Knives

Mod'd Cold Steel Tanto - Custom work by Michael Billman Knives

For general carry, folding knives are probably the most convenient and least offensive.

I have a SpyderCo Clipit Endura that I've carried since I was in high school. Though mine is serrated (little ridges that look like teeth on the blade), I recommend having a knife that is either not serrated or half-serrated for two reasons:

1. It looks a lot less meaner and is less likely to scare little old ladies, co-workers, etc.
2. It makes it a lot easier to cut smaller objects (the serrations tend to get hung-up)

In either case, I recommend getting a quality knife that has at least one sturdy, locking blade. Though lockblades have been maligned by the redneck idea of keeping a big Buck knife on the ole hip (remember Scott Glenn's character in Urban Cowboy?) it really makes more sense to have a locking blade so you don't lose any fingers when the damn thing shuts on you during a furious soap wittling job.

The smallest useful blade is probably around 3 inches, and this is probably ok with most city laws on carrying knives (check first!). Though I used to always carry a pocketknife when I travelled, in today's wacky world I would check it with the luggage or just buy one at my destination.

I still think the airlines should just issue everyone a weapon when they get onto the plane. But I digress . . .

Fixed-blade knives
Knife manufacurers are going to look back on the early 21st century as The Golden Age of the Tactical Knife. There are probably more tactical knives available than ever before. Cold Steel, CRKT, SOG, TOPS Knives and more; all make knives suitable for the outdoorsman, operator, or person who likes to buy a lot of tactical knives and keep them in a drawer somewhere.

Machete
The much maligned machete is a mainstay of Carribean island culture is one of the most effective tools to take into the field. The British Army, having been so impressed with their adversaries in Borneo, issue all of their soldiers a golok - a version of the machete popular to that Southern Pacific region. Whether or not you are trouncing through a jungle, a machete is good for yard work and clearing out scrub brush around the deer blind.

Kukri
The official knife of the Gurkha soldiers of Nepal, kukris are given to Nepalese boys on their 5th birthday. These versatile knives can do everything - skinning, cleaving, clearing underbrush, fending off the North Koreans (there were Gurkha soldiers in the Korean war), and removing the heads of vampires - as seen in Bram Stroker's Dracula.

Cold Steel makes a more modern version of this knife.

The history of knives on our planet is a history of stone. Sure, we've done some amazing things with steel, even taking ourselves to the Moon and the far reaches of space, but the amount of time we have been using steel has been relatively short. By the 1800s there were so many flint arrowheads that had been made that native Americans were no longer creating these tools on a large scale. And why should they? They could find enough on the ground to get them through their hunts.

Check out some other primitive weapons.

I've always been impressed by multi-use tools. Not necessarily multi-pliers, but knives that could also make a fire. The below are just two examples.

More information on creating the above design.

• Homage to the 1980s Survival Knife
  
• Tactical Knives Magazine
  
• Tops Knives