This is quite an interesting question for me and in a word the UK troops are limited usually as to availability....affordability....and peer pressure/troop commander views on the subject.

I started back in the late Falklands...a war embodying the poor kit being issued and remembered by many as the trench foot epidemic....plastic bags over issued boots....taking boots off the Argentinian soldiers and using their FAL's which had a full auto ability which the SLR did not. A handy feature in a trench clearance. If we could not get the "boots" right...imagine what the position was like on knives.

Traditionally you got a Sheffield made slip joint sheep's foot pen knife with a Marlin Spike....the SLR Bayonet and if you had your wits about you you took up the chance to get a Martindale Golok....ignored by many as we were not going to the jungle....but the best bit of knife kit we had....with one exception.

If you were in the know you could wangle an Army issue Kukri...I was initially with the Light Infantry whose depot in Winchester was adjacent to the Gurka's depot...I got one and by far these were the best knives you could get your hands on. Foget Fairbairn Sykes knives. Stored but never issued. The Kukri however was much better at hand to hand. When H Jones got killed leading the Para's up one side of Tumbledown mountain in a full fire fight.....the attack on the adjacent side lead by Gurka's was rumoured to be a walk in the park ( got to say I was not there on that one ). The Argie's had spoted the Gurka's coming up the hill with NV and Kukri's held in their teeth. That was enough for them....or so legend has it. I have read the sticky about not posting stuff which might be "horrific" so all I will say is the Agrie's had the right idea bugging out of there. There is nothing more effective than a Gurka in CQB mode with a Kukri.....it is like Kipling tells it in his poem - "IF" - "if you can keep your head about you when all around you poeple are losing theirs"....

After the Falklands every NCO with either the Falklands on their CV or a Jungle School course or secondment to our SF's and the SF guys themselves...they all went for a Kukri. They still do.

Our pay is such that our private soldiers are getting less than traffic warden's pay and putting their lives on the line. Spare cash goes on a Swiss Army knife or more recently a Leatherman. Some might splash out on a good lock knife. Very popular because once you get issued your webbing the space available is limited if you want to be able to crawl with no frontal obstruction and a lock knife easily goes in your smock. A kukri usually gets carried round the back and wedged between your belt and a hippo pad if you buy one.

After the Falklands kit got a lot better and cash freed up. I remember buying Danner boots with a Gortex lining, a Gortex bivi bag from Survival Aids, a Gortex cagoule from Berghaus and having all this on my credit card for months.This stuff is all issued now.

What would be incredibly popular allowing for the value for money aspect would be CGDM's or DCDM's if we could get a hold of them. Cold Steel knives and Fallkniven are much more available over here. If you work as a Sniper you need a larger belt knife for hide construction etc..so CGDF's would also be popular. These are all affordable but not available. I am home at present waiting to go back to work and for days I have been glued to the Busse Trade Forum trying to pick up a CGDM and CGDF. I really wanted a pair of these! I managed a DCDM but no CGDF....ended up spending more than I wanted to and went for a FFBM. Smaller fixed blade knives are not popular however if you have to carry a bayonet in the British Forces.....sort of seen as duplication.....hence the "tactical lock knives"...but Snipers don't have to carry these and basically can carry what they like for field preperation...the Leatherman secaturs are popular as well.