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Essential Knives for your Adventures

Ergonomic grips, stylish finishes, and reliable cuts are all here with these knives.

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Gear Aid Kotu Tonto Knife

Most durable knife

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Gear Aid Kotu Tonto Knife

OUR TAKE 

This knife punches way above its price tag. It has a tapered tip that helps with making holes, a serrated edge, a glass breaker on the handle, and a bottle opener. Most budget knives are nickel-plated and don’t last very long, but the titanium coating on this one has held up to six months of use. We used its 3-inch blade to cut kindling and never had an issue with durability. Find it here.

TRAIL CRED 

“I love the locking sheath,” one tester says. “I tumbled down a hill in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains and lost just about everything in the yard sale except my knife.” 

SOG PowerPint

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SOG PowerPint

OUR TAKE 

Ounce for ounce, the PowerPint is one of the most useful tools we’ve tested. It stuffs 18 functions into a package that weighs less than this magazine, and pairs them with smart design: locking mechanisms for each individual tool and access to the file, can opener, screwdrivers, saw, and blades without opening the pliers. Testers also praised the PowerPint’s strength. “I put a lot of pressure on the pliers while I was repairing a stove, but they held up,” one reports. Buy it today.

TRAIL CRED 

“This tool has the smoothest action I’ve ever seen,” one tester says. “While fashioning a hasty fishhook out of barbed wire, I was able to open, operate, and close the pliers with just one hand, while I held the rod with the other.”

Kershaw Atmos 4307

Lightest knife

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OUR TAKE When a knife this light hangs tough for a 2,650-mile thru-hike, it’s a keeper. Our tester used the Atmos almost every day on the Pacific Crest Trail. Credit the locking mechanism, which uses a thin strip of steel riveted to the interior of the handle; it keeps the 3-inch blade stable when open, but without the bulk and weight of traditional liner construction. The handle, made with fiberglass, cloth, and carbon-fiber composite, also shaves weight while remaining tough and easy to handle. Get this here.

TRAIL CRED “The steel blade kept its edge for a long time before it needed sharpening,” our thru-hiking tester says, “even after I used it to cut slits in my shoes to relieve hot spots.”

Outdoor Element Firebiner

Best gadget

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Outdoor Element Firebiner

OUR TAKE 

Backpackers like carabiners. Backpackers love carabiners that make fire. The stainless-steel Firebiner will bring out your inner caveman: It has a built-in spark wheel with a 2,000-strike capability. It also has a flathead screwdriver and bottle opener, plus a safety blade in a notch that cuts through cord and fishing line. The biner isn’t rated for climbing, but can easily support a full multiday pack. Buy it here.

TRAIL CRED 

“The Firebiner is basically foolproof, and it always throws a spark with the first spin,” one tester says. “It’s easier than most dedicated firestarters I’ve used.”

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