Best Everyday Carry Knife for 2024

Whether you are making a quick trip to the grocery store or are hitting the trails on a hunt, there are a handful of must-haves that should be included as part of your everyday carry gear. Other than a quality handgun, a good hunting or pocketknife should be with you wherever you go.

Our Guide to the 8 Best Knives for Everyday Carry

Retired Navy SEAL commander Richard Marcinko summed up my thoughts on the importance of knives for everyday carry in his famous quote “Knives are like credit cards; don’t leave home without ’em and always carry several”. With that said, it is important that you choose the right knife for your intended application. Here are the 8 best EDC pocket knives.

Why Should a Knife Be A Part of My EDC

A good knife is not simply a nice to have item. It is and always will be considered part of my essential EDC gear. A knife is such a versatile tool that is just as important to me as my wallet and firearm.

They have dozens of uses and are so easy to carry, which leaves excuses about not carrying a knife in short supply. Whether you need to open a package, cut a rope, loosen a screw, defend yourself, skin a deer, or render aid to someone that is trapped in a locked belt or harness, you can use a knife.

I have used a knife for most of these reasons before and believe me, I was grateful that I had a good quality blade when I did. With most knives weighing in at only a few ounces, you should be asking yourself if you can afford not to carry one.

Should I Buy a Hunting Knife or EDC Knife?

As you noticed from our review, knives can be incredibly unique in their features, dimensions, and blade styles (straight or serrated), and the cutting surface’s angle.

The easy solution to the problem created by having a wealth of options is to buy more knives. Something my wife will likely disagree with. However, I do own a knife for every day of the week and then some. It is nice to have a versatile jack-of-all-trades blade at arm’s reach.

With that said, choosing the best knife for you starts with deciding if you will primarily be using it as a pocket carry knife or as a field knife. We will look at the qualities of a great hunting knife and the best pocket knives for EDC. They each have a few common traits, like a good blade, but the other features are generally more distinct from one another.

What Makes a Great Hunting Knife

A great hunting or hiking knife needs to be rugged, hold a good edge, and easy to carry. By rugged, I mean onewiths a solid handle and s strong and thick blade that it will not easily break. A broken knife can ruin your trip in a hurry or worse, leave you without the tools you need when far from civilization.

On top of this, it needs to hold an edge. Lower quality blades are not as hard or wear-resistant, meaning that they need to be sharpened more frequently. While sharpening a knife is a normal part of its upkeep, you shouldn’t need to tighten up the edge in the middle of your average hunting or camping trip.

The last must for a great hunting knife is that it is easy to carry. This quality is more a matter of having a good sheath rather than the knife itself. However, an extremely long knife will be cumbersome and even downright impractical for some. The sheath needs to be well made, have a means of attaching it to a belt, and have some sort of retention device to keep your knife from falling out when navigating difficult terrain or climbing a tree stand.

What Makes a Great EDC Knife

Other than having a quality blade, a great EDC knife should be easy and comfortable to carry. It is for this reason that I much prefer a folding knife as opposed to a fixed blade knife for my day-to-day use. While a mid-length fixed blade knife like the KA-BAR Hunter will work well as an EDC with many clothing choices, it probably won’t pair well with khaki shorts and flip flops, and it definitely doesn’t mesh with gym shorts.

Folding pocket knives are available in tons of different blade styles and lengths, but I find that certain lengths and designs are far more practical than others. The blade should be long enough for cutting or as a last-ditch self-defense tool in dire situations. These concerns are why I don’t carry anything with a sub-2″ blade and usually stick with knives right around 3″ in blade length.

Features to Look for In a Knife

Even after you have narrowed down your search to either a field knife or an EDC knife, there are still a ton of features to consider when making your choice. Some decisions, like whether you want a fixed or folding knife, may be an easy decision.

Deciding what style of blade you want is probably a little more difficult and leaves you with questions like “What Is a Drop Point blade?”

These questions are more common than you might think and are an important part of your knife buying process. Unlike some other EDC items that you will only use in a life-or-death situation, you will probably use your knife all the time. It should be able to survive daily tasks while still being ready to go in an emergency.

Fixed vs. Folding

Making your pick between a fixed or folding blade is usually pretty easy once you have decided what you will be using the knife for most often.

Fixed blades are almost always used for hunting and outdoor applications because they provide superior strength. The larger, heavier blades found on most survival or outdoor knives would place a high amount of stress on a hinge, making them much more likely to fail if designed with a folding blade.

