YARD SKELLY!!!!!

I think the answer to ya'lls question begin's with Terror, ends with Fighter, and has the words…..Storm, Monkey & Desert….. mixed in somewhere's in between…….

OK, I'm FAR from an expert but here are my thoughts. Anything over 9 inches to me is a Chopper. Choppers are fun and impressive and some of them chop WAY beyond what their size would indicate. BUT for an "EVERYTHING" knife, they just don't have it. Oh you can do a lot of smaller knife tasks with them, but by being so large they are clumsy in my opinion for some of the "FINER" work/jobs that would be required of a "There can be only one" blade. I base this mostly on my Youth Running around in the Hills of Missouri, and later the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. I carried a 10 inch Bowie knife (the Infamous Negrito Bolo) and it did suffice for everything I asked of it (I carried a 6 inch "Hunting Knife" in my youth, the Bolo was After I got back from my tour in the Philippines.

I did everything from cutting down trees and "Skinning them" to cleaning rabbits and killing/butchering a Goat with the Bolo. BUT the tasks were made more difficult by the larger blade.

I Personally think the "Perfect" survival blade will be one between 4.5 and 7.5 inches, depending on the blade profile and thickness.

IF ever caught out I would do my very best to make sure I had at least two knives, a smaller 3-4 inch detail blade and one on the larger side for other tasks.

I'm of the mind that 5 or 5.5" to 7" is about perfect.

Lets call it 5.5-7.0"

Clarification:

4.25 to 5.0" for URBAN STREET SURVIVAL
5.5" to 7.0" for WILDERNESS SURVIVAL

I can live with those specs.

it all depends on where and in what context you are surviving, wilderness survival could be in any environment that we have on earth.

Case in point, jungle survival would see me bring a 1311 or Killa Zilla.

Urban survival in a major city is often determined by what you are willing to carry size wise depending on how stiff the penalties/laws are. Also, modern combat is mostly in cities and soldier will often carry up to 8" blades and tomahawks.

Bugging out would also change things as you would want to move fast and light so something like a Mud Mutt, Pork Shank or Military Overrun 511 would seem like a good choice.

For extreme cases, you can't even carry a steel knife at all due to metal detectors. In this case titanium, flint, ceramic or even polymer knives would be the ticket which would also change length recommendations.

I firmly believe that 7.5" is about the right size for the most utility/least bulk ratio which will be quite useful in almost any environment if it is designed a certain way.

It should be out of 3/16" stock if strength/weight ratio is important as I believe for any given weight you can make a stronger knife out of 3/16" than you can with thinner or thicker stock's. Meaning, if you're only going to carry a certain weight of knife, 3/16" gets you more strength vs. using 1/4" and up.

8 pages in and we finally get a couple of specs!

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I actually really like the Taliwhacker LE as a general use survival knife, despite the fact that most would label it a fighter. My thoughts are that in these times surviving might just mean quickly and decisively killing those that would do harm to you. Therefore, I want my survival knife to have a mean streak in it just waiting to be unleashed…...

This would make a good Urban Survival knife, and would work as a Wilderness survival blade too. Although you could find better ones for the Wilderness.
This one needs no introduction.


This one would work for either as well, at least is was marketed as a "Camp knife". BlackJack Knives Magnum Camp

It utilizes a copper "Pin" through the hole in the blade and a conventional snap on the keeper as well.

YUP, that's why I carry one of these. Intimidation is a useful tool.
The fixed blade


The Combat Karambit (smaller of the two folders)


They would also work as "Claws" in a wilderness situation, but you'd have to get REAL close.