I need help - Survival Knife

You should be well pleased with the Aurora.

Mine did everything that was asked of it.
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A very cool blade in it’s own right,
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Just one thing. You are in France. There are some good knife makers there as well. Just for fun, look at this guy: BK Knives, Olivier Brier, from the Sancy area. Parttime custom knife maker, archer, aikido black belt and just a nice guy. Has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Couteaux-BK-573936662771312/ . And sometimes shows up on knife shows. Gets some good comments in knife magazines. There are more like him, France just does not seem to have a huge industrial fixed-blade industry, they are more into pocket knives like the Laguioles and Opinels.
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Just an example...
And speaking like a European (living in France), if you want a sturdy, no-nonsense outdoor knife (it is not a survival kniufe because the manufacturer or a knife nut calls it that, it becomes a de facto survival knife only when you find yourself in a real life-or-death situation and the knife doing what you need it to makes the difference), most here will probably agree that it's worth looking at the Terävä Jääkkäripuukkos from Varusteleka in Finland. Not pretty, but very sturdy, good tool steel, very good sheaths, they just work. And not expensive. Home of the Skrama.
 
I havent read all the previous posts but would suggest that you are looking for the best one tool option. I would pick the best steel available.
 
schwep said:
Just one thing. You are in France. There are some good knife makers there as well. Just for fun, look at this guy: BK Knives, Olivier Brier, from the Sancy area. Parttime custom knife maker, archer, aikido black belt and just a nice guy. Has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Couteaux-BK-573936662771312/ . And sometimes shows up on knife shows. Gets some good comments in knife magazines. There are more like him, France just does not seem to have a huge industrial fixed-blade industry, they are more into pocket knives like the Laguioles and Opinels.
61311713_1288738801291091_8688847559977861120_o.jpg

Just an example...
And speaking like a European (living in France), if you want a sturdy, no-nonsense outdoor knife (it is not a survival kniufe because the manufacturer or a knife nut calls it that, it becomes a de facto survival knife only when you find yourself in a real life-or-death situation and the knife doing what you need it to makes the difference), most here will probably agree that it's worth looking at the Terävä Jääkkäripuukkos from Varusteleka in Finland. Not pretty, but very sturdy, good tool steel, very good sheaths, they just work. And not expensive. Home of the Skrama.
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree!
 
Bar_D_Lee_nN said:
Hello !

I am torn apart between two survival knives, after many researches I've decided to finally buy one of those :

- Bark River Aurora in CPM3V
- Tops B.O.B. in carbon

Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

I am with you on the first line, then you lose me as soon as you list the knives you are considering. I think we have differing opinions of survival. I could see either of those doing well for surviving a normal camping / hunting trip or bushcraft meet, but I see neither as having any features that qualify it as a survival knife for deteriorated circumstances. Like @kvaughn said in your other post in Gear, the Pilot Survival Knife is an awesome knife for the various deteriorated circumstances that create the needs for the compromised mix of design elements in any purpose-designed "survival knife". I carried one through a crazy four year survival exercise (of looking after myself and a few other homeless kids) that was my life as an orphan on the streets from ages 15-19 after my mother was murdered in 1980. It was used for everything from food prep, to hammering nails, to digging lock hasps off of old wooden doors on long abandoned buildings to escape the winter weather or to escape street predators and keep us safe from either, and used for self defense a few times. I found a pommel strike to a head to be much more effective at getting people off me than cutting them was. If you read this thread here

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/schrade-schf42-raven-how-it-came-to-be.1604258/

You can see how the years spent using that knife have influenced some of my other knife designs for other knife makers. Ironically the knife in that thread, the Raven as I named it, was originally supposed to be a TOPS knife back when I did some of my designs through them, after working with them to help develop some of their earlier models years ago. But between what I saw as their overly-soft differential heat treatment of 1095 (I prefer their Bos heat treated stainless models) and the $200 MSRP price point they were going to put on it which defeated a lot of the reason behind creating the design to begin with, I opted to go with Schrade, one of the other companies I design for, for this series of knives and have them made in Taiwan. So the price could be kept down for those with financial difficulties without sacrificing the production quality. Because the point was to make a very tough, very functional, very versatile knife, at a price point at which people wouldn't fear using or storing the knife long term in a get home bag, that is as functional in deteriorated urbanized environments as it is in woodland environments. And I have already listed other knives I like in your thread in Gear as well.
 
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