Up next in 10
Cheap Walmart Knife Everyone Loves to Hate! Benchmade Ripoff?
20 views
Jun 8, 2025
In this video, I take a closer look at one of the most talked-about budget blades out there — the $10 Ozark Trail knife from Walmart. Loved by some, hated by many, and owned by just about everyone at some point, this knife sparks debate in the bushcraft and EDC communities. Is it really as bad as people say? Or does it have a place in your kit? Let’s put it to the test! Prepared Wanderer AMAZON STORE: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer Patches and Stickers: https://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com Prepared Wanderer WEBSITE: https://preparedwanderer.com Prepared Wanderer FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1835005976546722 Prepared Wanderer INSTAGRAM: prepared_wanderer Blog https://wanderingoutdoors.com
View Video Transcript
0:00
in today's video we're going to be
0:01
taking a look at this knife This is from
0:03
Ozark Trail It's the 7 and 1/2 in
0:06
folding knife and we are going to take a
0:09
look at it and why it is so
0:11
controversial right now Stick
0:19
around So this little pocket knife has
0:21
kind of taken the internet by storm Um a
0:24
lot of people have been posting about it
0:26
doing videos on it Um I've done a couple
0:29
shorts on it I've shown it um on my
0:32
Facebook group and in my Instagram Um
0:35
and it's either a knife that you love or
0:39
you're or you hate And now what's
0:41
interesting is the the knife bros the
0:44
people who are really into high-end
0:46
collectible knives seem to absolutely
0:49
hate this knife and love to dog on it
0:51
and talk about what a big POS it is And
0:54
then there's the other side of the coin
0:56
where there are people who just love
0:58
this knife because it's so darn
1:00
affordable This thing is under
1:02
$10 out the door at Walmart And so here
1:06
is the OD green model This just came
1:09
available on u Walmart.com And there's
1:13
also a black handled model and I'll show
1:16
you that here in a minute But the specs
1:17
on this knife is what makes it so
1:19
interesting So it's a 7 and 1/2 in
1:21
folding knife It's D2 highcarbon steel
1:25
Um injected molded handles We have 3 and
1:28
a/4 in uh blade and then there's a 4 and
1:31
a/4 in handle making for roughly a 7 and
1:35
1/2 in overall knife Um there is a slide
1:40
lock which is very reminiscent of course
1:42
of
1:43
the Benchade Bugout and I believe they
1:47
call that their axis
1:48
lock very similar to that Of course on
1:52
the Ozark Trail they're just calling it
1:53
a side
1:55
lock And as you can tell you can flip
1:57
this thing open pretty easily and
2:00
quickly with that thumb stud So there is
2:03
the thumb stud right there The newer
2:06
models have uh this pocket clip that is
2:09
actually reversible to the other side So
2:12
if you want to carry left or right
2:14
pocket you can uh the the first models
2:17
of these when they came out that was not
2:19
an option Um but now the newer ones have
2:22
this which I think is a great upgrade
2:24
And then also uh I noticed that the
2:27
orange models uh the newer ones have a
2:30
brighter um more high viz orange color
2:34
to them whereas the first generation was
2:36
kind of a dull burnt orange color Not
2:38
very attractive This is much cooler And
2:42
then like I said we have the brand new
2:44
OD green that is available
2:49
and there is a black handled model So
2:53
you have three options for
2:56
colors when picking these out if you can
2:59
get a hold of them because these be have
3:00
become very popular What's happening is
3:03
guys are actually buying these things um
3:06
and then going on eBay and selling them
3:09
at an exorbitant price you know doing a
3:11
markup on them Uh because the orange
3:14
ones in particular are selling out at
3:16
the Walmart stores very quickly Once
3:17
they hit the stores they're gone Um but
3:21
I will say as of now as of this video
3:24
being shot in June I'm seeing these turn
3:26
up at all the Walmarts in my area There
3:29
there seem to be plenty of them So I
3:30
think there's been a pretty big resupply
