I
haven’t been all that obsessed with the knife
I use in the backcountry as some outdoorsmen seem to be. I generally bring my Leatherman Blast
multitool on adventures, which I think has a good balance of weight and
actually useful tools and handles almost anything I have ever needed to while I
have owned it (other than opening a wine bottle, that is). 
If I am wanting something a little more lightweight
for backpacking, I would bring my Victorinox Spartan swiss Army knife, which is
small, lightweight, and a no-frills knife.
Mind you, in general I am not
doing Bushcrafty type of things that are knife intensive/abusive such as
skinning deer and making my own shelters with my knife, the majority of time I
just use it for cutting my summer sausage, whittling a branch for the fire, or
light repairs. That said, the knifes I
have are slightly lacking if it came down to it and had to do something that
reuired me putting the knife through it’s paces. They both have thin blades and the handles certainly aren’t any good if you
are spending any appreciable time with the knife in your hand.
It
would be cool to get a decently robust backcountry knife that would last the
rest of my adventure days, but some are quite expensive. Choosing a knife for what you want is a good
challenge, there is an astounding range of sizes and styles of knives available,
many of which unfortunately are made to make you want them for their appeal,
not for their actual usefulness in the backcountry. I think there’s a few Macho men out there
into knives for the sake of being into knives ‘cause they look cool, and not
their actual utility. To be honest, I
don’t know what some people on some knife forums are using their knives so much
for, unless they are going out of their way to actually use a knife.
On top
of that, many outdoor celebrities endorse products to make a living, and as
such some products come into the spotlight because of that, and you have to
take the marketing of some with a grain of salt, but on the other hand, some of
the knifes are quite good. I came across
a surprisingly good rundown and writeup of celebrity endorsed backcountry
knives on shipping.com here: Outdoor Knives - As Featured In Television
Survival Programs
I
found it very useful in sorting out the BS when looking for a good backcountry
knife. The Les Stroud knife is
intriguing to me, but I think I am leaning towards getting one of the
Fallkniven F1 G3 knives 
or a
Bark River Knives and Tool BRKT Bravo 1 sometime soon. Although either will lighten my wallet quite
a bit, I do spend a good amount of time outdoors to get some use out of
them… hopefully for the rest of my life,
so I hope I choose well.
