Knives have always been one of the most important survival tools for us because they are durable, compact, light, relatively inexpensive, and effective for a wide range of tasks. This is why they are a must-have for anyone prepping for a potential disaster, or just heading out into an environment where an emergency situation may occur.
Although it might seem very counter-intuitive for this particular post (please bear with me), I do want to start by making something very clear…
You are NOT going to find the “best survival knife.” There’s no such thing. It simply doesn’t exist!
Why do I say that?
Because your survival knife begins with figuring out how you expect it to be used and the purposes it will be needed for based on factors & potential scenarios we cannot predict.
However, with that being said, there are several excellent survival knives out there to choose from that will fit most any situation.
The goal of this guide to survival knives is to provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision on which choice is likely the best for you (though none of us can really know that for sure).
What is a Survival Knife?
A survival knife, often referred to as a tactical knife — and sometimes even called a field knife or bushcraft knife — is designed for multiple uses and many situations. These can have either a fixed or folding blade — both have their advantages & disadvantages. When you are in a survivalism situation your knife will virtually always be among the most valuable resources for helping you stay alive.
Your knife can be vitally important for cutting wood (or whatever else you need to cut), carving, hunting, trapping, skinning, making fire, protection, and SO MUCH MORE… the list is virtually endless.
Even on an every day basis you can find hunters, hikers, campers, outdoor sports enthusiasts, and others using “survival knives” to help them in their activities — and if said activity does become dangerous or unpredictable — they will be equipped with an extremely important survival tool.
If you’ve spent any significant amount time out in the wild; camping, fishing, hunting, climbing, etc… then you know in no time a great day can quickly turn into a full-on survival situation for a number of reasons. Or if you are prepping for a potential disaster situation, you know the importance of knives for surviving.
In these cases it’s crucial to have a high-quality survival knife with you all the time. People die by the thousands each year all over the world in unexpected outdoor survivalism situations, so it’s not an exaggeration to say that a survival knife can quite literally be what separates life or death for you.
Some of the (many) ways a survival knife can save your butt in a desperate situation include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Starting a fire
- Cutting wood
- Building a shelter
- Hunting food
- Skinning animals
- Cleaning fish
- Opening cans
- Dressing wounds
- Making tools
- Digging
- Prying things open
- Protecting yourself
Plus a whole LOT MORE.
There are virtually countless ways in which a survival knife could save your life! It’s often the most important thing you can have with you in the outdoors other than food and water — and even then it can help you get those.
Side note: Check out our review of the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife
Knives to Avoid
Before we get into the good stuff, let’s discuss a few things you should avoid when choosing a survival knife.
1) Double edged blades are not typically good for survival knives. They are designed more for stabbing and slashing, rather than cutting or chopping – and often have weak tips that can easily be broken off. Simply put, they are not very reliable or functional for survivalism purposes.
2) Steer clear of that cool looking “Rambo Style” knife! They are rarely worthy as real survival knives, even though they do look awesome. Usually these are more for show than anything else. They are heavy, low quality, dull, and simply not very practical for actual survival chores.
Alright, without further ado, let’s get on with the real reason you are reading this right now…
Here’s our guide for finding the best survival knife for you
It’s no secret that there are multiple things to consider when deciding on the best survival knife for your needs. These include everything from the weight, ease of use, style, blade type, and more. Although the most important decisions are often the material, length, and thickness of the blade.
The best tactical knives are highly versatile tools with designs that can assist in many different situations. Before you decide on one take a look at our guide to the key features for the top survival knife options.
Blade Materials
This will vary greatly among knives. Depending on your budget and how often you plan on using your knife, the material will be essential to your success in the wilderness (or elsewhere). Higher quality blade materials will increase the longevity and durability of the knife, as well as other factors.
A survival knife blade is important to consider because some will wear faster, be more difficult to sharpen, have a higher tendency to rust, and so on. So let’s discuss the best options…
When looking for a survival knife, you will notice the most highly recommended options are generally made from two types of steel — Stainless and Carbon. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, which we will discuss below.
