UCO Whidbey Pushfold Review | GearJunkie Tested

A reliable folding knife is an essential tool in everyone’s EDC (everyday carry). And for good reason. Having a reliable knife is as useful as it is practical. Few tools can assist you in opening that pesky package as well as it can help you during a camping or hiking trip. The UCO Whidbey Carabiner Pushfold Lockback is a great knife that works well for first-time buyers and financial gurus.

This is a non-biased review of the UCO Whidbey lockback that addresses everything from the overall quality of the knife to its user performance. Our goal is to provide the reader with the most accurate information available (we love our veteran users as well!)

Overview of the UCO Whidbey Pushfold

"The UCO Whidbey Pushfold is made from high-grade stainless steel and other durable materials, so it should put up with lots of time in the great outdoors. It’s simple enough for scouts to use yet robust enough to please veterans. It’s also just plain smart, with the above-pictured push-button mechanism locking the blade into place.

…centers around that push-button action, which opens the main — 3” long, give or take — blade, made for chopping, cutting, and trimming. Weighing in 2.4 ounces when folded, the Whidbey feels solid and well-built. A nice addition to your camping gear, this lightweight tool won’t add a ton of weight to your roughage."

Performance in Real-World Scenarios

The UCO Whidbey Pushfold gets used on a daily basis for a variety of tasks by people invested in everyday carry (EDC). Nice and sharp, it is often the tool of choice while preparing food and associated items, whether that’s slicing an apple for lunch or getting a meal ready to go. "It’s my go-to knife for camping — from cutlery through to food prep. It’s far more versatile than a bushcraft knife or a larger traditional knife. It will cut your rope and prepare your dinner."

If I'm roadside camping, everything from setting up camp through to lighting a fire to eat will happen over many hours, and often over many days, or even weeks. Sure, this knife was used a bunch of times, but that’s not when it was counted on most; it was much more reliable and adaptable than that. It excelled during the random "odd job" (gear needed looking at or tons of other "random" jobs) that I needed it for, or having to look after "pseudo-survival" (incredibly niche, food-hunting) use-cases. It was the "tool" that people who don't EDC will latch onto and "understand." For that, it is an EDC knife (for me, and many others like me).

Safety and Ease of Use

Safety is, of course, a primary focus with folding knives, and yes, the younger members of the audience are taken into account when designing these items. Among a number of safety features included on the UCO Whidbey Pushfold, two main ones are worth pointing out. (1) In order to prevent the knife from closing on you while in use—which could cause a severe cut—a secure locking system is included to keep the blade in the same position until put away intentionally (i.e., you should be the only one closing it!). (2) The tip of the blade is rounded instead of pointed. The dangers of closing the blade are one thing, and puncture wounds are no fun, either; kids (and adults?) haven’t learned a way around that one just yet.

The ability to get to the point of "open" and then easy "closed" storage just as quickly is another conversation. However, given that the UCO Whidbey Pushfold knife is designed with the new-to-the-world-of-knives enthusiast in mind, this operation is important. To facilitate this conversation, an easy push-button model is included to open and then close the knife when done showing off. But yes, it is somewhat intuitive from the "push" in the name ("Hey Mom, look at this!" "Whoaaaa!…How did you do that? Really? I closed it the same way?…Okay."), and conservation of the "tool" after use is often the best part of camping, hiking, fishing, etc. The competitive spirit in all of us aimed at who can "handle their stuff the best" keeps the younger ones from seeming like "little tikes." More on that later in this review.

Value for Money

For the price, the UCO Whidbey Pushfold is a real bargain. You can get knives quite a bit more expensive but not necessarily much better, regardless of what you’re going to use it for. Everything from the construction to the size makes it fit into your day-to-day setup with fairly minimal hassle. This is just generally a great EDC knife, one of the top pieces we’d consider, and one of the best camping accessories.

The UCO Whidbey Pushfold stakes its name on raw reliability, broader versatility, and an immediately noticeable budget-friendliness that brandishes the knife as a must-have for any wanderlust’s curated collection of outdoor gear. It doesn’t matter if you’re camping, hiking, or relishing in a well-weathered nature retreat, as the UCO Whidbey Pushfold folding knife is built to employ a sense of finesse befitting a larger variety of environments. A steadfast, robust construction assures users that the knife can handle the dedicated rigors of outdoor use, but the birchwood block handle and a more complete, compact size help land the knife in a more popular category of EDC due to the fact that the knife can easily be carried.

Stocking up on gear? Gear like the UCO Whidbey Pushfold allows users to experience the rich kinds of various applications (such as food prep, probable first-responder applications, etc.) you would actually want a knife like this to handle. We would want to label the knife as a "versatile workhorse" of a cutter that culminates into this feeling of this demanding value that should leave readers (that's YOU) purchasing the heck out of this knife.

Have you used the UCO Whidbey Pushfold knife before? Post about your experiences below, or let the larger community of Mad Outdoorist readers explore more cutting-edge gear reviews to help keep this "edge" of an outdoor "beater" knife a "sharper," competitive knife among other "outdoor-use cooks."