Quality travel knives. Recommendations.

Yohanlegend

Yohanlegend

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Feb 28, 2018
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Going on vacation soon and wondering what some good travel knives would be. They need to be legal just about everywhere and include a pocket clip. Any ideas? I was looking at the Boker tech tool in carbon fiber with only the blade, also there is the Spyderco UK pen knife. Any hidden gems out there?
 
Your question has been often answered in many ways on this forum... I still think it's interesting because somehow it questions our relation with our knives. I will try to answer it in a reasonable way, excluding "I like", "I want", I need", "I must", "I can't" and other approaches. I'm no longer the great traveller but one thing I learned that when you travel you should blend in, just that, not disguise yourself but just blend in. Unless you are very savy about the knife laws of the country, you bring no knife. One problem cleared... You need an EDC knife ? (I would...) Buy local and gift it when you leave. Win / Win all along !
 
Just about every slipjoint out there, be it modern like the aforementioned Urban, or a traditional would make for a solid travel buddy.
 
Yohanlegend said:
Going on vacation soon and wondering what some good travel knives would be. They need to be legal just about everywhere and include a pocket clip. Any ideas? I was looking at the Boker tech tool in carbon fiber with only the blade, also there is the Spyderco UK pen knife. Any hidden gems out there?
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Get a Victorinox recruit and put a Tec acessoacces P-7 suspension clip on it.

2 blades, a few drivers, cap lifter, can opener, light prying capability, toothpick, and tweezers all in a compact lightweight and very useful high quality package that only cost $15-$17.
then the clip which is inexpensive if you don't already have it.
 
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When traveling you really can't go wrong with a SAK. They have great tools outside the knife, plus they're legal just about everywhere and odds are nobody is going to even think about reporting you for one given how non-threatening they look. And as Hickory n steel said, you can just throw a detachable pocket clip on it if you need to, although personally I prefer to go without a clip with traveling since it's more discreet.
 
If I were recommending a general travel knife, I'd say medium size Vic SAK (Tinker, Farmer, Pioneer size). I would want to keep the blade length under 3". But the 111mm SAKs have a 3" blade essentially which is what I generally carry just about everywhere.

A sub 3" manual Spyderco or manual Benchmade would work too I think. I read in one of these threads about a guy crossing the border into Canada and the border guy grabbed his knife by the blade and tried to fling the blade open. It did, so he confiscated it.
 
22-rimfire said:
If I were recommending a general travel knife, I'd say medium size Vic SAK (Tinker, Farmer, Pioneer size). I would want to keep the blade length under 3". But the 111mm SAKs have a 3" blade essentially which is what I generally carry just about everywhere.

A sub 3" manual Spyderco or manual Benchmade would work too I think. I read in one of these threads about a guy crossing the border into Canada and the border guy grabbed his knife by the blade and tried to fling the blade open. It did, so he confiscated it.
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Yep and it's a damn shame and what I'd call pure theft.
 
I once went through a full car inspection going into Canada. I was with some guys I worked with in the UP (Michigan) and barely knew their names and certainly didn't know where they were from. I was hence a suspicious character. Didn't loose any knives but they asked a lot of questions.
 
If you absolutely must have a clip and can get one put onto a SAK, I'd recommend that.

A lot depends on where you're going. For example, if I was traveling to Japan, I wouldn't take any knife, even a small SAK. I've heard that it's very knife-UNfriendly there, especially in the cities. I've heard there are other countries where it also might not be worth it to take a knife to.

Jim
 
If you're looking for slip joints for international legality reasons, the cold steel lucky is a real nice little edc, traditional styling with s35v, cf, and a clip.

Kizer zipslip is a sleeper for something more modern and Ti, w/ s35v blade

The Viper Dan2 is my personal favorite. (In CF), it offers a thin front flipper w/ n690

3 rivers viator in cpm-154(cm) if you want something American made. A little bigger at a 3" blade, (2.75 cutting edge) it's super thin and comes in a plethora of colors...
 
Benchmade Proper could also be a good choice.

Edit: Sorry, saw that you wanted a clip. Disregard the proper then :p
 
Is this travel in the US? Are you going to NYC? Pay attention to carry laws and you will be fine.
 
Legal everywhere? I don't know if any type of knife is legal everywhere. Confiscation, theft, slips out of pocket, left in a park after a picnic or camping, etc. You might want to go with an inexpensive, slip joint, under 2". I know that downtown Chicago's limit is 2.5" last I checked.

Personally, I take a Leatherman Juice in my checked baggage, keep it in my toiletries bag after arrival, and toss it in my pack if I think I will need it at different events while in that country (assuming laws allow). I usually end up using the other tools more than the blade.

A keychain knife might also come in handy. I went years with just a Gerber Curve (around$10; the blade locks though)... Although I currently use the LM Squirt on my keys.
 
Pretty much any slip joint under 3 inch will do. Do note some place ban carrying knife completely so...do your research.
My suggestion: Spyderco Roadie, Opinel N06. They don't have pocket clip but they are really solid and it does not hurt if you lose them.
 
Pingo.
Harmless looking and customs, cop & people friendly.

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Ruike S11. Followed by Boker Techtool 1. The S11 is small enough that you can fly with it carry-on out of the UK. I have a Roadie and the thickness of the blade makes it less useful than it could be, and the cost is prohibitive for something that you could lose.
Don't carry it if you can't afford to lose it without an argument.

Adding to the list of knife un-friendly places, I understand that trains in China operate in the same manner as aircraft, full metal detectors / luggage scanning, but no facility to check luggage, so if travelling around China by train you may well lose anything sharp. Hong Kong is much more lenient, I was told there was no problem with carrying big locking folders, so long as they had no spring deployment.
 
Knife laws vary and people's response to knives vary.
A lot depends on where you plan to travel?
General advise that has let me slip by un-noticed in every country I have been from Africa through Europe to Asia, is to not expose a pocket clip- dead give-away.
I carry an Alox Farmer SAK on a small plastic s-biner and have never had an issue.
Some people like a corkscrew, but learn to open a bottle of wine with an SAK blade and, voila!
 
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