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What to Know about Survival Knives before Buying One

Custom Damascus Folding knives
The knife is one of the oldest and saddest tools of man, and it certainly played a role in our struggle for survival in the wilderness. It's easy to forget how important this tool is when we sit in our comfortable homes eating a hot meal that we picked up in a Drive-through, but spend a day in nature and you'll quickly have a new appreciation the quality of the Custom Damascus Folding knives.

That being said, there is a lot of questionable information about different types of Custom Damascus Folding knives, and I think it's important to understand what you really need, especially for something as serious as a survival situation.

Whether you're a soldier looking for a quality tool, or a hiker or a mountain biker who needs a tool of last resort if disaster strikes, you need to know a few things before buying a survival knife.

Let's start by defining what constitutes a survival situation and then explore the common characteristics of good survival knives.
Survival vs. Bushcraft vs. Camping

If you're just going to meet some friends and chase a few dozen beer cans and barbecue meat for a fun camping day, then you can bring a knife you want, as long as it's neat.
Of course, there are those who like to get closer to nature and prefer to go with one or two friends and spend a few days in tents or makeshift shelters, but it's still called a bushcrafting scenario, rather than true survival.

A survival situation is not a planned trip, it's when something is wrong and you're stuck in the desert with limited resources and tools at your disposal. You can only have a few basic items, including a knife, so make sure you have a knife that is up for the challenge becoming incredibly important.
The essential tasks that the knife will have to perform

The most essential things in a survival situation are to make sure you have a source of heat, water and food, which means that you will use your knife to:

Turning firewood - cutting small trees, cutting logs, beating logs for firewood, making hay sticks or wood chips to start a fire, etc.
Wood carving work - cutting branches to make building materials, making nicks in sticks to create tent pegs, making animal traps, etc.
Hunting - butchery and treatment of small and big game.
Food preparation - cut vegetables and meat.
Some of these tasks can be quite demanding on the knife, so you need something that is hard enough to keep an edge, but strong enough not to break. The knife should also be the right size, with the geometry of the right edge and a comfortable grip that will not allow it to slip out of your hand or cause blisters after a few minutes of flapping. With this in mind, let's go back to the main features of a good survival knife.
Basic features to look for in a good survival knife
The modern market is full of knives made cheaply and not incredibly durable, which is not something you want to bet on your life. There are several important boxes that a knife must tick if we want to call it a functional survival knife:

  • Good steel blade
  • Good hardness
  • Robust construction
  • The right size and good shape
  • Durable sheath
  • Now, let's look at each of these points more closely.
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