7 Best Pocket Knives for Camping

Twelve functions sounds like brochure filler until you are crouched over a stove with a loose fuel fitting. The can opener, reamer, and screwdrivers are why we rate this the best of the group for camp chores: it fixes things a single-blade knife can only look at. It weighs 1.6 ounces and folds to 3.5 inches, so it disappears into a cook kit or a hip pocket and stays there for the whole season.

The blade is thin behind the edge, which is why it goes through sausage, cheese, and a tomato without bruising them, and why it shaves a feather stick from dry cedar with almost no pressure. It is a small kitchen knife that happens to live in your pocket, and it is the tool we reach for when the job is smaller than the main blade deserves.

The details are what keep it in the kit: the reamer punches a hole in a tarp or a leather belt, the tweezers pull a splinter, and the red scales are easy to spot at the bottom of a stuff sack. A lifetime guarantee against material and workmanship defects backs it up. Ours lives in the cook bag, which is the highest compliment we can pay a 1.6-ounce tool.

An apple, a block of cheese, and a sausage are where this knife makes its case. The thin carbon blade goes through all three without crushing them, and the beechwood handle stays comfortable through a long prep session in a way metal and plastic handles do not. Twist the Virobloc collar and the blade locks open; twist it back and the blade folds. There is almost nothing to go wrong.

That combination makes it our pick for anyone whose camp knife mostly meets food, and it is the knife we would put beside the stove rather than on the belt. It is a two-handed tool: no thumb stud, no flick, and the collar has to be turned before the blade will move. For slicing onions at a picnic table that is not a hardship, and the 3.28-inch blade is long enough to be useful without feeling unwieldy.

At around two ounces, the Appa is the knife we forget we are carrying, and on a lot of trips that is the entire point. It clips to a shorts pocket or a hipbelt, the textured glass-filled nylon handle gives you something to hold, and the reverse tanto blade puts a stout tip where you need it for opening packaging or scraping a fire steel.

The opening is fast and genuinely one-handed, and the plain edge takes a touch-up without fuss. The 2.75-inch reverse tanto is a sturdy shape rather than a delicate one, which is what you want for utility work and not what you want for an afternoon of carving spoons.

The handle is the compromise. It is short, and with large hands your little finger will hang off the end, so this is a knife for frequent light cuts rather than sustained work. For opening dinner, trimming paracord, or cutting a blister patch, we never felt under-equipped, and the reversible clip means it works whichever pocket you favor.

Serrations are the reason to look at this one. A fully serrated 3.1-inch clip point saws through rope, webbing, and strapping that makes a plain edge skate, and it keeps doing it after the edge has lost its polish, which is useful when you are cutting guy lines in the dark. The aluminum handle has enough texture to hold onto with cold hands, and the liner lock seats with a positive click.

What you give up is smoothness. The action is stiff out of the box and the flipper and thumb knobs need a firm push before the blade swings free, so the first few days of a trip are not when you want to be fumbling with it. It does loosen with use, and the payoff is a knife you can treat as a beater without wincing, which is exactly what a camp blade that lives near rocks and firewood should be.

The scissors are what earn this a place in a pack. They cut moleskin, trim a frayed strap, and open a food packet without scattering the contents, and they do it from a 0.7-ounce tool hanging off a key ring. The tweezers have pulled more splinters than most first-aid kits we have carried.

The rest of the set is small but real: a nail file with a screwdriver tip that fits a glasses hinge, a toothpick, and a key ring that takes a beating without losing the tool. The red ABS scales are easy to find in a stuff sack, and the steel is covered by a lifetime guarantee against material and workmanship defects.

As a second tool it is close to perfect, and that is how we use it: clipped to the pack, reached for constantly, so the main blade stays sharp for the jobs that need it. It will not open a can of beans or split kindling, but it handles the small failures that make a trip annoying.

The rosewood handle is why you pick this one up. It looks like a much more expensive knife than it is, feels warmer and more finished in the hand than the aluminum and plastic handles elsewhere in this group, and the black blade against the wood is genuinely handsome. The 3.66-inch blade is the longest here, which makes it the one for bigger camp jobs: carving a tent peg, cutting a wedge, working through a pile of kindling.

The spring assist snaps the blade open with a thumb, and the 440C steel arrived sharp with a coating that shrugs off fingerprints and light moisture. At 6.3 ounces it is a pack knife rather than a pocket knife: you notice it in a hip pocket and you do not notice it in a lid pocket. That is a fair trade for a blade this size, and it is the reason we would not hand it to someone looking for an everyday carry.

The handle runs long enough for a full four-finger grip, which is more than the smaller knives here can offer, and that matters when you are pressing down through a branch. It is also the knife in this group that most rewards being looked at before it is used, because the lock is the part that decides whether it is a tool or a problem.