BUCK TRAVELMATE KIT

There's no shortage of knives on the market. Big, small, light, heavy, short, or long, whatever sort of knife you're looking for, there's probably plenty of choices. In fact, there are so many knives on the market already, that sometimes it can be hard to justifiably say that a new knife design is even worth taking note of. After all, how many brutally rugged tool knives does one person really need? (As your significant other may ask). Buck Knives decided to take a different tack with one of their latest creations and produced the Travelmate Kit. Eschewing the popular tactical styling of many new knives in favour of what will probably be a far more useful tool for most, the Travelmate Kit is designed for something we all do daily: eat.

Let’s get one thing out in the open right away: this is not a tough knife. It won't pry things open, baton wood and, at best, it’s marginally useful at gnawing through paracord. What it is, however, is excellent for dealing with all foodstuffs. Think of it as a butter knife, steak knife, filet knife, bread knife, and paring knife all in one. Thanks to the thin profile of the blade, it's quite capable of making the thin slices usually associated with a filet knife. Its broad shape makes it a great knife for spreading butter or jamwith its smooth edge. Its serrated edge, which comes out of the box razor sharp, makes it a great paring, steak, and bread knife. In fact, in the time we've been using it, the Buck Travelmate knife has seen more use than our actual paring or bread knives. Thanks to those ridiculously sharp serrations, it even slices through  ripe tomatoes without even the slightest hint of squishing them It makes stupidly fast work of hamburger and hotdog buns... fast enough that the biggest fear has been going through them too fast and cutting ourselves!

But the Travelmate is more than just a knife. It also includes a very slick and well-made plastic sheath and a small interlocking fork, which has a few other tools incorporated into it. At first it struck us as odd that the sheath has no provisions for belt- or pack-mounting, but as we grew to understand that the Travelkit has far more in common with kitchen cutlery than it does with a conventional camping or survival knife, it began to make sense: this isn't something you strap to your person in case of emergency, it's something you toss in a bag for dinnertime.  To that end, the sheath does a great job of keeping the fork and knife together, as well as keeping your knife from slashing anything inside your bag to ribbons.

As for the fork... well.. it's alright. A spork may have made a wee bit more sense in a situation where you may want to carry minimal gear but, as mentioned, the Travelkit's more a luxury tool than a survival tool. However, the biggest problem with the fork is that Buck put a can opener and a bottle opener on the bottom, and when trying to hold down some tougher foods (like steak, for example) the sharp edge of the can opener can cut into your palm. The solution would seem to be as simple as moving the fork tool to the back of sheath, where the increased real estate afforded by the lack of clasp would allow for a longer fork handle (which would move the can opener out of the user's palm) or simply putting some sort of removable cap on the end.

So how has the Buck Travelmate held up over the course of a few months heavy use? Well, besides the fork staying happily clipped to the sheath most of the time, the knife and sheath have proven quite solid. The sheath specifically deserves mention for being very resilient and well made; the locking clasp closes tightly around the knife and bears no indication of its various travels and travails. The knife has held its edge very well (which is good given how difficult serrated knives can be to sharpen), and the fake wood scales remain resolutely affixed to the full tang blade. Yet, it does show some signs of use. The scales have grown slightly with multiple trips through the dishwasher, so they don't fit flush on the end any more, and the stainless steel blade now shows a few blemishes but none of it affects the kit's usefulness. And in that regard, the Buck Travelmate kit certainly ranks highly.

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