Ranking Survival Knife Brands (Over 20 Brands!!!!) 

I am a Beckerhead, it is what a Becker fan is called. Amongst my many knives, I own a nearly complete collection of Beckers. They have never f ailed me in the boonies regardless of the task. I would trust them with my life. They hold their edges very well, easy to sharpen to near razor and even razor sharpness. Edges are easy to precisely maintain and the grip ergonomics of the handle are perfect for me. I use bicycle tubing for extra grip traction. Wonderful for combat and survival. They are reasonably priced and compete easily with knives two to three times the cost . The 1095 Cro Van is proprietary and a great alloy that easily beats out all other 1095 alloys. The key in sharpening is to stay true to the original factory blade angles. The handles have enough room to stash small emergency supplies. A hex wrench is easily purchased to fit the screw system of the handles and can be kept with the sheaths. I have one for each knife except my neck knives. I would like to try a Bark River in magnacut or maybe Esee in magnacut. I have a couple of Essees but am not very impressed. Chipping of the blade on my large Essee on the first day out and it required slight reprofiling and sharpening to restore. I haven't used it since and rely on my BK-9. Oh well, thanks for this excellent video and discussion. I look for more videos to come ! A friend always !

👍Nice selection. Cold Steel is currently my go to selection, Drop Forged Survivalist, SRK and SRK-C. Mostly because of availability and price in this part of the world.

Just bought a Joker knives Nomad and got to say it is Great !

I disagree with Buck and Gerber cuz my current survival knife I use is a Gerber prodigy fixed blade. And the knives I use for hunting are bucks. And I've used bucks in the past and they are my favorite brand.

I really liked this video, very informative/subscribed

Very informative video thanks. Your analysis will provide excellent reference for people who want to buy a knife. Love your top 3. The Pacific looks incredible. Shape reminds me a little of my SOG Navy Seal 2000. Cheers Dave 🇺🇸 🇳🇿

I'm glad you mentioned SRK 6 Cold Steel I just got mine this week there's new colors Tan and favorite Earth is a combination of tan and green color I just ordered a unclip for it. I must say that I really enjoyed your reviews on all these knives stay safe and God bless

Thanks for another review as solid and as useful as my beloved BK10.

Thanks for the sweet info dude!

LT Wright and BHK knives are my go to knives.

Good video brother.took me over a year to get a half faced blade, and man I love this blade

I will say. There are a couple Gerber I used a lmf in Afghanistan and it was a workhorse but I had to sharpen it often, couldn't break it, but not the worst

Totally agree with your Top Three in that order!!

The Spyderco you showed is the Bow River and it was designed to process game and fish. 420HC steel is a steel that a lot of people trash talk. The funny thing about 420HC is that it has CPM 3V levels of toughness and slightly better edge retention than 1095 when properly heat treated.

Nice selection, I was surprised not to see TRC up there near the top though

Great Video, thank you for the insight! Any thoughts on TOPS Knives for survival?

For survival knives I use and prefer TOPS and OKC. All of them have performed very well with no problems. I have owned several ESEE knives, everyone I bought had problems with either poor edge retention or chipping. Also the fit and finish on my ESEE's sucked. Any day I would choose an Ontario RAT 7 with 1075 over an ESEE 6 in 1095.

Bark River Bravo Series , and Esee are definitely my favorite fixed blades for hard usage. That would be freaking sick if they made Esee 3 , 4 , and 6 in CPM MAGNACUT. MKC has also been making some awesome knives. I own 3 so far and they are really good for thier desired utility.

OKC Handel is on the large side which means you can fit it to your own hand with a little effort and a angle grinder. 1075 is much tougher than 1095 with similar edge retention. So it's a decent choice I would put OKC above mora for survival.

Nicely done. My personal favorite is the Falkniven F1 though it is not the best at batoning.

I'm with you on the Gerber!

Love the ESEE-6 and then an ESEE-4 in S35VN is a nice compliment. Looking forward to the Chris Reeve Backpacker too. Finding a Pacific is tough!

Muela, Miguel Nieto, Cudeman, Aitor, J&V, Joker, Jeo Tech… you are really missing out!

