i've been reading quite a few of the posts related to a good survival knife...
i remember when i went hiking in the mts and sunshine at the foot turned to snow at the top...and the knife i brought with me was for kitchen purposes (hiked up to a cabin)....borrowed from mom's kitchen...
that large kitchen knife did everything i wanted it to do like splinter large logs for tinder, gut ,cut and trim ,slice whatever we were supposed to eat,like onions,tomatoes chicken etc,

it wasn't anything fancy, made in Japan though, sharpened on just about anything...then took it back to my mom...who still swears by it! and still uses it today!
now isn't that what your survival knife should do?

a simple, large bladed kitchen knife made in Japan!

any thoughts?

use what you have my son, and use it well

WAAAAY back in the threads I posted the popular game ' You lost all your gear. You have $ 50 and a general store outside a National Park. What can you outfit yourself with?' There are LOTS of plain vanilla knives with the discomforting ability to do pretty much what our wunder steel, tactical sheathed dinosaur dueling damascus beauties can. But don't let this get out! You want to collapse an entire industry infrastructure of custom makers, magazines, combat schools, sharpening systems, trade shows and a means for survival instructors to buy a new set of tires for their rusting bug out trucks? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Knives are more specialized now than ever before, and it's mostly artificial. I know of one grand old gentleman who still carves turkeys and roasted pigs with the long bayonet he was issued (and smuggled home from) WWII. I use a Ka-bar in the kitchen when no one is looking (people whine). My grandfather used a curved tipped bread knife for skinning in delicate places. Plenty of troopers in a hundred wars carried butcher and skinning knives, as did most outdoorsmen.

Find what you like and can afford. Make sure it does everything you need it to, and that you ahve a good sheath. Keep it sharp and clean. That's all it needs to be. If you find it in the butcher block at home, well, at least you know the knife.

I looked at that idea once. Problem I had was finding a decent source of leather for a scabbard.

I rely on Ontario's line of Old Hickory kitchen knives when in the kitchen. They are robust and easy to resharpen. I just bought a new set a couple of months ago. This one I would rely on if I had to, I have owned more than one and used them for years:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=OH77

I just sharpened a whole set of them for a friend, he has been using the same set for over 15 years.