Survival Knives

Survival Knives come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.  The basic point of a survival knife is to provide you a tool that can be used in an emergency type situation.  To decide what is the very best survival knife for you, there are a few things you should first determine.
Where are you going to be?  By this, I mean, where are you going to be if things go bad.  Are you on a camping trip in the High Uintas?  Are you going to be on a small sailing boat?  What are the vegetation and wildlife like in the area you will be?  Or, are you just looking for an all pupose survival knife?
These are all important questions to ask yourself.  As you begin to decide what kind of situation you may find yourself in, you should also begin to ask yourself what size and weight are you willing to carry.
There are a few survival knives that are extremely large.  For instance, the ESEE Junglas knife is more of a mini machete.  I have one of these and absolutely love it.  But when I am just going on a short camping trip I normally don’t take it because the area I camp in doesn’t have lots of vegetation that needs to be cut and cleared.  The SOG Creed is a great all purpose survival knife but is also very large.  I really like the weight on the Creed, it is well weighted front to back and seems to have a great center point that makes it nice and smooth to use.  But again, this is a survival knife for a situation that demands a large knife.
If you are looking for a small survival knife, some of the best knives I have encountered are the ESEE survival knives.  For instance, the RC3 series, is a great small knife that gets big jobs done.  It is small enough to carry in a pack or on your belt, but at the same time, it is plenty big enough to get nearly any cutting job done that you could think of.  Plus it is a nice, thick knife that has plenty of strength.  Not the kind of knife that will break when you most need it.   I also like the IZULA but ESEE knives.  These are extremely small survival knives that are stripped down to the absolute basics of a knife.  It has a handle and a blade.  The handle is just a loop of steel in a handle shape.  It is comfortable to hold and the blade is fantastic. 
When you get ready to shop for a survival knife, think through the situations you may encounter.  Pick a knife that provides you with the cutting power you expect to need.  And pick a knife that is not only going to help you survive, but a knife that will survive the abuse you throw at it in an emergency situation.