Tourist knives: types and subtleties of choice

If you accidentally get lost in the woods, but, fortunately, even a small folding knife was in the pocket of your trousers - this is good luck. It is worth having a good habit of always taking a good tourist knife with you into the woods. We will understand their varieties.

Knife for hiking in its universal purpose is used on the routes of extension and parking to create comfort, safety and, of course, in extreme situations for survival. Traditionally, the tourist knife is used:

• for processing and cooking food;
• at cultivation and maintenance of a flame of a fire, production of various difficult and simple racks and crossbeams for the center;
• for cutting skewers, rods, stakes for the installation of awnings and other shelters, collecting logs for insulation;
• for the manufacture, if necessary, of medical supplies - tires, stretchers, crutches, etc.

Given the required functionality, there is no clear division of knives for tourism into “hiking” and “non-hiking”, or rather, it is conditional. Therefore, when purchasing a product, they usually proceed from general requirements, certain selection criteria, guided by their own skills and preferences. It is necessary to take a knife for tourism on a long hike deliberately, bearing in mind the purpose of the hike, its duration, route and the area along which it passes.

Taking into account a wide range of tasks solved with a cutting tool, Ideally, an experienced tourist should have three types of knives on the march: the main, auxiliary and instrumental ones.

• The main type of camping knife It is usually used to perform "power" operations - cutting branches, preparing firewood, etc. It should be solid, with a not very long blade (12-15 cm) and a comfortable handle. For gourmets, it is better to purchase such items from handmade craftsmen. The sheath is better than a bright color (less likely to lose it) or with a bright braid of the handle.
• Auxiliary - used for cutting food, cutting ropes and other small operations. Usually, these are folding knives, selected on the basis of their functionality and personal preferences in matters of aesthetics and comfort when working.
• Instrumental or multifunctional (multitool) with a corkscrew, a can opener and other tools in one case.

Structurally, tourist knives are divided into 3 main types - folding, non-folding, folding (fixed) and folding. The choice of a specific design is carried out on the basis of functional necessity and expediency. Foldable tourist knives are usually inferior in strength to one-piece, ungainly. They are harder to clean from dirt, food and wood. However, they are compact and lighter in weight.

Folding knife is convenient for outdoor recreation, any picnic rarely does without it, but it is not enough for a long tourist trip. But as an additional, universal cutting tool, it would be quite satisfactory - open canned goods, pierce a hole, open a bottle of water, etc.

Folding knives are not folding simple and reliable. For a long hike, they are the most appropriate option. They are made of quality steel, with a strong and reliable handle. Suitable for solving a variety of tasks - for cooking, processing branches and pegs when setting up a tent, etc.It is not bad to have a cover (preferably a waist belt for convenience) and a sharpener for fictional.

Collapsible folding knives are made with removable blades, other elements of construction, which is extremely convenient for long transitions, because the kit includes spare blades. Removable parts of the product, as a rule, are light and do not take up much space.

The blade of the tourist knife must be chosen from the grades of not too hard steels - they are fragile and difficult to sharpen. Too soft steel will not be sharp enough. The most suitable option for a camp knife is steel of medium hardness (for example, 58-60 HRC). It is practical and honed even with the use of aids. Forms produced by the production of blades are diverse:

• Finnish (concave species);
• spear;
• straight butt blades;
• low butt blades;
• high butt blades;
• by analogy with the samurai "tanto";
• in the form of a "goat leg".

The handle is an important element of the product, determining the ease of its use. It should be conveniently located in the palm of your hand, corresponding to its size, not rubbed in the process of long work. An excellent knife should be felt as a natural hand complement. Personal preferences are important when choosing a handle. For someone it is more pleasant to hold knives with carved, bone or wooden handles, others, more rational and practical, choose the options easier. Modern firms offer a choice of a significant variety of styles of handles and materials of manufacture - the choice is yours.

Rubber handle has excellent grip with palm, tightly seated in hand. Bone handles are beauty and aesthetics. Wooden comfortably hold in your hand, but they need special care. Plastic handles are more unpretentious, besides they are moisture resistant. Between the blade and the handle, a small protrusion is needed to protect the hand from sliding onto the blade. Practical and the presence in the handle of a small hole for the lace.