You’ll never see me going into the woods without my BK7 🤷🏽‍♂️

Yes, I own hundreds of knives. I will speak about some: 1. My experience is about 60 years. My bias is that I try not to buy something unless it is 10% better or I am just looking and evaluating. 2. Becker series. Agree with what you say. 3. Ka-bar. Have some. Not my first choice. As trading goods or for members of a survival group who totally lack skills. 4. Ontario. I have multiples of a discontinued model. Was the best available at the time. Gave one to my son to keep in his car. A true survival knife for someone who lacks nearly all survival skills. 5. Moras. Worked a lot with them. Modify sheaths. Modify knives. Gift them to relatives to keep in their cars. 6. Fallkniven. Decades ago, Cold Steel contracted for Fallkniven to make knives in Japan. When they stopped doing business together, Fallkniven did further design. When I was able to buy the A1 model for $125, I bought two. Not surprisingly, the distiributor failed and went out of business. This is the large survival knife. I have multiples of the F1. It is the only fixed blade of its length that, within the factory ugly sheath fits into a Brooks Bros. suit pants without printing. My Esse 4s can't do that. 7. Cold Steel The srk. Have multiples. The small srk-5 grip doesn't work for me. 8. Modern take offs of WW2 Navy knives. Whatever the designation like Mark 1, Mark2. Work horses with better handle today. 9. Esse. I already had knives as good as the 5 and 6. Have multiples of the 4. Nice behind the back horizontal carry. The 3 is to small for me.

best part of this (unlike most) you can see you"ve actually USED most of those knives.👍

All these knives can serve you well in different situations. Honestly imo it's all individual preference, i enjoy alot of knives as well, out of the knives you presented i think your WTG Asset would do great with most things especially as a backup blade, i have been carrying my Demko Armiger 4 and Freereign, love both and they're practical. For something Bigger my Preference is the CS SRK in CPM3V and even Bigger then that there's so many options, i like the CS Marauder for a defense type of situation against an animal, i have a DBad War Machine that's Badass too, i also like my CS Leatherneck Bowie the Big one! That thing is just fun.

I own hundreds of different knives from cheapies to a few boutique models. I've always enjoyed making whatever knife I'm carrying work. I've never destroyed a knife in the woods. I use the knife to its limits and design. Sorry batoners and steel benders out there.... I'm a lover of the craft. Many many Bucks and KaBars in my rotation. Great video.

I’ve NEVER seen a Strongarm over $100. They consistently range from $49 to now $69. It’s probably the best overall knife for the price ever made!

Really well done video. Appreciate the info. Talking knives is like talking about religion for some peeps! LoL

Top 6 brands: Cold Steel SRK, Falkneeven A1, Half Face Blades, Chris Reed Pacific, Bark River Knives Bravo 1 or 1.5, Faulkneven, ESEE 3, zula, 6, hoogless 1 or 2, Chris Reeve knives encose, zabenza, Pacific

Was curious about Cold Steel as I've not bought from them since Lyn left. Thoughts on Spartan or Toor (?) if you've had a chance to look at those....

You need to do a review on the HOLTZMAN Gorilla Bushcraft knife. it is an amazing knife. I think it will seriously impress you.

Never heard of the buck thug/punk until yesterday. Looked them up to see they were made years ago. Found a brand new, unused punk on ebay for like 340$. Not sure it's worth that, but man it would be nice to have.

The thug and punk were the cream of the crop survival knife back on the day. I really like them there is something about the look of them to me that make me want to take them to the woods love the recurve I guess you call it shaped blade on the thug

I have an lmf2 and I only got it because Canadian Tire had it on clearance for 75% off. I didn't even pay $60 with tax. I figured it was well worth it at that price. I have many knives I like the expensive ones but I'm not bringing those into the woods to beat the crap out of either.

I only buy TOPS knives. Only your top two knives are any competition at all. Since your first choice is virtually impossible to get, it is effectively eliminated. As for your second choice, TOPS has much better sheaths and offers the much preferred scandi grind for bush craft tasks. Not really impressed with your layout, all things considered.

I have a CS Survivalist for about €90,-- Now, I really like the looks of Esee6 a lot, but they cost more than 2 times the price, about €210,-- over here. Sincere question : Is the Esee6 really 2 times 'better'? Stronger? Tougher? Stays sharp longer? Thanks in advance to all responders! Greets from the Netherlands 🇳🇱, TW.

Been lusting over the Esee 6 for some time but I’m thinking an SRK might scratch the itch. Gotta look into aftermarket sheaths though

i love the reif knife

I can't believe you don't have one Tops knive which is the best out there. Period I use tops and Ontario. Love my Ontario's

Missing Dawson Knives 3V and Magnacut with differentiated heattreat and hollowgrind if you want.

Cold steel needs to make an SRK in a 7 inch blade that's my wish . I know the the recon tanto is 7 inch but I need a 7 inch SRK .

