My impression is most 4" bladed knives are not thick enough to take a good batoning session to split a piece of wood. That Becker is a darned nice blade, but something in the 6-7" category seems more the norm for really rugged utilization. Cold Steel's SRK is a good choice, which is why I have two of those in my BOB. The Camp Tramp is about the same length and 1/4" thick at the cheeks, and is about the toughest blade I think you are gonna find for less than $150 in that size (actually, Swamp Rat Knife Works just discontinued that model in favor an updated version not yet released to market). In fact, SRKW has several models that are in the 4-5" blade range comparable to that Becker.

There are a lot of really tough, high quality 4-5" blades out there that have myriad uses, including many survival applications, but I don't like the idea of slamming a 10 lb mallet into the spine of a knife that size trying to split a chunk of maple or fir wood. A bigger blade can be awkward to use for more delicate tasks. I would rather have a difficult time with dressing a squirrel or a quail using my bigger blades than to snap the blade of a smaller knife while trying to get to the dry core of an otherwise damp piece of wood to get a fire going.

Now as for brand name reference, well, that's just cuz SRKW happens to be my latest infatuation. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Aside from touting a particular style, I think the author was really giving us the ole "Caveat Emptor" warning that you pretty much get what you pay for, and a cheap knife in a survival situation may be only slightly better than busting rocks.