Start by reading the section on Sharps in Doug's equipment section. First of all, there is no such thing as a 'survival knife.' There are knives used in survival situations. Some knives have been designed as dedicated survival blades. The Fallkniven F1, it's big brother the S1 and the similar Cold Steel SRK are good examples along with the Becker series. Survival knives tend to be ROBUST and SIMPLE. Who, or what 'sold' you on a 5-6" blade? You would be well served buying a inexpensive blade to start. My friend Ragnar @ www.ragweedforge.com sells very inexpensive moras. You can learn sharpening, knife safety and determine just how much blade you actually need. You should also understand that while a single core survival knife may be your most essential tool a well prepared kit will have a modest selection of different models. my present set has a Fallkniven F1 as core knife, a Ritter RSK as pocket carry and several of the above mentioned Moras scattered about my kits. The old carpenter's adage ' measure twice and cut once' can be amended to 'examine twice and buy once' with this most romantic, and magpie inspiring object of shiny acquisition.