How would you rate the BLAK knife from Lone Survivalist? Pls advise. Thanks. RLP, USAF Retired 😊

4 months of using the bk2 companion to make a fire every night. It snapped in half. In the handle where the bolt connects the handle to the blade.

You got had on those gerbers. In California you can find them in stores for $70ish all day.

I’m still waiting on Esse to make the 6 in a 3V version. They need to make more of their knives in something other than 1095.

I have a question is there a reason you didn't mention Ernest Emerson fixed knives

I’m sure the Reeve Pacific is a nice knife, but the best??? And hollow grind on a field knife is asking for trouble, regardless of how it is heat treated.

I stand by the LMF II. It saved my life twice. And pretty much any ESEE is best friend.

What about Schrade schf36 ?

Battle Horse Knives, LT Wright Knives, Winkler Knives, White River Knives, Becker Knife and Tool and ESSE Knives. In no particular order.

Spyderco Bow River, Not south fork.

I feel you sold Gerber too short. Variety of selections and price points and availability plus quality guarantee makes Gerber an excellent choice for almost any knife that they offer.

Can you review Hoffner beast knife

I’d put my Extrema Ratio Ontos up against all of those or any other knife.

William Collins survival knife

You forgot Work Tuff Gear's Kodiak and Wolverine.

You need to check out Trc

WTG & Extrema Ratio

Not sure about magnacut for outdoor wilderness, especially if you do a lot of woodcraft work or occasional batoning, but who knows. What do you think about esse knives in 3v instead? Seems really tough, decent to sharpen, and with above average edge retention. The prices might be crazy though. I'm fine with 1095 tbh

What do you think of the Buck 119 pro in S35 vn?

I got a bdz1 strong arm for $75. That was years ago though

Right off the bat I see your opinions are based off your opinions. I’m no Gerber fan boy. I own 2 out of over a 100 fixed blades but you need to give credit where credit due. They are tough. Just my opinion that I mostly keep to my self.

I use my esee 4 and my mora knives

Personally I like TOPS and Ontario knives. Ontario because of the price point. I also like k-bar

What about Winkler knives??

Extremely surprised and slightly disappointed no mention of Winkler knives

Becker and BarkRiver have skeletonized tangs. For me is a no-no

I need to make another survival knife

K-Bar BK (Becker) 7, 9, 16, 17, 18

My rat 7 is 1095. I thought all rat7’s are 1095.

hay, where's your G-shock? hehe

Anybody got a name on the thumbnail blade?

Gerber is OK not great not exactly terrible and some of there models are better then others, I think there more of the budget side I do think there are better knives out there for what they charge but as long as they stay in that price range there not bad.

RIP OKC.

That Spyderco was a bow river

What a joke to put some out of reach unattainable knife as #1 lol good one

Buck (Tops) Hoodlum, Thug, Punk

böker is still number one for me

Gerber was pretty good 35 years ago or so. Not so much any more. Anything from TOPS will do well for you and your progeny. KaBar makes good knives, but I wouldn’t put them in the ‘survival’ category except for the Becker line.

Yukon fixed blade knives were the best in viet nam 1967.

My Rat 7 is 1095 high carbon steel don't know when you bought yours ??

Survival knife is just a name for a certain look. Especially solid. Otherwise, the term makes as little sense as a tactical knife. A Victorinox can be a better tool in survival situations.

My rat7 is 1095 not 1075

I have that spyderco. Its a steak knife. No more no less.

My Spyderco Province would like to have a word with you

Drink every time he says "tasks".

I will never understand this new fad where a knife isn’t a knife at all. It’s something that bugs me so much. I guess the industry has to sell stuff somehow and needs to create new fads to justify it, otherwise Green River would should sell like crazy

I don’t understand the hate you have for the Gerber. It looks like it gets more us than any of the other knives you reviewed.

What about the Gerber Silver Trident (no longer available to the general public).

Not a lover of Gerber also

Anybody use Winkler

Gerber isn't what it used to be.

Get a Tops op7 and youll never regret it Tops make the best blades imo

Anything Gerber makes me want to 🤮

This is like the 3rd Video that you picked the same Knife OK we get it.....I for 1 am tired of it...I wont watch your videos anymore if you do one more Knife pick and you pick the Same Knife again...buy a new Knife or do something else

Not the best knives. Rough handles, no Jimping and few choils. These additions are very helpful when you are living in the in the woods and have none of the benefits of a kitchen. The look stamped out.

Most of these views aren't even fact based. Ex: gerber is bad because I don't like how it feels

Too young too stupid. "The more you know the less you carry." (Mors Kochansky(