Best Folding Knives

When I set out looking for folding knives to test and compare this year, I did my best to step away from past conventions and practices. To do this, I looked at brands and styles that we haven’t necessarily worked with before but garnered our attention and could possibly earn a place in your pocket or pack. This approach also allowed me to take some of the focus off of pricing. In the past, we’ve tried to compare apples to apples in terms of retail pricing, but I thought it would be interesting to see how a $20 knife faired when compared to a $300 knife and even a $500 knife.

All in all, after testing out a pile of folding knives, these are the best of the best based on their construction, durability, ease of use, blade edge retention, and the overall experience I had in testing them long term. After all, formalized testing only gets you about 80% of the way there—you can’t truly review a knife until you rely on it in real life. Don’t let anyone try and convince you otherwise.