Every tourist, hunter and fisherman always has a constant assistant with him - a knife. It is necessary for the equipment of the camp, for cooking, they resort to it in the process of fishing and hunting, because without it, as without hands. Therefore, you need to choose a knife for a hike very carefully, approaching this matter with all responsibility.

What do you have to do with a knife on a hike in the modern world? Consider the main tasks of this ancient instrument.

1. Cooking food. Cut the products taken with you: bread, sausage. Clean vegetables, harvested mushrooms, caught fish or poultry. Elementary: open canned food, which make up the bulk of a tourist's dry ration.
2. Building and maintaining a fire. A fire in a campaign is needed for cooking, for heating (in the cold season), for drying things (if you get wet in the rain). A knife is needed in this case:

• in order to chop, chop wood and chips for lighting a fire;
• for preparing slingshots under the hearth or under ropes for drying things.

1. Making fixtures. For example, sticks like skewers for frying mushrooms, fish, sausages. In case of injury, a splint, crutch, or, in severe cases, stretcher.

Basic rules for choosing a knife for travel

The following tips will help the chooser to navigate how to choose a knife for a hike:

• the knife must be functional;
• the thickness of the blade should not be thick and not thin, so as not to break and be convenient to use;
• the form should be simple, the handle should be comfortable;
• the knife must have a sheath;
• the color is preferably bright, to be seen in the grass or in the snow;
• a knife is a tool and should not be bought too expensive.

When choosing a knife for hiking in the forest or mountains, you need to pay attention to every detail.

Foldable or non-folding?

This is the first question that arises when choosing a tool. Which knives are best for hiking: small folding knives that fit easily in your pocket, or fixed blades?

Folding knife is convenient for its small dimensions. But it is not very reliable and it has certain limitations in functionality. Folding knives do not have a very long blade, and they are not intended for forceful actions. It is not possible for them to chop, for example, firewood for a fire. The hinge-like connection between the handle and the blade often breaks.

A more practical regular knife with a fixed blade that goes deep into the handle. They can do almost anything they need. A sheath attached to the belt will make such a knife more convenient.

One piece of advice: having opted for a clumsy knife, still get a folding one that attracts with its versatility - a multifunctional universal knife for hiking with a large number of functions (knife, scissors, opener, tweezers, etc.).

Blade of knife

What should it be? What form? What is it made of? Let's consider everything in order.

What steel is best?

The blade of a camping knife is better to choose from steel that is not very hard. Hard grade steel makes the knife brittle and difficult to sharpen in hiking conditions. But too soft knives will not work either. Their problem is lack of sharpness. The best option for a knife for tourism is with a blade made of steel of medium hardness (58-60 HRC). They are practical and, if necessary, can be sharpened with any materials at hand.

Blade shape

Firms that produce knives for hiking and travel make them with a wide variety of blade shapes:

• finca (blade concave shape);
• spear shape;
• straight butt;
• with a lowering of the butt line;
• with an increase in the butt line;
• "American tanto";
• "scramasax" or "goat's foot".

Before choosing a blade of one form or another, you need to understand why it will be needed on a campaign. The most popular are knives with a finca-shaped blade and spear-shaped ones.

The finca has a thin tip that can be easily adapted for digging, and if you sharpen the upper edge of the tip, then such a knife is perfect for hunting.

Penknives often have a spear-shaped blade or with a lower butt line. A butt of sufficient thickness and a pointed tip make them good and functional travel companions.

What form of knife is needed on a hike, each tourist decides for himself, based on his desires, requirements, needs and opportunities. If you have to hike for a day, to places not very distant from civilization, then the shape of the spear will fit perfectly. But if you are waiting for a multi-day trip with passages through the forests, cooking on a fire, then you can’t do without a hunting knife - the Finns can not do.

Blade sharpening

Blade sharpening also plays an important role when choosing a knife. The type of sharpening largely determines what the tool is capable of. There are several sharpening methods:

1. Smooth. The blade gradually tapers on both sides equally.
2. In the form of a sword. Sharpening on the blade starts a little further than in the first case. This method is considered one of the best. The blades remain sharp for a long time.
3. Difficult sharpening (double sharpened). The edge of the blade is very thin, and then the sharpening is wider, which gives the knife a high cutting quality. Knives with such sharpening do not become dull for a very long time.
4. Concave. Creates a very sharp cutting edge. The knife easily enters any objects. Disadvantage: requires frequent sharpening.
5. Convex. It is the opposite of concave. A lot of metal remains on the edge, due to which it is very sharp and durable and retains its cutting qualities for a long time. This method is used to sharpen axes and knives used in chopping.
6. One-sided - "chisel". Only one side is sharpened, in the form of a chisel, hence the name.

The cutting edge plays a huge role in determining not only the functional properties of the knife. The notched edge has very good cutting properties, but it is almost impossible to sharpen such a knife in the field. Therefore, going on a hike, preference is given to tools with smooth cutting edges with sharpening in the form of a sword or complex sharpening. They are very sharp, retain their properties for a long time and, if necessary, are easily sharpened.

