Choosing a hunting knife
Q. I’m going on a camping trip with my troop, but my hunting knife broke. I see a lot of different hunting knives advertised. How do I know which one to buy?
— Knifeless Neil, Summerville, S.C.
A. The best type of knife for camping trips — and most any other outdoor activity, for that matter — is a short, fixed-blade knife with a beefy handle.
Folding pocketknives can fold up on your hand while cutting. Not fixed blades. And remember: When it comes to blades, bigger isn’t always better. Avoid blades longer than four inches. A small, sharp blade can cut just as well as a long one, but it’s safer to handle and easier to maneuver in tight spots. With a good fixed blade you’ll be set for most anything the outdoors can throw at you — whittling, cutting, notching, butchering, filleting, even speading peanut butter.
Here are two of my favorite fixed-blade knives:
- Buck Diamondback Guide ($27; http://www.buckknives.com/)
This knife has a 3 1/8-inch-long drop-point blade with a texturized rubber handle. - SOG Field Pup ($60; http://www.sogknives.com/)
A four-inch stainless steel straight-edge blade with an easy-to-grip handle and nylon sheath.
about the fixed blades
you can use them you just cant have the big 12 inch rambo knives
I like the tip.
If you using it for hunting you want fixed blade.I have a buck knife fixed blade and it works good.I had a folding one and it broke easy so if you want a good hunting knife
get a fixed blade.
folding knives are better
nope fixed blades are more Heavy duty and they will not fold up on you hands because the locking mechanizum can fail sometimes.
cool
This “advice” from the gear guy is pretty bad. Although the knives he recommends are probably great blades, look in your Scout Handbook. “Boy Scouts of America does not encourage the use of sheath knives.” Maybe the gear guy hasn’t read up.
The BSA does not prohibit sheath knives. They discourage “large sheath knives” in the BSHB and G2SS, then suggest them in The Complete Wilderness Training Manual,” 2d. ed. rev. (DK Publishing, 2007) and BSA “The Survival Handbook,” The much more dangerous axe is, of course, approved universally by BSA.
i was never allowed to take my fixed blade knife on scouting activities but i never use it even though it is so sharp i can shave with it. i think a small folding knife is the best.
i like fixed blades but stick with a folding knife with a blade less than 4 inches long in some states 4 inch blades arent allowed.
You know what, I used to be in boy scouts. The whole thing about fixed blades being frowned upon is one thing and one thing only, political. They think it looks bad for a bunch of 13 year olds running around with scary looking fixed blades. Fixed blade versus folding, they really have their own purpose but for most situations in camping a small fixed blade is the way to go. Much more multi purpose and stronger than folders.
3-5″ anything more than that is overkill for most situations, I always thought the USAF pilots knife was a decent knife for the money
You can go to Walmart, or Dicks or even Cabelas. Walmart will sell them for the most cheap and they are of good quility. Dicks will have more knives but they coast much more.