Draw your blade Gentleman...

Now seriously, virtually no one will find himself in a situation where he has to rely on a blade in combat. Nevertheless. a knife can be a life safer...

But only if its a dependable, well-crafted tool. There are a lot of "combat knifes out there, the LMF, ASEK, MPBS, to name just three of them, but are they trustworthy and helpful,when you need them? I say NO, and within the following article I will phase out why (in my opinion)!

The "can-do-almost-any-task-half-assed-but-nothing-wholehearted" Factor
Most blades out there struck the customer with their features. You get saws, chissels, screwdrivers, wire cutters, glass breakers, sharpening stones, etc. But each extra feature nags away another quality of a knife. Most multi-use knifes are of soft steel, so they don break or splinter, when breaking glass, been used as a crowbar, etc. But soft steels don't hold their edge long enough. What brings the next, useless feature: Serrated edges. If a knife-maker is not able to get the steel for a blade right, so it holds its edge fine, he adds a serrated edge, selling it as a big feature addon, while its just another sign of incompetence. Serrated edges have use with emergency knifes or strap-cutters, but are utterly crap on a field or bushcraft knife!

Flaws in material
As mentioned above, many knifes are of soft, cheap steel. It sounds pretty good, if you read "420 stainless" or "Tool-Grade-Steel", but putting into mind, that a simple hammer or crowbar, for 10 bucks from walmart is also "toolsteel" should ring the first alarms. Sure its nice to have a no-worry, maintenance-free blade, but a carbon steel blade is far superior to any stainless crap. And the 5 minutes for oiling the blade ain't that bad either, I guess, cause you will be rewarded with a blade, that is easy to sharp, holds its razor sharp edge for a long time and wont let you down!

Sacrifices to the hype
Since knifes became movie stars (*cough* Rambo *cough*), the public view of what a knife must look like has changed drastically. Now a "survival knife" must be able to cut down trees (and maybe skip and jump and press wild flowers), hold a whole survival laboratory and of course have saw on it. Help me please, if you can cut down trees, what for you will need a saw? Maybe if the 420-stainless-steel-tool-grade-blade is dull again, but honestly: I don't know!

Example:
lets take a typical, military knife, for an examination: The Gerber LMF2 ASEK (Arguments from the marketing department in brackets):

• Balance: Its a mighty heavy knife (Argument: Its for chopping), but has its balance way of the grid for that purpose
• Steel: The steel is much too soft (Argument: So it don't breaks when used as a crowbar) and thus neither gets razor sharp nor holds its edge very long. Funny thing, the sheath has its own sharpening tool. One guess why. Also one guess, why the blade has a, otherwise useless, serrated 1/3 part on the blade.
  
• The rubber handle is known to wear and tear on normal bushcraft tasks, because its too soft (Argument: Soft feels good in the palm), but the softest grip is object to hardest curses, if it falls apart.
  
• One-handed-drawing is kind of a fortune-gamble, because many sheaths come with deformations.
• Design of Blade: First it scores a point her, it uses a drop-point blade instead of the hideous tanto-samurai blade our army now adopts. But again, blade is too massive to work out finer tasks, like feathersticks.
  

Summary: You cant chop with it very well, because of the balance, you cant do finer tasks due the massive blade (and dull edge), you probably will end up with a blade stuck in a sheath made by the lowest bidder, loose the handle during (frantically) trying to chop wood, and, what also matters: You will be 100 bucks poorer, because this knife is not officially issued and end up using a axe/machete and a fine knife for the task the LMF wont do sufficiently! Hooray!!

Suggestions
Well, you might have guessed it already: Carry two knifes. Or a knife and a saw. Bushcraft experts around the globe count on Scandinavian knifes and blades. A Fiskars folding saw combined with a knife made of laminated steel (for example by Frosts Mora) will cost you around 30 bucks and serve you well wherever you go! And if you think you need some brute force, stock up to 50 bucks, and you get the saw, the knife and a machete from Fiskars, and you´re good to go! Alternatively, if your urge for a "tactical" blade is too high, have a look at the Fiskars M95 army knife (image above). It has a carbon steel blade (+coating), is full tang, easy to sharp, has a versatile kydex sheath with auto locking feature, is black as the night and still costs under 100 bucks.
Also the Nieto knife at the very beginning of the post will serve you well.