The ONE Knife

Depends on the area and weather. I changed to a bigger knife myself. We were out on horseback once, in the middle of nowhere. A big snowstorm rolled in, mixed with rain, it lasted several hours, and got cold enough where we had to stop and make a fire, my buddy was freezing! Well everything was soaked! We tried a lot of different things, and couldn’t get anything going. Finally I was able to find some pitch wood, but I had hell prying it out! I was able to get enough to finally get the fire going. But having a decent size knife with the ability to pry and chop would have helped a lot. I’m no rookie, but I was soaked and cold!
What does a 6 inch blade weigh? The ones I make weigh around 18 ounces or less! I think that’s pretty light for the capability.

If you were getting pitch wood, I'll safely assume you were surrounded by pine trees. Get under those suckers, close to the trunk and collect all of those little dead branches and shoots coming off the trunk and larger limbs. I do not mean the pine needles. Get the smallest branch pieces you can. Typically they will be very dry due to the location on the tree. Combined with the fact that they are pine so they are going to have pitch in them, those suckers are usually hard not to light.
Two things about it however - get a lot of them because they burn like paper. And like paper, they don't throw off a ton of heat. More flash than substance. Use the large amount you have collected to keep feeding into the flame to keep it going while at the same time using that flash flame to get smaller kindling going. Even in snowy, rainy conditions, you should be able to keep a flame going long enough to dry and ignite some larger sticks. Build from there.

The most important thing is to get A LOT of those little sticks / shoots. You will never have too much, but it is unbelievable how much you can collect that still won't be enough. Use it to keep a small flame going to ignite the bigger fuel. Go slow and steady to build it into a good fire. Rush it in bad conditions and you go back to the beginning very easily.
 
While not the best if you need a big knife, the Spyderco Mules are my go to. They make great EDC blades but can do a lot of work in the woods. Just don’t ask it to go through a tree.
 
Last time I went camping, I took a Ka-bar 2217. Big beast of a knife. It chopped firewood better than the hatchet I brought, so that makes it alright in my book. The only real pitfalls I can see for longterm bushcraft is the weight and clumsiness if I had to gut and skin game. If I'm hunting for food, a Buck 119 will probably do me alright
 
Busse Basic 8 and a Silky ULTRA ACCEL Curved Blade, 240mm ( LG teeth ). This is my go to if I can only take one knife and I can include a saw.

Or if I could truly only have one knife and nothing else I might choose my soon to arrive Busse Mountain Man Du chopper.

Best case: I like having one large knife 7-10" (16 - 22 ounces) for chopping capability and a smaller knife around 5", plus a saw.
 
Fallkniven F1 in Lam Cos. I always have Vaseline soaked cotton balls, a lighter and a small saw on my person when I leave pavement. 'Don't need to play Paul Bunyan with a huge chopper knife - firewood is easily harvested in my AO by walking around and gathering it.
 
I'm not as experienced as some others here, but I would probably take my Fallkniven A1. I'm generally a fan of larger (5-6") blades, and the A1 is just an all around beast and has never really disappointed me. It probably helps that it was my first modded knife when I was younger (simple handle replacement) and has a lot of sentimental value.
 
One knife to bring, to me that will always mean 'on top of your EDC folding tools', so a fixed blade. If only one, not too crazy big as that won't do medium knife tasks well, and not too small as one needs some light chopping ability. Good steel. No nonsense, it has to just work. Meaning very likely my Terävä JP140. It chops above its weight, it can be used to prepare food, to make fire, to delimb, it can be used hard as in military abuse hard (ask Finnish conscript soldiers who buy them in droves), it is ridiculously tough, holds a good working edge and is easy to sharpen in the field.
Alternatively, the JP Peltonen Sissipuukko which is a lot like the Terävä (or the other way around, historically speaking), same steel, same thickness, but with a higher, keener grind and a thinner tip, if you like or need that sort of thing.

PeltonenM07_JP140_compared01_web by Frank Schweppe, on Flickr
 
I usually just bring a GSO 4.7 most of the time along with a Silky. I have larger blades but for some reason I prefer the combo. I find the 4.7 chops well enough and they're great overall blades.
 
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