Knife handles are a matter of personal preference. Someone prefers to wear knives with carved handles made of bone or wood, while others choose minimalism and practicality. Today, manufacturers offer a huge variety of materials and shapes to choose from.

The rubber grip has a good grip even with wet hands. Bone or horn has a beautiful noble appearance. Wooden ones fit well in the palm of your hand, have a pleasant to the touch surface, but require special care. Plastic handles are more picky, they are not afraid of moisture.

An important condition when choosing the type of knife handle is ease of use. It should fit well, comfortably in the palm of your hand, corresponding to its size, and not rub in case of long work. A quality knife feels like an extension of the hand.

There should be a small protrusion between the blade and the handle - protection so that the hand does not slip onto the blade.

Usually, if the knife is good, there is a hole for the lace in its handle.

knife sheath

The sheath is necessary to protect the knife from damage, and the owner from possible injuries. Often knives are sold already with a sheath. But if not, then it is better to take care of their acquisition.

Good sheaths are made of leather or kydex. These are durable materials that do an excellent job of their function. Often there is a pocket for a grindstone on the sheath, which is very convenient. There must be a strap that prevents the knife from falling out of its sheath.

Overview of the best camping knives

1. The first place, according to customer reviews, is occupied by a knife made in the USA - KA-BAR USMC Utility. It has a blade length of 18 cm, and the total length of the knife is more than 30 cm. It has a leather handle, equipped with effective finger protection. The cutting edge is smooth and easy to sharpen.
2. In second place, Tom Brown Tracker - a knife designed for hunters. The eleven-centimeter blade is equipped on one side with a saw designed for scraping. Knife length - 30 cm.
3. The third place is shared by the SOG SEAL Team knife and the A1 Swedish Survival knife.

The SOG SEAL Team Fixed Blade Knife SOG SEAL Team has proven to be the most durable. It doesn't need to be sharpened. The blade does not corrode under impact sea ​​water. It is resistant to bending even when used as a lever. Blade - 18 cm, 5 mm thick. The blade has a serrated area.

The Swedish A1 Swedish Survival knife is the perfect hiking knife. The length of the knife is 28 cm, the blade is 16 cm. The handle is one-piece, with square corrugation, there is protection for the palm and a hole for a cord.

Knives and legislation

When making a purchase of a knife, ask for a certificate for the knife, which indicates which category of knives the one you have chosen belongs to. It is advisable to carry this certificate or information sheet with you so that, if necessary, you can present it to law enforcement officials. The carrying of bladed weapons is punishable by law.

Melee weapons include knives with a blade more than 9 cm long and more than 5-6 mm thick, devoid of a sharp tip, or with a handle more than 7 cm.

Having chosen the knife of your dreams, throwing a backpack on your shoulders, you can go even to the ends of the world! Have a nice holiday!

The most important tool in any hike is a camping knife (except, of course, axes). Any knife can be useful in the woods, but it is better to have a multi-functional knife or a set of highly specialized ones. A person who knows how to handle a blade will find a use for any blade, and even the best powder steel knives will not help an inexperienced tourist.

cold weapon or not

There is an opinion that tourist knives are melee weapons. This is not entirely true. There is a guest who clearly defines the signs by which this or that knife can be attributed to melee weapons. In stores, when buying a knife, be sure to require a certificate that contains a link to GOST and defines the parameters by which this knife does not belong to melee weapons.

If there is no certificate for the knife (for example, you made it yourself or bought it yourself), then you need to know the main differences between a “cold” knife and a skinning or tourist one.

The State Standard on carving and skinning knives specifies the signs by which the knife does not belong to melee weapons:

• A knife of any design, with a blade length of up to 90 millimeters, is not a melee weapon (CW);
• With a blade thickness of less than 2.4 mm, the knife can have a blade length of up to 150 mm, while its handle can have a limiter and sub-finger recesses;
• With a blade thickness of more than 2.6 mm, the knife can be longer than 90 mm in the presence of a traumatic handle (this means the absence of a limiter and sub-finger recesses);
• Parameters associated with the bending of the blade and handle. For example, the Nepalese kukri (this is a real combat knife) is referred to by the state standard as household knives.

GOST about sports and tourist knives has similar parameters, only the length of the blade in this case can be up to 220 millimeters.

How to choose the best outdoor knife

In order to find the best knife for your purposes, you need to remember what you usually do with a knife on a hike. If you are a hunter or fisherman, there is enough work for knives. A hunter can have axes, a clumsy knife, or a whole set of knives in his backpack. Many people carry folding knives in their pockets, a saw will find a place in a backpack, and an ordinary tourist on a hike may never get his set.

Jobs for which a tourist may need a knife are usually the following:

• If there is no saw, and the knife is massive enough, they can chop wood chips to light a fire. Inexpensive knives are great for this procedure. It is difficult to imagine a tourist who will chop logs with a good powdered or damask knife for 20 or more thousand;
• You can cut the ax handle if it is broken;
• Cutting food for lunch;
• If you manage to catch fish, the knife will come in handy in order to clean it. In this case, the quality of the blade does not play any role at all, even Chinese multifunctional ones (which are a knife, fork, spoon) or blunt kitchen ones will do.