3:32
from Walmart which is good news for us
3:35
So what I want to do is I want to open
3:36
these up and we're going to test
3:38
sharpness out of the package And then
3:40
what we're going to do is we're going to
3:42
put it through some destruction uh of
3:45
cutting cardboard and see how that edge
3:47
is holding up um over some
3:56
time Pretty easy packaging to get into
3:59
It's got a little blade protector right
4:01
there There it is That is a clean fresh
4:05
blade All right let's uh let's cut some
4:08
paper and test
4:09
this All right here's some standard
4:12
copier
4:13
paper that we are going to use for our
4:16
initial
4:18
test And as knife people we always you
4:22
know like to see how a knife cuts
4:24
through
4:25
paper And that glides through pretty
4:28
nicely right out of the
4:31
package Could it be better Yeah probably
4:34
I mean but I can't look at
4:41
that How can I How can I fault that
4:44
That's That's a pretty decent edge Now
4:46
by comparison this is the knife that
4:48
I've I've been carrying for what I say 6
4:50
weeks 8 weeks something like that Okay
4:53
it's dragging Oh there we go Caught a
4:55
little bit Not bad Probably needs a
5:00
touchup And I have been using it Do I
5:03
use it daily No not always Uh sometimes
5:05
it just sits in my pocket but I do Um
5:09
with my job and being at home I tend to
5:13
cut a lot of stuff paper and boxes So
5:15
after 6 to 8 weeks this seems to be
5:18
doing pretty decent but it hasn't put
5:20
through a lot of heavy duty usage So
5:23
there's our fresh
5:24
blade Now let's do some box cutting So
5:28
there's the old Walmart box You just got
5:31
it in the mail You flip out your trusty
5:34
EDC pocket knife And the first thing you
5:36
do is you cut the
5:47
tape And that box was glued so it didn't
5:51
come open right
5:55
away Okay So now you have your box
5:59
sitting at home and it's like "Oh man I
6:01
got to cut this thing up get it ready
6:02
for the garbage I can't just put it out
6:04
in the garbage like that I don't have
6:06
use for it today So let's break down
6:08
this box." Well this is how I would do
6:11
it
6:14
Normally I would just start cutting it
6:16
apart
6:33
And since we're going to be
6:35
testing edge retention
8:09
cutting through several layers of
8:11
cardboard
8:16
Okay so this is uh Atwood battle rope
8:20
Pretty thick stuff Much thicker than
8:24
standard 550
8:27
cord So we'll cut off a hunk
8:32
here That seemed to cut it pretty
8:37
well Sliced right through that And then
8:41
we'll just do
8:44
some
8:46
repeated cuts of
8:59
pieces There we go Just slice through it
9:03
Just drag it through nice and easy
9:17
Paper cutting test Oh that
9:21
dragged Oh there we go I got
9:25
it Is this a definitive test No Tests
9:29
need to of course you know really need
9:31
to be longer But here's there seems to
9:34
be just a little bit of drag at the
9:36
start of the cut But once it gets once
9:40
it bites in then it does
9:44
Okay there we go All right So how would
9:47
I how would I touch this knife up Well I
9:50
really like um Worksharp knife
9:53
sharpeners and I really like this little
9:55
field sharpener of theirs I've had this
9:57
for quite a while and I'm a big fan of
10:00
the ceramic rod uh for touching up
10:04
blades Um because ceramic in my opinion
10:07
is not highly aggressive Um so you don't
10:11
have to worry that you're going to ruin
10:13
your
10:16
knife And with the Worksharp it's got
10:19
this nice guide to it That's a 20° guide
10:22
for
10:23
the ceramic rod And I can just draw that
10:31
down And then flip it over
10:37
And you just need to apply light
10:53
pressure Just kind of hit on the edge
10:57
here a little bit on the
10:58
tip Make sure I get
11:00
that And then what's cool about this
11:03
worksharp it's got a rough side out
11:05
piece of leather to it So that's your
11:07
strap And I put long time ago I put some
11:10
compound on it but um I don't really
11:14
uh put much compound on this
11:19
You can if you want put
11:21
more but basically what we're doing is
11:23
we're
11:24
just stropping out that
11:34
