Ok. I cooled down, so I think I can provide you with some honest feedback. No jokes, no sarcasm.
Word of advice, blades over 12cm, roughly 4.7 inches are illegal in Germany unless you can prove real need, and it doesn't include camping or zombie protection. They do sweeps at the airport!
If you are leaving posts containing legal advice you better know what you are talking about. This is because other fellow members might rely on your statements and can face serious trouble if your comment turns out to be misleading, incomplete or plainly wrong. You, brother, do NOT know what you are talking about. I studied law in Germany and because I liked it so much I didn't quit before I achieved my master degree with excellent grades. Due to my knife addiction I exposed myself to the applicable regulations on carrying and handling knives in Germany and also gathered the opinions of my more specialized colleagues.
Just to put this right for everybody who might read this thread in future: Knives over 12cm, roughly 4.7 inches are
NOT illegal in Germany unless you could prove real need.
However, it is illegal to carry those kind of blades readily to hand. Therefore, I advise everyone who wants to travel to Germany with a large knife to do what I will do: put it in your suitcase, preferably in a separate box, and leave it there until you reach your accommodation (hotel, home, ...). If they sweep you at the airport please tell the security agent that you would like THEM to open your luggage and that they will find knives inside. They might ask you what you need them for and you can declare any legal purpose: collection, admiration, kitchen use, yard use, gift or camping in other European countries (e. g. Scandinavia).
As you can see from my post, I go to Germany for family visits only, so I will leave the knives in my suitcase all the time. If you want to know under which circumstances you are allowed to use such knives in German public please search the Forums for German knife laws first and only drop me a message if you don't find an answer.
In US airports the Poelice would love to overhear someone joking like that. It would be a great arrest. I am not joking. They arrest people for those type of comments, joking or not.
In Saudi Arabia you are executed for having intercourse with your neighbors wife - but this comment is an equally useless piece of cultural information as yours, because the US is not part of my travel plans and I don't expect Saudi to be part of yours. BTW: I bet my left testicle that I spent more time in US airports than most US citizens. I admire the professional friendliness of your security staff and wish I found this quality of service in every part of the world.
Are you going to be driving to a location and then getting out and hiking around, or will you be walking tens or hundreds of miles and carrying everything on your back?
I will not hike from KSA to Malasia to Germany to Norway and then back to KSA, even though I like this idea. I will travel by plane and during my stay in Norway I will do the 220km hike in the arctic regions (North Cape to Alta, as mentioned in my previous post). Yes, there I will have to carry everything on my back.
If the latter I personally would be much better off selecting one of the knives and carry a 4 inch fixed blade as well as a Victorinox Swiss Army Knive.
In order to minimize weight I will carry fuel for the cooker for the first 3 days only. Until then I will have reached the timber line and rely solely on firewood to prepare my meals, dry off clothes and disinfect water. I don't know how to prepare firewood with a 4 inch blade or even a Victorinox. So the choice is between my GB axe or one of the two big knives in the pictures. Again, for the sake of REDUCING weight I'll go for a big knife. The second knife is my backup if (god forbids) the first one fails. Therefore, it still has to be big enough to chop down smaller trees and baton it into firewood.
If you will be hiking/camping for multiple days and will carry both those large blades you are the man! More power to you.
As described above it is the lightest and safest solution I could think of. My back pack is about 26 kg at start, mainly because of all the dry food. During my active time in the German navy we used to carry a lot more and had less time to overcome such distances. Thanks for the power.
This thread was supposed to trigger a delightful exchange of ideas for summer holidays. I'm sorry it turned into something different and definitely less delightful. I will not lock this thread, but not post in it anymore. Just ain't no phun...
Then just pretend you could break free 
:thumbup:
O and sweet knives!
