Excellent question! Like all tools, survival knives need to be cared for to maintain their readiness for action. The biggest factors to consider are edge maintenance and rust prevention.
Many of the knives we’ve listed here are coated to prevent oxidization. But the cutting edge remains exposed, so you’ll need to wipe it down (carefully!) before returning the knife to its sheath. Once the edge shows signs of dulling, there are many ways to bring it back to life.
Sometimes, a simple stropping motion across a leather belt or edge of a cardboard box will straighten things out. Just angle the blade and pull the edge backward across the surface to see if it improves. But when it does come time to sharpen your survival knife, you can use anything from a guided system like the KME, angled rods from Spyderco or Lanksy, or traditional sharpening stones.
If you find yourself stuck in the backcountry, sometimes a flat rock or another piece of steel will do the trick. This is one of the reasons many people prefer softer steels like 420HC or 1095 in their survival knives. Super-steels are great in a controlled environment, but a true survival knife should be able to be sharpened in the field.