Survival/general purpose fixed-blade knives

[maximus83]

After years of carrying bigger blades outdoors, I now lean towards a 4" blade with full tang and no serrations.

This. Exactly.

Ideally, you want a 2-knife solution, right tool for the job and all that. A small-ish blade in the range of 3.5" to 4.5" that is your primary all purpose blade, light and tough enough for batoning, but small enough for slicing and detail work. You don't want this knife to be the "sharpened pry bar" survival type of knife. Stock on the blade typically between 0.14" and 0.17", with something like a full flat grind for slicing. This smaller type of blade, I prefer to be a modern stainless steel because if it involves food prep, it's much easier to maintain and to keep clean from corrosion which you wouldn't want around food. Then in addition to the smaller knife, get a much bigger knife in a carbon steel (you want the carbon steel for toughness and easy sharpening on the large blade), as big as you can stand to carry, in the range of 6" to 12" for the blade and preferably toward the upper end of that range. Why? Because the big knife can replace several tools and gives you more versatility. A great example is the ESEE Junglas 1 (10" blade) or Junglas 2 (8" blade). Both of these knives will actually let you do a ton of useful tasks. The Junglas 1 can be sort of a jack of all trades (and master of none admittedly--but it lets you replace carrying several tools): it'll let you clear brush like a machete, chop like a hatchet, baton, hammer, and can still be used for knife tasks too. As you learn to choke up on it, you can do amazing fine detail tasks even with that huge blade. Recently I practiced with mine prepping some food and then using it as a steak knife, mostly just to practice fine slicing with it. It's pretty surprising how well a large knife can work if it has a good edge and a good primary bevel.

If you can't do a 2-knife solution--"what one knife would you take" and all that--then I agree with the poster who said something like an ESEE 6. This is a total "compromise knife" (because not big enough to do serious chopping like a hatchet, and also not small enough to easily do fine detail work), but it's also a great general purpose knife that can do many things KIND of well, if you're set on only carrying one. I've never been in a situation that only required me to carry one knife though, so I like to have adequate tools to do everything I want to do when back packing.

[purple_yota27565]

Mora and esee are hard to beat for the money. Mora is making a full tang model now that's pretty sweet.

[Pilot1]

A Mora is a great choice. I forgot them, but they are a steal for their usefulness. A 4 inch Mora would be a good place to start. Either carbon or stainless.

[Koshinn]

Mora and esee are hard to beat for the money. Mora is making a full tang model now that's pretty sweet.

I was actually looking at the Mora full tang, then I realized I know nothing about knives and made this thread

[B Cart]

I have the ESEE 5 and love it. It's a fantastic bushcraft knife, and built like a tank, but it is also on the heavy side. I only say that because I sometimes leave it home due to it's size, and that may be a factor for you. I've never used Mora knives but will look into them

[militarymoron]

When I was a teenager, I thought that the Rambo or 'First Blood' type survival knives were THE knives to have, 'cuz Rambo used them of course. After spending more time camping/hiking with friends, I found that they big fixed blades were just 'heavy'. I also found that I needed a small knife a lot more often than I needed a big knife.
So, after owning various knives (both fixed blade and folding), I've found that this is what fits most of my needs in the outdoors:
1. 4" to 5" blade, non serrated.
2. A decent steel - S30V or something equivalent
3. G10 scales or whatever is durable
4. A small guard is nice to have. I'm accident prone. I've used a lanyard hole with 550 cord as well. I tend to drop stuff the higher I am.

I found that fighting style knives don't generally work that well for general use, but a general use knife can probably be used for fighting. I wouldn't know; I'm not a fighter. But, I stick to pretty 'normal/practical' blade profiles (drop or clip point, no tantos etc) with a medium thickness blade. Too thick, and it's sometimes hard to cut with. I also found that it's very useful to have a multitool with me, like a leatherman wave. In summary, a 4" blade + multitool covers most of my outdoor needs.

[JaegerOne]

https://www.amazon.com/Condor-Bushlo...=condor+knives
This is a very nice knife at a good price.

[soulezoo]

Mora is an excellent value choice. Inexpensive enough to almost make it a "throwaway" knife.

I will second Pilot's first post. I have a few of both ESEE and Falkniven. I have a soft for the latter and a s1 is my "go to" outdoor knife. The Falkniven is a knife you absolutely need to hold in your hand to appreciate.

[VARIABLE9]

Just watch for the ESEE counterfeits. You can Google the issue and see the differences between real and fake.

[Evel Baldgui]

Another vote for the Mora knives ! Exceeedingly well priced, and quite functional for most purposes, whether wandering the woods or the urban landscape.