That's all the main work, for them a simple knife with a blade length of about 15 centimeters, and steel 65x13 or 95x18 will be enough. The parameters of such a tourist knife are perfect for a novice traveler. It is not scary to lose it, you can give it to the inept hands of your comrades, sharpen it by passing it on a whetstone a couple of times.

In general, when setting up a camp, an ax and a saw do most of the work on its device, but often the ax is thrown into a backpack for show, and the saw has never been sharpened since the moment of purchase.

A very important quality for camping knives is the simplicity of their design and overall "indestructibility". You will have to open cans with a knife, dig the ground, so it must be with a fairly thick and strong blade. The quality of the steel is not particularly important. Chances are you will lose this knife after a few trips. The next blade will be purchased more thoughtfully, carried in a good leather sheath and not handed out to everyone. It is better to choose an all-metal handle with overlays, you can even hang on such a knife, nothing will be done to it.

If you are already an experienced tourist, then you will definitely have a sharp ax in your backpack, and a sharp finca from Swedish manufacturers will replace the clumsy camp knife. A set of two MORA CLASSICs, large and small, will handle all the camp work that an ax can't do. Moravian carbon steel has a very aggressive cut and can be easily sharpened on a cheap whetstone.

Folding or non-folding knife - which is better?

Despite the advantages of fixed blade knives, the main advantage of a folding knife is its light weight and compactness. Many models are also multifunctional, they represent a whole set of tools.

If a hunter needs a serious knife with which to butcher prey, and a long and thin fillet knife is useful to a fisherman, then a tourist may well get by with a folding blade. When working with a folding knife, the following nuances should be considered:

• Folding design is less reliable than fixed, therefore power work should be done with caution. It’s better to forget about chopping wood chips for a fire right away. Some even manage to throw folding knives at trees, as a rule, this ends in breakdowns and injuries;
• The blade of a folding knife may not be fixed and, in case of inaccurate work, it can easily fold over your fingers;
• It should be remembered that for the compactness of a folding knife you have to pay with a small blade size. Bread or boiled sausage will have to be cut round;
• The folding knife mechanism is very sensitive to dirt. After the hike, it must be cleaned and rinsed under running water. In case of severe contamination, a complete cleaning will be required with disassembly of the folding knife and lubrication of the hinges.

Do not attempt to crack nuts or crush anything with the handle of a folding knife. When used in such work, even a high-quality and expensive knife will not last more than one season. Choose either multipurpose knives such as VICTORINOX or knives with a lock that secures the blade firmly. The most common types of locks are liner lock and axis lock. Axis is structurally more complicated, but the reliability of fixation is superior to a liner-type lock. From the purchase of single-piece knives without fixation, you should immediately refuse.

Types of tourist knife shanks

The shank is the back of the blade, which is hidden in the handle and serves to fix the blade. Shanks are of two types:

• Through mounting, when the shank passes through the entire handle and is fastened with a nut on the reverse side;
• Rigid mounting, when the shank enters the handle by about two thirds of its length.

There is another type of blade mounting, when the shank is the middle of the handle, and pads are attached to it on the sides (full tang system). A blade with such a shank is called a blank.

Many firms produce so-called survival knives, in which there is no shank as such. But in the hollow handle you can store various necessary little things. The reliability of such a knife is in great doubt and it is definitely not worth buying as a tourist knife. These knives are designed as part of emergency supplies (pilots, sailors or travelers) and should be used in emergencies. For example, in a crash. In such a situation, needles, hooks and flint from the handle are very useful.

The drop-mount shank is fairly reliable, but only if you are sure that it goes through two-thirds of the handle. When buying such a knife from the hands or in stores, this is quite difficult to say. You can recommend inexpensive Swedish knives for purchase, the manufacturer monitors the quality of their products. Of course, you should not stick it with all your might into a tree and hang on a knife, but it will do most of the work. It is worth noting that most traditional knives are made using the push-in technology.

Through mounting is a more reliable design, often the nut on the back of the handle is polished or a plug is inserted from above. Despite this, many manufacturers, in order to save metal, make such a shank in two parts. A regular hairpin is welded to the short shank of the knife. And often the shank is no more than two centimeters. It is impossible to check how through-mounting is done without disassembling the handle, so these knives should be purchased from well-known firms who will give a guarantee or from proven masters of knife makers.

The most reliable blade mounting is the full tang system. Unfortunately, these knives are rather nondescript in appearance and are not very popular.

Sharpening a tourist knife

Sharpening of any blade must be done at a certain angle, and this depends on the tasks that the knife will perform on a hike. For example, for cutting fish and skinning, the optimal sharpening angle will be 10-15 degrees. If you plan to cut soft materials and food with a knife, then you should choose an angle of 15-20 degrees (by the way, the famous Japanese katanas were sharpened at this angle). All-purpose outdoor knives can be sharpened at an angle of 20-25 degrees. If it is planned to open cans with a knife and chop wood chips, the sharpening angle can reach 40 degrees.

