First off, I do not view the old issue K-Bar as a durable or tough. The narrow tang reduced the strength and the metal was not real good. I chipped them, broke them and bent them all of the time, until I found something better.

Some context is necessary. I was in the infantry (82nd Airborne, VERY light infantry) and in Special Forces, spending a great deal of time in the field, from the Arctic to the jungle, mountains and desert. You carried what you could, but what you carried was all that you had. Military missions go beyond the "survive until rescue" type of scenario. If the mission required something to be done, you had to do it with what you carried in on your back. With all of the necessary mission gear, there was little room for other tools, so you carried an entrenching tool and a knife. There were not as many options for knives then, nor were there many options for saws or hatchets/tomahawks. If you did not carry it in, you did not have it. It was normal in SF for the rucksacks to weigh in excess of 120 pounds. My back still hurts.

The tasks that destroyed K-Bars was prying, chopping and digging. Not what you WANT to do with a knife, but if you have nothing else to do it with, that is what you use. I have breached solid wood doors with one (or tried to), pried apart wooden pallets, pried windows and car doors, and dug holes in rocky soil. Again, not your normal survival tasks. However, I will throw it out there, that you never know what you will need to do to survive. Maybe break into a building for shelter. Maybe dig a hole for shelter. Try to build a raft maybe. If your knife breaks, you are not only unable to finish that task, but you have no tool for other, more survivally types of things.

I want a tool that can withstand anything I do to it, short of placing it in a vise and hitting it with a sledge hammer. But if it can withstand that too, all the better. What I ended up carrying for years was the Gerber BMF, and the Cold Steel Recon Tanto. Put them throigh hell, and they never had a problem. Now I have the great and durable field tools I needed when I was in the Army (what I would not give to have had them then).

With entrenching tools (E tools), I had the same type of problem. The new (to me) folding E tools did not last. If you were digging in anything other than sand or soft soil, they would break or the shovel would not stay in place. I carried an old one from the WW II or Korean War era, which did not fold up so small, but was much more durable. Now I like the Cold Steel Special Forces shovel. Digs like a champ, chops well, and I have not broken it, yet!

Sorry, no war stories.