Kitchen knife for camping?

Michael_Aos

Michael_Aos

Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Messages
1,639
I've gone through knife after knife after knife, trying to find the "ultimate" camping knife. Not so much a "camp" knife -- don't need to cut down trees. Mostly cooking, cutting P-cord, opening packaging.

I had a D2 TTKK a few years ago. The handle was a little big for me, and at the time I didn't consider D2 "stainless". My thinking at that time was also to have a bunch of different knives for different tasks.

Trace_Rinaldi_TTKK_Black.jpg


I've only used my latest camping knife (Bowie) a couple times. It's "pretty good", but I think it's slightly too big. The Entrek I was using before was sized well, but too think & heavy.

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I think I'm going to give a kitchen-knife a try. Just need to get a good sheath. This is a Wusthof Multi-Prep.

MP-1.jpg
 
The last one looks good.

If you're ready to give D2 another chance, try a Camillus CUDA Maxx bowie. Great kitchen knife, sharp and strong, broad but thin flat ground blade, and you don't need a sheath because it folds right up into its titanium framelock handle.
 
For everyday use, the Buck 110 Lockback is a great knife. I use mine all the time and it still works like it just came out of the factory. I love that knife. It does anything you need it to do in any situation. It also has a firm, steady grip. There are no rubber inserts or anything like that. But once you hold that knife your hand, it is going to stay there until you decide when it needs to go back. It will never fly out of your hands. It will never let you down. With a 3.75 inch blade, classic lockback design, and incredibly reliable and sharp blade, this is the ultimate all-around knife. Check it out.
Buck-Folding-Hunter-Knife110.jpg
 
agreed on the kitchen knife. i am most comfortable using a larger yet simple knife for most tasks.
 
Michael,

I have the same thing in mind...I was going to get a small gyuto, get a custom sheath made for it, then use it as a camp kitchen knife. It'll come in under $100, I think.

The tactical fixed blade knives are not true kitchen knives in that they are too heavy and thick, I feel. The flat grind ones are a lot better than the sabre grinds. I plan to use my Gambit in the same way as a kitchen knife.
 
I guess I would ask how intricate the camp cooking work is that you do. I just bought a Bark River North Star and used it to cook my entire meal last night and it worked fantastically. It does not have the wide blade that the others on this thread do, but it slices like crazy and did an overall great job.

The part I REALLY like about it is that it is really a bushcraft knife and so it can be a go to knife in the field, around the camp or on a hike when you need it to be. It is a very stout little blade.

Downfalls would be that is is a medium sized handle (worked fine for me, but some like them big) and it is really not great for stabbing as there is not much to protect the hand from sliding.
 
kbog, I've got a Highland and I could stab with that -- you just have to palm the butt to keep your hand from slipping forward.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
kbog, I've got a Highland and I could stab with that -- you just have to palm the butt to keep your hand from slipping forward.
Click to expand...

Easier on the Highland because the butt doesn't have the lanyard loop which is a rather thin piece of steel. Palming that and driving your hand into it might be a bit painful after a few pokes! I must say though, the lanyard loop looks thin enough to simply bend or break off, but it is strong. I cannot come close to bending it with my hands - maybe pliers.

Since I have hollow pins, I'm toying with the idea of grinding the lanyard loop right off. Not sure though, as it really doesn't get in the way. I guess in the kitchen, I don't stab at much of anything. Maybe a potato, but that requires very little force.

Also, Mike Stewart mentioned that the highland has a thinner point on it and I inferred that stabbing might not be a great idea with that knife. I don't own one, so you would know better than me but I would hate to see your next post read, "I was trying to figure the best way to stab with my highland and I broke the point!"
;)
 
I own Wusthof kitchen knives, and the only problem with using them for camping, is that they are not truly stainless. It is a high carbon steel and will stain , however a little flitz will pull the stain right out. Wusthof makes the finest kitchen knives I have ever used, but I dont know how well suited they are for the great outdoors.....Its a cheapie, but try a Chicago Cuttlery Centurion kitchen knife. I use one as a backup and it really is a good knife, and not just "For The Money". I have had kitchen knives that cost four times as much that I didnt like as well. The way I look at it, if you going to mess up a good kitchen knife by taking it camping, Why take the most expensive. Give the Chicago Cuttlery knife a shot, it might just fit the bill....and if not, your only out a few bucks, and have a pretty good backup for the kitchen.

My 2cents.
 
winstonknives :D

everytime i see them i think of buying a couple for work... tired of having to stop *other people from* cutting tommato's with the "tv knife" (wich is a bread knife... not a slicer...)


http://winstonknives.blademakers.com/

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/search.php?searchid=213643

if you do a search member "winstonknives", you can look at all the threads he has started, mostly sale threads for his blades. from those you can get a better idea of the vairety he has made before then what he has on his website

he does however pretty much exclusively use d2... but, it is satin finish, so you can sand off any rust that appears pretty easily (and patina it to help with the corrosion)
 
Have you tried a Scandinavian knife from Mora or Frost yet? The blade is not quite as thin as a typical kitchen knife, but I use a couple of mine regularly for food prep. They work fine. At $9 - $15, there is not much risk. You can get them in Sandvik 12C27 stainless.

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An EXCELLENT food-prep/camping knife is the Spyderco Temperance fixed-blade.
 
The Wusthof multi-prep pictured above is only $39.99 + $4.95 shipping.

Now I just have to figure out some kind of sheath.

Mike
 
A good kitchen knife has characteristics that will make it excel at the majority of cutting tasks you do camping. That's why I designed the TTKK after a kitchen knife, sorta. But, camping also could require harder use than a kitchen knife might handle -- light prying, digging with the point, batoning -- and for that reason, I wanted the TTKK a tad more robust than a kitchen knife. By using far better steel in the TTKK than in the kitchen knife, I thought the TTKK could be made to perform at least as well for light tasks, but still hold up to the rougher things you'd use light-to-medium-duty camp knife for.

These days, if I were to design my perfect camp knife, I'd only make one main change to the TTKK: I'd want less belly to give a straighter edge. Or, in other words, I'd like the blade profile to look a little bit more like the W-T pictured in your post, than a classic drop-point big-bellied hunter.

What else about the TTKK didn't fit the bill for you? Based on the fact that you're going to a classic kitchen knife, I'm guessing the TTKK roughly fits the bill for you. Trace will do a straighter, shorter handle for you if you want, and I"m sure would be willing to adjust the size of the belly as well. If you start dinging up the edge of your W-T badly, which you will if you use it for many types of camp tasks, you might consider making some adjustments to the TTKK and letting us know what you end up with.

Joe
 
These Cold Steel Hai Hocho knives are the best bang for the buck in camping, kitchen or river knives. Cheap enough to use like a beater but high quality enough to impress even a hard core outdoorsman. You can use these for skinning and field dressing game or chopping veges or an everyday carry knife, neck knife or vehicle knife. Great little camping and river knives for sure. The kydex sheaths that come with the knives are pretty cool too.

HaiHocho-copy.jpg
 
I do miss the TTKK. I kept thinking the D2 was going to rust like 1095 or something. Turn black when I cut a lemon, etc.

The handle was a little long, but the shape & ergo's were PERFECT.

My mindset at the time was that I didn't want to use the same knife to dig in the dirt or cut pine branches and then use it to prepare dinner.

Finally the TTKK sheath used a Tek-Lok, so it rode high on my belt. I prefer a drop-sheath.

Campers-1.jpg
 
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