- Stainless Steel – Durable, long-lasting, super tough. About as close as it gets to being indestructible. Does not rust easily and you can be sure it will perform for a very long time.
- Carbon Steel – These will typically hold a sharper edge much longer than a stainless steel blade will. This means you don’t always need to have a sharpener with you when heading into the wilderness. Or if you get into an unexpected situation, without a sharpening tool, you can rely on it to stay sharp longer. However, it isn’t as durable when exposed to the elements.
Generally speaking, we recommend using high quality stainless steel blades. Obviously this is not always the case and would depend on a whole bunch of different variables, but we are talking about a totality of circumstances, and finding the best knife to cover all bases.
Emergency scenarios are completely unpredictable and you will likely be using & abusing your knife for many different things. For this reason, we think stainless is the better choice when you aren’t exactly sure what you might need the knife for.
It’s not hard to imagine using your knife, getting it wet, putting it back in the sheath, tossing it into your bag, forgetting about it while dealing with all sorts of other more pressing matters. A carbon steel knife would not be nearly as ideal for this. Really, who wants to carry oil in their emergency kits, and have to remember to use it while trying to survive?
Of course, there is the negative of high-end stainless steel blades tending to be more expensive than their carbon steel counterparts of similar quality. However, saving a few bucks is probably not something you want to worry about when your life could literally be on the line.
It’s not that we don’t recommend carbon steel blades. We do in many cases. In fact, you will find some of them in our list of the best survival knives below. All we are saying is that if you don’t really know what you might need, or if all other things are equal, you are probably better off choosing a stainless steel option.
Blade Size/Length
A great survival knife will usually be about 6 to 12 inches long — though we ideally recommend somewhere close to the middle at around 9″ or so.
Unlike smaller pocket knives, your survival knife will be used for hundreds or even thousands of chores in potentially extreme situations.
If it’s too big you will lose the ability to do detailed things like carving snare sets and precision cutting.
Going too small will sacrifice important survival skills like chopping, hunting, splitting, or even defending yourself.
Therefore, you need a knife that is not too big and not too small. The right blade length will ensure you are able to do all the major survival things you will most likely need to do while giving up very little in less important tasks.
Check out a few different length knives to find one that is easy to hold, big enough to tackle tough duties, yet small enough to carry on you and do more detailed chores.
Fixed Blade vs Folding
The definitions of these two field knife options are pretty much exactly what they sound like; a fixed blade doesn’t move at all, and a folding blade does (it folds down – as in a pocket knife).
The overwhelming consensus in the prepping & survivalist community is that a fixed blade tactical knife is ideal for a true survival role. We agree with this completely!
When it comes to knives or just about anything else, a joint or hinge is a potential weak point. That means when you abuse a folding knife or use it for long enough, the joint will eventually loosen or even break.
Therefore, it’s pretty easy to see that a fixed blade survival knife, with all other things being equal/similar, will be more durable and hold up to greater levels of use & abuse than a folding blade. The fewer moving parts typically means a more durable knife, especially in the long run.
A high quality fixed blade knife can handle some serious abuse and a lot of use long-term.
Considering you might need your knife to last a long time while performing some rough tasks during a sustained survival situation, we suggest you shop in the category of “fixed blade survival knives” for your main option, but also get a folding blade as your secondary everyday carry knife.
There’s nothing wrong with folding knives, I think they are great, and carry one daily. They can do all kinds of tasks and are certainly better than nothing when really needed. They are nice when you want compactness and every day carry/use.
There’s certainly some advantages for being able to conveniently and discreetly carry your knife comfortably in a pocket at all times, rather than on your belt or around your leg. Which is why we suggest you have one of each. However, if we had to only choose one, we would go with the fixed blade every time.
There are times and places for foldables, but not as your primary knife for your bug out bag / get home backpack / survival kit.
When choosing one as a prepping tool for whatever disaster you anticipate happening, you will want to go fixed blade as folding are rarely advisable for serious survival. No matter how high quality or expensive your folding knife is, it will never be as durable as its fixed-blade counterpart.
