TOPS Camp Creek Knife: A Quick Review

TOPS Knives: Camp Creek – The Right Blade for You?

The Camp Creek knife from TOPS Knives is a popular choice in hunting knife across the board. With reportedly brilliant edge retention and better toughness and corrosion resistance than its predecessor, it looks set to be an all-around winner, but is the Camp Creek as good as its hype suggests? We here at Blade Ops put the Camp Creek under a microscope to try and find out.

Introducing the Camp Creek Knife

The Camp Creek from TOPS Knives has a bit of an interesting background to it. Every year without fail, the President of TOPS hand designs a knife for hunting season. Usually, these knives are reserved for himself to use in the field – but one or two designs are too useful to let slide away into oblivion. The Camp Creek is the latest of these knives, and it has big boots to fill.

Before the Camp Creek, there was the Viper Scout, the White Fang, and the Tex Creek knives, each brilliant models with their own merits. The Camp Creek is believed to be their best yet, and the reviews seem to find little about which to complain.

Product Description

The Camp Creek is a fixed blade knife with a camouflage-style handle of durable G10. The blade is made from tumbled alloy CPM- S35VN stainless steel that shines in all weathers. Tumble finishing is a process used in metallurgy which involves turning the metal in barrels or drums filled with varying fine-grained grits. It creates a beautiful finish that you can't get on untouched steel (RPAbrasives). They then went and added a stonewashed finish to the blade to make it look more like a dedicated work weapon and less like a collector's piece; although we're not sure it is a knife; any collector would leave out or bypass.

TOPS say this is a Nessmuk style knife – but without the cost. The Nessmuk blade style is an ancient design commonly found in kitchens. The Nessmuk style represents the shape of the blade, which is somewhat swollen towards the high point and bulbous on the end while being thinner towards the handle.

The handle is a gripped shape designed to mold to your fingers. When you order this knife, you also receive a coyote tan colored Kydex sheath which is a type of acrylic thermoplastic that is also used to make aircraft parts. The scabbard has the strength and dexterity to keep your knife safe from chipping or scratching during transportation. The sheath includes a belt hook which allows you to loop the sheath onto any belt buckle for easy carrying. It also has a clip option for added versatility.

The Camp Creek Specifications

The Camp Creek model by TOPS knives is a fixed blade knife most useful for hunting and skinning animals, food preparation and even for turning firewood into kindling. It has been specifically designed for outdoor use as a survival model. Altogether the weapon is 9 inches long with a blade of 4.38 inches – of which 4.25 inches is the cutting edge.

The Camp Creek is made from CPM S35Vn, steel produced by Crucible Industries and designed to be corrosion resistant, easier to grind than its predecessor with better machinability, and increased toughness. The handle of this knife is made from Camo G10 (Custom Materials). This material is a fiberglass laminate that has been soaked in epoxy resin and compressed. The Camo part is the design is a camouflage print similar to what the military might use.

The blade of this knife has a lovely tumble finish, and the whole knife weighs 6.2 oz (10.3 in the sheath). This knife was designed by Leo Esponoza (CEO of TOPS) personally as a hunting knife, and each one has the TOPS Knives stamp of high-quality materials and durability.

Brand History of TOPS Knives

TOPS Knives have been in operation since 1998, giving them more than 20 years of industry leading experience as a name with which to be reckoned. They primarily design tool knives that have the endurance and strength to function and be useful in the real world. To create their knives TOPS consult with Martial artists, survival experts, Navy Seals, and Airborne Rangers – all to make sure that their products are as functional as they are well made.

TOPS pride themselves on a focus towards functionality. They want to make knives that would keep you alive in the wilderness if they were the only tool you had in your pocket. They design advanced tactical knives to be used in advanced tactical situations; these are tools that you can bet your life on and some military operators do. You can read more about the founders, co-founders, and operators involved in TOPS knives by visiting their profiles page.

What Are Consumers Saying?

Verified costumers of TOPS tend to be brand loyal – which is always the sign of a respectable manufacturer. Issues reported about this knife mainly focus on the sheath. The 'belt dangler' or belt loop doesn't balance as well as it could against the body. However, if you have the right equipment, it should be secure enough. Also, sheath issues were due to balance and stability – not faults, cracks, breakages, or insecurity of the knife.