The sharpening process itself is a fairly simple procedure. It is worth starting with stones of large grain size, gradually moving to smoother stones. After sharpening, it is desirable to finish (grind) the cutting edge on the skin with GOI paste. Sharpening solves the following tasks:

• Restores the shape of the cutting edge (or changes it to the desired angle);
• Grinds the edge to the desired smoothness.

In order to sharpen the blade at the desired degree, when sharpening, you need to hold the blade at this angle. If the knife has already been sharpened at the right angle, this will not be difficult. To change the sharpening angle to a smaller one, you can use special tools. For example, a sharpening angle holder or sharpening systems such as Lansky or Apex.

The main rule when sharpening is not to press hard on the knife. This can damage the whetstone, and the price of quality stones is quite high.

Knife blade shape

For a tourist knife, the blade shape should be universal. The centuries-old form with a straight butt is best suited. You should not chase pretentious forms such as tanto or scramasax, in work this will only be a hindrance.

Often there are such forms of blades:

• Clip point or finca;
• Spare point, spear-shaped blade;
• Drop point, with a lowering of the butt line;
• Various tantoids (Japanese or American tanto);
• Trailing point - with an increase in the butt (perfect for cutting fish).

Everyone can choose the form that suits him. If you want a serrated blade, remember that it is almost impossible to sharpen it in the field.

Knife handle

Tourist knife handles are made from a variety of materials. Conventionally, they can be divided into two large groups:

• natural materials;
• Materials of artificial origin.

From natural materials, wood, leather, bone, horn, or combinations thereof are most often used. Among the artificial materials, rubber and various plastics are most often used. The combination of rubber and plastic is durable and does not slip in your hand.

Handles made of natural materials look beautiful, but need care. For a camp knife, the main criterion for choosing a handle material is the convenience of holding it in your hand. Do not take a knife with a metal handle, in winter it will freeze your hand. Also, do not take a slippery handle. If you are not sure about the strength of holding the knife, you can provide it with a loop to fix it on your wrist.

The choice of steel for the knife

There are a lot of knife steels. For a tourist knife, you should not choose expensive steels. It is better to choose either stainless steel type 95x18 or carbon steel. Carbon has a more aggressive cut, but is prone to corrosion. 95X18 - good enough steel, does not rust, but is more expensive than carbon steel. If you carefully operate your knives, you can buy an expensive blade made of powdered steel.

• High-quality multi-subject "Victorinox" and "Laserman";
• Inexpensive Chinese or Russian sets with spoon, fork, corkscrew and blade.

Choosing a tourist knife is a rather responsible procedure. Buy a knife that will do most of the camp work, and not hang like a useless load on your belt.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

I am fond of martial arts with weapons, historical fencing. I write about weapons military equipment because it is interesting and familiar to me. I often learn a lot of new things and want to share these facts with people who are not indifferent to military topics.

Today it is not difficult to find manuals for choosing hunting knives with a detailed classification according to the shape and geometry of the blades. But about a good tourist, camp, camping knife - but what is there! - not much is said about the now gaining popularity "knife for survival in the wild".

Let's outline the silhouette of our camping knife. It should be for all occasions, and this is clearing a place for a camp and an overnight stay, and cutting pegs for a tent, and planing wood to light a fire (sometimes you have to chop small firewood, like a full-fledged hatchet, hitting the butt with a stick), and cooking food, and so on. Such tools should be sensibly assessed: let him not be a champion in a single discipline, but he will be able to do everything.

Our "walker", "camp", "prepper" must have a wedge with a good margin of safety. A rare camping knife has less than four millimeters in the butt - this strengthens the blade, but increases the weight. As a rule, there is no false blade on such knives, if only because it weakens the tip of the wedge, and the penetrating ability of the tip is not very important for fans of outdoor recreation.

Most often, the desired knife has direct descents from the butt, which favorably affects the price of the product. In addition, it is much more convenient to transfer the palm of your free hand to a wide butt to enhance the cut under pressure.

The second question of the geometry of the blade is about the cutting edge and the convergence of the descents. A camping knife should be such that it can cut food and chop branches. Therefore, a relatively thick convergence, usually at least 0.5 mm, is the best fit for this. It will cut moderately, but when chopping, the cutting edge will not crumble and the “clumps” will be minimal.

It is even better when the blade at the end has a complex grind and the descents for the tip of the wedge are displayed at a different angle. In this case, it is possible to achieve that the main part of the blade will be reduced to a thinner cutting edge, for a good cut, and its end will be reduced more massively, for various “picking” actions and rough work. But is it worth mentioning that such a grind also adds to the final cost of the knife?

MULTIPLE HANDLE. What is the most important thing in a tourist knife? Blade steel? Perhaps today, no matter how strange it may seem, the main role is played by the handle. It does not allow a dropped knife to sink, a rope wrapped around it can be extremely useful on a hike, a leather type-setting handle allows the knife not to slip when cleaning fish, etc. Handles with a built-in compass, pencil cases, lantern handles and even shooting handles are more fashionable and in demand today than ever. Meaningless for professionals, hunters and military, but very useful for city tourists, knives with special “handles” continue to be produced by many little-known firms and reputable knife companies. But what about steel? Who needs a great knife with a great blade worth thousands of conventional units if it falls out of the hands of a sleazy tourist and simply drowns?

