The 20 Best Knives Ever Made
by David E. Petzal
Roughly 2 million years ago, a particularly bright specimen of Homo habilis needed to cut something
and decided to invent the knife. We've come a long way since then. And for the last 40 years we've
been experiencing something of a boom in the development of ever better knives. Here are 20 knives
that I consider great - head and shoulders above the competition.
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2. Russell Canadian Belt Knife: In 1958 Dean Russell, a Canadian cutlery-store owner, designed a knife,
and he chose Grohmann Cutlery in Pictou, Nova Scotia, to make it. His creation had an elliptical blade
and a slightly offset, slender rosewood handle. He called it the Canadian Belt Knife, and it was pure
genius. Russell's knife could gut, skin, or cape. It was comfortable in any hand and could be held in
any position, and its pouch-style belt sheath moved with you. There are all sorts of copies of the
Russell Canadian Belt Knife, mostly bad. But none of them are better than the original - a true work
of edged inspiration.
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10. Marble's Ideal: Webster Marble introduced the Ideal Hunting Knife in 1899, and it was arguably the
first knife designed for the sport hunter. Marble's Ideal was, in fact, ideal, and made of excellent
steel. Marble utilized a wide fuller, or groove, in the blade to save weight. The Ideal was around
for a long time. It was made on and off from 1899 to 1974. Then it went into eclipse until 2007, when
it was reintroduced. Old Ideals in good condition and with their original sheaths can be worth a lot of
money; collectors will pay you $10,000 for some examples - not bad for knives that originally sold
for $1.25.
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17. Nessmuk Knife: Nessmuk was the pen name of George Washington Sears, a diminutive man who canoed the
Adirondacks and wrote about it in the 1880s. Sears was probably the first outdoor writer to pay serious
attention to the development of light gear, and the tools he carried reflected it: a small,
double-bitted hatchet, a two-blade jackknife, and a fixed blade of his own design that has forever
taken his name. It's a thin 5-inch blade with a pronounced skinning curve and a dropped point, no hilt,
and an antler or wood handle. If you're looking for a good one, the Bark River Lil' Nessy (shown),
available through A.G. Russell Knives, is a splendid example of Nessmukery.
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18. Woodsman's Pal: This odd-looking tool goes back to 1941, when Fredrick Ersham put it on the market
after 10 years of development. The original had a leather-washer handle and a D-ring guard like a
cutlass. The modern version utilizes a hardwood handle and no guard; otherwise it is unchanged. You
can use the Pal as a brush hook, machete, knife, shovel, and axe. There's little you can't do with it.
It's affordable, light for its abilities, and indestructible. It and I are about the same age. I think
it will outlast me by quite a margin.
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