Why You Don’t See Many EDC Knives with This Handy Survival Feature

Cord can be invaluable in the backcountry. So why don’t more folders have it?

Published November 24, 2024

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Updated November 24, 2024

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If you’ve ever watched Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel, you already know the value of a simple piece of cord. You can use it to build a shelter, make a trap or construct an elaborate water filtration system.

It’s no wonder, then, that many survival knives come with paracord-wrapped handles — think Gerber’s fixed-blade collaboration with Bear Grylls or the CRKT Tailbone.

But most examples share something else, too: a fixed blade.

There are plenty of reasons why you don’t see many paracord-laden folders. Folding knives require mechanisms to pivot and lock, which get in the way of a skeletonized handle design.

The blade also needs an open channel to fold into, which can’t be blocked by loops of cord.

CRKT knife cord — You can use a cord to build a shelter, make a trap or construct an elaborate water filtration system.

Carve out a niche

Of course, there is an exception to every rule, and knives are no different.

A few years back, CRKT released a folding knife called the Parascale with a paracord-wrapped handle.

Its designer, TJ Schwarz — the same person behind the Tailbone — found a solution in CRKT’s simple Deadbolt lock and a weave pattern that has the cord zig-zagging back and forth across the back of a handle with carved channels.

The result: a unique folder with a 3.2-inch drop-point blade and roughly four feet of cord that’ll come in handy should you find yourself in a horrendous, Naked and Afraid-style predicament.

Or, you know, if your bootlace breaks on a hiking trip.