Since there are no blades that remain sharp after a week of use, you need to pay attention to steel. For one- and two-day hikes, you can take a well-hardened "carbon" (just be aware that it can be fragile). During this time, it will not have to be sharpened often, if at all, and it is more convenient to take care of such a knife on short trips. And after a trip at home, you can timely wipe off the pitting spots missed during cleaning in nature.

For longer trips, it is better to take such a knife so that you don’t have to “kill” it for more than half an hour to edit it. This is its main difference from the hunting one: we don’t need the knife to cut the paper on weight after skinning the elk, we need it to be able to be brought into working condition with a few confident movements with ceramic musat.

Please note that many manufacturers use carbon steel in such knives, but they heat it to a hardness of 55-57 HRC, although most of these steels are freely heated to the level of 58-60 HRC. This is done for several purposes.

Firstly, as we have already found out above, so that the knife can be easily sharpened and corrected in the field.

Secondly, the steel turns out to be more viscous - the cutting edge is prone to jams, but not to chips. Thirdly, so that the wedge is not too brittle at sub-zero temperatures and the knife can be used in winter.

Another important point: Uncoated carbon steel is unlikely to be a good helper on a long hike. There are many such coatings - from banal oxidation to pressure sprayed graphite (so-called diamond-like carbon DLC) or textured powder paint. You can choose a knife made of alloyed stainless steels, which, in fact, do not need such a coating.

WOODEN ANACHRONISM. Today, the tree on the knives looks very archaic. Of course, it's beautiful, but very, very impractical. Wood swells, shrinks, cracks... Today, in the age of high-tech materials, it would seem that using wood is tritely stupid - excellent plastics are the best material for handles and scabbards. But ... where without a tree? The traditional material is so firmly entrenched in the human mind that tourist knives with handles made from a wide variety of exotic woods will always be in steady demand. The modern chemical industry creates impregnations that can prolong the life of wood, and thus the most ancient material that mankind has encountered has received a second wind.

Probably the last selection criteria are the hilt and scabbard. The fewer parts and connections in the handle, the better. From modern synthetics - and the sheath should be just like that - there are big choice sustainable materials. Very well behaved G-10 (glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin), neoprene, polymer Zytel, Kraton, thermoplastic Kydex.

All have their drawbacks, but the main plus is that they are resistant to abrasion, to all atmospheric manifestations, while being easy to clean, weigh little and provide good grip.

Sheaths are most often made up of two sheets fastened with eyelets, so moisture does not linger in them and they have a reliable lacing system.

It is worth noting that recently most manufacturers have switched to the fulltang design and forgot about the hollow handles. And for small accessories, as a rule, a pocket on the sheath is reserved. Fiberglass G-10 is most often made in the form of flat dies, which are mounted on both sides of the blade blank, forming a handle.

Therefore, on knives with a hollow handle-container (for matches, hooks and other small accessories), such material is not found. Another good example of a handle is a paracord-wrapped skeleton handle. This makes practical sense: the paracord can be removed when a few meters of strong cord are urgently needed.

Perhaps these are all the primary criteria for choosing a camping knife. There is only one last tip: do not take a giant machete - your hand will begin to go numb after five minutes of working with it. 10-12 centimeters of the blade, as a rule, is enough. Remember that you still need to grow to a small knife.

The most important tools for hiking are camping knives. It doesn't matter what type of knife you choose, whether it be folding knives, fixed blade knives (aka non-folding knives) or multi-purpose knives. If you are hiking, any knife will come in handy, although it is better to take the blade that is suitable for exactly the tasks that you will perform on the campaign. Of course, if you plan to go on a multi-day hike, it is better to take a set that includes knives and axes with you, but if the hike is limited to one day, then a knife will be enough.

Edged weapons or household items?

Since Soviet times, there has been an opinion in our society that any knife that is not a kitchen knife is a cold weapon, and if the police find it, then the minimum that threatens you is a fine and confiscation. At the same time, everyone is sure that any axes, no matter how threatening they look, are not melee weapons. In fact, all tourist knives that are sold in specialized stores have certificates that indicate that this is not a cold weapon.

Knives, which are edged weapons, are sold in hunting shops, and their purchase is possible only after presenting a hunting license. If you are planning to buy a tourist knife from your hands or want to make it yourself, you must definitely study the guests, which clearly spell out the parameters that a cold weapon should have.

There are two guests that you should focus on when choosing a tourist knife:

1. GOST about carving and skinning knives;
2. GOST about sports and tourist knives.

Signs by which a knife cannot be classified as a edged weapon according to GOST on carving and skinning knives:

• A knife of any kind or design, the blade length of which does not exceed 90 mm, is not a melee weapon (CW);
• If the thickness of the knife blade does not exceed 2.4 mm, then with a blade length of up to 150 mm, the knife may have a guard (the so-called "emphasis") and sub-finger recesses on the handle;
• If the knife is thicker than 2.4 mm, then its blade can be longer than 90 mm, subject to the presence of a traumatic handle (that is, without a guard);
• Various parameters related to the bending of the handle or blade. If the blade or handle of the knife has a certain angle of bend, the knife also cannot be classified as a CW.

