20 Best Pocket Knives For Self Defense (2023 Updated)

Knife is excellent made well, love the locking feature…And the best part…Made in the U.S.A..

I bought this knife about one month ago to cut twine off large hay bales and it has done a good job and was not expensive. It holds an edge as well or better than the very expensive knives I have used.

We do a fair bit of camping in Alberta, and the kids have long wanted a pocket knife to whittle and fiddle with. I had been anxious to get them something pointy–even something small–and so had been putting them off.

When I came across these knives I knew I had found a compromise I was comfortable with. Economical, easy for kids to open, with a twist-lock to prevent it closing again. My only rule is that they must wear cut-resistant gloves while using the knives (which are easy to come by–even stretchy knit gloves would work).

I was looking for a camping knife for a long time, and heard great things about this one. I got it because it’s quite light, but still has a long enough blade. Only took one star off because the quality doesn’t feel amazing.

The blade feels a little cheap, but then a better blade would probably weigh more. The leather strap is a nice addition, since I can attach it to my backpack, instead of having to find a secure but reachable place to put it!.

I highly recommend that you buy a Case XX Sodbuster with surgical stainless steel carbon blade. It’s razor sharp and holds a great edge. I tested it out by shaving the hair off my leg. Case XX Sodbuster Carbon blade black handle was all my dad ever carried.

He carried his in his pocket for 30 years and told me that if I ever found one to buy it, because Case stopped making them in the Carbon blades. Also the Case XX Sodbuster Carbon blades stay sharper and hold a edge alot longer than a stainless steel blade.

Service from Academy was stellar. Quick turnaround and shipping. The knife is good quality, but it doesn’t possess that definable “click” on open/close. Good, just not “great”.

This is very much a “you get what you pay for” kind of knife. I very much wanted a sodbuster style knife, and this is one of the best. Sodbusters are meant to be cheap and rugged. This absolutely fits that description and out of the box it was razor sharp.

This knife is easy to carry, and quite useful. It is a good starter knife for a child or grandchild. It is also quite sufficient to meet most needs of us adults. The price is good. The quality is good.

I’m glad to have it in my collection.

It’s so rare to find any good products that are still made in the USA. And when you can get a quality knife like this, made in America, for a great price – it’s a no-brainer! I had one or two small Buck knives as a kid.

Now, I have a number of quality folding knives from Benchmade and Spyderco, and some fixed-blade knives from Gerber, and I’m very happy to add this one to my stable. This knife has heft to it, which is not a bad thing.

It has a presence when it’s in your hand. The fit and finish is excellent. The blade is very sharp. It feels rock solid when locked open. It’s beautiful to look at. And it comes with a quality leather holster.

It also has Buck’s “Forever Warranty. ” For the price, it’s quite a value, IMO. Buying from Swiss Knife Shop was smooth and delivery was extremely fast!! I also got my name personalized onto the blade.

Oh and almost forgot, this year (2022) is the 50th anniversary of the Buck 112 Ranger knife, and as a commemmoration of that, Buck is putting an “anvil” mark on the blade with a “50” inside of it. Pretty nice! All for the price of a standard Ranger knife.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with this knife or with Swiss Knife shop!.

I own a few OTF and OTS automatics by some very good knife makers, and they’re great knives. The regular Buck 110 in and of itself is a classic must own. The Buck 110 auto is phenomenal! This is absolutely in competition with any of the autos by the high end makers.

Deploys quickly and it has an absolutely solid lock once deployed. ZERO concerns about the blade closing in any situation or environment you deploy it. And it’s extremely sharp. If your a knife collector or just looking for a great everyday dependable auto you’d be crazy not to buy this one.

Really like the the addition of the drop point to the Slim Select lineup. It’s durable and less “pointy” looking when you need to break out your knife to do a cutting task in public. Plus, who doesn’t love a drop point? Quality control at Buck is hit and miss these days, but the sample I received this time was good.

The Slim Selects seem to be on point more often than the traditional 110s/112s. I have received a 110 SS that was badly over ground on the secondary bevel, so watch for that. The edge should be level with the bottom of the choil and not deeper.

Love these light weight Bucks. I hope they release the drop points in some interesting colors so I can spend more money.

I have received several items from you and they have been good. It is not a bad reflection on you. You receive these wrapped and boxed and unseen before shipping. I have several case knives and consider them the standard for slip joint knives especially.

The knife was a nice beautiful example of a case but the sheild (which are glued in now) was so poorly seated to the point of actually cutting my hand when gripping and sliding along the handle. I have spent some time sanding and polishing the shield to make it managable but it is an ugly mess.

Such a shame. It I hope it is not their common quality control performance. I am still a case fan but I will physically see and handle any future case purchases. Thanks for your interest. Respectfully dwain4311.

Im at war with all the imported junk. Its comforting to know that theres still a high quality American-made pocket knife still in existence. Before retirement I carried an Old Timer stockman at work but I packed a Case 6233SS on the weekends, when I might have on a suit or attended a party.

The small 2-blade design was just right for cleaning fingernails, opening a letter, cutting the ribbon on a wrapped gift or removing a stray thread on a jacket while still requiring so little pocket real estate.

The high-polish and precision assembly is impressive to the touch and the eye. To be perfectly picky, the only flaw was the factory grind on the blades which were coarse and unrefined. Still only a proper strapping was required to produce razor edge.

The perfect compliment to the well-equipped grandfather.

Beautiful bone handle and great Case workmanship–with a few “but”s. Case’s medium stockman design is compact–and challenging to execute without interference between the blades. I CAREFULLY bent my spey blade so it would pass the sheep foot blade with less interference.

I dressed and polished the edges of both blades and now you can feel the catch of the spey in the sheep foot’s pull. but only slightly. The clip blade’s spring is a bit weak, so it doesn’t close with an authoritative snap.

Finish scratches betray a little interference between the clip and sheep foot blades, too. Feeling blades rubbing against each other is irritating in a high-end knife. I wish Case would make the sheep foot with a slight offset and add about 0.

010″ to the middle spacer. Still, it’s an outstanding knife. Beware that it’s chrome vanadium (carbon steel) and susceptible to rust. But it’s a real beauty and feels great in the hand.

In my opinion, one of the best size and weight for EDC. Considering its pocket paper clip and Spyderco standard clip, this almost has deep carrying profile. Flipper tab takes some time to get use to due to the required friction.

I highly recommend this wonderful little utility knife for the replaceable blades, but MOSTLY for the lock-blade feature!!! When you get replacement blades, be sure to get the type called ‘Sheepfoot’, regarding the shape of the top-front edge.

These are twice as thick as the cheaper variety and maintain the edge much better. PLUS, it is much easier to sharpen when your blade gets a little dull. OH YEAH! THAT’S RIGHT!! There is NO REASON to just throw away the OLD and insert a NEW.

Just sharpen that dull blade and you’re good as new, so-to-speak. For you folks who can’t seem to get ‘the hang’ of sharpening, just think of it like this: USE THIS KNIFE FOR LEARNING HOW TO PROPERLY SHARPEN BLADES! I mean, so you RUIN the old dull blade, right? No biggie; just replace with a new blade.

RIGHT? I found out about this great knife on the David West YouTube channel. If you want to know EVERYTHING about the use of this wonderful knife AND fire making, check him out.

I wrote this last night. but I couldn’t tell if it was saved before the site froze up. Sorry if this is a repeat. If it is, perhaps a moderator can remove one of them. ________ I’ve started to get into woodworking with hand tools.

I wanted a good marking knife. For a couple of years I used an old pocket knife with a broken blade which I ground down to a very thin point — it worked fine, but I lost it. Paul Sellers swears by this small Stanley.

I decided to get one. The blade that comes with this knife (11-040) is OK. Just OK, not super sharp as described in the 5-star reviews. The diagonal, beveled (non-sharp) end of the sheepsfoot style blade is very rough, but a few seconds on sandpaper will smooth it.

The cutting edge can be refined on a diamond stone, plus a few strokes on a strop. Don’t get me wrong, the blade is sharp enough, right out of the box, to do a decent job for anyone who isn’t a perfectionist, or trying to cut clean, deep knife walls for a dovetail joint.

So OK, I’m a perfectionist. But if you use this knife a lot, you WILL have to sharpen (or replace) the blade often — it’s just a medium-quality stainless steel, not one of the super-steels with great edge retention.

But it isn’t the blade that caused me to give a 3-star rating. It’s the knife handle, which is poorly cast. Long ago, it appears that the handles for this knife were made of cast metal (aluminum?) and by all reports, they were very good.

The handle on the current knife is made of an epoxy resin — that doesn’t mean it’s bad, but the tolerances are sloppy, and the blade isn’t held steady. The pivot is not strong, and where the blade protrudes from the handle, the gap between the two handle pieces is about twice the thickness of the blade, so there is quite a bit of wobble.

I’m not going to return the knife. It will serve it’s purpose. I may decide to put a thin wedge in the opening, and just leave the blade open. But I’m not really happy with the product.

Its a convenient small size. Best part is the positive locking open of the blade. Whether for cutting cardboard, or marking dovetails, its great to feel the blade wont slip, like other retractable utility knives can.

I have a good quality folding, retractable utility knife, and it has the unfortunate habit of the blade extend detent slipping, especially if you accidentally put your index finger on the blade retract button, instead of the solid index finger rest provided ahead of that button.

I dont care to dis either tool, but I must say, Im happy to have a tool with a positive open lock. The only slight downside, is one-handed closing of the knife is not possible. Im happy to pay that price for a tool with a positive open lock ability.

As long as you keep the back of your fingers away from the sharp part of the blade when closing, I think youll be happy! I am! ! Added later: As I get more adept at closing the knife, the two-handed closing is not an issue.

I prefer the Sheepsfoot blade, STANLEY No. 11-040 rather than the exact-o-knife style blade (11-041). Both are good. I assume the former gives more control at the tip.

This is a nice, very inexpensive pocket knife that you can add to your Keychain without adding a lot of bulk. It isn’t big, it isn’t a Swiss army knife. But it is sharp and always handy when you need to cut some twine while you’re in the garden, cut line when you’re fishing, or when you needed to trim a dangling thread and can’t find scissors.

that sort of thing. I’ve used it to cut flowers from my garden. For the price you can lose it and not fret about it. Do know that places that inspect your bags will still be able to tell its a pocket knife and may need to confiscate it.

Again. for the price it won’t be a big deal.

Stainless steel blade and frame minimizes corrosion. Unsure of mainspring finish; time will tell. Blade does not wobble. Locking mechanism is positive. Serrated section good for rope. Worth the difference compared to brass model (have both).

As good as the Schrade version. Only negative is it is not domestic, neither is the Schrade though. Features are well thought out.

I own two of these. They are great hunting knives. The first one became my “go to” knife for dressing game. I keep the second one as a spare. The gut hook works. The saw blade is great for cutting through the pelvic bone of a deer.

All three blades are surgical steel of the highest quality. The knife blade is easy to sharpen and holds an edge. I use a diamond sharpener and hone the blade at an angle of 15 degrees. If you strop the sharpened blade on leather this knife will shave.

I prefer not to strop, as a slightly rough cutting edge cuts meat better. Just holding this knife in your hand gives you confidence in it. It has a solid feel and a slight heft. There is no play in the blade hinges.

It is a classic “Case. ” It folds to protect its edges. It slightly bigger than typical “pocket” knives but takes up less space than a belt knife. I highly recommend this knife.

This is a solid knife made in the USA in Bradford PA. I like the 3 blade design and the overall size. It fits nicely in the pocket. I used it the first week I had it to field dress a spring gobbler. It is very sharp right out of the box.

The only downside to ordering a knife like this online is you cannot see the coloration on the bone handle. Each set of scales is unique to the individual knife. If I had seen this one in person I may gave asked to see another one.

I have several of these antique bone Case knives and this one has the plainest scales. It the scales had been more vibrant it would have got 5 stars.

This is a very well-made utility knife that is low profile (almost to a fault because it has no thumb catch for opening the blade) and is lightweight. I was hesitant to purchase because of the pricetag, but after 3months of daily use (building houses), I say it is well worth the price.

There are two main attributes of a utility knife: Form and Function, to which there are few downsides in either for this product. The most noteworthy features are the slim design which makes this easy to carry around clipped onto front pocket and the way the frame surrounds the blade there is ~50% of the blade edge usable! Pros vs Cons Lightweight/Slim frame | No thumb catch Uses ALL of the blade! |requires screwdriver to change the blade Clips on/off pants easily|.

I am in construction and carry a utility knife in my front pocket daily. They are a must-have in the field that I am in. I like them fairly thin so that they will fit in my front pocket with the clip on the outside in the knife in the pocket so that it does not catch on anything in Fallout accidentally.

This knife is by far the smallest that I have ever owned. It does fit a standard utility blade but is still much smaller than a standard folding utility knife. I like it because you barely even know it is there.

My only complaint is the release mechanism on the inside of the knife is a little difficult at times to release but not too difficult to keep me from using it. It would be better if it had a button on the end for the release but it is still fine the way it is.

It will prevent accidental release. It is worth buying and when this one wears out I will probably continue buying them. As far as durability I’ve only had it a couple weeks and we will see but so far so good.

This knife is the gold standard for lock back folding knives since 1964. The blade has changed it’s metal since the beginning but the knife is the same. All of the folding hunter style of knives have been modeled after the impeccable design of the classic Buck 110.

This knife comes nicely polished and shaving sharp right from the factory and it’s covered by Bucks forever warranty, that’s for life! I broke the tip on one of the two 110’s I own and I sent it back for a reshaping (for a modest fee because of abuse) and it returned completely fine, looking even better than new and as sharp as can be.

I could have had the blade replaced but I wanted to preserve the year marking’s for the year I purchased it and a new blade would have a different date stamp. Overall you won’t find a better knife company to deal with than Buck and I highly recommend this product.

I have included a couple of photos of the broken knife that was repaired by Bucks skillful technicians.

Arrived mint in box. Comes razor sharp and includes multiple carry options. Fit and finish are excellent. Ergonomics are very good, too. The tab retention system in use does not make any noise when deploying the blade, as it does not depend on snaps or hook & loop fasteners.

The adjustable tension on the sheath proper is a bit of overkill. Otherwise, a quality dagger and sheath from a reputable manufacturer.

So far it seems like a great knife. my only complaint thus far is the handle seems small. im not a large man, with large hands, more average i would say, but with the handles on it doesnt feel secure.

I know you can take em off to save weight. i wanna thicker pair to hold onto it. just my 2 cents. other wise love the knife and sheath system so far.

SOG makes very high quality knives. I wish they were around 30 years ago. I deployed with my bayonet, an Air Force Survival knife and a Swiss Army knife. After I left the Military I donated my Swiss Army knife to a young officer about to go through Ranger School.