What's up guys this is black scout survival and today this video we're going to discuss on how to choose a survival knife and you know the i guess the what everybody says is the best uh the best survival knife is a survival knife you have on you and.

If that were you know the case then you want to buy a quality tool and that's why we're going to say you know how to choose a survival knife and not exactly say what is the best survival knife in uh most situations you know a lot of people like myself carry a folder of some sort and you know i.

Wouldn't really want to depend on this as my survival knife i mean if i had to this is better than using a sharp rock you know but it has a joint here that could break and you don't want that in a survival knife so my choice is a fixed blade tool uh with a full tang and.

I want it to be tough and there's a few features that i'm looking for whenever i choose a knife and i kind of want to go over what my opinion is on how i choose a survival knife basically you need to ask yourself two questions what is the outcome of your knife is it you know a one tool option.

Um what other tools are you going to be carrying with you um to facilitate that knife and you know what is uh you know is it going to be a game cleaning knife is it going to be a straight survival knife is it going to be a control knife you know all these questions are going.

To be need to be answered prior to you know you choosing a knife like for instance um in on my when i kayak i carry a knife affixed to my vest that is a serrated blade with a uh doesn't have a pointed tip as a dull tip basically so i can't injure myself or puncture the kayak and also the serrated.

Blade is to cut through um you know rope or anything i may get caught up in very quickly you know to keep from drowning now would i want that in a wilderness scenario no so that's what i mean by you know what is the knife going to be doing you know and what what type of situation is going to be a tactical situation are you in.

The military and you need a tactical blade a lot of these things are going to need to be you know tailor made to the application but you know is it going to are you going to be in a desert environment you're going to be an arctic environment you're going to be in a jungle environment you know whereas a machete.

May work better for some in uh you know jungle environment in a desert environment you may just need something like a more knife so a lot of these things we're going to talk about the other thing is is uh you know the best survival knife i said this is not that video but a lot of people say you know the.

Best survival knife you know maybe amor or something like that but i really don't agree with that philosophy because the moral can break and we'll kind of talk about this i have a couple bushcraft knives over here and the rest of these are survival knives and i'm going to kind of talk about the.

Difference between the two as well but my opinion you know your survival knife should be where the majority of your money is spent so you know by quality and by once you know people i hear a lot of people complain about the prices of knives but you know what save up save your money you know if.

It takes you a year to get that knife that you want to trust your life with it may take that long you know you want to buy quality and and for me there's a few things i look for as far as steel and that's really makes my decision uh and and basically the ergonomics but.

Basically i like you know for my survival knives these are survival when i was here i like a knife and a four to six inch blade length range and the reason why that is is because you know through my experience that is the optimal blade length you know three inch blade is going to be a compromised.

Blade uh eight inch blade is going to be you know better facilitated for chopping and not so much for making you know trap triggers or whatnot can it be done yes but the 46 inch blade length is what i really look for again i also like a full tang meaning.

That the the length of the knife goes straight through the handle so it's one solid piece of steel and i like steals like uh cpm3v i like um.

S30v s35v i like you know lmax and i like uh cpm154 you know like the black bird here but i like very tough steels i do use 1095 on occasion and and me personally until my mind changes i really only use uh esee knives when i use 1095 because they have a lifetime warranty i break it no.

Matter if i put in a vice and and and cut it with a blow torch and send it back to them i'm going to get a new knife now another thing is is going to be your you know cost you know how much you can afford you know i understand not everybody's going to afford a uh you.

Know a custom knife so you know something like the becker bk2 although this isn't my favorite knife but you know you can get this knife for about 70 bucks 60 bucks and you know it'll do the job it's a one tool option it's not good at everything but it's good at most things now.

I like my carta as my handle length and i really prefer a non-coated blade you know unless it's uh like essie knife where you know it's 1095 and could rust you know you're gonna have to you know get a cutter blade but you know if i do get coatings i'm gonna choose.