In addition, fixed blade knives are easy to deploy quickly because they simply need to be removed from the sheath, whereas folding knives have to be taken out of your pocket and then deployed. The primary downside of fixed blade knives is that they are not as easy to carry and must include a sheath.

Folding knives are geared towards ease of carrying while sacrificing overall blade length.

Folding knives will have finer, thinner blades that are not suitable for chopping. However, a good folding knife will excel at slicing or puncturing, which is necessary for a variety of emergency applications such as defending yourself or cutting through a seatbelt in a traumatic vehicle crash.

Blade Shape

The shape of your blade is one of the most overlooked features for most knife purchases.

A typical thought process among those new to the product category is that the knife simply needs to be sharp and of proper length. While these are a vital aspect of purchasing a good knife, the blade shape plays an important role in both its durability, ease of maintenance, and how well it cuts.

There are virtually endless blade shape variations available, so we will stick to the primary ones featured on our list. These blade styles were chosen because they are easy to care for and perform well.

Drop Point Blade

Found on the Wilson Combat, SOG Slimjim, and Outdoor Edge knives – is a commonly used hunting design and features a gentle slope on the blade’s spine that continues all the way down to the point.

The KA-BAR Hunter also features a drop-point. Technically the Mossy Oak Survival knife has a drop point, but it has serrations along the spine. The drop-point provides good strength and stability to the blade’s point and front end of the cutting surface, which is important for hunting purposes.

Tanto Blade

The S&W knife and the CRKT feature a Tanto blade, my personal favorite.

The pronounced high point and flat grind on the bottom side make the Tanto the superior choice for piercing but are effective for cutting as well, especially if you opt for one with a partially serrated blade. It is loosely modeled after the traditional Japanese short and long swords used in combat.

Kukri Blade

The last blade design featured in our review is the Kukri. The traditional Kukri blade was essentially a full-sized machete that has its roots in India and Nepal.

The scaled-down Kukri Combat maintains all the best qualities of the full-sized variant while providing the ease of carrying found in a fixed blade knife. It is great for chopping through the brush, cutting meat, and can even be used for things like opening metal cans.

Blade Edge: Serrated Vs. Straight

When discussing guns and gear, I try to avoid phrases like “always” and “never” because different tools are best suited for unique situations. However, if you told me that I had to choose between a straight or serrated blade, I would opt for a straight edge 10 out of 10 times.

This is because a straight-edged blade is best for personal protection and cleaning an animal. I can overcome the lack of serrations when trying to saw through a rope or cord, but I may only have one shot at the other tasks.

I typically opt for a drop point or tanto knife with a partially serrated cutting surface for most of my knife purchases. This choice gives me the benefits of both blade styles, but the serrations are more of a nice to have rather than a must.

Blade Material

All of the knives featured in our review incorporate a steel blade. This was not by accident. While you can find a few other blade materials for EDC applications that are great in terms of sharpness, such as ceramic or carbon fiber, they do not offer the same durability as a good old steel blade.

With that in mind, not all steel is created equal.

There are large variations in the quality of steel used in knives, which will affect how well it can hold an edge and how easy it is to sharpen. All of the knives on our countdown use good quality steel that is durable. However, the knives that incorporate alloy blades, such as the Wilson Combat knife offer top-level edge retention.

Handle Design and Material

When it comes to handle design, you should pay close attention to the hilt and ergonomics.

The hilt is the portion of the knife that separates the handle from the cutting edge of the blade and is very important when it comes to protecting your hand. Some of the knives on our list have a minimal hilt but make up for this with an inward curving design where your index finger will rest, which serves to protect your hand from sliding up onto the blade.

The larger hunting-style knives tend to have better insulation and padding on their handles. This is because you will be applying more force to the knife, which will in turn strain your grip. The Kukri Combat has one of the most protective handle designs because the violent chopping motion that it is intended for would wear at your hand otherwise.

The folding knives tend to incorporate a rougher, high-friction design pattern to aid your grip. This technique is highly effective with these smaller, more compact knives. The designs, such as the curve of the S&W or the “Starburst” on the Wilson Combat look pretty slick too, which doesn’t hurt their appeal.

Our Top Pick for A True Everyday Carry

I know you probably thought that I was going to pick a Tanto blade since it is my favorite style, but the hands-down winner of our roundup is the SOG Slimjim.  The Slimjim features what I consider to be an ideal blade length, coming in at just over 3″. This blade length and its ability to hold and edge make it versatile enough for field use, general tasks, and self-defense. If you are looking for a dependable EDC knife, you will not be disappointed in the SOG Slimjim.