Omega,

There was recently mention of the requirement to dig out arrows in one of the other forums. Apparently bowhunters have taken to carrying the Gransfors Bruks "Mini" hatchet on their quivers for this. I own one (and it's larger but still small brother, the "Wildlife" hatchet), and can readily see why- it's a very tiny hatchet at about 10.5 inches and 11oz, but will out-chop many much heavier and more expensive knives. It's hard to imagine a better tool for removing arrows from trees, and removing that requirement would free up your choice of knives. Gransfors Bruks hatchets and axes have made quite an impact on the knife community because of their high quality, and how well they work.

http://www.cutsforthknives.com/item-detail.cfm?id=410&storeid=1

Also, the combination of a more modest knife and a hatchet IMHO tends to work better in hardwood forests, and it raises far fewer eybrows and issues where there are knife laws, or where the police just don't like large knives. Not that, in a pinch, a man with a smaller knife in one hand and a hatchet in the other is exactly unarmed...

Local custom may require you to loan out a knife for such abuse, but I find it hard to believe that it requires you to loan out your ONLY knife. If nothing else, that has the potential to leave you helpless. Faced with such a necessity, I'd be strongly tempted to carry an Ontario or a Scandinavian knife as a "beater" for loaning out, and keep my own knife on my belt. Certainly, if there's a potential for abuse or "loss", I'd much rather see that happen to a $15-55 dollar knife than a $150-300 one, regardless of warranty. Many knife warranties exclude obvious abuse, in any case.

Your mention of this custom reminds me of my high school days- there was one obnoxious bully who used to zero in on anyone he saw that had a knife. He'd come up and say "Hey, that's a really neat knife, can I see it?". If you handed him the knife, he'd say "that's really nice- do you have any other knives on you?" , and if you said "No", he'd say "That's too bad- I guess you're unarmed now, and I have a knife, huh?", and he'd walk off with it.

Courtesy needs to have limits.