best survival folder

I like the ZT 0551, personally. Make sure you get something you can sharpen, if the need arises. That is to say, ensure that you are familiar with sharpening techniques and choose a steel with an appropriate wear resistance. KershawGuy has them for pretty cheap these days. I'm tempted to get another, though I've still got a couple in storage.
 
This one IMO:

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comis said:
I agree with what said above, don't expect to be able to baton folders(especially on hardwood) and hoping they will do fine; I've tried in the past, and within an hour or so, even with great care, a sturdy Axis lock will develop play and could fail any time.
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Have you had an axis lock fail before? I thought they were invincible.. . :)

I have failed frame and liner, not an axis though
 
Best survival knife: the one in your pocket. :)

A SAK with a saw has always been a favorite of mine.
I've never (accidentally) broken a folder but a fixed blade is undoubtedly more reliable.

imo, to choose the "best" you need to know how you will use it, your skill level, the locale, blah bnlah blah, and only you can answer that.
For example, batoning is useless to me because small, dead sticks are easily found around here.
 
Why no Leathermans? What type of residency requires you to go ill-prepared into the wilderness?

If you can get away with a Swiss Army knife, one with a saw will be your best friend. Other tools can be very useful in the field too, such as scissors, pliers, tweezers, reamer, and even a magnifying glass (probably not for starting a fire, but great for removing splinters) can come in handier than you might think. A Craftsman/Huntsman, or Hercules/Workchamp has a bunch of such tools. If you can't get away with all that, try for the Farmer or 1-handed Trekker. If, for some reason, they say you can't have a saw, tell them to watch 127 Hours. You may have signed a waiver, but that doesn't mean you're signing up to die.

If a SAK isn't an option, I'd personally still go with some sort of multi-blade knife like a Great Eastern Cutlery Saddlehorn trapper or #53 Cuban stockman. Multiple blades means different cutting edges for different tasks, which gives you more utility, and the blades will stay sharp longer.

If multi-blade knives aren't an option, I'd go with a sturdy lockback or AXIS (or similar) type lock. I'd personally avoid liner or framelocks, which can have problems with lateral/twisting motions. Personally, I'd go with a Benchmade 710. The Adamas is a nice large one too, but that depends on whether you prefer a thinner blade for better slicing and cutting, or a thicker one for chopping and prying.
 
The first thing I recommend is a Victorinox SAK. Take your pick regarding which one has what you think you'll need.

If you just want a knife, Cold Steel Pocket Bushman. The only time I've ever seen it broken is when Nutnfancy tried to baton his through a ridiculously large tree trunk (which you shouldn't do with any knife, let alone a folder). It's worth noting that the lock survived; the only way to make it fail is to shear the pivot pin off.

All steel construction, FFG, tough and highly rust resistant 4116 steel from ThyssenKrupp. Just make sure you're wearing gloves.
 
comis said:
I agree with what said above, don't expect to be able to baton folders(especially on hardwood) and hoping they will do fine; I've tried in the past, and within an hour or so, even with great care, a sturdy Axis lock will develop play and could fail any time.
Click to expand...

I learned this trick on this forum though I can't remember who from. If you have to baton a folder for some reason you just disengage the lock so the blade is swinging freely, it's kind of tricky to baton it this way and slightly annoying but it puts no pressure on the lock and therefore there is no risk of lock failure or damage. I wouldn't want to use this method for too long since it's somewhat inconvenient but in an emergency it works just fine.
 
JasonG said:
Have you had an axis lock fail before? I thought they were invincible.. . :)

I have failed frame and liner, not an axis though
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I thought so too, that's the whole reason to test it with the Axis lock on. I took great care not to baton on the joint itself(only light tap to straighten), and after a few pieces of firewood batoning. The joint starting to develop play, mostly sideway. I tried to use the thinner pieces of firewood as wedge, and just use the knife to make crack.

Long story short, I didn't bother to baton it till the point of total failure(it's useless point to proof, any folder will fail eventually), and shown to be able to survive some degree of batoning and the proof of concept. Honestly, the blade is so short(BM Griptillian) and so much effort needs to be made that it is totally pointless. If I were ever stuck in a survival situation, gathering of dried wood or baton smaller pieces for dry wood will make more sense than to baton a huge piece of firewood.
 
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As with others, if I really could only take one edged tool, it would be an SAK, in my case the Victorinox Fieldmaster (same as the Huntsman but replaces the corkscrew with a phillips head screwdriver) which has a saw included. Alternatively my LM Wave.

If they genuinely won't allow SAKs (which is ludicrous) then I'd take a PM2 or ZT 550.
 
Moses2792796 said:
I learned this trick on this forum though I can't remember who from. If you have to baton a folder for some reason you just disengage the lock so the blade is swinging freely, it's kind of tricky to baton it this way and slightly annoying but it puts no pressure on the lock and therefore there is no risk of lock failure or damage. I wouldn't want to use this method for too long since it's somewhat inconvenient but in an emergency it works just fine.
Click to expand...

