Knowledge

Since starting my outdoor adventures in 1993 and becoming a professional sbo knife in 2001, I’ve gained a lot of hands-on experience when it comes to outdoor knives. In this post, I’ll share my thoughts and recommendations for choosing the right knife based on my years in the field. While these insights are based on personal experience, I hope they help you find a blade that meets your needs and enhances your outdoor adventures.

Step 1: Identifying Your Needs

The first step in choosing an outdoor knife is determining your specific needs. It's impossible to rely on a single knife for every task. Just as a scalpel would fail miserably at chopping wood, each type of knife has its strengths and limitations. Thankfully, in the outdoors, there’s no restriction on how many tools you bring, so feel free to pack multiple knives suited to different tasks.

1. Everyday Utility: A small, versatile knife for food preparation, general cutting, or whittling.
2. Heavy-Duty Cutting: For splitting logs, making kindling, or clearing thick brush, a larger, thicker blade is ideal.
3. Defense (if needed): Although many carry knives for self-defense, in reality, they’re often more for peace of mind than practical defense.

Step 2: Choosing the Right Blade Material

When choosing a knife, the blade material matters a lot. I generally recommend:

• Carbon Steel: Best for those without much experience in sharpening. Carbon steel is affordable, easy to sharpen, holds a decent edge, and has excellent toughness, but it can rust if not maintained.
• Alloy Steel: Great for those with sharpening experience. Alloy steels come in many types, generally offering good edge retention. However, they can be pricier and are harder to sharpen than carbon steel.

Step 3: Key Knife Functions in the Outdoors

When camping, trekking, or hiking, your knife will likely serve these primary purposes:

1. Food Preparation: Slicing vegetables, meat, and other food items.
2. Tool Making: Crafting stakes, carving wood, and preparing shelter materials.
3. Wood Processing: Splitting firewood and kindling, chopping, or even batoning to create tinder.
4. Self-Defense: Although rare, some people carry a knife for emergencies, though in most cases, it serves as a morale booster.

Step 4: Considering Terrain and Environment

The types of terrain you encounter in the outdoors are diverse: grasslands, deserts, wetlands, temperate forests, tropical rainforests, and more. Each environment brings different challenges, which affect your knife choice. For example:

• Grasslands: Often require only light cutting, like trimming grass or roots, so a small, fixed-blade knife is enough.
• Forests and Jungles: Thick vegetation might require a machete or a similar blade for clearing brush.

Step 5: Principles of Knife Selection

1. Blade Thickness: Thin blades are great for slicing soft materials like vegetables and meat. A thinner blade cuts cleanly and is easy to handle but may lack durability.
2. Blade Size and Weight: The larger the task, the heavier and thicker the blade. A knife for chopping wood should be substantial enough to withstand impact. When it comes to food prep, however, a thinner blade, around 2 mm thick, works well.

Many beginners mistakenly choose overly thick knives for tasks like slicing fruit. I made a similar mistake years ago with a 6.4 mm-thick BUCK Nightingale—essentially a juicer for oranges! Nowadays, I use a dedicated 2 mm-thick blade for food, which cuts cleanly without crushing the fruit.

Blade Grind Types: A Comparison

Different edge grinds affect performance and ease of maintenance:

• Secondary Bevel (Flat Grind): Allows for a polished finish and can be visually appealing.
• Convex Grind: Easier to sharpen and doesn’t require a fixed-angle sharpener but lacks the polished look of a flat grind.

For practicality, I typically use a convex grind, which is straightforward to maintain and provides a durable edge.

Outdoor Wood Processing and Baton Techniques

A knife blade between 2-4 mm in thickness is usually sufficient for most outdoor tasks like wood processing and shelter building. A blade that’s too long can become hard to control, so I recommend keeping the length under 150 mm.

For baton work:

• Use softer materials, like wood or bone, to strike the blade’s spine.
• Avoid striking metal, as it increases the risk of damaging the blade.
• Stick to wood that isn’t too thick, as the knife can get wedged or even break under pressure.

Selecting the Right Tool for Heavy-Duty Cutting

The weight and size of your tool should match your strength. For example, if 50 continuous strikes start to fatigue you, then you’ve found a manageable weight. For wood processing, tools like hooked bush knives, machetes, and hatchets each have their pros and cons:

• Bush Knives: Excellent for cutting small trees and branches within the blade’s length.
• Hatchets: Ideal for heavy-duty chopping, especially on thicker wood.
• Machetes: Perfect for vines, bamboo, and dense brush; less effective on hardwood.

I usually bring a hatchet due to its versatility with larger logs and because I haven't yet found a good-quality bush knife. I’ve considered making my own bush knife, but the cost is prohibitive, so I stick with my current setup.

A quick note: a saw is generally the best tool for processing large logs due to its efficiency and ease of use.

My Current Setup

Here’s a glimpse of the tools I currently carry on outdoor trips—all of which are self-made. From knives suited for delicate food preparation to my trusty hatchet for heavier work, my toolkit is designed to handle a range of outdoor tasks effectively. I’ve crafted each tool based on years of experience, testing, and refinement to meet my specific needs in the field.

In conclusion, choosing the right outdoor knife involves balancing your needs, understanding material properties, and selecting a blade suited for the specific challenges of your environment. With these insights, I hope you’re better equipped to select a knife that will serve you well in all your outdoor adventures.