Guest parameters about tourist and sports knives have a lot in common with the guest about skinning knives.

How to choose the best outdoor knife

Many, especially first-time hikers, take on a hike a set of tools that they plan to use on the hike. As a rule, this set includes the following tools:

• Saw, and sometimes it can be a two-handed saw of the “friendship” type. Sometimes, some hikers take a pocket chain saw with them as a spare saw;
• Axe;
• Large knife "a la Rambo". It is this knife that novice tourists most often have.

After several hikes, the tourist comes to understand that a saw, and an ax too, are completely unnecessary on a short hike. Yes, and a terrible knife, when they try to cut food, turns out to be completely unsuitable for this work. For hiking, a utility knife is best, or a set consisting of a thin, long fillet knife and a heavier knife with a fixed blade. As the second knife in the set, a folding knife is suitable, but it is advisable to choose a “folder” that can effectively cut food.

In order to choose the best outdoor knife, you need to consider all the situations in which you may need a folding or non-folding knife:

• In the absence of an ax, you can try to chop wood chips with a large knife to light a fire. Inexpensive plain stainless steel camping knives are great for this job. It is not recommended to use a good knife made of expensive powder or damask steel for this procedure;
• With the help of a knife, you can plan out pegs for a tent, a new ax handle or an oar to replace a broken one;
• The classic way to use a camping knife is to open cans;
• A knife can cut food for lunch. Even multifunctional knives are suitable for this procedure, as long as their main blade is of sufficient length;
• With a knife, you can clean and gut the fish. To clean fish, you can even use Chinese knives, which cost 150 rubles each and are a set of fork-spoon-knife.

It should be noted that for those tourists who are going on a multi-day trip, the best option, in addition to knives, will take with him an ax and a saw, which will quickly and efficiently perform most of the work on arranging the camp.

A very important quality for a tourist knife is its reliability. If you are not the type of hobbyist who knows how to look after and care for their knives, then the best outdoor knife for you would be a simple fixed blade knife. The handle of such a knife can be either made of wood or plastic, which is often rubberized on top, and the length of the blade usually ranges between 120-150 mm. The steel of such a knife must be stainless.

Such knives, which cost $20-50, are useful for opening cans, digging roots, digging various holes, so the blade must be strong and strong enough. At the same time, the thickness of the blade should not interfere with the cutting of products. It is better to choose an all-metal handle for a tourist knife, that is, pads should be attached to the iron blank.

Which knife to choose: folding or fixed blade?

Although fixed blade knives have a huge number of advantages over their folding counterparts, the main advantage of a folding knife is its compactness and light weight. When choosing a folding knife, you need to consider the following nuances that are inherent only to folding knives:

• The design of a folding knife is not as reliable as that of a fixed one, so any power work using a folding knife should be carried out very carefully. If the folding knife breaks during operation, it may cause injury;
• Some folding knives do not have a blade lock, so if handled carelessly, they can easily fold over the user's fingers;
• Most folding knives have a blade less than 90mm long. It is difficult to cut some products with such a blade;
• The folding knife has a mechanism that is very sensitive to damage. If you carry it in a dirty pocket, do not wipe it after use and drop it in puddles, it will fail very quickly.

In addition, you need to understand that you should not crush something with the handle of a folding knife. The best choice there will be either a VICTORINOX multi-subject or a folding knife with an axis lock type blade lock. In any case, it is advisable to have two knives on a hike, one of which will be a reliable “fix”.

Various types of tourist knife shanks

The shank is a continuation of the blade, which is hidden in the handle of the knife. Most often, tourist knives have shanks of 3 types:

1. The rider mounting is a scheme when the shank enters the handle, two thirds of its length. Most often, this method is used in inexpensive knives. With this method of installation, it is impossible to determine by eye how deep the shank actually goes. It is recommended to purchase knives only famous brands, which often provide a diagram showing the shank in the handle;
2. Through mounting - when the knife shank passes through the entire handle and is riveted or fastened with a nut on the back side. Some Chinese manufacturers at the same time make the shank and blade of 2 parts. At first glance, it seems that you have a one-piece construction in front of you, in fact, the shank is attached to the blade at one “point” of welding;
3. The full tang system is the most reliable design. The knife and shank are made of a solid wide metal blank. In low-quality knives, the grips on the handles do not fit well to the blank and can fall off.

The best option is the full tang system, but these knives are much more expensive.

Do-it-yourself tourist knife sharpening

A tourist knife must be well sharpened, otherwise wearing it on a hike loses all meaning. Before sharpening a blade, you need to know exactly what the knife will be used for. If for cutting products, then you can sharpen it at an angle of 15-20 degrees, if you perform various work, which includes cutting hard materials and planing wood, then it is better to sharpen the blade at an angle of 20-25 degrees. To open cans and cut wood chips, you need the so-called "chisel" sharpening, that is, sharpening should be carried out at an angle of 40 degrees.

