Light My Fire Swedish FireKnife

www.lightmyfire.com
This ingenious creation might as well have been plucked from the overactive imagination of our adolescent past: How do you make a great knife even better? Add fire!!! But perhaps it’s better that we found it now, when we’re (arguably) more mature.  Light My Fire, a Swedish company dedicated to easily starting fires (and manufacturers of some cool camp kitchen products) paired with Mora of Sweden, who’ve been making high-quality knives for more than 120 years. The result? A camp-friendly knife with a sturdy, profile-grounded blade made of 12C27 stainless steel mounted on a comfortable, grippy rubber handle. The firestarter is mounted at the base; a small twist, and you’ll find the FireSteel. Draw that across the blade and the shower of sparks will ignite your campfire or gas stove, even in wet conditions. The knife clicks satisfactorily into the hard plastic sheath, and a belt loop makes it easy to carry the FireKnife pretty much anywhere you go. (Note to self: We don’t always need to take it with us.)

Product Type
Knives
Good For
,
Tested In
Backpacking in Dolly Sods Wilderness, Backyard BBQing

Benchmade 530 Folding Knife

www.benchmade.com
We’ll always love our multi-tools, but there’s something engagingly simple and graceful about a well-crafted knife.  The Benchmade 530 achieves our Platonic ideal of the flip-knife, with its spear-point blade made of 154cm stainless steel, an ambidextrous thumb-stud opener, horizontal “scales” along its svelte black handle, and reversible steel pocket clip. At a feathery 1.88 ounces, it’s one of the lightest, most trail-friendly knives on the market, with a 3.25-inch blade that’s long enough for all back- and sidecountry uses—cooking, light camp work, and the like, and Benchmade’s proprietary Axis locking mechanism will help prevent the slim chances of user error. For more rugged applications, you should upgrade to the 530S, which adds a serrated edge on the lower half of the blade for deeper cutting.  Either way, you’ll likely spend almost as much time using the knife as you will admiring its craftsmanship.  As one tester—who had used only a give-away utility knife until he found the 530—said simply, “This is a knife.”

Product Type
Knives
Good For
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Tested In
Dolly Sods Wilderness, Lost River State Park, WV; Bend, OR

McNett Samish Outdoor and Dive Knife

www.mcnett.com, 4.5 ounces
Whether you’re swimming with sharks or simply setting up camp, you’ll be glad you have the Samish at your side. Hewn from corrosion-resistant 420 stainless steel, the stiletto-tipped three-inch blade has a serrated edge for sawing and a traditional straight edge for cutting. There’s also a notch for cutting fishing lines or cord. The well-balanced knife has a molded nylon scabbard that’s designed for mounting on a vest, belt, or leg. The 3.75-inch molded nylon grip fits well into your hand, with no slipping. We like the fact that the knife can be completely disassembled for cleaning. Also, the sheath comes off with a quick flick of the thumb, making it easy to use with one-hand.

Product Type
Knives
Good For
, , , ,
Tested In
Steens Mountains, OR

L.L. Bean 100 Year Anniversary Swiss Army Knife

www.llbean.com
A hundred years ago, a pocketknife was an essential piece of everyday equipment. From cutting twine to peeling an apple, everyone carried one (and every young boy aspired to own one). In celebration of 100 years of supplying outdoor adventurers, L.L. Bean has brought back some of their own time-honored classics. The two-inch anniversary pocket knife is hewn from sustainably-harvested Swiss walnut, so each knife has a unique, beautiful grain. The walnut case is contoured to fit snug into your hand, with a groove exactly where your thumb wants to rest. Despite its pocket-friendly size, inside are 11 stainless-steel tools, including a Philips head and standard screwdriver, cork screw, bottle and can opener, file, hole punch, and a sharp, nearly 2-inch blade. Both the blade and case have L.L. Bean’s 100-year commemorative logo—making it a special present. Trouble is, you’ll want to buy one for yourself, too.

Product Type
Knives
Good For
, ,
Tested In
A Century of Whittling Wood, Peeling Apples, Fixing Toys and Opening Packages.

Wenger Ueli Steck Special Edition Knife

www.wengerna.com,  four ounces
We love products that are built with input from of hardcore outdoor athletes. Not because our skill levels are equal to theirs, but because their insight into what makes something perfect means the product will never fail us. So when Wenger announced a partnership with alpine climber, Ueli Steck, we took notice. The result? Pretty damn impressive. Wenger’s Special Edition Knife is built to Steck’s rigorous specifics—which makes it more of a tool that just another knife.  The titanium blade is 50 percent thicker than standard blades, making it one of the strongest available. The 65 mm blade is partially serrated near the base, which adds to the cutting power. The knife boasts a long metal file, regular head screwdriver/bottle opener, a can opener/wire stripper, and a variety of hex keys (7, 10, and 13 mm) that slide into the grooves of the knife blade for loads of torque.  The soft pouch also carries a quarter-inch bit adapter as well as the flat- and Philips-head screwdriver bit, making it one of the most versatile tools on the market, even with a modest 2.3-inch length (when closed).   The handle even has a nice Ueli Steck graphic—it won’t make you climb the Eiger in under three hours, but it’ll perform admirably whenever you need it. We do wish the blade was easier to unfold one-handed; your thumb fits into the large hex in the knife blade, which allows you to flick it open—but we’ve seen other models that perform this action more smoothly for on-the-go, quick access.

Product Type
Knives, Multi-Tools
Good For
, , ,
Tested In
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