Recommendations for Camping and Cooking Knife?

I think what you are looking for is called a verijero, or maybe a larger punal, knives used by the South American gaucho....

Gaucho knives and cuchillos criollos of South America

Today I received my very much anticipated " Verijero" knife. :) A work of art, handmade by @maxipescie, a very talented knifemaker in my beloved native country 🇦🇷. I am so very happy with it :) It's so authentic, so traditional in every way ! The handle is "Urunday", a native wood to...
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There is also the Pchak, a knife used in Uzbekistan / Afghanistan region
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Ratatoskr said:
I chopped prep and cooked for years. The bigger issue for me is that no one is going to cut well on a sh*tty or poorly balanced cutting board. If you're that worried about the quality of your prep work, just make a saya for your favorite kitchen knife and bring it along; if you're bringing a cooler, you're not worried about bringing too much stuff.
But I'm with @bikerector on this one, OP seems like he's more ready to disdain suggestions rather than embrace them.
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Sort of. I went though this issue without the snark. And found about 3 appropriate knives.

So I can see why he has the attitude he has.

He is specifically targeting things like the bush slicer. Which is a camp cooking knife that leaned to heavily at camp.
 
Obviously our ideas of ‘camping’ are very different, and the last thing on my mind when in the woods is if I can slice/dice vegetables as fast as a culinary snob. An onion diced in 30 seconds tastes no different than one diced in 1 minute.

In order to cut vegetables as quickly as you claim, using proper technique along with proper blade height, as well as counter height and stability would be needed (in addition to the blade being thin and sharp).

There are lots of outdoor knives that can do kitchen duty but none that will be a refined kitchen chefs knife. The Gaucho style as referred above will be close.

As others have suggested, have sheaths made for your kitchen knives and take an outdoor knife for outside activities….or tone down your expectations of a do-all knife and just enjoy being out camping.
 
jayjaygee said:
I don't think this animal exists, though I could help design one if anyone is interested. Then again maybe I'm wrong and this exists, and you are the people to ask.

I want a general camp knife, and since making camp includes food prep that means food prep is important for the knife. In my usual life, cooking is the highlight of my day but when I'm camping it's the low point because no camp knife I choose is worth a damn. (Yeah, I know I could just bring a kitchen knife. I've said it, so now you don't have to.)

I see a lot of videos where people talk about cook camp/cooking knives, but I always laugh when I see the part of the video where they show the receipts. These people don't know how to cook. They'll talk about how "slicy" it is, like that is significant. ANY knife can slice things, that just means it's sharp. But if it takes more than one minute to slice a tomato, then dice an onion, and then cube a handful-size section of meat and then scrape it all into the pan, you're just not the person whose opinion matters here. Not to be rude, nothing says you have to be a good cook to enjoy camping. But I am a good cook and I'm tired of being held back by my camp knife. Seriously, I could whine for hours about how much I dread cooking when I camp because it's no fun, and cooking should be the most fun thing. (Also my camping cutting board sucks and my cooler is annoying.)

So if you know how to dice an onion in under 30 seconds and can julienne a carrot stick, and know when to do which, and have a recommendation, I'd like to hear it.

A few guidelines for what I'm looking for

- stainless steel

- your knuckles shouldn't touch the cutting surface when the edge is down

- good for general camp chores like making feather sticks, cutting tiny branches for kindling, cutting rope, even light chopping duty

- can be held in a pinch grip, or choked up on

- can pop a small bone

Okay, let's see what we get. I'm especially interested if anyone has tried a Nessmuk-style blade.
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Based on what you're describing, I'd say check out the Buck 105. Burly enough for most camp tasks but keeps a thin profile. It may not be the most ideal knife for each individual task, but will do all of them. I wouldn't cut logs with it, but it can handle most fire making tasks, as well as gut A fish or deer, and it's thin enough to do pretty fine work on vegetables... personally, I take 2 or 3 knives camping with me.

View attachment 2445155View attachment 2445156
 
Have you seen the Sierra Chef Knife from Off Grid?

I recently suggested it to a buddy who I think received it today so I should be able to add a picture soon.

It uses a tough stainless and has what looks like a large and versatile handle and…

Oh - dang - just realized I’m not qualified…

jayjaygee said:
if you know how to dice an onion in under 30 seconds and can julienne a carrot stick, and know when to do which, and have a recommendation, I'd like to hear it.
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Disregard.
 
Arathol said:
I think what you are looking for is called a verijero, or maybe a larger punal, knives used by the South American gaucho....

Gaucho knives and cuchillos criollos of South America

Today I received my very much anticipated " Verijero" knife. :) A work of art, handmade by @maxipescie, a very talented knifemaker in my beloved native country 🇦🇷. I am so very happy with it :) It's so authentic, so traditional in every way ! The handle is "Urunday", a native wood to...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
baayYtg.jpg
pKpwOko.jpg


There is also the Pchak, a knife used in Uzbekistan / Afghanistan region
dmh4YXE.jpg
Click to expand...
Too fancy. But they might work in a pinch. Beautiful!
 
jayjaygee said:
I don't think this animal exists, though I could help design one if anyone is interested. Then again maybe I'm wrong and this exists, and you are the people to ask.

I want a general camp knife, and since making camp includes food prep that means food prep is important for the knife. In my usual life, cooking is the highlight of my day but when I'm camping it's the low point because no camp knife I choose is worth a damn. (Yeah, I know I could just bring a kitchen knife. I've said it, so now you don't have to.)

I see a lot of videos where people talk about cook camp/cooking knives, but I always laugh when I see the part of the video where they show the receipts. These people don't know how to cook. They'll talk about how "slicy" it is, like that is significant. ANY knife can slice things, that just means it's sharp. But if it takes more than one minute to slice a tomato, then dice an onion, and then cube a handful-size section of meat and then scrape it all into the pan, you're just not the person whose opinion matters here. Not to be rude, nothing says you have to be a good cook to enjoy camping. But I am a good cook and I'm tired of being held back by my camp knife. Seriously, I could whine for hours about how much I dread cooking when I camp because it's no fun, and cooking should be the most fun thing. (Also my camping cutting board sucks and my cooler is annoying.)

So if you know how to dice an onion in under 30 seconds and can julienne a carrot stick, and know when to do which, and have a recommendation, I'd like to hear it.

A few guidelines for what I'm looking for

- stainless steel

- your knuckles shouldn't touch the cutting surface when the edge is down

- good for general camp chores like making feather sticks, cutting tiny branches for kindling, cutting rope, even light chopping duty

- can be held in a pinch grip, or choked up on

- can pop a small bone

Okay, let's see what we get. I'm especially interested if anyone has tried a Nessmuk-style blade.
Click to expand...
I would contact Dave Ferry of Horsewright Horsewright Knives and ask whether he can make you one of his chef/kitchen knives. He will also be able to craft a beautiful and useful sheath.

Zieg
 
This modified Kephart was designed with help from MolokaiRider MolokaiRider with some of these considerations. The Kephart's handle swell below the blade was removed and finger grooves added. This allows pinch grip chopping on a board. The raised "guard" part of the handle was retained. It is stainless Magnacut at 63 HRC, and only 0.100" thick, so it cuts well. A swedge was added for better drilling and piercing. Jimping was added for style or grip on your thumb. The handle material is black linen micarta.
Intentionally, there is no choil to snag, and the plunge actually angles slightly back.
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