Most of the American frontier wasn't traversed with 1/4" survival knives. If anything, early pioneers were forced to use common imported British knives we now call the butcher pattern, and expeditions carried dozens for supply and trade with the natives. Most were thin - bendable - which was likely a better survival feature than thicker and breakable. They also carried axes and hatchets, and the weight didn't bother them.
They didn't carry any fuel or sophisticated cook gear because they used the local wood sourced right at their feet. Most travel was by river then, trees were plentiful, and most of America was wilderness. They traveled twenty miles a day, and they cooked most nights if fresh meat was available.
They had an assortment of knives, yes. They also used them every day, and each was well known to be better at some tasks than others. What happens in the modern translation of "What knife should I use outdoors?" is the participants get wrapped into their image - not lessons of daily living and years of experience. If the internet is guilty of one thing above all else, it's being a locker room measuring contest of who's the alpha male. And if needs be in the constantly escalating showdown in threads, we see "bigger MUST be better."
No it is not. It's merely another choice, not a tiered hierarchy of status, and that goes to where do you stop? If a 6" blade is better than 4, then 18" is a whole bunch better, 32" is certainly another level higher, and a two handed broadsword tops.
The basic assertion being made in most of the conversation is false. A bigger knife isn't always better, anymore than a bigger axe will do more work - cleaning squirrels? Dressing out a grouse? No.
The OP's contention was they couldn't understand why someone would say "It's useless," when they saw it oppositely. The reality is that either knife - say a 4" camp vs a 6" - will do much of what the other can. Neither can do all, tho, and certainly not as well. It's NOT an absolute that one's personal preference is automatically SUPERIOR just because they think so. If anything, they may well be showing thru skill and use how to get around the limits in a manageable fashion - not that the results work out better. Skinning a perch with an axe is possible, skinning a buffalo with a 2" folder is also. The professional would use both, along with 3 or 4 others, too.
It's not an either - or choice, nor does the size of the blade have anything to do with skill or social ranking. Except on the internet, where the knife you advocate is the measure of your manhood.
Yeah, sure.
That made me chuckle....
