I guess one of the key questions is what constitutes a "survival" situation. The choice of a knife might well depend on the level of "survivability" it has to contend with. When I think of survival situations, I envision an absolutely worse case scenario. (That's the optimist in me coming out again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) In that kind of scenario, if I'm limited to just one knife, I want a knife that has the ability to do it all effortlessly . . . chop, pry, slice, penetrate and sharpen easily. To my mind, there aren't that many knives that simulatenously meet all of those criteria.