We won’t beat that “What is the one knife that can do it all?” dead horse. Obviously, there isn’t one. Different knives are used for different activities.
So before you invest in any cutlery, here are a few considerations:
- What is the blade going to be used for? A good gutting/butchering knife, with a stiff, four-to-six-inch blade, is probably not the best choice for a fishing knife. You can’t fillet fish all that well with a hunting knife, and a thin flexible filleting knife wouldn’t be the my choice for gutting an elk. Neither is the best choice for wood carving, where you might need a two-inch blade with a four-inch handle. Decide what you will most likely use the knife for.
- Reliability: It goes without saying that any knife associated with the outdoors should be reliable and a sturdy, tough piece of equipment. But in an urban setting, the best survival knife choice might be a small pocket knife on a key chain. Any knife that might end up in a survival situation must have top quality steel and a sturdy handle.
- Ease of carry: A knife that is not convenient to carry gets left behind. Your knife must be handy to pack.
I generally have several knives with me in the backcountry, and they are in three categories: gutting, skinning and boning. The Bark River Fin and Bone is clearly designed to be a boning/fillet knife.
My 3 categories in the backwoods are Chopper, Bushcraft, and neck knife, and I often eschew the first depending on the size of knife #2 and where I am going.
Read the whole thing at SurvivalCommonSense.com