Before I lost it while climbing out of a canal lock on a long boat trip down the Atlantic coast, my long-term EDC blade—an older version of the Gerber Harsey Air Ranger that’s no longer made—had done it all. With that single blade, I had cleaned deer, ducks, squirrels, and a wild hog; carved fuzz sticks; and removed a rotten toenail in the Canadian backcountry. It still cleaned up nicely enough to cut a wedding cake when the caterer failed to bring her own knife.
But I’ll confess: I will cheat on a knife in a sharp skinny minute. And I encourage you to find and fall in love with a single EDC knife that becomes an extension of your hand—not to mention your pants pocket. But there are simply too many awesome knives out there to tie yourself down to a single blade because no one knife does everything well. My current EDC knife is a Giant Mouse Ace Grand, whose brawny blade isn’t the best at breasting out wood ducks. I could butcher a deer with it, but it wouldn’t be easy. Or pretty. But it handles eight out of 10 cutting duties like a champ. For the other two duties, I have more than a hundred other knives from which to choose. Lucky me.
Speaking of which, here are seven of the best knives to keep in your blade quiver. If you can’t get it done with one of these, you probably shouldn’t be doing it anyway.
It is a link farm, but Field and Stream is not one of my regular content sources. A pretty decent list with some atypical models listed. I can only really quibble with the EDC folder. I think there have been several better this year. Opinel No 8 seems like an odd choice for camp cooking but is a very versatile knife for sure.
Read the whole thing at FieldandStream.com
https://www.fieldandstream.com/outdoor-gear/hunting/knives/best-knives