Topic: The Best Fixed Blade Knives of 2023 (Read 38 times)
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The Anonimus performed near the top in every category, and if you needed one knife to do everything from firemaking to hunting to camping and bushcraft, the Anonimus would be my choice. It may not be the best hunting knife, or the best bushcraft knife, but it can do both of those things well. It’s designed to do everything, and isn’t hyper focused in one area. Most of the time, products like that end up being barely mediocre at everything, but the Anonimus is one of the few that hits a golden balance, and performs very well in many areas.
It manages to stay relatively light for backpack hunting, and yet retain enough strength to baton without a worry due to the saber grind and excellent blade steel. The finger guard (which could be a little shorter) keeps the user safe during heavy use, and the sharpening choil pulls double-duty as a sharpened notch for striking a fire steel. The Anonimus has a great blade shape for hunting, a great grind for doing camp work, an ambidextrous sheath for my fellow lefties, an ergonomic grip, and a quality coating to prevent rust. The thoughtful design and material choices showed up in the cutting tests where the Anonimus consistently scored at or near the top. If you are the pragmatic type like me, and you are looking for one blade to rule them all, you would be hard pressed to beat the Anonimus.
The Benchmade Raghorn costs more than some entry level hunting rifles, but the cutting performance is elite. Benchmade offers Select Edge on some of its models, and this blade came with a near mirror polished edge that was whittling hair when I took it out of the box. For the harness cut test, it blew through one layer like it wasn’t there, so I sliced through a spot with four layers stitched together, and it sliced a curved cut through that section more easily than most knives went through one layer. I used the Raghorn to debone a whitetail’s front shoulder with ease. While butchering the shoulder, the grip was co*fortable, and the jimping gave excellent traction.
The test group fought over who got to do the cut tests with the Raghorn because it just melted through everything. The Raghorn is ultralight, and would be the perfect co*panion on a backpacking hunt where weight matters. The Cru-Wear steel has very good edge retention, and since it co*es so sharp, you have a long way to go before it will need a touch-up. However, because of the thin blade, this is not a camping or bushcraft knife. This is a purebred, lightweight hunting knife. Amazing on game for slicing hide, deboning, and butchering, but not made for heavy-duty tasks.
The only drawback for the Raghorn (other than the price) was the sheath. It co*es with holes so that something like an Ulti-Clip could be mounted, and it co*es with slots for mounting on Molle webbing, but there is no belt loop or clip included. For the price, I would have expected something to give you a carry option other than your pack or your kill kit. That being said, this knife will reside in my hunting pack permanently. If you are looking for the ultimate fixed blade for hunting, look no further than the Benchmade Raghorn.
The Minimalist was the most co*pact and easiest to carry fixed blade in the test, and despite its small size proved useful in EDC tasks. Its co*fortable grip pushed it to the top for EDC blades. We tested both the Base and Premium model for the CRKT Minimalist, and both did well. The premium version co*es with a leather sheath, micarta scales, and 154CM steel, which is a big jump in steel quality. Other than materials used, they are the same knife.
Oddly, everyone preferred the usefulness of the Zytel sheath with the option of putting on the pocket clip over the leather sheath of the premium version. Having a knife this small on your belt with the leather sheath just didn’t feel right. However, as a neck knife, or clipped in the pocket, the Minimalist was excellent. Easy to grab for quick cuts, and co*fortable while cutting.
The co*fort is actually what pushed this to the top for the EDC category. It beat out the Stowe and Razel Chisel because it had a better grip. While there are only three finger grooves, (that seemed to fit nearly all sizes of hands) the braided lanyard gives your palm and last finger something to hold onto, and provides a good feel in hand. The main reason to spend more for the Premium model would be for extended edge retention from the 154CM.
The Premium’s edge will last about three times longer between sharpening over the Base. Also, there are several blade shapes that can be had in the Minimalist if you aren’t a big fan of the classic drop point. There’s even a cleaver shaped version. Perhaps the biggest surprise was how well the Minimalist threw sparks from a ferro rod. It was in the top three out of all tested. Overall, the CRKT Minimalist is a great little back-up blade or easily concealable fixed blade that shines in day to day use.
