Bubba Sculpin Pocket Knife

Our take This high-quality folding knife costs a fraction of what its competitors go for. A liner lock and plastic handle help keep the Sculpin’s price down, leaving room in the budget for a high-carbon, 4-inch stainless steel blade that has endured more than seven months of testing without needing any sharpening or suffering any major wear. One tester even used it to fashion a bat from notoriously hard hickory so his kids could play backcountry baseball in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest. Knives in this price range usually can’t stand up to that type of work, but the Sculpin made it look—and feel—easy.

Trail cred “The Sculpin’s angled, straight-edged blade was just right for scaling my rainbow trout catch and precisely separating the meat from the bones,” one tester says. 5.3 oz.