A survival knife is a fixed blade you would be content to have if it were the only tool you had. That rules out anything with a hollow handle full of fishing hooks and it rules out most folders. What is left is a full tang blade somewhere between 4 and 8 inches with a spine you can strike, a handle that does not slip, and a sheath that keeps it on you.
What is on this tag
Tracker knives, camp knives, bushcraft blades, skinners and drop point hunters. Blade lengths run 3.5, 4, 5, 7 and 8 inches, with overall lengths from about 7.5 to 13. Steel is mostly Damascus of 1095 and 15N20, forge welded and acid etched, at 58 to 60 HRC, with plain 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC and some D2. Handles are stag horn, wood, rosewood, buffalo horn, walnut, micarta and stabilized resin. Every fixed blade ships in a stitched cowhide sheath.
What actually matters in the field
Tang first. A blade that has to baton through seasoned wood puts a bending load on the steel where the handle starts, and that is exactly where a partial tang gives up, which the tang comparison illustrates with the failure modes. Second, a flat spine rather than a rounded one, because a squared spine throws sparks off a ferro rod and scrapes bark for tinder. Third, a handle you can hold with cold, wet hands, which is where micarta and antler beat polished wood.
Size and upkeep
A 4 inch blade does fine work and food. A 7 inch chops. Carrying both is the honest answer and carrying one means accepting a compromise. Carbon steel wants drying and oiling, and a leather sheath wants to be emptied and dried after a wet day rather than left with a blade in it. The care guide covers blade, handle and sheath together. The tracker patterns are in the tracker knives and the general field blades in the hunting knives.
What to ignore
Serrations on the spine, hollow handles, compasses in the pommel and anything described as tactical. None of it survives contact with actual use, and every one of those features removes steel or strength from somewhere that needed it. A plain full tang blade with a good sheath outlasts the lot and costs less to replace.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
