A good question, and one that suspected someone would ask eventually. As PC2K mentioned already, it does go a bit beyond just preparedness, (which is why I posted in the Campfire forum) <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> and IMO it is "almost" the ultimate test of skill.

From a survival/preparedness point of view, the motivation is pretty simple:

Firstly it is a great confidence builder in that if I already know I can survive with only a knife, then if/when placed in a true survival situation with my EDC/PSK/BOB/etc I will most likely be that much more confident, calm collected, unafraid and as a result, thinking more clearly. I suppose for some it could generate over confidence and that could be bad but for me overconfidence is not going to happen... I'm just not that arrogant. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Secondly, you certainly don't have to search long in order to find an abundance of true survival stories (both successful and unsuccessful) in which people were separated from most or all of their gear. I know the knee-jerk response to that from the ETS crew would probably be "that's why you must have a PSK/EDC that is small enough to keep on your person all the time," but if you're truthful with yourself you must realize that you could still be separated from it and also (for most of us) it just isn't truely on our person 100% of the time. Just look at the recent story about the poor guys that were not only separated from any gear they may have had but even a good portion of their clothing was destroyed (burned) in the crash.

There is no question in my mind that primitive skills are an extremely important part of survival/preparedness and IMO one-knife camping is a great exercise in learning to become an expert with the one survival tool that is always with you..... your brain! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Of course I would not lie to you and deny that I am very much into bushcraft and primitive living/survival skills as a hobby and I truely enjoy camping with less and less gear each time I go out and that is also a big part of why I do this. Since I started doing this I have found it to be very enjoyable and it's certainly not because of the taste of the Mainstay rations. It's something deeper than that... something I can't really explain.