While others have described individual qualities that they feel are important to their perceived needs, I want to take a stab (ahem), at the more general question of "Is there a standard for items called 'survival knives'. "
In a nutshell, the answer is NO.
I have more than 3 feet of bookshelf devoted to various survial topics ranging from stuff geared towards military to more specific textbooks geared towards 1st Responders, Search and Rescue professionals and surviving various natural disasters. (Not to mention another similar section of books on various edlible and medicinal flora and fauna.)
It used to really irk the heck out of me that every single one of these books starts with the assumption that one will have a blade with them, but almost NONE of the more serious books ever go into much detail about what that blade should be. The exceptions to that are two wholly excretable works that are basically the laughingstock of professionals everywhere.
One of the problems with placing too much emphasis on the ONE all time greatest survival knife, (whatever that mythical beast might look like), is that the chances of having it with you when you most need it are pretty slim in today's global society. Also the notion of having one's survival mindset dependent upon one single type of knife or equipment leaves one wide open to being unprepared when a situation does present itself and the required tool is nowhere at hand.
What I'm saying is that a SAK, multitool or pocketclip knife of choice, * in your pocket* beats a MadDog left at home any day of the week. It's important to realize that not all human survival situations have anything to do with fantasies about surviving with nothing but some large Rambeaux type knife for months at a time.
I almost can't remember ever hearing or reading of anybody that starved to death for lack of a large knife. What I do read about all the time is folks that are trapped in various vehicles, or accousted by criminals or suffered hypothermia, etc. ad naseum. What most of these folks needed knifewise was nearly any knife and the knowledge and willpower to simply use it as best they could. Just to be clear, I don't mean to suggest that all of life's problems can be handled by some cheap Paki knife, but rather just to suggest that far more often, in real world survival the type of knife present is not necessarily what determines the situation outcome.
My own standards for a 'survival' knife:
1. It has to be with me.
2. It has to be accessable.
3. It has to be useful for as wide a variety of tasks as possible, given the constraint that it has to be with me when I need it.
4. It has to be up to cutting a variety of materials, from rope, to seatbelts to small pieces of wood, to flesh etc. quickly.
5. It has to be field resharpenable on nearly any smooth rock.
Those are pretty simple criteria, yet most of the knives that I see folks mention as survival knives would fail even those simple standards.
I just thought I'd mention all that as food for thought.
mps
