My S5 backpacking review...now with PICS!!!

Ever since the initial picture release of the S5 I have been giddy for this knife to come out. Over the last 6 or so years, my battle rat has served me faithfully as my go-to camp knife (it has the scars to prove it), but over the years I have gotten older, fatter, and weaker and have constantly been looking for places to shave the weight off my pack…a 9.5” long, .25” thick blade just really doesn’t fit into that goal <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. Never the less, this last Fri/Sat I was finally able to get “out there” and see just how well the S5 fit into its perspective role as my new “favorite (backpacking) knife.”

Initial impressions:

Res-c and SR101!!!!! Together again WITH a thin blade, woooo-hooooooo!

Love the color combo! I originally picked out the sage/green thinking that while it might not look the best, it would however best match my forthcoming ACUs that I hope to get issued (long story there). However, upon arrival the handles looked like a much more subdued, grey-green than what the initial pictures looked like on my monitor. Fearing that I might never use the blade due to is attractiveness, I quickly put a 2x4 in my shop vice and hacked away until I marred the finish just enough to void the “mint condish” look.

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The one design issue that I was a bit skeptical about was the square choil and to be honest, now that I have the blade in hand, I have to say that I like it quite a bit less than the choil on my other Bussekin blades. To me, the choil seems to be just a bit too small to let my finger “know” not to move forward, yet it does take up what would be a considerable amount of edge that would be great for up close work should I be using a traditional grip on the handle.

As far as weight is concerned, this seems to me to be a really light knife for its blade length (yet another advantage of the res-c over slab handles). I don’t have the quiver of others, but comparing it to my Desert Jack and SAR 5 is night and day. For me, this is both a blessing and a curse as I need something significantly easier to carry than the battle rat, but still want to be able to do some light chopping on the trail. However, I really like the balance. I know some feel it is a bit too blade heavy, I personally do not feel any discomfort what so ever, but again that might be due to what I am used to using. If anything, I wish that it was a bit more blade heavy as I think that would add to its ability to chop, but maybe I am missing something that others are seeing here. Quick shot of my 5inch(ish) blades

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How to carry the S5?

Unlike most here, I’m a cheapskate. As such, I will try to Mickey Mouse almost anything myself rather than shell out the cash to have someone else do it right. Therefore, I have slapped together pretty poor excuses for kydex sheaths for most of my blades. The reason why I include this in my review is because in my limited experience, the overall weight of the blade, and the balance affects how comfortable the knife is in my pathetic attempts at sheaths. For a knife in this range, I want something that I can carry cross draw. This may be silly to some but quick access to my blade gives me some reassurance when I am hiking in bear and mtn lion country and for me, the traditional side/kidney carry is too slow and awkward and does not work well for me when I am wearing my pack. With that being said, if the blade is too heavy overall, or one that is especially handle heavy like my SAR 5, the rig is either not comfortable, or requires the use of a more substantial pants belt which is the last thing I personally want around my waist under my pack’s waist belt. All this to say, the light weight, and slightly blade heavy balance of the S5 lends itself to an almost perfect ride for me and my otherwise asinine requirements for a “wearable” hiking knife.

--------Here is the difference between the S% and SAR5. Notice the Wight of the SAR5 requires a bit higher cant, which then gets in the way of my buckle and the blade heavy weight also tends to want to roll forward the handle of the SAR5.

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bird's eye view shows "the roll"

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In the field:

shots along the way and at the lake 7 miles in:

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(if you close one eye, squint real hard, and tilt your head 180* to the left, you can just make out a small doe in the scrub brush)

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view from our campsite

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Sorry for the lack of action picks here…turns out taking photos of yourself chopping wood, chopping wood, and swatting mosquitoes simultaneously is about three tasks too many for someone like me to handle.

The S5 was primarily put to work doing random camp tasks. This weekend, that meant light chopping, splitting firewood, and opening up various food packages. FWIW, I usually bring four or five blades with me: my SAK trekker, my battle rat, the Ritter griptillain, the mini sak on my keychain and some other random knives from fillet blades to a kurk or the becker necker…oh yeah, and not counting the blade on the multitool. However, on this trip I tried to exercise some personal restraint and limited myself to only the S5, which I figured would really make me see just how well it would fit the bill of my ultimate backpacking knife.

The results:

Chopping- well, no surprise, it didn’t quite have the reach or efficiency of the Battle Rat, but for my purposes I thought it did quite well. I had to work a bit more, but the overall “carry-a-bility” was worth it for me. I didn’t breeze through several inch diameter standing deadwood, but it did fine limbing a few blown over pine trees, as smaller diameter “squaw wood” is typically what we burn anyway.

Batoning- The S5 performed WAY better here than I thought it would. Not sure why, but it slid though wood in a remarkable way. My buddy had a similarly sized/shaped/sharpened blade and the S5 completely blew it away in this category. I have no real understanding of why this is, all I know is that I was beyond pleasantly surprised. One other thing I should note, this is a fundamental test for me as it is probably my most important function of a jack-of-all-trades blade because I see it as what allows me to forego the traditional hatchet or big chopper and still be able to provide reasonable firewood. I should add here that the sage blade coating on the S5 seems more durable than that on my battle rat or howling rat. Not sure why that would be, just the impression that I am getting so far.

