How to choose a survival knife

The survival knife is the most important tool in your survival kit.

You need the best survival knife. Choosing the right survival knife is more important than developing your personality - your life may well depend on the right choice of it.

People with extensive outdoor experience will extol the usefulness of a good knife, but to a survival expert, his knife is one of his best companions and the most carefully kept part of his survival equipment. His survival knife, like his best friend, never let him down.

One knife per person

The era of one knife per person is getting closer and closer. Although when in town, only carry a small pocket knife. People who go into the wild, their hunting knife - they call it a hunting knife - is always with them at all times.

The survival knife is the most important tool in your survival kit. Today, many people have forgotten the need to carry a knife with them. In fact, it's not uncommon to meet someone who is afraid of knives or questions carrying them. It is a depressing fact of modern life that most people are unaware of the myriad benefits of owning a good knife.

On my travels, I often meet people who ask me what the knife hanging from my shoulder bag is for. Usually I would reply, "Don't you know what that does?" . They think they know. I know better. They wouldn't ask a dumber question.

Survival knives are essential equipment

A good survival knife is the most important survival tool in your survival kit and is one of the 15 most basic tools any survivor should have. With a good survival knife, you can make or get anything you need to survive and even live a rich life outdoors. With this in mind, the best survival knife you choose should have a strong structure, appropriate materials, workmanship and function.

Choose Survival knife to avoid

For the uninitiated, the word survival knife immediately comes to mind the giant Rambo knife made famous by Hollywood movies. The oversized knives that are more likely to be presented to living people as powerful weapons are a far cry from the best knives used by survival experts. You have to put up with the heavy and large blade, and it is difficult to handle. Many survivors require delicate work beyond what these broadswords can do satisfactorily.

The double-edged knife is mainly used for stabbing, and the blade of this knife is thin and easy to break. In addition, the second blade is prone to injury and is not needed.

Many survival knives are sold with hollowed-out handles, the idea being that you can store tools like matches and compasses in a closed, waterproof handle. One problem is that empty handles are more likely to break than solid ones. The naysayers argue that, in general, you can store your survival tools just fine elsewhere. And as an added bonus, if you lose your survival knife, you won't lose your other survival tools at the same time.

The best length for survival knife

The best survival knife is one that can be used for most of the jobs you encounter. At the same time, size and weight are important aspects to consider as a survival tool.

In my experience, the ideal survival blade length is between 4 and 6 inches (about 10 to 15 centimeters). This size of blade combines size and handling. Knives larger than this size, with excessive lethality, merely increase the weight and volume of carrying survival tools.

If your survival knife requires a larger blade, then carrying a machete, axe, Indian tomahawk or Gurkha machete may be more suitable for you. In any case, you still need to carry a personal standard size survival knife.

In addition to carrying a survival knife with a blade of about 5 inches, I also like to carry a small folding utility knife. Such knives will come in handy for delicate work for which larger knives are not suited.

Shank core

The best survival knife is made by attaching a handle material to a piece of steel to create a comfortable handle. The knife of this structure is called "equal width full keel shank core" or "rat tail full keel shank core" in knife terms.

The full keel core survival knife is a blade that runs through the entire handle. Usually two handles are clamped on both sides of the blade to form a comfortable handle. In order to reduce weight and volume, some knives often expose the metal inside the handle.

The rat-tail all-keel core survival knife reduces the size of the inner blade of the handle. The stem completely encloses the narrow blade inside the stem. Usually the handle is made of cylindrical leather, this installation has a certain skill and its own characteristics. Rat-tailed core knives are sometimes fitted with a round tip at the end.

Cheap survival knives usually have the blade separate from the handle. The weakness of this rough knife is where screws and glue hold the blade to the handle. You should choose a survival knife with equal width full keel handle and rat tail full keel handle, do not choose that cheap survival knife.

Type of blade

There are two main types of survival knives involved in survivalism, flat blade and serrated. Serrated blades are good at cutting artificial materials, clothing, meat. For self-defense, paratroopers, etc., sawtooth is a good choice.

The downside of a serrated blade is that it's hard to sharpen in the wild. This is obviously a major disadvantage in an environment where life and death depend on keeping the blade sharp. In addition, the serrated edge is also difficult to cut and chop effectively.

Flat edge is the choice in most living environments. Such a blade is useful for cutting, slashing, and slicing. Although the flat blade is not as effective against nylon straps, clothing, and meat as the serrated blade, it can still do the job very quickly.

Another advantage is that when you don't have a standard whetstone handy, you can sharpen your survival knife with a rock or cement board, whereas serrated edges usually require special sharpening devices and techniques.

Many survival knives have wooden saws or steel serrations on the back. A knife like the Rambo, in many cases, has serrations on its back that do only a small amount of work. If you're really going to have a small saw in your survival kit, you're better off adding a specially designed survival tool than if you serrated your survival knife.

Blade thickness

The best survival knives are generally between 5/32 and 8/32 inches thick (about 0.4 to 0.6 cm). Too thin the blade is easy to bend, too thick to handle the delicate work often encountered in survival and lack of dexterity.

It is important to keep the tip of the survival knife strong, which is often where the knife tends to go wrong.

Blade material

There are two main materials used to make high quality survival knives.

Stainless steel blades have good rust resistance and can work well in humid environments. It requires less maintenance than carbon steel. The disadvantage is that it is more expensive, harder to grind, and the blade is not good enough to hold.

Carbon steel blades are prone to rust if not used properly or without coating. Most carbon steel knives hold better than similar stainless steel knives.

Some of the best survival knives

Later on in the survival topic, I will introduce some tested survival knives to you. Readers of survival topics are welcome to post their personal choice of excellent survival knives.

Some excellent survival knives that are highly recommended: