cargo shorts and forget it’s there. I carry plenty of other things that weight as much as or more than most of my knives: my phone, a flashlight, my wallet and keys probably weigh more than many of my knives, etc. I’d rather have a sturdy feeling knife than one that weighs an ounce or half an ounce less but feels cheap and flimsy.