That puts me to thinking about the realities of survival training and what is used by more people than can be imagined.
The 4 blade general purpose knife has been around for over 100 years and was adopted by the Boy Scouts of America in 1911, one year after the BSA was founded. It has been in constant use and has been issued to U.S. military troops in one form or another since 1914.
I have a half dozen of these floating around and I keep them in the vehicles in addition to the multi-tools that are on board. Every major knife maker offers a "scout knife", and some of the cheap knock off models are even usable. When I carry one in my pocket on purpose it is generally the copy of this knife offered by the SAK people.
It is one of the two knives issued to every member of the U.S. armed forces that goes through the Air Force administered survival school at a rate of 20,000 per year. The school has operated at this rate since 1957 when it was mandated that all air crew members be survival trained. That totals more than a million men and women issued this knife just for the survival school.
The second knife they issue is the standard "pilots survival knife". It is a fixed blade knife with a stacked leather handle and a blade 5" long and 1/4" thick.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/i...val-knife/
It is not a large knife or "big knife" as the OP called it, but it has proven sufficient over the 65 years it has been used.
One might also note that the original knife was designed with a 6" blade and within a couple of years the instructors requested that the blade be shortened to 5" for efficiency.
It might also be noted that one of these knives is included in the survival kits under the ejection seat of every U.S. aircraft.
It is not perfect, since each person has his own view of perfection, but I own two of them and it is one of the models that I carried in combat and I respect it highly even if I carry another knife on my belt. The choices we have today give a wide selection, but the knives I carry most are inspired by both this survival knife and the butcher knives that were the primary edged weapon that opened North America.
A sturdy blade no more than 6" long. A full-tang handle of generous size. Steel with good edge holding ability and ease of sharpening in the field.
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