You may prefer one or another depending on your intended use and budget.Ĭarbon steel blades are inherently sharp and typically deliver impressive performance right out of the box. Each is a good choice for a hunting and outdoor knife, but they have different qualities. The harder and tougher a blade is, the longer it will hold its edge.īroadly speaking, most manufacturers use one of three types of steel to make their blades: Carbon, stainless, and tool steel. The specific alloy in a knife blade dictates its key properties, including its hardness, or resistance to deformation under pressure toughness, or the resistance to abrasion and corrosion resistance. If you’ve shopped for a knife before, then you know how specific manufacturers can get about the materials they use to make their blades. If emergency preparedness is a priority for you, don’t be afraid to take a class or simulate a survival scenario next time you go camping to practice skills such as shelter-building and primitive fire-starting to see how you employ a knife in the “real world.” (If you also plan to carry a pocket knife, that blade can cover more delicate work.) You can also use it to move hot cookware on and off your campfire.Īn urban user will likely prioritize cutting and self-defense (be sure to check your local knife carry laws) while a wilderness adventurer will prioritize the bushcraft abilities of a knife. If you’re only carrying one blade, you’ll want it to be both large and versatile enough to serve as a kitchen knife, chopping meat and vegetables. You might use it to drive stakes, dig in hard earth, or self-defense. A longer knife can also be a useful tool for poking and stoking a fire, or dressing wild game when in-season. Obviously, cutting tasks are paramount to any knife’s utility but there are many other ways to employ a survival knife in the field. When shopping for a survival blade, you should start by considering how you may use it, from tasks you expect will come up, like hacking branches, to unlikely, but possible needs like shaping raw wood to build an impromptu shelter. As part of that work, I keep tabs on the latest and greatest from the world’s big knifemakers. Still, I've always needed a good, durable knife, which has led to me test and review them professionally for several years for Popular Mechanics and other publications. My survival knife activity has trended more practical as I’ve gotten older, like extended hunting and backpacking trips in the Colorado Rockies. My younger brother and I subjected ourselves to voluntary stints living and sleeping in the woods, building shelters, camp kitchens, and even dams. The Expert: I’ve been using knives for survival, both simulated and real, since I was kid. Best Premium: Benchmade Raghorn Carbon Fiber.Most User-Friendly: Gerber StrongArm Tactical Knife.The added size makes it less practical for delicate tasks but much more capable as a tool for prying, cutting, digging, chopping, piercing, batoning wood, plus all the unexpected uses a true survival situation might press upon you. Generally speaking, a survival knife will be longer, wider, and thicker than a pocket knife. If “survival” means urban self-defense to you, you’ll want a different knife than the backcountry backpacker or hunter who wants a tough blade for building shelter and skinning game. For starters, think about how you will use a survival knife in the real world. It’s a broad category that covers lots of ground in the knife marketplace so we’ve provided plenty of guidance to help you narrow your search. Whether you call them survival knives, tactical knives, Bowie knives, “Rambo” knives-whatever you prefer-these long, fixed-blade knives are built to bear more durable and handle larger jobs than your average everyday carry knife can easily handle. Knives are tools and while a solid pocket knife is the most many people will ever need in the modern world, sometimes bigger jobs call for bigger tools.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |