The 4 Best Cheap Survival Knives – Affordable Values Guide 2023

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Photo by Guo Chai Lim / CC BY

Affordable knives are a dime a dozen—you can literally buy a dozen pieces of junk for less than a few dollars. However, finding a true, quality, affordable knife is a rare thing. Finding one you can depend on for survival is even rarer.

But even at a cheap price point, you should come to expect a few things from your survival knife. The first is strength and dependability because a cheap thin blade isn’t one to risk your life on. A survival knife also needs to be more than just a knife; it needs to be a dependable tool, one that can be used for a variety of different tasks. An affordable survival knife should be made to work and work well.

Here is our guide to the 4 best cheap survival knives on the market.

Maxam Survival Knife

The Maxam survival knife is much more than just a knife. The concept of including a variety of survival equipment with a knife is nothing new, but it is often an expensive concept to do well. The Maxam survival knife however is the exception to that rule. The Maxam utilizes a varied but affordable survival kit knife in a simple package. The Maxam uses a hollow handle to hold a variety of small accessories, making it an all in one style survival tool.

The knife itself is a long, strong blade that measures 7 inches in length. Due to the nature of the design, it is impossible for the knife to be a full tang knife. The blade however is quite thick, and the thickness is an attempt to overcome the lack of a full tang blade. The blade itself is a 3/16 inches thick and is quite hefty and quite strong. The Handle is a round design, all metal, that features five rings of aggressive checkering for a rock solid grip.

The handle’s survival kit includes one small knife for close in work, and doing small, precision jobs. There is another small blade, very small, that is perfect for cutting line and acts as a small razor. The handle also holds several fishing hooks, fishing line, fishing weights, tweezers, a safety pin, a sewing needle and line, and is all capped off by a compass that fits on the end of the handle. The Maxam is an all in one survival kit, with plenty of room left over for customization.

Gerber Bear Grylls Survival knife

Famed survivalist and professional adventurer Bear Grylls teamed up with legendary knife and tool make Gerber to deliver an entire line of tools designed for outdoors survival. The Bear Grylls survival knife is a medium sized fixed blade design that is impressively affordable when you consider its designer and the high quality of knives Gerber makes. The Grylls survival knife has a 4.75 inch blade that features a drop point design. The blade is partially serrated for tearing and ripping work. The knife features a full tang for knife strength as well.

The grip is comfortable and rubberized to protect the hands and mitigate hand fatigue. The handle also features lashing holes, which are designed to allow the user to lash the knife to a stick to make an impromptu spear. The bottom of the knife features a steel pommel that can act as a hammer is an emergency.

A small survival kit is included with the knife, and includes a few basic tools that are absolutely necessary during survival. This includes a whistle for signaling, a fire starter, the pommel hammer, and an included sharpening stone. The sheath is a military grade nylon material that is both lightweight and extremely strong. The Bear Grylls is an excellent value and among the best cheap survival knives.

Glock OEM FM 81 survival Knife

Many people tend to only focus on the firearms that Glock makes, and many tend to forget they produce a wide variety of different goods. This includes military equipment like training grenades, suppressors, shovels and knives. The Glock Survival Knife is one such tool that is a bare bones knife designed to meet the modern requirements of soldiers, adventurers, and outdoorsman. The Glock field knife weighs a mere eleven ounces, and the knife is built with the same rock hard reliability as the Glock series of pistols.

The Glock Survival Knife was designed with cooperation with the Austrian Special Forces. These knives are a full tang design for increased strength and ability. The knife has a six and a half inch blade and utilizes a drop point design. The handle is a comfortable rubber design that is very comfortable in the hand. The knife has a traditional blade on one side and a long set of saw teeth on the other side.

The Glock knife comes with a sturdy polymer sheath, and the knife is available in a variety of different field colors. The Glock survival knife features a strong crossguard to protect the hand and can serve as a bottle opener. The Glock survival knife, like the Glock handgun, is priced at a point that is hard to beat for a quality piece of equipment. This is should be on everybody’s list of the best cheap survival knife.

SOG Kukri

The SOG Kukri is a large, powerful, and extremely capable knife. This kukri is designed based off the highly effective Nepalese knife the features an inward curved blade. This knife is used as a tool, survival knife, and fighting implement by the fierce Gurka warriors of the British army. The SOG Kukri modernizes an old design and uses a 12 inch fixed blade, finished with a hard coating, and is extremely sharp and very strong.

The Kukri utilizes a very well-built and very tough saw on the back of the blade. This saw can do some real work like chopping through branches, limbs, and nearly everything you come across. The Kukri would be an effective impromptu weapon when necessary. The Kurki’s interesting design is more than a novelty, and makes the SOG Kukri effective for a variety of tasks.

The handle is made from a comfortable, soft, but sturdy material. This polymer material provides comfort for the hand during extended periods of work. This thick synthetic handle is a rubber-like material that does provide a no slip surface and a makes the handle resistant to heat, moisture, chemicals, solvents, and is unaffected by extremely low temperature. The SOG Kukri is also quite affordable. This is one of the best cheap survival knives period.

Quality and Cost

There are many survival knives that can be had affordably, but the top quality models have to be separated from a lot of the not so good models. These survival knives should give the user an edge (no pun intended), and become dependable, adaptable tools capable of solving a variety of different problems!

  • Owner of Reloaderaddict.com, Boyd Smith is a major handgun enthusiast, and although he owns Glocks, he prefers the revolving wheel type. His go-to guns are a Smith & Wesson 642 Performance Center for carry and a Ruger GP100 in the nightstand biometric safe (he has kids). He loads both revolvers with old-school 148-grain Federal Gold Medal .38 wadcutters. It’s OK if you think he’s a wimp. Email him.

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2 responses

  1. Me again, the pix of the Glock knife is upside down…good looking knife, though

    • Haha. The reason is it’s also upside down on Amazon’s page. Can’t do much about it.

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