hey everyone David C Andersen here coming at you again from the woods
behind the knife Center because today we're taking a look at a bunch of pocket
knives that we think are great for camping let's check them out
while we would always recommend a good fixed blade for camping there's actually
plenty of scenarios where you'd want a good folder at your side as well not
everyone is comfortable carrying a fixed blade or maybe you're looking for a nice
backup or complement to your larger knife but then in some cases you may not
even be able to carry a fixed blade luckily if you need to go with a folder
there are ton of great options out there and we've pulled our top ten for you to
take a look at first off for safety's sake we always recommend a locking blade
folder for these types of uses and we'd also recommend a plain edge over a
serrated blade in these cases because it's gonna be a little more versatile
and useful for you since you're probably going to be doing a little bit of wood
carving or even food prep with these knives also for a camping knife handle
comfort is going to be very important whereas a nice contoured fixed blade is
usually gonna be more comfortable it's hard for a pocket knife to compete in
that regard so we're gonna take a look at some options here with a beefier
handle that are easier to hold on to but in addition to that a good pair of
gloves is also always a good idea it's gonna help eliminate some of those hot
spots and make these knives easier to hold on to so first we're gonna start
with a trio of lock backs and the first one is a classic the buck 110 folding
hunter this one actually belongs to one of our videographers which explains the
Use You see here and it goes to show you that these things can put up with a lot of
abuse there's a reason this knife is still being made today more than 50
years after its introduction and that's because it works it's got a really nice
clip point blade with a nice acute tip and a very good hollow grind with bucks
famous 420hc steel there's a lock back here at the end to keep things secure
and one of the great things about the classic iteration of this knife is that
it provides a very nicely sized handle they're thick enough that it allows you
to get a really nice grip on this knife without being so thin that it digs in
when you go to put it to harder tasks there's no pocket clip on this knife and
while a lot of people don't like to EDC this for this reason it does come with a
nice leather pouch for your belt additionally the classic look of this
knife is going to look right at home at any
campsite next up is the Victorinox hunter pro M from the makers of the
Swiss Army knife and this also comes with a nice pouch for your belt this
knife has a more modern look than the 110 and it has a one-hand opening
stainless steel blade the whole cutout makes it very easy for left-handed or
right-handed use and we get a nice drop point blade with a very sturdy flat
grind on it the real star here though are these handles while this steel may
not hold an edge as well as some of the modern super Steel's
it's very easy to keep a super keen edge on it and it still performs excellent
the real star though are these handles they're a synthetic rubber like material
and they're very accommodating the lock back is mounted mid spine as opposed to
the end like on the 110 and it sits really nicely in that handle giving you
a very full grip this one happens to be an orange color although you can get it
in a couple other colors as well as a wood handle option any one of them is a
great choice because this is gonna feel great and perform very well next up
we've got another orange handled lock back and that's the cold steel ultimate
hunter I say lock back but this mechanism is actually cold steel's Triad
lock in use it functions just the same as an ordinary lock back but there's
some extra stuff going on internally that actually make this even stronger
and that lock is what allows this to be a truly hard use folder moving on to the
blade we're starting to get into some more premium Steel's we've got s35vn
here as well as a slightly thicker blade with a very high flat grind and the
geometry of this knife is set up in a way that it's a very nice compromise
between outright strength and slicing efficiency that drop point profile is
also going to be very useful in the woods for all manner of tasks and the
blade length is just about perfect here being very easy to handle moving back to
the handles this orange version here is both highly visible and very comfortable
we actually get to pocket clips with this knife one for the left side or the
right side but if they are causing a hot spot for you they're very easy to remove
to make this handle even more accommodating sticking with the subject
of heavy duty folders for camping we've got the Tops fieldcraft folder and this
one's for the bush crafters out there first thing you'll notice is that this
features tops is modified Scandi grind and a Scandi grind is a specialized
grind for woodworking you can kind of think of it as a double planed chisel
and that type of geometry works very well for things like doing feather
sticks notching or trap triggers or any of those other wood craft tasks that you
might want to engage with we've got a very nicely sized blade of 1095 carbon
steel and this was actually a knife inspired by the original fixed blade
version and in the transition to a folder they actually have not given up
all that much in terms of strength we've got nice micarta scales that keep things
nice and grippy as well as extremely thick liners that house that liner lock
as far as liner locks go this one is extremely beefy in fact I've seen frame
locks with thinner frames than this there's multiple carry options with this
knife as well we do have a pocket clip for left or right side carry and the
knife also comes with a high quality leather sheath for belt carry the last
thing you'll notice is that there's a divot here on the micarta scales and
that's on both sides of the knife what that actually allows you to do is use
your knife as the bearing block for a bow drill set so if you're trying to
start a friction fire with the bow drill method you don't have to go looking for
that top piece to keep your hands safe it's integrated right there next up is
one of my favorite recommendations for a really really hard use folder that works
well not just for camping but also tactical uses and that's the DPX hest
and this one happens to be the HEST f triple black this does have a shorter
blade than some of the knives we just looked at but it is incredibly durable
thanks to a slightly thicker profile and niolox steel again that drop-point
profile is something that's going to work very well when you're out camping
but we've also got a very interesting cut out here in the spine and that does
two things one it allows it to function similar to Emerson's knives and it
allows you to open the blade as it's being drawn from your pocket but also it
allows you to pop a bottle of your favorite brew while you're camping
because that is also a bottle opener in addition to that beefy blade what makes
this knife so incredibly durable is the very thick frame lock that he uses this
knife has actually made in Italy by lion steel for DPX and that's why you see
this nice little feature right here it may just look like an over travel
arrestor but if you screw it down it actually locks the frame lock into place
so you have a redundant system that keeps that lock from disengaging