Tang
This is often overlooked, but it is an IMPORTANT factor to take into consideration before purchasing a survival knife!
The “tang” of a knife is how far the blade extends into the handle.
- Partial tang: The blade only extends partially through the handle.
- Full tang: The blade runs all the way through the entire handle.
TLDR: Only choose full tang!
A full tang refers to the metal of the blade extending all the way through to the butt end of the handle in one continuous piece. Then, the grip is fashioned around the butt end of the metal. In this design there aren’t any issues with the blade coming loose or breaking free of the handle. A true full tang knife will fill the entire handle with exposed metal around the edges. This means your survival knife will typically last longer.
Let’s just get right to the point and tell you that a full tang bladed knife — where the metal extends, unbroken, all the way through — is MUCH more durable than any of the alternatives. These knives are well-balanced and can withstand a lot of pressure & rugged use.
Typically full tang knives are best for emergency preparing for the simple fact that they are one solid piece of metal from end to end, all the way from the tip to the bottom of the handle, and are designed to be far stronger and able to withstand use & abuse that a partial tang knife simply can’t endure.
The smaller the tang, the less metal there is holding the blade to the grip/handle of the knife and the weaker the overall bond is. There’s no disputing that knives with small, thin tangs are more prone to failure under lateral stress than those with larger tangs.
This is also NOT a rare or uncommon problem. We have seen numerous partial tang knives break apart where the blade meets the grip after relatively few reasonable uses in real world situations.
Partial tang knives should be avoided because with enough use they will eventually come loose and develop play in the handle, or even completely break off. They are far less likely to stand up to rigorous demands being put on the knife.
Once the handle breaks off, or becomes loose, it makes a partial tang knife much more difficult to use. In the same situation, a full tang knife can be wrapped with paracord, tape, or many other things to create a makeshift handle and it will still work nearly as well as before.
Ultimately the more metal in the handle the better. That’s what it comes down to. Given a choice, you should always go with full tang.
Yes, these knives will usually cost a bit more, but it’s certainly worth it in the long run, especially when your survival could depend upon it.
Keep this in mind before you buy a cheap survival knife!
That’s about it for the typical guidelines on finding the best options.
Of course, there are a few other things to consider such as the tip, handle, sheath, shape, etc… However, the above is most important for choosing the best survival knives for the vast majority of scenarios. And if you pick one of our recommendations below then you won’t need to worry about the small details anyway!
Our Picks for the Top 5 Best Survival Knives
Remember at the beginning when we said, you aren’t going to find the best survival knife in the world because there are far too many variables and differing situations that it may be needed for in order to come to an absolute conclusion? Well, we are sticking by that statement – for the most part.
However, we also know that you are here because you are looking for some top options to choose from, and we want to be sure you are at least getting one of the best knives out there for the majority of potential emergency survival scenarios.
This is undoubtedly a confusing market for most people with a plethora of choices, lots of fake reviews, never-ending debates, and so much more. This is why our experts have reviewed all sorts of the most highly recommended survival knives, and have found what we believe are the top choices for you right now.
We will be focusing on the prototypical “jack of all trades, master of none” tactical knife(s) — meaning it is not overly specialized and would be good in virtually any type of situation.
So, without further ado, here are our top choices of the best survival knives for keeping you alive in the majority of outdoor survivalism situations…
Fallkniven A1
The Swedish brand, “Fallkniven” has been designing top of the line survival knives (and other tools) for seasoned outdoorsmen for nearly 40 years, and has been doing an excellent job of it.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that the Fallkniven A1 is a favorite in the survival knife category all around the world.
Literally, a world standard was set with this knife due to their attention to important details and surpassing international standards for strength, personal security capabilities, value for money, and more.
Our assessment is that the Fallkniven A1 Survival Knife is a serious tool built for heavy duty applications, but also nimble enough for delicate things like cleaning your catch.
The blade is durable and will stand up to rigors of emergency use in atypical situations. It is full tang and made of a very high-end steel that is designed to withstand years of stress and rugged use. This knife is virtually unaffected by extreme climates and is also abrasion resistant.
