A bushcraft, or survival, knife is used for various outdoor tasks such as cutting rope and other materials, chopping tree branches, whittling wood or skinning game. The wide range of tasks it can accomplish is necessary since most outdoorsmen can’t afford to be weighed down by multiple tools.
The term bushcraft knife and survival knife are used interchangeably. Some say a bushcraft knife is designed for a situation where the owner has intentionally set out to accomplish wilderness tasks, whereas a survival knife is designed for more of an unintentional, emergency situation. In practice, however, this distinction is minimal at best and most manufacturers do not distinguish between them.
Further complicating matters is that these knives are also sometimes referred to as “wilderness” knives or “camping” knives.
One task that does seem to be suited for a survival knife but not for a bushcraft knife is “batoning”. Batoning is using the knife as an implement for chopping larger branches. The knife is placed on the wood to be cut and the owner hammers on the spine of the knife to drive it into the wood.
Survival knife blades should typically be about four inches long. Those with a larger palm may desire a longer blade, though a blade longer than five inches is not generally recommended.
Better quality knives are typically have a full tang or hidden tang. A full-tang knife has a blade that runs the entire width and length of the knife and is often visible on the edges of the handle. A hidden-tang knife runs the full-length of the knife but narrows as it enters the handle and is completely covered by the handle.
Steel can be stainless or carbon-steel. Stainless steel will not rust, a big advantage in wet conditions. Carbon steel blades are easier to re-sharpen and will hold a keener edge.
Edges can be serrated or straight. Full-serrated edges are typically not recommended since they are difficult to resharpen, but many knives will have a small part of the blade that is serrated while the majority of the edge is straight.
A2 and VG-10 are popular, high-end carbon steels, while 440C and AUS8 are popular high-end stainless steels.
A survival knife handle should be rugged, comfortable and easy to grip in any weather condition. Micarta and stag bone are popular choices. Stacked leather grips are popular as well, though may not be the best choice in a consistently-rainy climate.
Knives of this type typically do not have any sort of finger guard, since they are not intended for the forward-and-back motion of sawing, but rather for the up-and-down motion of cutting and slicing.
Hollow handles with screw-off butt caps can double as storage compartments but are typically less durable than solid handles so are not recommended.
While versatile, these blades are not designed to be “utility tools”. Tasks that require twisting, wrenching or screwing, for example, are inappropriate for this type of knife. A multi-tool is a better choice for those tasks and makes a perfect complement to a survival knife.
For tasks that require a longer blade, a machete or ax would be a more appropriate tool.
Most major knife manufacturers make a knife in this category. Popular, well-regarded choices include knives from Fallkniven, Bark River Knife and Tool and Ontario Knife Company.
Readers often ask us what the favorite survival knife is. Of course, the ideal knife in one situation may not be appropriate in another. In addition, if you truly find yourself in a “survival” situation, the best knife is going to be the one you’ve got with you.
Despite that, it’s helpful to point out a few knives that have been recognized over and over again as some of the premier blades in this category. In particular, the Frosts Mora is an excellent “value” knife that performs well beyond its modest price point.
And the Fallkniven F1 is recognized again and again as a top-notch, versatile and rugged knife that is well made and perfect for backcountry applications.
Finally, the Fox River Hunter by Bark River Knives is a top performer that gets tons of recognition from those in the know.
We’ve written about a number of great bushcraft knives below — you might want to check those out before shopping. But if you want a quick list of links, here are links to two of our favorite manufacturers:
Designed by Doug Ritter of "Equipped to Survive," the Adventure Medical Kits Pocket Survival Pak earned positive reviews from survival instructor Cody Lundin and many other back-country professionals. Toss it in the day pack, the backpack, or the pocket to make sure you've always got something useful on hand.
The basic ...
Multi-purpose gear for hikers, backpackers, and other outdoorsmen gets better every year. If you make the Buck 731 X-Tract LED Multi-Tool part of your kit, there's at least one extra thing you can leave home, and possibly more. This 6.4-ounce toolkit lightens your load.
This compact multi-tool offers several useful ...
