About the only thing hunting knives are almost never used for is hunting — today very few hunters drop from trees with a knife in hand, onto a hapless bear. Hunting knives are for everything else you do in the woods on a hunting trip. Making kindling and tinder, working on gear, performing crude first aid and personal grooming, and of course field dressing game. Strand a hunter in the wilderness with a choice of knife or rifle and many would choose the knife.
Hunting knives should be top quality — fortunately it isn’t hard to find good affordable ones. The decision is more about style. These knives can become prized possessions valued for scores of years, not just one vacation. Get the right one and you’ll love it. If it isn’t right, you’ll hate it. There’s always emotion involved.
There’s no social stigma associated with wearing a belt knife in the woods, and few things go wrong with a stout belt knife. Hunting folders double as everyday utility or emergency knives if they’ll fit in a pocket discreetly. The practicality of a hunting knife depends on what you hunt. Big game blades aren’t good with turkey and trout; with blades designed for small game you’ll be challenged by carving up a deer. If you’re saving hides as well as meat you’ll want a good skinner. Hunt big game and you’ll need something heavy for chopping or sawing through bone. Butchering is always a messy business — a simple knife that cleans up well in a stream or a snowbank is a big plus.
Our pick for the “Best Hunting Knife” is the Buck Zipper. It appeals to us because it makes sense on so many levels — with good looks, a guthook blade that works well as a skinner and butchering blade, and easy cleanup.
For a general purpose knife large enough for small game and small enough to carry in town, try the Buck 112 Ranger. Small knives often work better than large ones for camp chores and everyday problems. The 112 is an older design without all the frills that get in the way.
Unless you hunt in the north country, you probably won’t need a knife much bigger than the Puma Bowie Stag. Since Puma made it, you could probably get by with it up there, too.
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 ...
Open the Cold Steel Spartan and you'll probably say, "Wow! That's a big knife!" All the details of this pocket clip folder inspired by the Kopis sword of ancient Greece actually work well. Like it's ancestor, the Spartan is made for cutting meat.
In today's world, the Spartan is well ...
Manufactured by Petzl of Monaco, France, this colorful knife intends to meet the needs of alpine climbers. Light in weight and easily opened, the Petzl SPATHA will be most popular with people impressed by the name.
With high carbon stainless steel blades and polycarbonate handles, the SPATHA offers few ...
The 30-30 Folding Hunter from Columbia River Knife and Tool was designed by former Alaskan hunting guide Russ Kommer. The knife's build eliminates unsanitary gaps and shields important working parts from the mess that's an unavoidable part of field dressing game.
The 30-30 also looks great with a hollow ground ...
The two-bladed trapper pocketknife has been a common pattern for many American knife companies for generations. Bear and Son -- in business since 2003 -- aims to make the same thing, but better.
Compare the Bear and Son slip joint Trapper to other versions and you'll notice one big ...
The India Stag Bone Slimline Hunter from Bear and Son Cutlery of Jacksonville, Alabama, will be a useful companion anywhere you'd need a rugged light hunting knife. The knife lives up to its name, with a blade well-designed for field dressing small game.
The trailing point style of ...
Combining quality with lost cost, Cold Steel's Pendleton Lite Hunter counters the idea that to get the best, you pay more. Cold Steel's budget fixed blade hunting knife won the 2010 "Best of the Best" Hunting Knife award from Field & Stream magazine.
Designed by custom knife maker Lloyd ...
The Original Piranta Pro Skinning Knife from Havalon Knives offers outdoorsmen the quick blade changes and razor-sharp edges preferred by surgeons. Carry extra blades instead of a whetstone, and you'll save weight.
Designed for skinning and caping large and small game animals, the 6-3/4-inch open-length Piranta Pro starts with a strong ...
With a handle sized for a better grip and an even lighter build than the original pocket-sized Piranta, the Piranta-Z comes closer to the hunting and skinning knife design we find familiar. You'll find all the unique features that made the Piranta popular, but in a knife that's a little ...
Spyderco's Resilience is that company's largest knife in the Spyderco "Value" series. With an open length of 9-3/8 inches and a blade 4-1/4 inches long, the Resilience has the size and heft of a small hunting knife. The Resilience's reasonable price might make you wonder where the company cut costs, ...