edge Well that that feels really
11:38
nice And then of course the old
11:41
fingernail test which I'm never a big
11:44
fan of doing that but I understand why
11:46
why we do that See that's just
11:50
shaving off the fingernail and
11:54
then arm hair
12:03
test Not super great It's pulling some
12:06
hair up It's not shaving
12:10
it So we go back to a fresh clean piece
12:13
of paper
12:17
And then of course what you can do is
12:19
with this worksharp it's got the uh
12:22
different
12:23
grit plates and you can do the same
12:26
thing if you really want to get a little
12:31
more a better sharpening to
12:39
it And I don't you know I'm not um I'm
12:42
not much of a steel snob I know you know
12:45
a lot of guys are into the super steels
12:47
these days the magnet cuts and all that
12:50
kind of stuff Um I don't
12:53
mind D2 I've never really had an issue
12:56
with D2 My understanding is it's a
12:58
harder
13:00
um carbon
13:15
steel And then you can
13:18
just touch it up a little
13:20
bit with your
13:23
ceramic And then
13:37
Okay I don't
13:48
know There's
13:58
Okay so why does everybody hate this
14:00
knife so much Well there's a couple
14:02
reasons One obviously this has a a lot
14:05
of similarities and similar looks to the
14:07
Benchade Bugout And for people who are
14:10
really in the knife community who
14:12
collect um I think they find that
14:15
offensive that it looks similar to a
14:17
Benchmade Bugout Um it it's not a direct
14:20
copy by any means there are some key
14:23
differences in how it looks but it is
14:26
similar And then the other thing that I
14:28
think um of course knife snobs always
14:31
have an issue with is just you know it's
14:32
a Chinese-made cheap pocket knife $10 um
14:36
made in China uh mass-produced in a
14:39
factory What I but what I find
14:42
interesting about those kind of comments
14:44
is there's a lot of other knife brands
14:46
that come out of China that um people
14:49
have no problem purchasing and spending
14:52
a lot more money on And they're good
14:54
knives don't get me wrong and I'm not
14:56
going to name those brands because we
14:57
all know what they are We know what the
14:58
knife collectors like So there those are
15:00
those brands that are out there that are
15:01
specifically made in China and people
15:04
will spend all kinds of money on them
15:05
and think they're the greatest knife in
15:06
the world But soon as you put Ozark
15:09
Trail on it and sell it at a Walmart now
15:12
all of a sudden it's a big piece of crap
15:15
and it's not worth your time and you
15:17
should avoid it and you're a horrible
15:18
person for owning one The reason that I
15:22
love this knife so much is because it is
15:26
affordable
15:28
and it performs It is just what it's
15:31
supposed to do I don't have any
15:33
expectations on this knife um other than
15:37
what it can do for a $10 knife I realize
15:39
it's a $10 knife I realize that it is
15:41
not the greatest knife in the world but
15:43
I also have never had any issues with it
15:46
Um it has been sturdy strong held up
15:49
well and for the past 2 months um I've
15:52
done all the typical tasks that
15:54
everybody does cut paper cardboard
15:56
envelopes string tags all that good
15:59
stuff that we do with our EDC knife And
16:03
um I have not sharpened this thing since
16:06
uh I got it and it seems to be doing
16:08
fairly well So heat treat um is all
16:11
right Now of course with these cheaper
16:14
pocket knives you don't know what the
16:16
heat treat's going to be like and you
16:17
don't know if it's going to be
16:18
consistent from batch to batch So far no
16:23
issues Mine's been holding up But all
16:26
right guys I'm going to get out of here
16:27
Thanks for watching my videos Uh be sure
16:29
to check out the channel New videos
16:31
releasing every week I will be getting
16:34
out to the field soon to do some reviews
16:36
I'm healing up for my surgery quite well
16:38
And uh hopefully I will see you guys
16:40
soon And as always thank you so much for
16:42
watching and we will see you next time
16:44
on the Prepared Wanderer Stay sharp