Possibly many of today's backwoodsmen are a little embarrassed to carry a tomahawk, but I wouldn't think of leaving mine at home. In camp, I'm always looking for an excuse to use it. This very affordable Trail Hawk from Cold Steel weighs a little more than my ...
Gerber's Back Paxe offers backpackers a versatile camp tool small enough to carry conveniently into the deep woods. While it doesn't provide full-sized power, for some uses the Paxe outperforms a survival knife of equal weight.
If you build things when you go to the woods -- like primitive shelters ...
The True Flight Thrower from Cold Steel combines common sense materials and good design. This balanced throwing knife also cuts and could be a good survival knife choice.
The True Flight's wide spear point holds up well to the extreme stresses of poorly executed throws. The knife's 5mm thick ...
Years ago, any hunter looking for a good field knife expected something this good. Today, the Cold Steel Search and Rescue Knife passes all the old tests and a couple more. Standard issue for Navy Seals undergoing underwater demolitions training, the Cold Steel SRK fits in just as well ...
If you think this camp axe from Snow and Nealley looks a lot like a tomahawk, you're right. The Hudson Bay axe pattern was hot stuff as trade goods throughout the Great Lakes during the days of the Fur Trade, and versions of this versatile pattern ...
The Gerber 45905 Camp Axe is a good size for canoeists and hunters able to carry larger gear on their backwoods journeys. Although it's nearly indestructible, the wrap-around handle style does limit the cut compared to traditional builds.
That's really the only drawback to this axe's nearly one-piece construction. ...
The Hobo Gift Set from W.R. Case fits in anywhere and actually does offer survival basics as well as practical camp cutlery. Experts get by with a knife and a firestarter -- Case throws in fork and spoon plus a handy belt pouch.
This 4-1/8-inch-long pocket folder with jigged amber ...
Still available from Swamp Rat Knife Works in 2011, the Ratmandu knife comes in a variety of handle colors but always uses the same blade style and high quality materials. You'll be impressed by the way it cuts and by the way it feels in your hand.
Designed by Jerry ...
Mad Dog Knives makes the Pygmy ATAK knife in two versions, distinguished by different thicknesses of the high carbon tool steel stock. Originally designed for military users, the smaller size of the Pygmy ATAK makes this model popular with outdoorsmen who want a lighter knife with the best performance characteristics.
Overall ...
Mad Dog Knives produced the Para Raider knife for elite members of the Dutch military, but a few pieces did find their way to the civilian marketplace. This full-sized knife meets tough standards and provides the essentials you'll need for either urban or wilderness survival.
Military versions of the ...
Bowies large enough to suit Crocodile Dundee were common on the American frontier but are much harder to find now. Today, if you're shopping for a Dundee knife, you might have to settle for a cheap movie replica or something practical but smaller. Fortunately Down Under Knives, a knife company ...
Hand forged in Storvik, Sweden, the S.A. Wetterling Axe with hickory handle represents 100 years of Swedish tradition. The best Wetterling axes like this one are shaped by hand forging, a process that requires patience, time and a high degree of skill. The end result is a better axe.
The usual ...
The Cold Steel Trail Master isn't just a knife with a Bowie-style blade. The Trail Master is a genuine Bowie knife in the old sense, but built with modern materials and to modern standards.
This SK-2 version of the Trail Master offers 9-1/2 inches of high carbon steel with an overall ...
Spyderco's Para-Military 2 is the third version of a Spyderco design originally meant for military use. First scaled down for civilian needs as the Para-Military, the knife now returns with subtle but important improvements.
The Para-Military 2 slims down the bulky styling of the older civilian survival knife but doesn't ...
There may be times when you're far from town and nothing but a saw will accomplish the work at hand. The Ultimate Survival Technologies SaberCut Saw works. Use it with common sense and it won't break, but it's a chainsaw without the motor. You'll miss that motor.
At 5-1/2 ounces ...
The Commando Wire Saw claims the ability to cut through a variety of materials including wood, plastic, bamboo, and bone. A Special Forces sergeant introduced me to the wire saw in jungle survival training in 1970 and said he always kept one in his pocket in case he needed to ...
Puma's recommended knife for backpackers -- the Puma Packer -- actually is slightly heavier than other Puma folders with the same blade length. The extra-large handle adds practical working strength -- a handy feature for anyone who needs a good camp knife -- but increases weight to 4.2 ounces.