Customers are especially fond of the craftsmanship of the Tops Camp Creek, with one reviewer saying it was excellent workmanship, well built, with a great design and shape. Sincere compliments in the knife world. Tops quality has never been an issue, with many consumers joining the TOPS banner in 2017 when they released their Missile Strike combat knife. The ergonomic direction the company has seemed to make every knife it produces perfectly fit for purpose; as it appears to be with the Camp Creek model.

In terms of comfort, this knife scores highly. The handle design allows for both grip and smoothness on the fingers. Edge retention is reportedly excellent, as is the blade geometry (which most people rave about). Other positives mentioned are the lightweight, the feel of the handle whether you have large or small hands, the hardiness of the steel, the ease of grinding, and how well made the item is. We couldn't agree more. The only snag seems to be that sheath...

Performance Factors – How Does the Camp Creek Compare?

When considering how well a knife performs, we like to look at a few categories. These are the hardness of the steel, the toughness of the product, the wear resistance of the metal, the corrosion resistance of the metal, the blade type, and the edge retention capabilities. We'll go into greater detail on each one below.

Blade Type

This type of blade is tool steel made and is designed for the specific purpose of hunting and skinning animals, although it has many other real-life applications around a campfire. It is a Nessmuk style blade with a sizeable pot-belly edge designed to be strong enough to cut through everything you could need in the great outdoors. It is a reasonably small fixed blade survival knife with its sheath to keep it safe on your person at all times.

The Hardness of the Camp Creek

Since the blade of the Camp Creek knife is cast out of CPM-S35VN steel, it has a Rockwell Hardness Rating (Off-Grid Web) of 58. This hardness is a little above average in knife steel and is more robust than its predecessors S30V. It takes 32 pounds of stress placed on this blade (or higher) to break it. It has a 1.4% carbon composition meaning that it is harder than most. Users have reported using TOPS blades for years upon years, so we expect the Camp Creek to be no different.

The Toughness of the TOPS

To improve upon the relatively unimpressive toughness presented by the old S30V steel, the CPM also contains Niobium. The Niobium makes the steel 15-20% tougher and is a metal often used in pipeline construction because it is notoriously strong. The materials used in these knives all point towards longevity and hardiness.

Wear Resistance of the Camp Creek

All TOPS knives are known to be very well made and last for years if properly maintained. If you need a bit of guidance on how to take good care of your blade, then visit our article and make your blades last longer. The wear resistance of this blade is so excellent that it earned a place in Outdoor Life magazine's Best Blades of 2019. They field tested the Camp Creek and gave it an Editor's Choice award! In CATRA testing CPM S35VN performs 145% better than 440C steel – so a Camp Creek knife ought to last a lifetime.

Corrosion Resistance

Corrosion resistance refers to how high the chances of your blade rusting are. CPM performs doubly as well as 154CM steel and two thirds as well as 440C in this department. Hudson Tool Steel has a great chart that details this with greater accuracy. You can see it by visiting their page. Of course, the handle won't rust and the sheath won't either – but watch out for the ring that attaches your sheath to your belt loop.

The Features of the Camp Creek Knife At-A-Glance

So, to summarize the good points and the bad points about the Camp Creek by TOPS Knives let's have a run down.

Pros:

Cons:

Overall Value and Recommendation for the Camp Creek Survival Knife

Camp Creek is an experienced industry leading company whose background is in survival, military operations, and functionality. They create knives meant to be used – not knives that will take pride of place above your fire. That being said no true collector would miss out on buying a TOPS president designed knife without regrets, so we heartily recommend it for everyday use or as a collector's item.

The handle is sturdy and hardy. We have been impressed by the way it seems to fit every grip without annoying any consumers. Since the handle is smooth, we expected it wouldn't grip well, but the shape lends itself, and somehow it all works. The balance is right, the tensile strength pretty impressive. It is more robust than the last model, harder than the previous model, and arguably incorporates more technology. The Camp Creek is a top of the range knife with a price at which you would be surprised. While the rest of us are arguing about the trendiest new steel to use TOPS are out there changing the rules of the game.

Is the Camp Creek good value? We would go so far as to say it is excellent value. It is the kind of knife you buy once and then never need another of its type. If you are looking for a weapon you can rely on while you are camping, then this is a safe bet. Not only can it help you hunt, but it can help you prepare your kindling to boot.

Do we recommend the Camp Creek knife? Absolutely. Although if you intend on using it out in the wild do something to strap down that sheath, so it doesn't get in your way. A sheath is just a sheath, it's what's on the inside that counts.