I carry three knives when I camp. I have a Victronox Swiss army knife (I actually carry one with me at all times), a CRKT M16 (a tough medium sized folder), and a cold steel Tanto that I have owned for 15-20 years. I guess it goes to four knives If you count the leatherman blade.
My advice may be a bit late, but I recommend against a serrated knife as a camping tool. It is a lot easier to maintain a straight blade with a couple of stones (wet stones for camping not oil stones, you can always spit on a wet stone). If you don’t know how to use these, buy a couple (soft and medium), buy a small knife and practice. Whittle a bunch of branches to dull it and then sharpen it. You can use the shavings to practice one match fire starting.

I have a small business I run that sells all sorts of knives, holsters, and outdoor goods...I'll spare you all the sales pitch, but here's my two cents on a good reliable knife.

First and formost for an outdoor knife thats going to be used to clean game, or even just for fishing is corrosion resistance...Most high quality knives are made with stainless blades, but some dont fight corrosion as well as others...The K-bar pictured above is just made of black coated High Carbon steel. It holds a decent edge, but really lacks in corrosion qualities,(but then again for 60-80 bucks you get what you pay for).

Personally I wont carry anything thats not either layered seki steel (san mai III, or damascus) or anything made IN OREGON by Benchmade, not that their chineese made knives arent quality, Im just a union man and dont dig on outsourcing even if it means I get my knife cheaper.

The spyderco pictured (the guteng) is a decent martial arts knife, great as a non-lethal tool, but tip of the blade on mine broke off from a six foot drop, this has also happened with an endura I own, the VG-10 steel spyderco uses as its standard has exelent edge qualities, but is VERY brittle, if I only had one knife I better be able to drop it and still have a functioning knife after.

For a fixed blade Id recomend a Benchmade Nimravus with a 4.5 inch blade, or the Presido with a 6.32 inch blade. Both are 154 CM steel (a very high quality,AMERICAN MADE, stainless steel), and are avaliable with the black BenchCoat finish which exceeds the current military standard for saltwater, and scratch resistance. These have very ergo handles to fit ANY grip and will be the ONLY knife you will ever need to buy again, thats a good thing because they retail between 150 and 200$.

As for a folder I carry a benchmade Skirmish, as far as folders go, this is by far the best there is, dont belive me...just go to your cutlery shop and hold one

Originally Posted by SigShooter127

...Personally I wont carry anything thats not either layered seki steel (san mai III, or damascus) or anything made IN OREGON by Benchmade...

...For a fixed blade Id recomend a Benchmade Nimravus with a 4.5 inch blade, or the Presido with a 6.32 inch blade...

You mentioned that the above Benchmade Nimravus is US made, but you advise NOT buying the Benchmades made in Oregon. I'm a little confused. What exactly is the problem with the ones made in Oregon? And how can one identify whether or not a Benchmade knife is made at the Oregon facility?

Thanks.

No, I was recomending the ones made in Oregon. The ones from china say "designed in USA" where the american ones say of course "Made in the USA"...Theres nothing really wrong with the chineese ones, Benchmade still runs the quality control and oversees production, its just like I said above Im a union man and no matter how much I save on a knife, Im not going to buy one that was outsourced...this outsourcing (amung about a thousand other things) is killing our american soverenty...