--------These have been added since the trip…less bugs in the backyard <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Here is a piece of wood that replicates about the largest sized stuff that we would come across. I think that these pics do a good job of showing the relative size between the (top to bottom) the SS4, Howling Rat, and S5. I tried to stick ‘em with about the same amount of sharpened edge relative to the choil to show the vastly greater batoning ability of the S5. The SS4 and HR are good knives, but IMO/IME a large choil can really hurt you batoning as it seems for me to get hung up on the wood. The length of blade/ size of choil of the HR I would say would limit the effective batoning by a solid 1.5 inches compared to the S5.

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-----here the SAR5 takes over for the HR. Even though the edge length of the SAR and S5 is almost identical, you can see how much difference a choil makes for this task. The SAR5 might be able to take an additional 1/2 inch in diameter piece of wood over the S5

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Random “woodcraft”- this comprised of finding a stick and trying to fashion a fishing spear of some kind. The blade performed well, kept its edge more than well enough after the above firecraft to make a hideous spear. I am confident that it (the knife) was pointy enough and sharp enough to do whatever I could ask of it. I should also note here that the square choil was not nearly as bad as my initial impressions would have lead me to believe. When I actually did use it, I didn’t feel any less comfort or sense of security than the “traditional” rounded choils, I was very happy to be proven wrong here. If I had my choice I think I would still likely opt for the rounded choil (unless there is an advantage to the square one that I am ignorant of), but the current choil is very functional for me. Also, while everyone agrees that it is rather subjective, the thumb ramp fits my little girl hands perfect.


----again, done in the backyard... some snap cutting baby Aspen. The SAR and S5 performed equally well here (and the HR better than I thought):

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Prying- This is another area where the S5 really shined. At one point at our campsite, there was the remainder of a tree stump that needed to be “trimmed” by about four inches. This was accomplished quite easily by batoning the blade into parts of the stump and then prying it out bit by bit…took less time and effort than if I had used a saw (which I didn’t have anyway). Needless to say, the “thin” blade wasn’t phased in the least by my torqueing and I am really happy that Dan and the crew stayed away from quarter inch stock for this knife as its current specs are more than strong enough (or is it tough enough?) for my uses.

Carry:
As expected, this blade was a joy to carry. Light enough that it rode perfectly without a belt. I never felt it jabbing into me as we scrambled around boulders and I never got the sense that it was weighing down my shorts. After we set up camp we took off to explore the far side of the lake a bit and I know that I would have never taken a larger knife with me. However the S5 was virtually unnoticeable yet its presence did allow me the opportunity to NOT act my age, fashion a spear and likely give several rainbow trout a good laugh at the balding old guy with the pointy stick.
-----And an other shot of the lake, we did some boulder scrambling on the left side. LOTS of 12 inch or so rainbow trout along the shoreline (maybe two feet out). Never seem anything like it for an alpine lake.

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Conclusion:
The S5 is darn near my new favorite (backpacking) knife (I only need a few more nights out to confirm its superiority). It carries very well, it does a great job around the camp, and it is significantly more than tough enough/strong enough to do anything that I can see myself asking of it. It is not the best chopper, but if getting through mass amounts of wood was the absolute end-all determination of my pack list, my buddy’s Husqvarna would get the nod anyway. While I might like to see a few things tweaked a tinny bit (maybe a bit wider blade to give it a smidge more chopping ability); for my general, do it yourself, carry it yourself, jack-of-all-trades camp knife, the S5 so far has exceeded my high expectations and once again, I am grateful to have the SR101/res-c combo alive!



-----oh yeah, duct tape is great stuff, but it still doesn't put the skin back on after it has been rubbed raw by lack of socks;)

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Nice review - looking forward to pics! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for putting all the time into this...great write up!

I love my Howling Rat as a small woods knife. How did they compare?

Thanks for your review. Lots of good observations.

That's an awesome write-up. The s5 is a pretty dang handy little blade. I do agree about the square choil though - if given the choice, I would opt for round, or better yet, no choil at all.

Great review. I too find myself carrying smaller fixed blades when I am hiking. I can't wait to try out the S5 in the hills. It's been way too hot out here to go running amuck in the desert so hopefully soon.

Thanks for the review, good stuff.

Great review and I agree with pretty much all your points.

With a few tweeks to the choil, the front of the Res-C and personally I removed my ramp, but I can appreciate where some might like it. I think it is as well placed a thumb ramps as most knives, but I do slightly prefer the RMD's ramp.

For me, I prefer no ramp.

For me, the choil really needed rounded and enlarged up into the guard a bit.

As it was, my index finger barely even fits and I think it is too prone to nick fingers. I recommend people dulling that edge corner at the ricasso. But, enlarging and rounding feels a LOT better IMO.

.

Thanks for the great review. Looking to put mine to the test soon.

