As someone who backpacks with more of a "fast and light" philosophy, I agree with this post completely:
>>256169.
When I was primarily eating dehydrated meals, energy bars, and trail mix on backpacking trips, I didn't even bring a real knife - just a sort of folding razor blade (pic related) to get into plastic packaging, and do any first aid cutting, if ever required. I hardly ever even used it. I still keep a fresh one in my first aid kit just because it's a nice backup to have in case you need a sterile knife and your main knife is dull or dirty.
These days, I eat more block cheese and summer sausage, so I have to bring a very lightweight, small knife that is, at minimum, about as long as those food items are thick. The past couple seasons, I used a Benchmade 530 Pardue, which weighs about 2 ounces, is very thin, but relatively long. It seems to be made for cutting small foods, but I've been finding that it doesn't hold an edge as well as I'd like (I don't want to have to service my backpacking knife very often), and I can't stand the lack of jimping on the top of the blade for when I'm cutting into harder foods, so this year I will try a Spyderco Dragonfly made out of ZDP-189, which is supposed to be a pretty bomber steel. Plus, it only weighs 1 ounce total.
In 15 years of doing this, I've just never had the need of a bigger knife.