Sharpening a knife is quite simple, the main thing is to have an idea about it and practice on a few simple kitchen knives before sharpening. To begin with, the blade is sharpened on a rough stone, which allows the cutting edge to be formed. After that, the edge is leveled and polished on stones with a smaller grain size. If you need a perfectly smooth edge of the blade, it can be sanded by hand on the skin with GOI paste. A blade sharpened in this way will not only cut paper, but also shave the hair on the arms.

When carrying out the sharpening procedure, it is imperative to maintain the desired angle. If the knife has already been sharpened to the desired degree, then it is quite simple to do this - it will lie on the stone at the desired angle. If the blade needs to be sharpened at a different angle, then it is better to use different sharpening angle holders. When sharpening, do not press hard on the grinding stones, this will not speed up the procedure, but the stones can be damaged.

The shape of the blade for a tourist knife should be universal, that is, with a straight butt. Any non-traditional blade shape will take a long time to get used to, and in field conditions where you need to do everything quickly, this can be fraught with cuts and more serious injuries.

Most often on sale you can find tourist knives with blades of the following types:

• Blade type "finca" or "clip point";
• A blade resembling a spear or "spear point";
• Lowering the line of the butt closer to the tip or "drop point";
• Blade type "tanto" (can be both American and Japanese type);
• Various "sirloins", characterized by an increase in the butt closer to the tip.

Recently, serrated knives have become extremely popular. You should not take a knife with this type of sharpening on a hike, since it will not be suitable for the role of a universal one, and it is unlikely that you will be able to sharpen a serrator “on your knee”.

Tourist knife handles

The handle of a tourist knife must meet the following parameters:

• Have a safety handle. This feature is not suitable for all users. For some, the handle in the shape of a traditional Finnish "barrel" is the most convenient, as this knife is held with a special grip. An inexperienced tourist will cut himself with such a knife in the first minutes of operation;
• Ensure the convenience of holding the knife in your hand;
• Do not cool and do not crush the hand during operation;
• It is desirable to have a bright color so as not to lose the knife.

The materials used to make knife handles fall into two broad categories:

1. natural materials;
2. artificial materials.

The first group includes wood of various varieties, bone, stone, horn and similar materials. Often there are combinations of them. A well-made handle made of type-setting leather can be very comfortable.

As artificial materials, the use of various plastics, rubber and their combinations is typical. The plastic rubberized handle will be very reliable. Although handles made of artificial materials are more reliable, they lose in aesthetic terms.

When choosing a tourist knife, the main thing you should pay attention to is the convenience of holding the knife in your hand. It must be remembered that a knife that is perfect for one person may not “lie down” in the hand of another. The second most important criterion when choosing a knife is the grade of steel from which it is made. You should not buy a knife for the manufacture of which steel grades worse than 65x13 are used.

Any picnic in nature, and even more so a serious hike, is not complete without the use of a knife. Therefore, today we will talk about tourist knives. Let's talk about which knife is best suited for tourism.

The knife theme is now very popular on the net, holivars on the topic of choice do not fade away, starting with a knife for going out into nature and ending with a knife for survival during a zombie apocalypse. I will try to soberly evaluate all possible options, and help novice tourists choose the perfect knife for the trip. I apologize to the knife lovers, the recommendations given in the note are the humble opinion of a tourist.

And so, my message is mainly to the reader who decided to choose a knife specifically for hiking, that is, a tourist knife, which actively looks at the offers of all kinds of “survival” models and cannot decide what is right for him. Recommendation #1 is to relax.

The best hiking knife is the one you have

What kind of knife to take with you on a hike? To be honest, absolutely any kitchen knife or other knife from the household will fit for hiking. If your trip does not involve a month of living in the taiga, then choosing a tourist knife for the first trip is the last thing you should worry about. In mountain hikes, it is quite rare to cut down trees with a knife;), and any cutter will cope with cutting food or other simple tasks.

But if you dig deeper, then indeed, not every knife can be convenient on a hike. One will be too heavy, and the other, if the sharpness is lost, it will be impossible to undermine in the field. Let's figure it out.

Choosing a camping knife

When choosing a tourist knife, I always follow these principles:

1. Light weight. On most mountain hikes, a 30cm machete will be oversized and therefore overweight. Perhaps during an expedition to the jungle, such a blade will come in handy, but in the mountains, especially above the forest zone, it will be useless. Choose the dimensions of the knife according to the conditions in which it will be used.
2. Low cost. In my understanding, a camping knife must be inexpensive. There is a big risk of just forgetting it in the parking lot, losing it in the grass (for this reason, I advise you to choose handles of bright colors). Expensive knives made of super-hard steels, in my opinion, are not quite suitable for tourism. Yes, they are difficult to blunt, but if this happens, then in the field it will no longer be possible to fix them on a stone or a leather belt.
3. Reliability. Of course, this point is rather arbitrary. Again, we analyze the scope. Products, for example, will cut any blade, but for stick branches it’s better, of course, to have some kind of indestructible fix.

Today, a large segment of the market is occupied by knives positioned as survival knives. Usually these are thick blades, sometimes with a dubious saw on the butt. In the handle of such Rambo knives, manufacturers shove flint, all kinds of NAZs and wrap it all with paracord. It is clear that for males who do not really understand why they need a knife on a campaign, such “survival” models will seem attractive.