The Packer ...
This heavy, fixed-blade Bowie knife from Trademark holds much more than a sharp edge with two different compartments of gear and even an extra skinning knife.
The 14-inch-long survival knife fits in an injection-molded plastic sheath with slots for the skeletonized skinner and a portion of the survival kit's gear. ...
One of the most sensible improvements to any multitool is a separate knife to use instead of the awkward pen-knife blade that's the usual multitool fold-out option. That's what Leatherman offers in the Core Multitool and C33LX pocket folder combo.
By itself, the Core version of the popular Leatherman handyman's multitool ...
Designed by Bob Dozier and produced in collaboration with Ka-Bar, the Ka-Bar Bull Dozier knife shows the forty years of knife-making experience Mr. Dozier has acquired. The Bull Dozier could work as a combat knife, hunting knife, or survival knife -- strong enough for any rough task and ...
Like the Ninja themselves, this Ninja Recon Tanto Knife from Fantasy Master holds secrets you won't suspect until it's too late. I mean that in a good way -- the ninjas have some of the best toys. If you're not opposed to having a good time with sharp objects, ...
SOG's Woodline knives put the company's tactical quality to work for the hunter and fisherman. Built for practical camp work and survival needs, the Woodline knives skip the military features civilians don't require.
There's no tactical black coating, and you won't find a dagger point built for stabbing. The ...
Bear Grylls, British SAS veteran and outdoor survival show star, collaborated with Gerber to produce this interesting and very capable survival knife and kit. Unlike some survival knife combos which try to provide too much and wind up with little that works, everything here is functional. You get just the ...
SOG's Woodline WD-50 Folder fits in a belt pouch, not in the pocket. For a compact survival knife large enough to make difference, that's a very sensible idea -- pocket clip styles get snagged on brush and disappear.
The Woodline WD-50 keeps the unusual styling of SOG's other Woodline civilian ...
If you're looking for a heavy duty camp knife, hunting knife, and survival tool, stop here. Look no farther than the Ka-Bar Adventure Potbelly Knife. The Potbelly's seven-inch, hollow ground blade of 1095 Cro-Van steel has enough reach and enough weight to do the work of a camp axe as ...
Becker Knife & Tool once produced a wide variety of survival knives built to the specifications of founder Ethan Becker, who had a longstanding interest in big knives. Now produced under the guidance of Ka-Bar, the Becker BK-9 Combat Bowie is one of the best Beckers for the ...
Blade Magazine presented Columbia River Knife & Tool with the 2009 Most Innovative Imported Design award, earned by CRKT's Flux knife and tool combination system. Whether your frontier is the city or the country, you'll find a useful combination to tailor to your own pursuits.
Although the Flux tools ...
More than a folding knife and not quite a fixed blade, the SOG Speciality Knives & Tools FX21-N Revolver SEAL shows some of the good features of both. Both knife and saw blades were ground from the same strong bar of 440A high carbon stainless steel.
The basics of the ...
The Becker BK3 Tac Tool, now made by Ka-Bar, resulted from a collaboration between Ethan Becker of Becker Knife and Tool and John Benner of Tactical Defense Institute. The original purpose of the Tac Tool was to provide emergency entry into locked or barricaded rooms. Even though the ...
The Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion brings back an older survival knife that became a collector's piece after the original manufacturer -- Becker Knife & Tool -- shut down in 2007. Ka-Bar holds true to the original concepts of the Campanion, and the new version still comes close to the ...
This Ontario Knife Company design issued to pilots during the Vietnam War and now offered by Rothco would make a dependable survival knife for anyone. Designed to aid pilots in escaping wreckage as well as surviving jungle and combat, the Army & Air Force Issue Survival Knife isn't fancy. ...
Built to exceed Russian Spetsnaz specifications, this tactical combat shovel from Cold Steel makes a great camp tool for the hunter, fisherman, and canoeist. With about a pound and a half of medium carbon tool steel and a durable hardwood handle, the Cold Steel tactical shovel is a ...
