Recommendations for Camping and Cooking Knife?

J

jayjaygee

Joined
Mar 13, 2023
Messages
259
I don't think this animal exists, though I could help design one if anyone is interested. Then again maybe I'm wrong and this exists, and you are the people to ask.

I want a general camp knife, and since making camp includes food prep that means food prep is important for the knife. In my usual life, cooking is the highlight of my day but when I'm camping it's the low point because no camp knife I choose is worth a damn. (Yeah, I know I could just bring a kitchen knife. I've said it, so now you don't have to.)

I see a lot of videos where people talk about cook camp/cooking knives, but I always laugh when I see the part of the video where they show the receipts. These people don't know how to cook. They'll talk about how "slicy" it is, like that is significant. ANY knife can slice things, that just means it's sharp. But if it takes more than one minute to slice a tomato, then dice an onion, and then cube a handful-size section of meat and then scrape it all into the pan, you're just not the person whose opinion matters here. Not to be rude, nothing says you have to be a good cook to enjoy camping. But I am a good cook and I'm tired of being held back by my camp knife. Seriously, I could whine for hours about how much I dread cooking when I camp because it's no fun, and cooking should be the most fun thing. (Also my camping cutting board sucks and my cooler is annoying.)

So if you know how to dice an onion in under 30 seconds and can julienne a carrot stick, and know when to do which, and have a recommendation, I'd like to hear it.

A few guidelines for what I'm looking for

- stainless steel

- your knuckles shouldn't touch the cutting surface when the edge is down

- good for general camp chores like making feather sticks, cutting tiny branches for kindling, cutting rope, even light chopping duty

- can be held in a pinch grip, or choked up on

- can pop a small bone

Okay, let's see what we get. I'm especially interested if anyone has tried a Nessmuk-style blade.
 
Not any sharp knife is slicy.

You already said the answer, but you don’t want anyone else to say it. My suggestion would be to have a nice sheath made for your preferred size of kitchen knife.

My Dad was a chef, his favorite hunting knife was a flat grind PAL USN MKI knife. He said he liked it because he was more likely to cut an onion than a deer. IMG_3020.jpeg

There are neck knives that are good pairing knives. IMG_5116.jpeg
If folding is an option. Try an Opinel.
 
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Very good question - cooking is one of the most important tasks of a camp knife, IMO.

I can do an onion in less than a minute with one of my camp knives, 30” is hard, but maybe that counts ?

“I don't think this animal exists,”

I don’t think so either. Cutting a fillet out of a lamb rack, vs. slicing a chunk of cheese or cutting bread, vs. chopping are requirements that are just too different.

So you’d have to be a bit more specific, at least wrt length and height of the blade.

The one knife that I’d be comfortable attacking most kitchen chores with is my CPK UF. Long enough for - say - bread or a larger pieces of meat, low enough to get around corners, easy to choke for details (say, cleaning potatoes), etc. But: my fingers will touch a cutting board when using it.

And for camp chores it can do most work, even though larger blades would be more practical for some things. The UF has come in stainless (AEB-L) or D3V.

i-QzBjH8Z-X2.jpg
 
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I've tried many and know of people who do like to cook outside, but I find your tone to be off-putting and I can't help but feel as you're trying to start a conversation only to tell us we're wrong. Please correct me if I'm wrong. What you've written doesn't sound like you want a discussion, you just want to tell us how bad designs are and show us yours.

If I'm wrong and you're actually open to input and discussing the topic, I'm interested in what you have to say if we can tone down the arrogance. I like new designs and I would be curious what compromises you're willing to make to achieve your desired goals, as some things you're after are conflicting if we look at knives designed for less versatile, more specific tasks (camp knives vs kitchen knives specifically).

Have you tried a folding kitchen knife to go with a camp knife?

Thousands of people have tried the Nessmuk style blade, it's very popular and there are many variations.

Obviously, I don't meet your desired credentials so my opinion is of no matter, but I do like food and I do like to camp.
 
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Boattale said:
Your knife, right here. But good luck finding one. This one belongs to my grandson now and I really don't think you're going to talk him out of it.

View attachment 2444749View attachment 2444750
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Ka-bar's Becker Knife & Tool Kephart BK62 is another worthy choice. Its 1095 CroVan steel is not stainless, but so what... just dry it off after use and enjoy the patina.
 