The M6 isn't part of the Swamp Rat Knife Works current production but is sometimes available in new or used condition as a pre-owned knife. Made from SR101 high carbon steel, the M6 has the superior edge-holding ability of older carbon tool steels and makes up for lower corrosion ...
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 ...
The Panther from Mad Dog Knives was built to military standards but literally with a Crocodile Dundee flair. Mick would feel right at home in any desert, swamp, or urban jungle with the Mad Dog Panther in hand. Maker Kevin McClung even included a Dundee sling for outfitting the Panther in ...
Ancient Celtic blades inspired the design of the Cold Steel Boar Hunter, but modern tactical materials make this new hunting knife better than the old battlefield blades. Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel Special Projects built the Boar Hunter for real hunters and field-tested the design on real Australian wild ...
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 Leatherman's larger folding knives for the outdoorsman, the Leatherman E55 Expanse takes basic concepts introduced in the Leatherman Crater knife and improves on them. The several models of the Expanse offer choices of edge type and a bit driver blade option.
The Leatherman E55 Expanse is ...
This upgrade of the Leatherman Ukiah design replaces the Ukiah's glass-filled nylon handle construction with stronger components of machined aluminum and inlays of tropical rosewood. Even the steel takes a step up in quality to S30V high carbon stainless steel.
You'd expect the Steens to fold like a pocket clip knife, but ...
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 ...
Designed by Bob Dozier, marketed by Ka-Bar, and manufactured in Taiwan, the Bobcat Dozier from Ka-Bar looks much like Dozier's larger fixed blade designs when open and locked. The Bobcat offers similar grip strength and versatility in a folding lockback build with qualities tactical users and woodsmen both appreciate.
This ...
Master Knife Maker Gil Hibben's HTF Recon Knife, produced by United Cutlery, intends to cover both the tactical needs and hunting needs of any owner. Much less fanciful than some of Hibben's creations, the HTF Recon still has the trademark flair of a Hibben knife and does manage to ...
Pat Crawford, a knife designer from West Memphis, Arkansas, collaborated with Columbia River Knife and Tool on production versions of several other well known Crawford designs prior to the Natural. Usually steel quality drops and corners are cut in the mass market version of a knife, but with the ...
The Lone Wolf Kelly Trailmate knife looks simple enough, but there's an unusual idea included. This traditionally-styled fixed blade includes a leather belt sheath built for horizontal carry.
The Trailmate, designed by knife maker Steve Kelley, is another example of the fine detail and craftsmanship that's standard for the Lone ...
Cutting roughly a third of length and weight out, compared to the large version of the SOG Woodline, the Woodline WD02-L still provides plenty of knife. In fact, you may not miss that extra inch of blade at all.
Overall length of the small fixed blade Woodline is 8.7 inches, ...
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 ...
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 ...
One of three Adventure series knives released by Ka-Bar in 2010, the Ka-Bar Adventure Baconmaker satisfies anybody who likes a knife with great style but treats their tools a little rough. This pigsticker can take it.
Adventure series knives developed from a partnership with knife designer Steve Johnson, the field editor of ...
One of a series of hunting and caping knives designed for Columbia River Knife and Tool by Alaskan hunter and guide Russ Kommer, the 2760 Chugach Range Utility Hunting knife is such a good-looking blade that it's a shame to call it a utility knife. With a beautifully styled ...
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 Bear & Son 205R mid-size Lockback with rosewood handle slabs does resemble the Buck 110, but Bear & Son always do things their own way, and those differences show up plainly here.
The 205R's 3-3/4-inch blade of high carbon stainless steel looks a little undersized compared to ...
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 ...
Cold Steel makes some interesting claims regarding this knife, stating that the Ultimate Hunter is a big game hunting knife with the best blade lock in the industry plus the strength and power of a fixed blade. That may be a bit of a stretch, but the Ultimate ...
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 ...
With the look of aged bone as soon as it leaves the box, the 4-1/8-inch Yellow Trapper pocketknife from W.R. Case & Sons adds modern high carbon vanadium stainless steel to a time-tested pocketknife pattern. With spey and California clip blades 3-1/4 inches long, this fine pocket folder offers nearly ...
