Knives

The single most useful tool in a survival situation is a good knife. While a gun will protect you from predators and ensure meat, but it can not skin an animal, nor can not make an economical shelter. A box of matches will do very little without cut, dry kindling.

A decent knife and some careful leverage can turn scrap cloth and dirt into a shelter. It can . A knife, a stick, and shoelaces will light a fire in even nasty weather. A knife can get you out of a jammed car seatbelt, or just be damned handy if you need to get a bag of food open, or break down a few dozen boxes, or snap open a stuck cabinet.

But despite this, few people carry or even own a hefty blade. Part of this is social stigma, part is the legalities, and a final part is the fairly steep learning curve a knife requires.

I can't help much with the lawyer part of that. I've never been a lawyer, and blade laws change too often and are reinterpretated even more commonly.

I can tell you what you need to start in the world of blades, and how to deal with the social aspects.