Friends, if it comes to survival, God forbid, then by and large, a piece of glass from a broken bottle or a lid from a tin can fit in as a knife. So we dismiss the so-called "survival knives" immediately. Now answer yourself honestly, how often do you have an urgent need to brutally baton with a knife? Choose a huge indestructible cleaver only if you know for sure that you will live on a desert island or in the taiga for several years.

Knife for opening cans

No matter how ridiculous it may sound, a can opener is best suited for opening canned food. It is a special can opener, not the blade of your main knife. No matter how high-quality the blade is, you should not consider the knife as a can opener, it is simply not designed for this. Although many have a habit of spoiling knives with such manipulations.

I want to note that there are many lightweight folding can openers. In addition, any Swiss knife is equipped with a special can opener. Therefore, if you take tin cans on a hike, one of the two options will come in handy. Do not open jars with a knife.

Fix or warehouse?

There is an opinion that a tourist knife must necessarily be with a fixed blade, that is, not with a folding blade. I partially agree with this, fixes are more reliable, since they do not have moving nodes. For hard work, it really makes more sense to use a fixed blade. In turn, folding knives are conditionally less reliable, more prone to contamination due to the presence of slots in the handle. But these are trifles. At the same time, folders (folding knives) take up less space, they can be carried in pockets, which, you see, is more convenient than a sheath on a belt.

But far from always our trips involve the hard use of a knife, much more often a camping knife is a food knife.

Blade material: stainless steel or carbon?

Why is stainless steel good? As you might guess, it does not rust. Also, stainless steel blades do not absorb odors. But popular inexpensive grades of stainless steel have slightly fewer hardness units compared to carbon steels. Accordingly, stainless steel knives become blunt much easier than carbon ones. This cannot be called a definite disadvantage, because due to its softness, stainless steel is also easily sharpened - you can always straighten the blade on a small musat or leather belt with a few movements, which cannot be said about carbon knives.

Carbon (carbon) is steel with a high carbon content. Due to this, carbon knives are much harder than stainless ones, have a better cut and a more resistant cutting edge. But at the same time, carbon knives are harder to sharpen, they absorb food odors, and most importantly, they rust godlessly. When in contact with, for example, an acidic product, a carbon steel knife rusts within minutes. But not everything is as scary as it seems at first glance. In the process of use, the blade is covered with a thin patina, and, although it loses appearance, does its job very well. In addition, many immediately after purchase poison carbon knives in Coca-Cola or citric acid to speed up the oxidation process. After such a simple procedure, the blade turns black and becomes covered with a protective patina.

The choice between stainless steel and carbon is a matter of taste. For a beginner, of course, it will be easier to use stainless steel, it does not require maintenance. While a carbon steel knife is desirable to wipe clean after cutting food and should not be left in moisture. But personally, I came to the conclusion that for products it is still better to choose a stainless steel knife, and for cutting wood and other materials it is better to use carbon (carbon).

My knives (impressions of use)

All my knives belong to the budget category and are purely utilitarian in nature. As I said, a camping knife should be inexpensive so that it is not scary to use it to the fullest, and not too sorry if it is lost.

In the conditions of the campaign, I happened to use various types of knives - from urban pocket knives to multi-tool knives and fixes. I can say the following. Pocket folding knives like the beloved Ontario Rat 1, Ganzo g704 and many, many others do not quite meet my requirements - they are too heavy.

In the course of use, I came to the conclusion that the best solution for the average trip would be a tandem of two knives. The first knife is a fix, something like Mora, Bacho, Fiskars. They weigh quite a bit - about 80-90 grams. And the second is some model of a Swiss knife. It serves as a spare knife, a kitchen knife and a repair kit, because many Swiss are equipped with openers, screwdrivers, a toothpick, an awl, scissors, a saw, etc.

On the this moment I have this pair consists of Mora Craftline Q 510 (weight 88 grams) and Swiss knife Victorinox Spartan (weight 58 grams). On some trips, I only have one of these knives with me.

So far, I consider both knives a good choice for most trips, they complement each other perfectly. But the experiments do not stop, I want to test the notorious French Opinel knife in the field, in my case model No. 9 Inox (made of stainless steel), its weight is only 59 grams. But there are doubts, since the handles of these knives are afraid of moisture. After getting wet, the wood swells and it becomes difficult to open the knife. There is even a joke about this: “I do everything on a campaign, absolutely everything I do with opineel, I just take a multitool with me to open the opineel.”

Ready solutions

Who should take a knife on a hike? Based on the above, I bring to your attention a couple of ready-made options:

Tourist cautious ordinary: the main knife is fixed, for example, Mora Companion MG made of carbon. The second knife is the Swiss Victorinox, for example, the Camper model.

Unpretentious tourist: one knife for all occasions, such as the Mora Outdoor 2000 stainless steel fixed blade.

Tourist ultralighter: a small Swiss officer's knife Victorinox, the same Spartan for example. Well, or a blade from a clerical knife;)

But the choice is yours, friends. Most importantly, go hiking and have fun!