-Best Survival and Bushcraft Knife_ The Mora Carbon Garberg.

Hey everybody, this is Josh here, the Gray Bearded Green Beret, here to answer the most common question I get. If I could only choose one knife, which would it be and why? The answer is always the Mora Carbon Garberg. Now keep in mind, everyone is entitled to their opinion and personal preference on knife choices aside, I've also had people tell me in the comments section that the Mora Garberg is not a good knife. Whenever somebody's opinion or experience is different than mine, I always try to ask follow-up questions so that I can better understand where they're coming from and see their point of view. But more often than not, when I ask follow-up questions, like how long have you used the Mora Garberg in the field? Or what did you find about it that you felt wasn't any good? All I hear is crickets. Personal preference and what you use a knife for are definitely factors. Having said that, just because a knife isn't something that you like doesn't necessarily make it a bad knife. With that in mind, I thought I would do this video to qualify my opinion of why this is the best knife on the market for the money. Long story short, I've got over two years of personal field experience with the Garberg, actually 30 months and counting now, and it has done everything that I needed a knife to do in the field and done it very well. This isn't a statement or a recommendation that I make lightly or without any real field experience with this knife. If you don't already know how I do reviews, once a company approaches me and asks me to review a product or if I purchase a product on my own, it has to spend four to six months with me in the field being tested before I do a full review of it here on this channel. I get a lot of requests to field test and review gear every week, sometimes three to four times a week, sometimes every day, and not all of that can get featured here on this channel. I've decided to move any unboxing or initial impressions reviews over to my Instagram TV. So if you don't follow me on Instagram, I'll put a link below. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and you can keep up to date with the gear that I've got testing out in the field. And depending on the interest over there and the performance of that actual product, it may, in the future, after that testing period is over, be given a full review here on the main channel. So for a full review to end up on this channel, that means that I believe in this product and I'm telling you 100% it is worth your money if it's in your budget and it's a product that you're looking to get. If you've watched my channel very long, you would have seen the Mora Garberg featured in over a dozen videos over the last two years, starting back in June of 2017 with a Mora Garberg stainless model because the carbon wasn't out yet. And I actually bought that in March of 2017. So going on 30 months since I had my first Garberg. I eventually switched over to the carbon steel model once that came out because I prefer carbon steel over stainless steel. I also use that as my primary belt knife during physical classes. The carbon Garberg is also the knife that we recommend to the military folks that we train that need a simple, rugged, durable knife that they can count on. That's also the knife that I recommend in my ultralight bug-out bag video, as well as my latest 10 Cs layered survival kit video. I think that it's important to understand what you actually need a knife to do in the field. I don't do torture tests. I do actual practical application of the knife to determine whether or not a knife can perform or if it can't. I need it to facilitate providing for my needs within the survival priorities and for bushcraft tasks. That includes fire and shelter craft, food procurement, processing, cooking, and preservation, and making other tools, implements, and utensils. That, and I need it to be easy to maintain in the field. There are several tasks within the realm of firecraft that I need to be able to count on my knife to complete. I need my knife to be able to process a variety of natural tinder. That can be anything from cutting bundles of dry grasses like this broom's edge, scraping bark off the outside of a cedar tree, scraping bark off the inside of a tulip poplar, to scraping fatwood to help a fire get going in damp weather. I need my knife to have a good, sharp, 90-degree spine, and having an exposed tang, to me, is a bonus. For processing kindling, I may use my knife to split wood into smaller pieces or to get at the dry wood towards the center using a baton. Without getting too far into the never-ending debate of to baton or not to baton, let me just say this. Hardwoods are not good kindling choices. They are for sustaining fuel. Softer woods are better choices for kindling because they catch quickly. I'm not splitting hardwoods with my knife for kindling. And if my knife won't easily split softer woods, I need a different knife. Granted, I could also use a hatchet or an ax if I have one and choose to do so. And also, in a lot of places, I can just find small enough sticks to pick up and use for my fire and I don't have to process kindling. But that isn't always the case. And sometimes I count on my knife to split softer woods into finer and finer pieces of kindling. I may also need the knife to create feather sticks using either the edge or the spine of the knife. I also like that 90-degree spine for scraping a ferro rod to start my fire. The removal of pyrophoric metal from the rod is what ignites the tenders, so the more material removed with each strike, the better the chance of having successful ignition on that tender bundle. The spine of a knife is gonna remove more material than the supplied scraper and it's easier to use in cold weather when you're counting on your gross motor skills. There are many ways to strike a ferro rod using only one hand if you happen to be injured. But for me, I like to have this exposed tang because this opens up additional options on top of those that I can use if I'm injured. And of course, using the spine or using this exposed tang anytime I can allows me to save this resource, which is the sharp edge. And I have to do less and less maintenance in the field. I need my knife to be able to produce friction fire kits. I need to be able to split the wood with a baton. I need to be able to shape the wood by planing and shaving. And I also need to be able to create notches. Circling back to the softwoods point from earlier, the best choices for friction fire are softer woods. I'm not splitting hardwoods to make bow drill or hand drill kits, so I have complete confidence in my knife to be able to do those tasks. Lastly, if I'm down to a friction fire for some reason, I don't necessarily want to continue doing friction fires. If I use that first friction fire to make charred material, I can use the back of my carbon steel knife along with a rock that I can source from nature, that could be plinth, that could be chert, that could be quartzite, along with the charred material to make my next fire using the much easier and way less calorie-consuming plinth and steel technique. For sheltercraft, I typically use my knife for cutting cordages and cutting notches for construction projects. Those projects may require me to cut down small trees. I can of course use a hatchet or a saw for this as well, but with the right technique, I can easily cut down a small sapling with my knife, and that's often a lot more convenient. For food, I need my knife to be able to do finer carving tasks like carving trap triggers and all the intricate notches that go with those, and also for processing the fish in game after it's caught. I may also need it to make cooking implements like cooking cranes, improvised smokers, utensils, and improvised containers. Another task that I routinely use my knife for is to create other tools. That could be anything from mallets and tent stakes to reduce the amount of things I need to carry out in the field with me and make my life easier when I'm in the field, to improvise pack frames that I make from natural materials to make carrying a load that much easier. After 30 months of field use, I can tell you with 100% confidence the Mora Carbon Garberg will do everything that you need it to do and do it well. Another great feature about the Mora Carbon Garberg is its price point. It's priced as one of the lowest in the market. The quality and the knife that you're getting for that price is absolutely incredible. If I had to choose one knife, it would be this one. This is highly recommended, with one exception. I personally don't like the multi-mount sheath, so I recommend you get the leather one. The multi-mount just has a lot going on and a little too much that you don't need for a belt knife. I suppose if you're mounting it to the inside of a vehicle or a boat or an ATV or something to that effect, then it would be great, but for normal belt knife use, I think the leather sheath that comes with it with a fold-over flap that secures it is the better choice. So that is what I think of the Mora Carbon Garberg, and if I had to choose one knife, that's what it would be. If you had to choose one knife and you could only have one, what would it be? Comment below, let me know. If you don't already have one and you wanna get one, these are available on my Amazon store, and they're also available over at selfrelianceoutfitters.com. I'll put the links for those down in the description, along with the GB2 coupon code that you can use at Self Reliance Outfitters to get 10% off your order. Full disclosure, both of those are affiliate links. Purchasing using either of those supports this channel, and The Long Red Braid and I both appreciate that. As always, we appreciate your views. We appreciate your likes, your comments, and your questions down below. If you haven't already done so, make sure you subscribe to this channel, allow notifications, and subscribe to my email list to stay up to date on everything that's going on. Hope to see you in the woods.