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Quoted By: >>2714762 >>2714766 >>2714821 >>2714884 >>2714906 >>2714943 >>2715732 >>2715883 >>2721777 >>2723194 >>2725362
If you disagree you are wrong.
First it should have a blade between 6"-8" long. You need a long blade for a myriad of tasks, but primarily you need it for splitting, for rapid carving with the spine braced against your knee (critical for making things like wedges), and for combat effectiveness. This puts the overall length at 10"-14", which is the maximum length for concealment/EDC, which is the whole purpose of a survival knife.
The knife shouldn't weigh more than 16 ounces. More than that and it's probably just going to be clumsy for most tasks and too redundant with a hatchet. The knife should only have enough heft to easily cut down poles 1"-3" in diameter or cut someone's fingers off. If you don't have a saw for some unfortunate reason, the way you crosscut bigger trees with the knife is to baton it across the grain like a chisel, you shouldn't be relying on chopping heft for this. The point of balance should be around the index finger in a high grip.
It must be made of carbon steel or low alloy tool steel like 01, 52100, 5160, etc. Stainless steels, especially "super steels", are useless garbage that trade every single desirable quality of steel like impact resistance and sharpenability and fine grained edge just for slightly better edge retention, which is something only inexperienced people care about. The heat treatment should be rather soft. The knife should be indestructible and easy to sharpen with anything, with edge retention being a distant priority.
First it should have a blade between 6"-8" long. You need a long blade for a myriad of tasks, but primarily you need it for splitting, for rapid carving with the spine braced against your knee (critical for making things like wedges), and for combat effectiveness. This puts the overall length at 10"-14", which is the maximum length for concealment/EDC, which is the whole purpose of a survival knife.
The knife shouldn't weigh more than 16 ounces. More than that and it's probably just going to be clumsy for most tasks and too redundant with a hatchet. The knife should only have enough heft to easily cut down poles 1"-3" in diameter or cut someone's fingers off. If you don't have a saw for some unfortunate reason, the way you crosscut bigger trees with the knife is to baton it across the grain like a chisel, you shouldn't be relying on chopping heft for this. The point of balance should be around the index finger in a high grip.
It must be made of carbon steel or low alloy tool steel like 01, 52100, 5160, etc. Stainless steels, especially "super steels", are useless garbage that trade every single desirable quality of steel like impact resistance and sharpenability and fine grained edge just for slightly better edge retention, which is something only inexperienced people care about. The heat treatment should be rather soft. The knife should be indestructible and easy to sharpen with anything, with edge retention being a distant priority.
