I have been experimenting with wilderness knives for many years, trying to find the best. Over the years, I’ve tried several dozen of the very best designs. I have reached a couple conclusions.
Pasayten Lite Traveller: Based on pioneer designs dating back centuries, this one has been upgraded with G10 handles and a super stainless steel, 154cm, which is soft enough to field sharpen yet very resistant to corrosion (very useful here in wet Nova Scotia). The knife comes with a superb kydex sheath. I had real doubts about this knife when I ordered it because it’s smaller and a bit thinner than I tend to favor, and I did not think I would like the handle. To my surprise, the knife has proven to be extremely durable, holds a great edge (so far butchered two deer and done a year of woods living and foraging, and it still hasn’t needed sharpening. The odd shaped hilt has proven beyond extremely useful. It is very comfortable for foraging, skinning, cleaning fish, carving, and the swelling toward the back locks wet, cold hands in place. Reversed, the knife feels and functions something like the Alaskan ulu, perhaps the ultimate skinner. It’s only downside is it’s not a great self defense tool, should the need arise, but combine this knife with a good hatchet or small axe and you have a complete set of tools for every aspect of woods living. This knife has become my first choice for any foraging or hunting trip, or any time I expect to be the woods more than a day and will have a hatchet or axe with me.
Cold Steel Trail Master: I have spent a great deal of my life in the bush, and have the virtually unique distinction of having been charged by three grizzlies and five moose and lived to tell the tale. Ergo, I like to carry a knife sizeable enough to defend myself if the need arises, unlikely though it may be. So I like larger bush knives and tend to favor the traditional and versatile Bowie designs. And there is the simple fact that larger knives can combine the functions of a hatchet (though they should never replace one). A substantial but not-excessively-large knife is a jack-of-all-trades that can do it all.
I really wrestled with this choice because I have had several very good bowies, including the expensive and coveted Bark River Teddy II bowie. The Teddy II was so damned expensive at about $400 that I really wanted to give it top place, but after a year of field testing, I find it ties with the Trail Master. Each knife is slightly different, bringing a few pros and cons to the table.
The Trail Master is about 1.1″ longer than the Teddy II with a 9.5″ long blade with a hefty .33″ spine and a full flat grind (generally better for woodscraft). It is longer than the Bark River Teddy II yet doesn’t feel it because the balance is perfect. The squarish grip is very comfortable and secure. However, I have had two Trail Masters over the years and a weakness of the grip is the fairly soft polymer will wear fairly quickly. That texturing will vanish with a year of typical use. Eventually, the grip will wear so much it will have to be replaced. If you’re handy, you can easily make a replacement.
It’s construction is simple but stout; the handle is held in place by a brass nut. Pressure holds a brass guard in place. The O1 steel stains easily but resists rust well enough. Just oil it at the end of a day out. The sharply angled spine of the Trail Master also throws sparks a bit easier than the Teddy II.
The sheath of the Trail Master is just plain perfect, being a non-moisture retaining, fitted polymer that is very comfortable and versatile to carry. In fact, it is the best stock sheath I have ever seen, period! It’s lighter than kydex but about as durable.
And the Trail Master, around since the 1980’s and still a staple of Cold Steel, costs much less than the Tedd II. I bought mine on sale for $118. It’s usually closer to $200 here in Canada.
The Trail Master proves quality doesn’t have to come with a steep price.
Tops Air Wolfe: Clearly a tactical knife by design, it is actually very well suited to make an excellent all around hunting, fishing and woodscraft knife. It’s bowie shape lends to its all purpose practical use. At 11 inches total length, with a 3/16″ spine, it is about the right size for any task, from cleaning a trout to stripping twigs of wet bark, or even self defense in a pinch. Like many Tops knives, it is over built and the full thickness at the spine extends more than halfway down the vertical of the blade: a hefty saber grind. This adds unnecessary weight and makes the knife a bit of a pribar though not nearly so much as the ridiculous Becker BK2. Had this knife had a more of a full flat grind, I would rate it the equal of the Pasayten Lite Traveller, but with so much unnecessary metal, the knife loses a point. Also, as it’s original design intent is tactical, the clip point is more designed for piercing. You will have to practice to learn to skin and clean game or fish without piercing hide or organs, ergo the knife loses another point. But I consider it a close runner-up to the Pasayten Lite Traveller.
