As I was fondling some of my expensive knives, I started to wonder how inexpensively I could equip an enthusiastic but poor college student for a camping/backpacking adventure.  The items had to be ones that are readily available new, so none of my second-hand store finds could count.

I know some will say, “I would not trust my life to anything but the highest quality knife.”  I understand that point of view.  I myself will not trust my life to just any drink in the wilderness.  I drink nothing but the finest vintage Merlot that my butler Jeeves packs in for me.  Nevertheless, I understand that the hoi polloi sometimes drink the local water and use lesser knives.   ;-)

Here is the first set of inexpensive but serviceable items I came up with,

The knife is a Frosts from Mora, Sweden.  It is stainless steel, with a plastic handle and sheath.  The blade holds a nice edge and is plenty strong enough to smash through wood with a baton.  Cost was approximately $9 from Smokey Mountain Knife Works.

The hatchet is a Chinese import.  As I recall I bought it a few years ago at a local hardware store for $6.  They are still readily available and I see them frequently.  I’ve been using this one for a few years and it has held up well.  In addition to the hatchet head it has a hammer poll and a prybar, and two nail pullers.  The cutout nail puller could easily be used as a rangefinder a la the ATAX.

Total cost of this outfit is $15, and I think that a person with these tools will not be at a disadvantage to fellows with expensive knives when it comes to cutting or chopping.

Once I started thinking about this problem I came up with several other, quite different, inexpensive sets of tools that could be used to accomplish the common cutting and chopping tasks.  Rather than list more of my solutions, I thought I would throw the challenge open to the reader.  What set of tools would you choose?  They must be commercially available.  Local conditions and vegetation may influence the common tasks and therefore your choices.