What is the best survival knife?

This is a question that will never truly be answered because everyone has their own opinion, but I will give you my brutal and honest opinion anyway.

First of all I would just like to say that there is no perfect survival knife, A knife will get dull, it can break, you can lose it or it might chip. So you can not trust a knife blindly and the knives you carry with you when you are outdoors or that you have in your car should be sharp, solid knives that will keep an edge for a long time and that can be sharpened easy in the field eigther by a steel or a natural stone that might be used in an emergency.

My totally honest answer would be that the best survival knife you can have is the one that is in your pocket or on your belt when you are actually in an emergency situation so having a cheap, poor knife on you because you are just going for a short walk in the woods will have to do since you do not have any choice. That is why I always have a razor sharp quality knife with me at all times when I'm in the wild instead of carrying cheapo knives from time to time. You never know what might happen.

Then to actually specify what type of knife that is ideal seen from my point of view.
A knife is an extremely effective tool that can be used for a lot of different uses and to do all of these good it needs to fulfill some requirements. These are sharpness, robustness, thickness, ability to retain a sharp edge, a comfortable handle that fits your hand and a good secure sheath and ease of sharpening. I prefer a knife with about a 4-5'' blade as this is less prone to break since you won't have to much leverage. I also prefer scandi or flat grinds for edge retention and ease of sharpening.
So my recommended knives are: Any of the Helle knives , Ontario RAT 3, handmade bushcraft knives, Mora knives, Condor Bushlore and Fallkniven F1!

Importance of a good knife

A VERY small selection of my bushcraft knives

The number one piece of equipment needed in bushcraft is a cutting edge, and in these modern times that is a good, reliable and razor sharp knife. When out in the woods you should always carry a a solid fixed blade knife that is razor sharp including the means to keep it so. I don't personally like to carry a folding knife as my main bushcraft knife as it has moving parts witch is just one more thing that could fail, leaving you without a knife when you really need it. But a folding knife is a real good item to keep on you as a spare knife and a knife that is always on you in case of an emergency.

There is a number of things you will need your bushcraft knife for. You will be using it to make different tools and utensils for your camp including feathersticks. It will be used for splitting wood that is wet on the outside so that you can get in to the dry combustible wood on the inside, to do this you will use a baton to hammer the knife throu the log. You will also be using it for food preparation, shelter building and a million other uses.

When choosing a knife for buscraft use you must put some thought into it and be careful not to step into the trap that is choosing a knife for its looks and name. You are looking for a knife that is sturdy that can be used for hard and though work for a long period of time. It will need to be able to keep a sharp edge for a long time and be easy to resharpen when necessary, carbon steel knives normally holds all these qualities and then some and should therefore be your natural choice of steel for your bushcraft and survival knife. Most people would say that this is a disadvantage because the knife will be able to rust compared to a stainless steel knife but as long as you take care of a carbon steel knife i will not rust, is much easier to sharpen and is able to create sparks when stricken against a sharp rock.

You will not have to buy an expensive knife that is hand made and so on. A simple Mora knife is easy to sharpen, cheap and razor sharp. All kinds of looks and colors are available in pretty much any outdoor equipment shop and webshops that sells such equipment.

So go out and get yourself a good knife that you will be enjoying for a long time. See you soon!