Something that has this like nitride coating or something like that like you know this andrew jordan knife here and it's uh you know the the finish on this knife doesn't prohibit it from striking a ferro rod or anything like that and it's very good coating very smooth and it doesn't stop it from battani you know but.

You know for a tactical situation you may need a coated blade because you won't be shining you know have a shiny blade but this uh like you know like go down the line here you know this is the andrew jordan black scouting knife you know andrew jordan designed this knife uh.

You know really for uh me and him did some talk and he designed this knife for me a few years ago and it's a very awesome knife has a lot of smile features you can watch the video on this knife but you'll notice this has a guard here because the reason why that is is because this can also be used in a tactical situation.

Whereas you're for knife fighting in a knife fighting situation you want something to stop your hand in case you do stab someone you sew your hand and run across the blade you know but understand that you know everybody can afford a custom knife like this this is sandwich damascus and it's you know beast of a knife.

Survive knives gso6 uh i'm sorry gso977 you know this is a cpm3v very you know good knife six inch blade length and uh you know full tang good knife obviously like i said the bk2 then we.

Have se5 se5 and the bk2 are very similar that's why i have them beside each other if i had to choose one over the other i'd definitely go with sc because it may cost a little bit more but you know the handles on this quite honestly are not that good so you have to upgrade them.

Um in my opinion so you might as well just get the sc and have that lifetime warranty this is a survive knives gso 5.1 and this is a cpm3v as well full tang you know my car to handles and anything from survive really i enjoy i like everything they're putting out then i have the sk5 blackbird sk5 made.

By ontario and this is was designed by paul scheider has a sharp spine and it's a flat ground knife you know like something like this like a saber grind you can see the difference here where the blade kind of goes up to right here and then flattens out whereas this.

Is a full flat grind and full flat grinds to me i like them a lot because they'll cut through wood much better and they seem to baton somewhat better but the saber has a lot more strength because the central line here so uh you know in my opinion this is like one of the best knives you can get for.

Your money is you know a production knife so you're not paying the custom knife price but uh production-wise this is probably one of the best that i've seen this is a martin knives t3 sear designed for military sear operations and i really like it as s35vn very tough knife.

You know good size feels good in the hand this is a gso 4.1 awesome knife also this is an m390 and i've like this knife very good very small i can do a lot of stuff with it and in most situations i'll you know carry something like this when i'm backpacking or camping or.

Whatnot but again you know you got you know full-on hand forged knives like andrew jordan where he this you know was made all by hand the whole entire knife then you have you know custom knives like survive or semi-custom where you know a lot of uh you know personal touch is you know put into.

Making these knives like also like the martin t3 sear then you have your production knives like bk2 sc and the black bird obviously the production house is gonna be a lot cheaper then you look at uh bushcraft knives and you know with the survival knife uh i feel like um real quick if i get to the bushcraft again i feel like a two.

Knife system or three knife system is the best thing you know i may carry something like you know this and this and i can do a lot more stuff because the one two option you know we can try to make it happen but in reality one knife can't do everything you know that's why i believe in a two or three knife system.

Now bushcraft knives they're a lot smaller designed for camp chores and the deal with them is that you know these aren't survival knives these are used to use with you know saws or axes or whatnot so these can be smaller knives you know i got the lt right here i've.

Got a couple moras and i got a heli harding here so these knives are designed to use with other tools you know i wouldn't want to depend on these as my only you know cutting tool see the difference between a survival in a bushcraft situation survival is that you're trying to get out of the.

Wilderness something bad is happening you're trying to get out and get to safety bushcraft is you're going into the wilderness to go do you know sustainable living so you have a different format for you know both of these type of tools but hopefully you know this helps you with your you know decision making.

Process as far as buying a survival knife or even a bushcraft knife understand that you need to know what the application of the knife is what you're going to be doing with it and understand that you know buy quality and and buy it once but uh if you got questions or comments please leave them in the box below check.

Out blackscoutssurvival.com for more tips and tutorials and if you haven't subscribed please subscribe and as always thanks for watching