accident with positive strength on one side and
great traction on the other thanks to this g10 scale this is a knife that's
gonna hold up to very harsh conditions and be just what you need next up we're
gonna talk about benchmade and this was actually a hard one to narrow down to
just one model because a ton of their knives could have made this list the
griptilian line is certainly a great option for camping as is their Adamas
folder and basically anything from their hunt line would be a great choice as
well but in the end if we had to narrow it down to one it would be the benchmade
freek and the reason we went with this knife over all those other great options
it came down all to the blade shape again that versatile drop point is going
to do everything you need in the outdoors and overall this is a size and
shape that's going to transition well to EDC uses when you're back in your day to
day life and it even has enough belly here at the front that it could be an
excellent hunting folder really this is just about the most versatile knife on
this list and would be a great choice for just about any use but especially
the outdoors we've got s30v steel and it's not too
thick and still has a very high flat grind plenty enough strength for what
you're going to need a folder to do as well as excellent slicing geometry
moving back to the handle we've actually got a two-tone design here and while
this gray section may look like a rubberized insert that's actually the
harder section while the black areas are slightly tacky for extra grip that's
certainly going to make it easier to hold on to when you don't want to lose
it and we've also got benchmades fantastic Axis lock here what we love
about this lock is it's very intuitive and it's very easy for left or right
hand users to operate thanks to the mechanism that goes all the way through
the hand the extra advantage that that lock gets us is it allows us to open and
close the blade while keeping our fingers free of the closing path next up
we're gonna scale back and talk about Swiss Army knives for a little bit and
like the benchmade lineup there are a ton of great Swiss Army knives out there
and a lot of them have made great companions for campers over the years
whether you like the classic farmer the one hand opening trekker or even my
personal favorite the outrider there's not a lot of bad choices out there but
if we had to narrow it down to one it would be the Victorinox Ranger grip 79
one of the things that helps this knife stand apart from other Swiss Army knives
is we have some rubberized inserts here which are going to help
keep your grip on the knife when you're outdoors
we've also got a nice one-hand opening blade that is secured by a very nice
liner lock but unlike most liner locks that are disengaged here by pushing on
the front you actually push on the emblem here which then pushes the liner
lock out of the way while this knife is not gonna stand up to quite as much hard
use that narrower profile is actually gonna make it a little more agile in
certain scenarios and for me nothing beats a good Swiss Army knife as a
backup to your larger knives another thing that helps this knife be a winner
is there's not too many layers of tools here meaning it's not super thick so
it's still very easy to use and not at all cumbersome the front side also
includes a can opener as well as a bottle opener in addition to the
screwdriver implements on the tips and Victorinox has one of the best folding
pocket saws in the business and we get a nice length here with this knife
furthermore the back side has a couple of other great tools that are going to
be phenomenal for campers and that's a nice all with a sharpened edge that's
gonna allow you to put holes in things as you need to as well as a corkscrew
which does more than just open bottles when you're out in the woods the tip of
this is actually very good at untying knots that are stuck too fast for your
fingers to get free next up is an affordable knife that's become a classic
in outdoor circles and that's because it's a design that's proven to be more
than just the sum of its parts and that's the Ontario rat one shown here in
d2 steel d2 of course is a very popular steel with outdoorsmen but if you'd
rather have a stainless this is also available with AUS 8 the handles are
a little bit thinner than some of these other knives and they're not too
uncomfortable but again as with any folder and this especially I would still
recommend gloves the handle additionally is quite accommodating for very large
hands because of the way it's designed here it actually provides a very nice
place for you to choke up on the blade when you want to do some finer tasks
again we get a very nice drop point blade with a full flat grind versatility
slicing efficiency all important things when you're outdoors camping this next
choice may seem a little bit out of left field at first but the CRKT home front
is our next pick like a lot of these other knives we get a nice drop point
blade shape this time with a hollow grind and a lot of belly here at the
front allowing this to be used for a lot of slicing tasks like skinning
food preparation the handles are also a little bit thinner like the rat so again
it would recommend gloves those elements alone wouldn't be enough to take this
knife onto this list but the feature that does is the field-strip mechanism
when you're out camping it's tough to keep things clean like you would at home
things like mud dirt or grit can really gum up a folding knives mechanism so you
want an easy way to keep it clean the way the field-strip mechanism allows you
to take this knife apart into three pieces with no tools makes it very easy
to rinse out when it gets gummed up and put it back together very quickly our
final pick is a little bit out of left field and I'm actually breaking a few of
my rules with this one and that's the Leatherman signal even though it has a
knife plate I don't really consider this a pocketknife but it still makes a great
companion in the outdoors we do get a nice utility blade with this knife which
is very useful even though it is combo edge which is gonna limit its utility a
little bit in the outdoors when we open the tool up we do get a few nice
implements on one side including a nice all but the other side features this
single piece multi-tool integrated into the frame which can be removed and this
contains a small ferrocerium rod here on the side that'll help you start fires
for signaling or warmth as well as an integrated whistle which is going to
save your lungs if you do need to do some signaling well it's always a good
idea to carry these items separately it's good to know that we've got a nice
backup set integrated with the tool on the back we do have a bottle opener but
as you can see we've got a nice flat spot here on the end and that can be
used for hammering whether you're trying to crack open a nut or drive in a tent
stake it's a nice useful little addition on the other side we've actually got a
small diamond sharpener which will not only allow you to keep this blade sharp
but also any other blades you might be carrying so these are just a few of the
options you have out there when it comes to a nice camping folder and even if you
don't pick one of these we hope you've taken some of our advice to heart and
that'll help you to choose one that's right for you if you want to get your
hands on any of these knives click the link in the description below to head on
over to knifecenter.com