>>674503as long as you don't get it completely dull, a 1000 grit ceramic rod is fine for s30v even.
There's a sheath called Deep Wood Xplored (DWX) - it is a hubrid leather/kydex sheath with a sliding lock retention and embedded ceramic rod - LT kas it as an option on some of their knives, but it's kind of expensive (like 75+ dollars expensive, if memory serves).
Also - the thickness isn't that much of an issue. There was a trend for survival knives to be 1/4'' thick (Dave specified 5/32'' at least), but honestly - 1/8'' is fine, and most bushcraft knives have settled on that (I've even seen some go down to 3/32'').
As for the "full tang" buisness - it's not so much about the sick tang knife breaking, as about the handle coming off and leaving you with a much less functional knife, than if the same were to happen to a full tang one. I have one stick tang that I have no problem doing heavy chopping with, and no fear of it breaking, but that's kind of a special case (also, you really want a kukri with a stick tang, for balance reasons - until you feel it in your hand, you'd be surprised how much of a difference even taperd tang does in terms of balancing the whole thing).
As has been said already - most of the time you'll do fine with 1095, 5160, O1, and A2.
Though it's not the only choice. Falkniven uses 3V and laminated VG10.
