Welcome to The Best Camping Knife Guide!
I don’t know about you but I love knives. But even if it’s just a tool to you, that’s cool. It’s still important to get a great knife that will work for you.
I hope you find the following tips a buying guide useful. For more information, be sure to check out The Best Survival Knife Guide.
Full-Tang vs Folding Knives
I always recommend full-tang blades for your survival knife. But when it comes to a camping knife, I think you can be a little more flexible. Personally, I carry a folding knife (the CRKT M-16 in the big picture above) and a fixed-blade (full-tang) hunting blade as my survival knife. Not everyone wants to carry two blades though. In this case, I’d really urge you to go with a full-tang, fixed-blade knife because if something goes wrong and you find yourself in a survival situation you’ll be much better served.
Serrated vs Non-Serrated
For a camping knife, I think you can be pretty flexible with this. My camping knife, the Columbia River Knife and Tool M16
Blade Style
If you’re not planning to do a lot of hunting and skinning of game, there isn’t a whole lot of reason to worry about the blade style. For most uses, having a drop point or a tanto point will have little actual affect. My pocket knife is a tanto and my survival knife is a drop point. You will come across many other styles such as clip point, trailing point, spear point, needle point, etc. You’ll be better served by a knife made of quality steel and solid construction.
Pricing is rated on a dollar sign ($) scale.
$ – Under $50
$$ – From $50-100
$$$ – From $101-200
$$$$ – Over $200
Best Camping Knife Guide
| Image | Camping Knife | Blade Length (inches) | Weight (ounces) | Blade Material | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | KA-BAR | 7 | 11.2 | 1095 | $$ |
 | Condor Bushcraft | 5 | 9.92 | 1075 | $ |
 | Benchmade 162 | 4.43 | 7.72 | S30V | $$$ |
 | Gerber Yari II | 4.5 | 8.7 | S30V | $$ |
 | CRKT M16 | 3 | 2.3 | AUS-4 | $ |
 | Buck 770 FlashPoint | 2.875 | 4 | 420HC | $ |
 | Benchmade 915 Triage | 3.5 | 5.1 | N680 | $$$ |
 | Gerber 31-000752 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 420HC | $ |
 | Smith & Wesson CK5TBS | 3.22 | 2.8 | 420HC | $ |
 | Gerber Prodigy | 4.75 | 7.2 | 420HC | $ |
 | Kershaw Ken Onion | 3.375 | 4.2 | 13C26 | $$ |
 | Fallkniven A1 | 6.3 | 12 | VG10 | $$$$ |
 | Spyderco G-10 | 4.25 | 5.4 | 8Cr13MoV | $ |
 | CRKT M21 | 3.875 | 5.9 | 8Cr14 | $$ |
 | KA-BAR Dozier | 3 | 2.24 | AUS8 | $ |
 | SOG TF-7 | 3.75 | 3.6 | AUS8 | $$ |
 | Cold Steel Recon | 4 | 5.3 | AUS8 | $$ |
 | Cold Steel Survival | 5 | 3 | 4116 | $ |
 | Gerber Freeman | 4 | 4.4 | 5Cr15MoV | $ |
 | Mora Bushcraft | 4.35 | 5.7 | 420HC | $ |
 | Schrade Cave Bear | 3.9 | 6.8 | 400 | $ |
 | Benchmade HK Ally | 2.8 | 3.2 | AUS8 | $ |
 | Heckler and Koch Pika II | 3.5 | 4.8 | 9Cr13 | $ |
 | Kershaw Cryo | 2.75 | 4.1 | 8Cr13MoV | $ |
 | Condor Bushlore | 4.375 | 12 | 1075 | $$ |
You’ll notice that a lot of knife manufacturers market the same knife in both camping and survival knife categories. The knives are versatile enough to work in both situations but this does not mean that you should avoid camping knives in favor of survival knives. It does mean that a great general purpose knife can serve you well through most situations.
I hope you’ve found this helpful. Thanks for reading!
Nice post you have. The truth is just as each knife is different, each person is different and what survival knife is the best for you may not be the best for someone else.
Sure, to some extent. However, a full-tang, fixed-blade knife is far superior to a folding knife for survival situations regardless of the user.