I've got the same sage/green coming. I like the colors for camo and military purposes. I would love to have an International orange S5.......and a S7 heavier duty S5. This blade WOULD replace ALL my others as my primary cutter.

I agree with your review of the S5, damon. I did some serious baton work with mine today, splitting gnarly Red Bay which is dying all over my yard. I must have 20 of them. Looks like lots of firewood for this Fall's oyster roasts.

Don't know what the ricasso is but I got tagged by my S5 the day I received it on my index finger near the first joint by the edge at the front of the choil. Don't know if this makes sense???

Great review. I had mine camping two weekends ago and it was a fun knife to carry. I have quickly fell in love with this knife.

Click the link in my sig for a tutorial. If you need more help, let us know. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Nice review - thanks!

Sweet review. Great excuse for heading out bush I say <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

great review, i shure hope i get the pants for mine so i can take it out campin this weekend

Good writeup. I am starting to warm up to mine more every day.

The HR is a great knife. But for me, there really is no reason to bring the HR when you could take the S5. The extra reach for chopping is noticable and the extra length for baton work is also very clear. Also, for me, I like to fillet some fish that I catch and in times past, there simply is not enough blade on the HR to do this quickly with ease. While I have yet to try this with the S5, I can see how it will greatly outperform in this area as well.

Don't get me wrong, the HR is a powerhouse for its size/weight and a great hunting blade. Just for me, the S5 is SO much better in so many areas for a very little weight penality that it is the clear winner for a backpacking blade (for me).

Where were you? That place is Gorgeous! I actuall like the choil on my S5...fits me is all I can say. I am gonna have to get a kydex crossdraw like yours as thats how I prefer to carry my smaller knives. I have made by me leather pouch sheath but a nice kydex would be better.

Thanks all for the encouraging words, glad you liked it (was a fun trip)!


The placement of the choil for batoning got me thinking so here are a few unscientific photos comparing some of my smaller knives (4-5 inchers). I think that this also lends itself to the discussion of the mudder vs old school res-c handles. For me, I feel like the rubber on the old schools is more tacky than that on the mudders. The ripples on the mudders make up for this as far as “retention” is concerned. Personally, either handle shape works equally well for me (little girl hands) but I think the mudders LOOK better. That being said, if we could get mudders w/o the ripples but instead with the tackiness of the old schools, I think that would be the best of both worlds. I believe the “lack of tack” on the mudders is due to their being a bit harder, which I thought I remember Dan saying recently was a difference in the manufacturing process between the two handles. Anyway, here are some more pics of the various options:

first the mudders; the SS4 and S5. Notice that the guard puts the edge only about an extra 1/8 in beyond my first finger contrasted to the SS4:

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Compare that to the old school res-c w/ "guard" on the HR.

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The last one, the SAR5 is a great design IMO...just way too heavy overall and too handle heavy for me to take it over the S5. This one is harder to judge (pretty subjective) due to the blade config. But I just held it where my hand naturally grabs it. IMO a SAR5 with a res-c handle (thin blade, Sr101 or SR77) would be about my dream woods knife.

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Great pics. I def agree with the statement about the old res-c having tackier grips. I do like the mudders though, I agree the appearance is better and I dont really miss the tackiness.

Thanks, I live in God’s Country (Colorado) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> and this is an alpine lake at about 11,000 ft off of the Gore Range Trail. This is one of our favorite areas to frequent, but the forest is currently being decimated by Pine Beatles. I have never seen destruction like this before and the sad part is that we CAN stop it, but the so called “environmentalists” <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> won’t let us use the proper pesticides <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />. Sad thing is, if something is not done, my guess is that in the next three years or so, more than half of the pine trees seen in my pics will be dead. Anyway, the Gore Range is in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness (and I think a bit in the White River National Forest too) which is located between the towns of Dillon and Vail CO (about an hour or so from our home).

I love how thick the scales are on the SAR. Rounder handles seem to fit me better.

That is bad news on your feet. I would trash those shoes, get some Chacos or something.

Yeah, the handles on the SAR5 are very comfy...guess I can't have it all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Funny thing about the shoes, I've logged many, many miles in them and this has never happend before. Not 100% sure what the deal is (have some guesses). Anyway, I did have some Chacos and they were good, just significantly heavier than these....the search continues <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Nice. Great perspective on the s5 . I'm kinda starting to warm up to the smaller blade idea

I have been over CO including Vail. My favorite place is Ouray personally, I could live in that town forever if I could find an IT job there. Sad to hear about the beatles. Hopefully they dont destroy everything.

I have never handled the SAR5 (wanted too) but it looks like a comfortable and useful blade all around. Might have to pick one up along with the famous Ratmandu!

Nice write up on the S5 and beautiful pictures!

+1 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Great review in great country.

Perhaps next time a review of socks ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Give those feet a nice warm Epsom salts bath, and that will work wonders.

Hey, barrabas74, see some pics of Ouray that I took on my last visit!

http://www.pbase.com/straycat/buena_vista_baby&page=1