Don’t let the civilized look and feel fool you; if the time comes when you have to chop branches to build an emergency shelter, create fire, hunt, fish, dig, fight, and more… it will be up to the task.
This all-purpose knife is designed for heavy duty use with a powerful blade made of extremely hard steel that will withstand the stress of hard use. It’s great at chopping, as well finer carving tasks, thanks to the ergonomic grip. The full tang goes entirely through the handle. The sturdy sheath allows you to fasten the knife on your belt, pack, or even upside down. The knife is not affected by water and works well in extreme temperatures, whether it is cold or heat.
Overall the knife is extraordinarily well-balanced, can be sharpened to a razor edge, and the handle is equally sufficient in cold weather or hot. You might pay a little more for the Fallkniven A1 but it’s certainly worth it.
We absolutely and undeniably recommend this knife! It is undoubtedly among the best of the best when it comes to survival knives!
ESEE 4
The ESEE-4 was designed as an all-around tactical, survival & bushcraft knife. The performance, durability and quality of the ESEE Model 4 is very difficult to match and we are hard pressed to find a better survival knife out there. It literally checks all of our boxes and exceeds our standards for the best tactical knives available.
This one has been put to the test by military, law enforcement, adventurers, and preppers all over the world. It’s used in jungle survival schools, carried by special operations soldiers in combat, and strapped to many hikers backpacks. If you’re an outdoorsman, survivalist, prepper, or just someone that appreciates a high quality knife, you can’t go wrong with the ESEE 4.
Ka-Bar Becker BK2
An affordable full tang heavy duty field knife suited for camping & outdoor duties from one of the top makers of bushcraft knives (Ka-Bar) with several highly touted options in the field, which often make the “best survival knife” lists.
If you like to camp, hunt, hike, or spend a lot of time out in field for any reason the Ka-Bar Becker BK2 might be your best friend. It works just as happily splitting out kindling as it does prying apart joints and skinning game. It’s also great for more delicate tasks such as chopping vegetables for the nightly meal over the campfire.
Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Knife
We aren’t going to go very in-depth on this one here because we’ve already written another post with a full Bear Grylls knife review. Long story short, it covers all the bases and offers all the features to make it one of the best survival knives on the market at an affordable price.
Kershaw Blur
This is the ONLY folding knife on our list. If you actually read all of the information above, you will know that we mainly recommend fixed blade survival knives.
However, we did suggest having more than one option, with one of them being an every day carry knife, which is most likely going to be a folder. So, we felt having one on the list was necessary, and we wanted to make sure you knew the best option.
The Kershaw brand dominates the market when it comes to everyday carry (EDC), folding pocket knifes. They create high quality, solid performance, working knives for consumers.
This is one we carry daily as our EDC. Additionally, we would take the Kershaw Blur survival knife with us into the bush without hesitation, and that is rare for us to say about a folding blade knife.
Conclusion
As you can see, field knives come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, designs, prices, and so on.
Choosing a bushcraft knife isn’t as fun as many other things you might be shopping for to bring on your outdoor adventure or bug out bag. However, you will thank yourself, when you are stumbling through the wilderness after being injured in a fall without any shelter in sight, and it’s starting to get dark. You still need build a fire, cut bandages, open the emergency canned food you brought along, and get ready to defend yourself against those wolves you saw following you earlier.
Whatever survival knife you choose, you will want to be sure it is one you can depend upon with your life. We’ve given you some of the best survival knife options for you to choose from. The rest is up to you!
You must decide which survival knife is best suited for your needs, or potential emergency scenario based on a number of factors.
The good news is that you can always invest in multiple survival knives, and we definitely recommend doing so. Anyone serious about survival will rarely have just one knife. We suggest having multiple survival knives with each one serving a specific purpose.
Get one for your bug out bag, one for your survival kit, one for your first aid supplies, one for your get home backpack, one for every day carry, etc… Just make sure you are prepared in every way.
Remember: Prepare, Adapt, Overcome!