For outdoor activities like camping, hiking, and fishing, a pocket knife is invaluable when household tools are out of reach. Granted, the basic design of a folding pocket knife hasn’t changed radically over the centuries, but what has evolved are the styles and mechanisms making pocket knives enjoyable to both use and collect. The Best Pocket KnivesBest Overall:Best Value:Most Ultralight:Best Spring-Assisted:Most Compact:How We TestedMy grandmother once chided me that a man with a pocket knife was worth an extra dollar an hour on their dairy farm. My preferences for a good pocket knife have evolved considerably over those 30 years, and my collection of pocket knives has grown as well. To hone in on the knives people want most, I limited my testing so that the following recommendations are pocket knives from major manufacturers that are widely available in North America—and ones that aren’t prohibitively expensive.