A Camping/Survival Knife?

S

s-one

Joined
Jun 7, 2006
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Hi All,

Is there a particular Camping/Survival fixed blade knife that people like the most? If so, which brand/model could you recommend? I tried searching for this but can't find the search button. I'm in California if laws must apply. Thanks much!

s-one
 
dozens if not hundreds of them. Your best bet is to simply start reading and find what suits you best. Price point is usually a good place to start, how much are you looking to spend? What size are you looking for? Carbon steel or stainless? What do you intend to do with it? Good knives are not always expensive and expensive knives are not always good. sometimes a $20 Mora will outperform a $300 knife. Will you be chopping and batoning (hard use) or simply doing camp chores such as food prep and general cutting tasks? Or are you looking for a tough as nails do it all survival knife? Once we know some of these things it will be easier to make a recommendation.
 
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rat cutlery and beckers are at the top most of the time for high value production fixed blades
 
Welcome, S-one. That's an extremely broad question. Sevorius pretty much nailed it in that you might want to read a bit to help narrow things down. The Wilderness and Survival skills forum here would be a great place to start.

As a general answer to your broad question, I would recommend looking at the following knives and see if any tickle your fancy.

Bark River Bravo-1
Kabar USMC
Mora Craftline Allround
Fallkniven F1
Condor Machetes
Rat Cutlery RC-4
Becker BK-7

Maybe start from there. Good luck!
 
Thanks much guys for responding. I understand it was a broad question but I thought it was worth a shot to see if there was one that generally got high reviews. I wish there was a search function so I can search all the topics relating to camping and survival. My intentions will be general purpose but don't want anything too bulky. I'm open in regards to price but I think that for my purpose it'll probably wont be that high. From the ones that you all mentioned. I'll start looking into these.

Again thank you much!
s-one
 
Welcome aboard, s-one. Take moonwilson's advice and head over to the Wilderness and Survival Skills sub-forum. You'll learn more over there than you might some other places.

Incidentally, you might want to take a look at the Becker BK-2. Great knife for your stated purposes, at a truly great price.
 
if you want to search the forums you can simply go to google and type "site:bladeforums.com survival knife" without the quotations. For a great knife under $100 check out Rat Cutlery or the Kabar Becker line as some have mentioned, they are great values.
 
There are lots, but you really can't go wrong with maybe an RC-4 or RC-6 from RAT Cutlery.
 
RATs come highly recommended around here. RC-4/5/6 and Ontario RATs 3/5/7.

I just ordered a Becker BK-2 Campanion w/ a .25" thick, 5.25" long blade in 1095 CroVan and a Zero Tolerance ZT0300. Next will be the KaBar Large Heavy Bowie w/ 9" long .236" thick 1095 steel. That should be enough for my kit.
 
Another that is an option right now is the Scrapyard Knives Scrapper 5. They are still taking orders at 99 bucks.

Doc
 
Another vote for an RC-4 or RC-6. Can't go wrong with a RAT! :D
 
I will say yay to the MORA

For a camp knife that you can always afford to take along, on a trail or in your car, the MORA knives are a great choice.

They have a particular grind that shears through wood like butter

All of their steels are great, but they are especialy famous for their laminated steels.

You won’t regret owning a Mora, and they are very inexpensive.
 
Well, if it's a survival situation, I'm not sure laws apply. Especially if you're the last one standing:D. (This might become more relevant in about two weeks, when California joins GM.;))
 
Like many before me I will recommend any of the RAT series, I have one and have taken it in the field numerous times and it has performed well. Another budget beater is a Scrapyard, you can't go wrong with either one.
 
I asked the same question about 2 years ago and did a lot of searching on this site and others (obsessively so). In summary it does not matter for the reasons below

It really comes down to what you want, even within that there are too many good knives (massively over engineered for most purposes) which have many similar features such that analytics can't determine the answer for you - it come down to art and taste

If you don't want a chopper most reccomend a 4-6 inch knife

For me it came to Bravo 1, versus Falkniven F1 or S1 with laminated steel blades.

I went the F1 because the blade is thick and ridiculously strong, but slightly slimmer allowing for possibly a better slicing - and I like Scandanavia. I then bought an S1 which I love (If there could be only 1 fixed blade it would be my choice) but also a Mora. For daily practicality it is hard to go past a Mora at a realstic price. They are also very light and typically not to scary to non knife people

But as you are in this forum it is almsost certainly too late for you. You are probably already coming down with knife addiction which makes your choice of knife less important - in 2 years you will probably have several different ones anyway. (as do I as you can see). There should be some warning on the site to this effect

Also most companion this with a smaller folder typically a swiss army knife (SAK) or a small lock knife (have a look at the ritter mini griptillian by benchmade my love in folding knives)

Have fun let us know what your first one is, and also your second and ....
 
Camping is a very broad term. It means different things to different people. If you throw half of what you own in a car and drive to a campground, then food prep is likely the only thing your knife will do and a kitchen knife is your best choice. If you carry everything into the woods, then a more stout chopper is the choice.
 
blackfeetmageet said:
I will say yay to the MORA

For a camp knife that you can always afford to take along, on a trail or in your car, the MORA knives are a great choice.

They have a particular grind that shears through wood like butter

All of their steels are great, but they are especialy famous for their laminated steels.

You won’t regret owning a Mora, and they are very inexpensive.
Click to expand...

:thumbup: Just buy a Mora to get the feel of what you might want. You can, and probably will, graduate to some of the more expensive and more solid knives mentioned above. But you will always have the Mora when you don't want to get your good knife dirty or messed up :D
 
Thank you all for all your valuable information. Again, I apologize for such a broad question. Yea this will be my first fixed blade and I can't wait! :)
 
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