Survival Knives: Top Considerations

Having a good survival knife is essential in any type of survival scenario. There are many practical uses of a survival knife, including:

• Hunting, skinning, and preparing food.
• Self defense against wild animals (or other people in which case your survival knife doubles as a combat knife).
• Wood cutting for constructing shelter or slicing kindling for starting a fire.
• Slicing rope or cords for storage or shelter construction.
• Making tools such as a spear or stakes to peg stuff to the ground.
• Cutting a path (bush-wacking).
• Digging.
• Opening cans and other containers.
• Hammering (with the handle).
• Surgery and other types of first aid.
• Signaling using the reflective properties of the blade metal.
• Trimming clothing or other loose material.

Here are some things to consider when looking at the features of different knives.

• The Metal - Stainless steel vs. carbon.
• Tang - This refers to how far down inside the handle the metal of the blade extends.
• Handle - You want a handle that is comfortable with a nice grip.
• Blade Type - Straight vs. serrated.
• Length - For a survival knife, you want something with a blade anywhere from 5 to 8 inches.
• Blade Thickness - The thicker the blade the more durable and stable.

For more information, see my blog post on Survival Knives

You can read more topics like this one on my blog How To Survive Stuff