Buck Knives Summit - Outdoor Gear Review

The Summit is Buck Knives’ stylish attempt at a sturdy, rugged climbing knife that also features extra tools necessary for general camping and hiking. Another knife in Buck’s ongoing collaborations with industrious mountaineer Peter Whittaker, it aims to be a lightweight, efficient outdoor multi-use knife with a blade suited to heavy-duty tasks.

On a week-long camping trip, the blade was sharp and effective in every task put to it. It’s made of 420HC steel (tempered with a Rockwell hardness of 58), and sharpened with proprietary techniques. The serrated bottom-half was indispensable in cutting rope, cord, and cloth. In an incident which promised to be gear-review gold, I repurposed the straps on my girlfriend’s suddenly broken bikini top for a quick repair.

The Summit was made with climbers in mind, so it's designed to be opened and closed with one hand. I found the studs on both sides of the blade to be well-situated for easy opening. The blade is held open with a liner lock mechanism, which was easy to operate one-handed, but has the slightest bias against left-handed closing. The lock geometry was well-tooled to eliminate chatter.

The grip felt just right to my average-sized hand. The handle's curve gives the knife a semi-hilt when open, and it's ridged where the thumb contacts the back of the blade and where the forefinger contacts the front of the handle. This gave it a sturdy feel and I could put a lot of power into it without a chance of slipping.

My only complaint is that the lanyard loop, made large enough for carabineers, is on the bottom corner that presses into the palm. It’s not a pressure point when cutting, but because it's thinner, it might become uncomfortable during prolonged use. Nevertheless, I found the grip very comfortable.

The knife also features a locking flathead screwdriver, a locking can/bottle opener, and a corkscrew. The tapered screwdriver fits well on all but the tiniest screws and fits Phillips-head screws with ease. The can/bottle opener has a sharply thinned point for easy puncturing. It’s also perfect for unlatching zip ties for reuse. The corkscrew is simply a corkscrew: useless when you don’t need it, but essential when you do. The tools work perfectly in their domains, and the screwdriver and opener lend themselves to odd jobs. Some users may miss certain pet tools, however.

The handle is made of molded thermoplastic sandwiched between anodized aluminum overlays. At only 3.5 oz., it’s lightweight, but as you would expect from a quality pocket knife, it’s hard to imagine it ever breaking. I thought it was just large enough for good grip. I didn’t find it hard to clean, despite some unnecessary corners, and it was easy to oil.