What fixed blade do you carry on your 1st line gear or will you use in a shtf scenario? How much is too much money? Rat for low $100s or Spartan/Strider in the $3-400s? When does “You get what you pay for”, not hold as much water?
I’ve always been pretty happy with my Strider EBS. It’s fairly compact but large enough I’ve gotten good use out of it in a work role.
I have been thinking for a while about going to a longer bladed knife. I’ll be watching this thread to see what suggestions some have in a 5" or 6" style that they’ve been happy with.
Mine…
Busse SAR4.
I use a Gerber LMF II, it’s not bad for $80. Very hefty knife, I use it for camping and when I have to carve up pumpkins for our Machine gun shoots 
It would probably be two of them–one an Ontario Rat-3, and the other a Spydie Muleteam 6 with micarta scales.
My Grayman has held up pretty good.
I have a 20 year old carbon steel knife I bought for a high school job. It has hunted/worked with me ever since and I do not treat it like a lady. I think carbon steel is sometimes underrated.
Caveat: I am in no way an expert or even very educated about bladed weapons, I just have had good luck with carbon steel and have seen many stainless knives (not of the $400 ilk though) come and go that did not fare so well.
As much as I hate to part with money, on my “as soon as I can afford it” list is the Strider DB - L.
Emerson PUK (Police Utility Knife).
here’s what I’m thinking of:
Bravo 1 0r 2 from Bark River
Fehrman 1st Strike or Last Chance
Rat-6
Strider of some sort
Rat RC-3 
As is usually the case, I think one’s own definition of “SHTF” is going to impact the decision to a great extent. If you have a MOLLE belt set up for home defense you may have a different solution than a similar belt set up for EOTWAWKI E&E, etc.
I had a Strider DB that I first mounted on a belt, then on a chest rig, and then sold. For me, personally, it was just too much knife (in terms of cost) for my purposes, and I actually bought it at a discount at SHOT one year. I had zero concerns about it’s durability or quality, but a lot of concerns about dropping a $200+ knife out on the range.
For anything other than field use, I think the size was about perfect. I liked that it was short & fat for use in clearing “type ate” malfunctions, as well as a potential last-ditch defensive tool. Obviously it would not work as any kind of chopping or other camp-making tool, and was probably even too fat for use in field dressing and cooking. I’m in an urban/suburban area so these are of almost no concern to me and the fine work can be addressed with a well-sharpened Leatherman blade or similar.
I’ve been sort of passively looking around for a lower-cost, similar-sized, alternative now that I have two first-line belts again. Will be interested to see what others post.
Would like to make a request though, that folks posting at least link to the product you mention, and post a picture of your personal setup if you can.
My Strider mounted to belt
Same knife mounted on chest rig
ETA: come to think of it, posting that pic, the little HAK there on the support side of the chest rig is probably around here somewhere and would work pretty nicely on a first-line belt as a last-ditch…
I love my HAK. It will be on my person whenever possible.
I have a Kizlyar, what a hefty Russian beast! I like it alot! Spetsnaz favors them, but I just like the utility of it, price wasn’t bad either.
I am not a huge Strider fan, but I do have an MFS that sees a lot of action hiking, on the range, and tending to the vineyard. Unlike the ubiquitous tanto profile, it has some belly and a fairly useful profile. It is not so big as to be a boat anchor on the belt or vest, either.
Another “real world” knife that I like is the CRK Professional Soldier. I’d like to see more/better carry and mounting options, but the blade itself is pretty good- basically a fixed blade Sebenza.
It depends what you want out of the knife. Over all there’s much more you can accomplish with a longer blade than with a smaller blade. Small blades are great for general utilitarian purposes, and have the edge on detailed work, but a larger knife can chop, and cleave for easily (think survival situation in the woods were one might need to chop small trees down for fire wood, or baton logs to get to dry wood).
One of those Busse combat 10" knives, or the new RAT “Junglas” knife will fit the bill as a general all purpose utilitarian knife. In all reality though, one should adopt many knives to be set. I know some might want to reduce weight but I am a believer in having a small fixed blade utility knife, and a larger work horse.
Personally as far a large knives go, nothing is better than a Bowie. Reason being, is that it can do what all large knives can do, but it’s a premier fighting knife. There is no better knife in a trained fighter’s hands than a bowie, and this is because of the false edge (clip point) as well as it’s over all design. If one is skilled with this knife, than all the other tanto bullshit, and the like don’t even compare. It’s a true fighting knife. Something to consider for a all purpose SHTF knife.
cevtv,
Is that sheath the one that comes with the Emerson now? I bought one when they first came out and got an Eagle combo nylon/kydex one. I would like a smaller sheath for it.
Yes, it is. They do still have the nylon sheath available (minus the kydex insert), but this is the current production sheath.