That's a good point, and I did tried a little bit of that before engaging the lock. The only real downside to this method is the blade of the folder(Griptillian) is already felt really short when batoning, and disengaging the lock makes it almost impossible to use for any practical means. Also keep the blade/wood straight became a hack lot difficult.

I think this method might work better when baton small green wood for dry wood, but large pieces of firewood, no thanks!:hypnotysed:
 
Your Best choice is the Benchmade Adamas 275.

If you want to spend $500 + then you could get a Demko AD-10. If not, get the Adamas. You can find them online for around $125-$130
If you want to spend under $100 I would suggest a Tops/Buck CSAR-T. It has a double liner lock and a Bos Heat treat on the blade. Very sturdy knife that is over looked a lot.
My main gripe is the lock is/can be hard to disengage.
If you want to spend around $50 check out Cold Steel knives. One of if not the strongest lock on the market with the Tri-Ad lock. Not in love with the knives, but the lock is a beast.

All in all though, for the money, the Adamas is the best knife for what you are looking for.
 
Good morning. The university contracts with another organization. They provided a list of allowed items. Interestingly, they also did not include fire starters, lighters, saws, etc. I will make the presumption we are going native. They indicated "POCKETKNIFE".

Granted, a swisstool-leatherman would be on the top of my list. However, I feel the recommendations are re-affirming some of my thoughts as well. I posed the question to rely on your expertise and experience. Fortunately, I live close to blade hq. Granted, I can go down and see what fits my hand and ask for their opinion. Sometimes id rather get your field tested results than a salesman picking the most espensive product with the proverbial, this will work.

Budget-I have a discretionary knife fund so not really a consideration. I have thought about ZT 550 and 560, spyderco tuff. I have a ZT 301 (number 51). Im usually not the safe queen type of person but I haven't used it. I almost hate getting knives under serial number 100 for that reason.

I'm 6'4", 220-230 lbs. Retired cop. Hands Xxl gloves are snug. I'd say my skills are intermediate. I trained with the us army rangers, sas, etc (many years ago). However, my grandfather lived off the land in upper state NY as a park ranger, trapper, and hunter.

I can do ZT, CRK, Strider! Benchmade (contego -$127 with cop discount,, grip, 275 adamas), spyderco tuff. Really I'm listening to you rather than buy a knife base on magazine articles.
 
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comis said:
That's a good point, and I did tried a little bit of that before engaging the lock. The only real downside to this method is the blade of the folder(Griptillian) is already felt really short when batoning, and disengaging the lock makes it almost impossible to use for any practical means. Also keep the blade/wood straight became a hack lot difficult.

I think this method might work better when baton small green wood for dry wood, but large pieces of firewood, no thanks!:hypnotysed:
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All true, although I don't really see how you're planning on batoning large (not exactly sure how large you mean) pieces of firewood with a folder anyway. I was thinking more along the lines of making kindling maybe up to fairly small logs, or batoning sideways in order to chop a fairly small log in half. In these cases I find it preferable to disengage the lock since, even if the lock doesn't fail it may sustain damage causing blade-play later on. At the end of the day though I don't actually use a folder outdoors, since I picked up a BK14 my folders have pretty much been retired.
 
II love the picture. Hinderer xm-18?
Btw, I'm not a big batoning person. I'm more prone to chopping. I usually go with wood 4-6" in diameter for camp fires.
 
Bring the farmer or OHT and search the wilderness skillls subforum and videos for using them to safely split wood.
 
If allowed, Victorinox, large lockblade model with saw.

If not, Adamas, ZT0561, or Ontario RAT I.
 
Moses2792796 said:
All true, although I don't really see how you're planning on batoning large (not exactly sure how large you mean) pieces of firewood with a folder anyway. I was thinking more along the lines of making kindling maybe up to fairly small logs, or batoning sideways in order to chop a fairly small log in half. In these cases I find it preferable to disengage the lock since, even if the lock doesn't fail it may sustain damage causing blade-play later on. At the end of the day though I don't actually use a folder outdoors, since I picked up a BK14 my folders have pretty much been retired.
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Exactly to the point. The purpose of that test was just to see how much abuse could a Axis lock take and was it even at all feasible to baton larger dried firewood with a regular folder(Ritter Griptillian is one of the folders I would commonly take to the outdoors for chores, and the firewood I used to baton is ~4"x4", have to work on the corners by corners). The test result--let just say it is do-able, but very inefficient. I never intend to baton with a folder on a regular basis, but it is just experiment for experiment sake. :)


Back to the subject topic, it sounds like any form of multitool is out of the question, then I'd recommend a Ritter MK1 Griptilian or BM Griptilian with plan edge.
 
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