Without being too critical of what is clearly a well-made knife, I wonder what exactly the Alaskan Survival Knife by Gil Hibben was intended to do. I also wonder why it was endorsed by the Alaskan Professional Hunters Association, because to me it looks like a fantasy blade from United ...
The Kershaw Whiplash is certainly an intriguing idea and does have some good things going for it, but it's an unusual concept not everyone will love.
The Kershaw Whiplash is a full tang fixed blade, but your first thought when you see it might be that it folds. In order ...
The Rothco version of this official U.S. Army Aviator's knife became standard issue for Army flight crews when introduced by the Ontario Knife Company in 2003. A good choice for traditional field uses by hunters and farmers as well as an excellent emergency knife for civilian pilots, the military ...
Although it's a massive hunting and survival knife, the Jungle Master from Trademark Global does have some weak points. In spite of that, it could be a real bargain if you don't require tactical quality.
This imported knife's Bowie-style blade offers 10-1/2 inches of plain hollow ground cutting edge plus a ...
Tool Logic's SLP2 Multifunction Folding Knife makes the multi-tool approach to survival knives actually work. Similar in appearance to the Swedish Light-My-Fire knife, this version from Tool Logic offers much more than a magnesium firestarter and a cheap knife.
The SLP2's three-inch blade of 420J2 high carbon ...
Since I saw this boot knife from Kershaw discussed in a recent issue of Blade Magazine I had to take a look. Apparently, runners and hikers in southern California are carrying the Kershaw Military Boot Knife as defense against mountain lion attacks. Honestly, even though this is a decent ...
This SK-5 high carbon steel fixed blade from Boker of Germany matches one of my favorite survival knife designs. Recreating a style commissioned by General Curtis Lemay of the Strategic Air Command, this knife competed successfully against models from Randall's Tree brand and for years was the standard pilot's ...
The Gerber Prodigy scales down the design of Jeff Freeman's tactical fixed blade, the LMF II. Still a large knife by civilian standards, the 9-3/4-inch Prodigy provides more than 4-3/4 inches of strong Sandvik 12C27 high carbon stainless steel. The combo edge serves well for quick cutting of straps and ...
If you need a knife heavy enough for chopping wood, the Ka-Bar 14-1/4-inch Bowie could be a match. The tactical black high carbon 1085 steel blade is flat ground and tempered to Rockwell 55 to 57 -- it's a strong edge that will even hold up to rocks without ...
Ka-Bar's Black Cutlass Machete reaches back to the roots of both designs, coming up with a new approach that works well for modern campers and adventurers. The 16-1/2-inch rat tail tang knife -- with 11 inches of 1085 high carbon steel cutting edge -- chops brush, slashes rope, and in ...
The Coast Grandpa knife -- made by Coast Knives of Portland, Oregon, but designed by Zweibruder (Puma Knives) -- shows the classic American Bowie pattern as influenced by European weapon smiths. More a piercing weapon than a chopping blade, the upswept point and false dagger edge would be at ...
There are Bowie-style knives, and then there are real Bowie knives. The Coast 14-inch Bowie Knife is a real Bowie -- maybe a little small by frontier standards, but still big enough to perform the way the originals did. With nine inches of one-quarter-inch-thick 440C high carbon stainless ...
Survival knives usually try to do everything with one tool and wind up not being very good at any of it. The Schrade Extream Survival Knife is a better knife than most all purpose blades but has a few weak points.
The Extream is large (12.5 inches overall length) and heavy ...
Smith & Wesson's updated version of the Ontario Knife Company M9 Bayonet, the SW3G Special Ops M-9 includes the essential features that survival knives in a technological age should have. Similar to the knives issued to military helicopter pilots in Vietnam, the M9's saw-toothed spine can cut through ...
The Buck Summit Folder adds several useful tools to a standard one-hand opening clip knife -- without the clip. Designed by mountaineer Peter Whittaker and a team of climbing guides, the Summit includes only the essentials.
Instead of a stainless steel pocket clip, there's an extra large steel loop at ...
The Reventon Folder by the Italian tactical knife company Extrema Ratio will be a limited production run of only 2000 knives. The first go to the owners of Lamborghini's Reventon sports cars -- a limited edition of only 20 autos. Built as a survival knife for the high tech driver, ...
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