I chopped prep and cooked for years. The bigger issue for me is that no one is going to cut well on a sh*tty or poorly balanced cutting board. If you're that worried about the quality of your prep work, just make a saya for your favorite kitchen knife and bring it along; if you're bringing a cooler, you're not worried about bringing too much stuff.
But I'm with bikerector bikerector on this one, OP seems like he's more ready to disdain suggestions rather than embrace them.
 
jayjaygee said:
I don't think this animal exists, though I could help design one if anyone is interested. Then again maybe I'm wrong and this exists, and you are the people to ask.

I want a general camp knife, and since making camp includes food prep that means food prep is important for the knife. In my usual life, cooking is the highlight of my day but when I'm camping it's the low point because no camp knife I choose is worth a damn. (Yeah, I know I could just bring a kitchen knife. I've said it, so now you don't have to.)

I see a lot of videos where people talk about cook camp/cooking knives, but I always laugh when I see the part of the video where they show the receipts. These people don't know how to cook. They'll talk about how "slicy" it is, like that is significant. ANY knife can slice things, that just means it's sharp. But if it takes more than one minute to slice a tomato, then dice an onion, and then cube a handful-size section of meat and then scrape it all into the pan, you're just not the person whose opinion matters here. Not to be rude, nothing says you have to be a good cook to enjoy camping. But I am a good cook and I'm tired of being held back by my camp knife. Seriously, I could whine for hours about how much I dread cooking when I camp because it's no fun, and cooking should be the most fun thing. (Also my camping cutting board sucks and my cooler is annoying.)

So if you know how to dice an onion in under 30 seconds and can julienne a carrot stick, and know when to do which, and have a recommendation, I'd like to hear it.

A few guidelines for what I'm looking for

- stainless steel

- your knuckles shouldn't touch the cutting surface when the edge is down

- good for general camp chores like making feather sticks, cutting tiny branches for kindling, cutting rope, even light chopping duty

- can be held in a pinch grip, or choked up on

- can pop a small bone

Okay, let's see what we get. I'm especially interested if anyone has tried a Nessmuk-style blade.
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Maybe a single bevel Honesuki? Good handle geometry for cutting board duty and relatively compact, but stout enough to lean into if needed.
 
This brought back a core memory for me. Used to do a lot of camping/backpacking trips into the north cascades between the ages of about 15-25 with uncles and cousins. One of my uncles was the main driving force and he sort of handled the cooking logistics in our group. He used his original Leatherman multitool for everything, and his camp food was pretty decent. Pretty much the worst knife by modern thinking, but it didn’t really matter, most of those lakes were ten miles from our trailheads and that’s what he was comfortable with. It was all about how he used it.

I gave away my REI pack, half-dome, and camp stove years ago, but I still enjoy reading about bushcraft culture. I’ve been eyeing the Lionsteel B35 and M5 lately.
 
I guess I can impart this bit of advice, prep your food in advance so you don't need to bring a kitchen knife nor cutting board. All the bliss of prepping food but without those pesky knives you don't like at the campsite.

NWFRS NWFRS the lionsteel b35 is a pretty handy knife. Good friend of mine loves his and I do like the refinement on the lionsteel fixed blades. Their sheaths are a different story.

I feel like it's right in the F1, BM puukko, etc. size range. Not big but really handy and a little stouter than your typical puukko or mora companion types of knives. I had a B40 for a while and really liked it, until a friend gifted me one of my own designs so I felt compelled to use that instead 😁. I had a rule that any knife I had made for my biz was to be sold, so I didn't feel compelled to hoard my own knives.

Coincidently, it's actually one I designed for bush camping, or to the old folks, camping. Kinda like bushcraft, but more camping and less crafting. Food prep was the main discerning difference in intended use.
 
bikerector said:
I guess I can impart this bit of advice, prep your food in advance so you don't need to bring a kitchen knife nor cutting board…..
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This. …. Or cook food that’s more appropriate for the camp kitchen. You are limited, for example, by not having a full sized oven, so having knife limits is Ok, too. To be honest, I look forward to this stuff when going camping :)

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DutchOvenB-L1001336-X2.jpg


DutchOvenC-L1001381-X2.jpg
 
I keep a victorinox chefs knife and paring knife in a homemade kydex sheath in our camp cooking box. With a bunch of those roll up cutting boards. Anything else will be a poor compromise.
 
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