Maybe North Americans and people from Finland take to the woods for different reasons....
I have noticed that most of my fellow countrymen tend to go in to the wilderness for only a few reasons:
Short day hikes, "off-roading" (Jeeps, ATV's, and dirt-bikes), hunting, fishing, mountain-climbing, and camping.
Short day hikes: I really can't see anyone lugging a stout fixed-blade with them for just a day of hiking trails.
Even a strong folder is probably overkill.
Off-roading: Most folks (at least the experienced ones) will have tools and such in the vehicle, but a multi-tool is certainly very handy....much more so than a fixed-blade.
Hunting: You really don't need a multi-tool, but one can come in handy for making adjustments to your gear (rifle, scope, stand, blind, etc...).
Fishing: A multi-tool is a very handy thing to have around for reels and other fishing gear.
But I will admit that a fixed fillet knife is nice if you intend to eat the fish out in the field.
Mountain-climbing: I'm not a mountain-climber, but I have noticed that very few climbers carry fixed-blade.
Maybe they already have too much gear to carry?
Camping: Again, a multi-tool is handy to have around the campsite.
It's good for fixing things and modifying other items that you might find (camp stoves, solar showers, air mattress pump, etc....).
Even our pioneer forefathers almost always carried more tools than just a fixed-blade.
Fixed-blades are fun, and every knife nut should have at least one.
But in my opinion, most folks would be better served with a good multi-tool.
Yeah, I think that may have something to do with it. Hikes that last more than one day are surprisingly (to most non-Scandinavians) common here and a popular hobby.
I can agree that most folks would be better served with a multitool, BUT only in urban environs, car camping, or similar situations that can hardly turn "survival" in the outdoor sense. For longer than a day in the woods, especially for survival situations, anyone would be better off with a fixed blade than a multitool, in my view.
For short day hikes, most people here bring a fixed blade to use around any possible campfire they may set up to stop and enjoy the views for a longer while. One could do without any knife, and certainly well with a multitool. Although I don't see how a fixed blade would be too hard to carry for a day hike - after all, it's only a day, and they don't weigh
that much.
For off-roading, yeah, I would bring a multitool, and on top of that a whole box of tools for any repair work. That's not really what people around here think of when they speak about being outdoors - that's just driving around.
For hunting, a fixed blade is far superior to any other knife. First of all, it's easiest to clean - multitools are absolute hell to clean of blood and guts and animal hair, compared to a simple fixed blade. And since it's a lot stronger and won't fold on the fingers even when abused, it's easier to "shortcut" through joints and bone if you feel like it. I've never seen a hunter use anything but a fixed blade here, and that's for a reason.
A multitool might be handy to bring along, though, for the reasons you listed. The same I find true for fishing - multitools get so dirty trying to fillet a trout that it's not even funny.
For mountain-climbing, I think this really shows the cultural difference between Scandinavia and North America. The few mountain climbers that I actually know (that actually climb mountains and not the sub 1000 meter stuff we have here in Finland
), all use only fixed blades. I have heard of one using a folder in hearsay, though - a mountain climber I personally know told me that this guy's folder had frozen solid while climbing because of moist snow getting inside the knife and freezing. The folder wouldn't open until they were able to set up a fire and warm it just to see if that could work - the others luckily had fixed blades, so they weren't in any real danger of not having knives. But that's just one reason why I'd carry a fixed blade when climbing. They do make them very light and small, too, and they would still be more reliable than similarly sized folders, not to mention that they won't freeze shut or won't fail to open because you can't use the thumbhole with heavy gloves.
For camping, I can't think of anything a multitool would be needed for, but one could find it handy if they had a lot of gear with them to fix. A fixed blade for food prep and perhaps working on firewood would be better, though, if one just had to have one. But do guys over there really bring stuff like stoves and solar showers when they go camping?
That's something I've never even heard of anyone doing here, except with very large groups for extended stay, like in military ops or week-long scout camps (and even they don't bring solar showers or stuff like that!). :O There really seems to be an enormous cultural difference with respect to these things. Over here, one of the very points of going outdoors to hike and camp is to not have all the gear and luxuries of urban life. What's the point of going camping if one's going to bring a television, a stove and a solar shower? :foot:
But I certainly agree that it's always wise to bring more than just one tool. I just think that one of those tools should almost always be a fixed blade. That was certainly how it was for our forefathers. Myself, I would be able to live outdoors with a good fixed blade and a good axe. That's two tools I could use to make everything else I might need to live. Would be fun to have more tools, though, at the very least saws and hammers.
I'm not a skiier, but I've seen plenty of folks "wipe out" and tumble down the hill while skiing....seems like a bad idea to have a fixed-blade hanging on your belt.
You should try it sometime, it's a lot of fun, and a hell of a lot faster than stomping around in snowshoes, unless the snow just gives under you like a swamp. Then, it sucks even more than walking.
The fixed blade on the belt while skiing isn't a real risk, really. I don't think anyone in Scandinavia has ever died or even seriously injured themselves with their own fixed blade by falling while skiing. But, if I was going downhill skiing just for maximum speed, I would pack the fixed blade (as well as any folder) somewhere where it's properly padded like with everything else that's hard - because otherwise, falling on it is going to hurt, and a lot.
