Choosing a Knife for the Field

A knife, it is often said, is the most important tool you can have in the field. But, what knife should you carry? What knife will do everything that you might need? Unfortunately, there is no single knife that will do all things equally well (if there was, then everyone would carry that knife). However, there are knives or combinations of knives that will do most things quite well. So, what makes a good knife for the field?

A good field knife must be able to cut and carve, but also chop, hack, and pry. The blade must be easy to sharpen, made of hard-enough steel to hold a keen edge, but not so hard that the edge is likely to chip during heavy use. The blade must be long enough to allow performing chopping tasks and battoning, but not so long that it becomes cumbersome - to me this means a blade between 13 cm - 23 cm (5 - 9 inches). A shorter blade is not well-suited for chopping tasks, and a longer blade is difficult to use for finer cutting tasks.

In the field, I recommend carrying both a strong fixed-blade knife, as well as a multi-tool, such as the Leatherman Wave or a Victorinox "Swiss Army" knife (such as the Huntsman II). My current carry knife for the field is the "Smoke Jumper" made by the American company TOPS Knives. (I also like the Cold Steel SRK, and the Gerber LMF-II) I have a Leatherman in a pouch on my belt, and the Victorinox Huntsman II is always in my pocket. With these three tools, I have been able to accomplish every knife related task I have faced in the field.

So, what’s the best knife for the field? It’s the knife that you have with you! So always carry a knife. But, the knife that you choose to carry is going to depend upon your personal preferences, skills, and anticipated uses.