Built for the trophy hunter, the Outdoor Edge Dark Timber Combo knife set places a full-sized skinner knife and a smaller caping knife in one double-pocket leather belt sheath.
Well designed for skinning and caping trophy deer, elk, and moose, the Dark Timber set offers pakkawood handle slabs in dark ...
With the bulletproof features you need in a good survival knife, the SOG Creed is more than a sharp camp tool. Built of tactical quality materials and well designed for a wide variety of uses, this modified bowie knife also does well as a full-sized hunter and ...
Gerber re-introduces an old Gerber design, the Steadfast, this time with modern materials and reliable but venerable ideas. The modern Steadfast matches the old pattern superficially but isn't quite what it used to be. In old-fashioned high carbon steel, this was a much better knife.
Now made in China, this ...
The Kershaw Leek offers civilians an efficient pocket folder with an opening system that's as close to automatic as most owners can get. True automatics are reserved for law enforcement, military, and only a few other special categories, but the Kershaw Leek with Speedsafe provides reasonable one-handed convenience and ...
The Gerber Freeman Folder drew considerable attention when first produced. Now that the Freeman Folder Gut Hook knife has been around a while, it may be an even better deal. In fact, at today's more reasonable prices, it could be more tempting than it was when it won ...
Some knives look too good to use, and this 8-1/2-inch full-sized skinner (with a 4-1/4-inch hollow ground high carbon stainless steel gut hook blade) almost crosses the line into the collector's zone. Fortunately, like the other knives Buck makes, it was built for work.
The brass butt and finger ...
Designed by Bill Moran, one of the founding fathers of the American Bladesmith Society, Spyderco's Bill Moran drop-point, fixed blade knife provides adventurous knife owners with important modern features seldom found in traditional belt knives. Also find Moran's signature etched in the blade.
This 8-1/16-inch-long hunting and survival knife ...
The Buck 279BK Folding Alpha Hunter offers the best features of the Alpha Hunter fixed blade in a drop point folder style. If you've dressed out enough game in your life that you don't need a gut hook, skip the Buck 278 and get this one -- the same ...
Suppose you ignored the standard logic about what makes a good hunting knife and started out with fresh ideas -- if you looked at what materials are available today and what the typical hunter's needs really are, you could come up with the Buck 693BK Alpha Hunter Gut ...
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Remington went a little ways past the good idea that inspired the Sportsman Series Tectonic CTi. To make a full-sized skinner blade with the lightest materials possible is a reasonable project, but there's a lot about this knife that just seems ...
Buck explains the 183CM Camo Alpha Crosslock (PBS) as a Portable Butcher Shop. Although the small size of this knife also works well for small game, the bone saw blade makes field dressing larger animals like deer possible as well. If you hunt quail, you'll need Buck's regular bird ...
Buck's calls the 192BK Vanguard the company's classic field knife for big game hunters. If the biggest thing you hunt is a deer, the Vanguard works just fine for that, too. Buck combines a 4-1/8-inch-long hunter/skinner hollow ground blade with both traditional and modern materials and comes up with a ...
This very nice Damascus Bowie Knife has a traditional rustic build combined with fine filework on the spine of the laminated Damascus steel blade. It shows the beauty and unique flaws of natural materials and simple methods along with very modern refinements. The brass finger guard and ...
A 3-3/8-inch knife with a 2-3/8-inch blade probably shouldn't be referred to as a folding hunter, but the Buck 55 comes very close to living up to that standard anyway. The Buck 55 is actually the pocket knife version of the Buck 110, which is the largest folding ...
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 Kershaw Alaskan Blade Trader System avoids combining all the blades you need for skinning and butchering big game by offering three interchangeable blades which fit to one handle. Instead of a massive hunter style with saw tooth back and gut hook tip, the Kershaw system provides separate blades performing ...
Since the styles are so similar, I'm immediately tempted to compare this to the Buck Folding Hunter series -- but when I do, I'm a little bit disappointed in Buck. Every time I compare something American to what should be the same knife from Puma of Solingen, Germany, I ...
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