The other thing I did not like about this knife is the choil (the finger slot between the guard and edge). Choils are all the rage among knifemakers these days, and they are one of the most utterly useless, stupid notions to enter modern knife design since the Rambo-esque, saw-backed “survival knives” of the 1980s. Look, you can control your knife quite well by choking up to the front of the grip. All a choil does is take away edge and make the grip extend onto the blade–a total waste of the limited real estate of a knife. U.S.E.L.E.S.S. If the Air Wolfe wasn’t such an otherwise great design, I would have never bought it strictly on the basis that it wastes space with a choil. KNIFEMAKERS: STOP MAKING CHOILS! Make knives that work, not the claptrap that backyard warriors on Youtube tell you makes a good knife.
Despite its particular flaws, it is an extremely versatile and good knife that will last a lifetime. And, in brillant favor of this tool, it is the singularly most comfortable knife I have ever held, no matter what position you hold it in. The 1095 steel requires frequent oiling but the coating is extremely durable (I haven’t even been able to wear it yet), and it sharpens easily. The sheath it comes with, unfortunately, is fubar, and you’ll have to either modify it yourself or have a good one made. (The current sheaths are somewhat better quality. I added heavy duty snaps to mine and that made it useful.)
Bark River Teddy II
Without doubt, the other best bowie I have ever had, the knife recreates the traditional bowies of the 19th century. A bit shorter than other bowies I have used, it is 13.4″ long with an 8″ blade. The spine is very stout at .25″.
I find the A2 steel to be curious and sometimes perplexing. It’s a carbon steel that seems to stain as easily as any other, but it is less inclined to rust. And the natural patina that was on it after a year of hard use came right off when I cleaned the blade after sharpening with some residual grit from an 8000 Japanese water stone. I mean it came off as easily as sugar melts under running water; I wasn’t trying to remove it. I remain uncertain whether I am happy about this. So I decided to force another patina. I used hot apple cider, yet after a half hour (which can turn other carbon steels black) the A2 only became slightly gray. It did develop some lovely patterning, though, something like Damascus steel, though so faint it’s hardly visible.) However, all my research on A2 (a steel I am admittedly new to, this being my first knife in A2) indicates it’s very good stuff, not prone to corrosion or rust, and needing less maintenance than older carbon steels such as 1095. After a year of use in wet Nova Scotia, this has held true.
The hilt is in the old fashioned style of swelling at the middle, which can make the knife a bit awkward in the hand. Better would have been a squared hilt in the more modern style. Still, once you get used to it, you hardly notice. The G10 hilt is much tougher than the soft polymer hilt of the Trail Master, however, it is not grippy. Which is not to say it is slippery; the knife affords good purchase. I think it was a good move on the part of Bark River not to add texturing to the G10 as it always wears off. It doesn’t matter how it’s done, it always wears off. A smooth hilt wears much better.
The sheath is technically good, in that it’s top grain leather and durable enough. I know Bark River was going for a traditional sheath to match this traditional knife design, and in dry country that’s probably fine, but I don’t care for the sheath in this wet country. I replaced it with a durable Spec-Ops sheath, which has a kydex sleave in a nylon body. The Spec-Ops sheath is designed to shed moisture and I’ll feel much more secure carrying this very nice knife in it, especially on wet, humid days, which is 2 out of 3 days in Nova Scotia. I’ll probably never use the leather stock sheath again. I hate waste, so I hope I can find some other use for it. Perhaps a somewhat lesser quality or stainless knife might fit it.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the blade. It is not quite a flat grind but smoothly curves into its edge. This convex profile makes the strongest possible blade, a bit heavier than a full flat grind, but only by a fraction. Some weight is removed with the runnel near the spine, which is nice though you have to take extra care to clean it. But what I really like about this blade is the length. I find eight inches to be the ideal length for a field knife. It’s small enough to cook and eat with, as well as process game and fish, big enough to hack and chop with, and big enough for self defense. To me, eight inches is the perfect jack-of-all-trades blade length, not excelling at anything but doing everything a knife needs to do pretty damned well. Yet, it is very hard to find good eight inch blade knives for some odd reason. Because of the blade length, this is my favorite knife.
Conclusion: If I am going to be a while in the bush and weight isn’t a concern, I take the Pasayten and a hatchet. Same if I am going foraging: with a Pasayten and a hatchet, I can effectively harvest most anything. If I am concerned about weight or just going for a day hike, or anticipate only light foraging, I’ll take the Teddy II. It combines the usefulness of the Pasayten and a hatchet quite well while weighing less.