To some extent conditional, given the feedback from experienced tourists, You can make a rating of the best brands present in the market of camping knives.

• Knife KA-BAR USMC Utility (USA). Overall length - 30 cm, with leather handle and reliable protection. The edge of the blade is smooth, easy to sharpen.
• Tom brown tracker - the hunting knife, is practical in campaigns. Length - 30 cm. The blade is 11 cm, with a saw.
• Swedish products - SOG SEAL and A1 Swedish Survival.

The first - with a securely fixed blade, particularly durable. Sharpening does not require, does not rust. The blade does not bend even when using a knife as a lever. Blade - 18 cm, thickness - 5 mm. With notches on the blade surface. The second one is an excellent knife for camping, with a total length of 28 cm. A blade is 16 cm, with a one-piece corrugated handle, protection for the hand and a neat hole for the lace.

From other foreign brands of quality products, we indicate:

• Benchmade Bushcrafter (survival knives);
• Buck Vanguard (strength and reliability);
• Gerber Blades Big Rock (quality budget options);
• Victorinox Swiss Champ (multifunction knives);
• SPYDERCO Endura 4 (accuracy, accuracy and reliability).

Tourist knives of Russian production are widely represented on the domestic market. Here you can highlight, for example, knives: “Katran” from software “Kizlyar”, “Jack” from the brand “Southern Cross”, Pavlovsk knives, models “Tourist 5”, etc.Good and folding knives of the latest model in the manual version of the work.

Excellent multifunctional cutting products, which are especially popular, are produced by the Swiss firms Lazerman and Victorinoks. Firms produce high quality multitools, in functionality from 2-3 functions to 40 or more - the choice is unusually wide. True, multitools with lots of features are expensive. Somewhat cheaper are the same multituly Chinese brand World Rider and domestic production, which are not inferior to foreign counterparts. A significant number of functions and low weight are obvious advantages.

In terms of criteria for choosing a tourist knife, it is important to consider the following points:

• he must be functional, that is, correspond to the tasks that he has to solve in the campaign;
• average blade thickness;
• the blade shape is simple, and the handle is comfortable, which should not be hollow;
• sheath necessarily with bright colors.

The optimal type of tourist knife correspond to:

• convenient size (1020 cm), small knives lose their versatility;
• practicality;
• effectiveness in use;
• steel quality, strength and weight;
• constructive reliability and safety;
• comfortable care

Although it has a smaller weight and dimensions, it is limited in its functionality, since it is extremely inconvenient to perform “power” types of work with it. For example, prepare wood chips for the fire.

Therefore, a knife with a fixed blade (fixed), firmly installed in the handle is more practical and versatile. To this, the main view, you can buy a small and modest multitool with a certain number of functions. Not the last factor when choosing a product is the type of sharpening the blade, which determines the functionality and efficiency of its use.

There are 6 types of sharpening.

• Smooth, with a uniform contraction of both sides of the blade.
• Cusp, when sharpening the blade follows a little further than when smooth. With this method, the knife remains sharp for a long time.
• Difficult, double. The edge of the blade remains thin, and further sharpening expands. It promotes good cutting qualities and their long preservation.
• Concave - forms the sharpest cutting edge. The knife is easily immersed in any items. Requires frequent sharpening.
• Convex, when metal is additionally left on the cutting edge, and the knife becomes sharp and durable, maintaining excellent cutting properties for a long time. Similarly, hatchets and knives used in the wheelhouse are sharpened.
• One-sided, “chisel” type, when one side of the blade surface is sharpened.

The state of the cutting edge is relevant not only in terms of product functionality. The edge with arc-shaped hollows has excellent qualities. However, in the field, this type of sharpening is almost impossible. For tourist knives usually use the first three types of sharpening.

The choice of a camping knife is exactly the case when it is advantageous to choose the “middle ground”. Moreover, such a choice is wide. Now you are fully prepared and ready for a pleasant journey.

How to choose the right tourist knife, see the following video.