What ruins most knives?

[cotdt]

In a survival situation I'd eat bugs, drink urine, or do whatever was needed to survive.
Doesn't mean I'm going to make bug eating/urine drinking my standard operating procedure or say it's part of a normal diet.

The point was that you would still want your knife to have the capability of prying and abilty to take some abuse, in case it's ever needed, even if you don't plan on abusing it on a day-to-day basis.

 

[stabman]

The point was that you would still want your knife to have the capability of prying and abilty to take some abuse, in case it's ever needed, even if you don't plan on abusing it on a day-to-day basis.

Depends on the knife.
For a camping/chopping knife, yes.
For an "all-purpose" knife, some ability would be nice.
For a dedicated slicer, not at all. Not needed.
My Military out-slices practically every other knife I own, and the "splinter picker" tip(the same feature which makes it unsuitable for prying) has come in very handy when I needed to remove splinters, or do fine tip work.
You CAN buy a knife that will do many thing mediocre, but it won't excell at any one task.
If I were going into the woods, I'd likely take the Clax or the Cold Steel master tanto for big knife stuff, and my Military(or other folding knife) for handling the small knife tasks.