80s jungle knife bonanza

I too had the same knife as jlauffer but with aluminum handle. Not that it made it any better. The handle was black painted which chipped off rather easily.
Can't even remember whatever became of it. In retrospect I'm pretty sure that must have been a 420j2 blade.
But I did buy and own later a Buck 184 which I just held onto and eventually sold without ever carrying it since a 2lb knife was just ridiculous. I also don't remember the term "jungle knives", as we called them "Rambo knives" or "Survival knives".
 
I had a hollow handle Rambo special that I chipped chopping branches, then broke the blade throwing it into trees.

A few years later (still as a kid, probably 14 or so) I bought one of these and it was actually a pretty damn good knife.

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Explorer made a pretty decent one and Chris Reeve made an awesome one. The ones you bought at a flea market 30 years ago were barely knives but they were cool when I was 12
 
i had often wondered who the designer/s
of this legendary el chepo knife is.
as nobody seems to have owned up
heck! was it not an incredible stroke
of genious to place such a huge bulbous
automotive dashboard compass on the
pommel to instill complete faith
in greenhorns who might lack
basic directional navagational skills
in the dark?
fine thing too that there is
a match stick or two
to light the way thru.
and what a great help it is to have such
tiny fishing hooks to serve as back up
butterfly sutures when that fall comes.
and lastly,
i can't tell you just how top notch
it was having that cap lifter
as its proved it worth counless times
in front of the tv watching re runs of rambo.
hell yeah! it never fails to make
one feel and behave completey
like a decorated arm chair commando.
it certainly helped me to survive boredom and set me on the knife track
 
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Of course I had one! Mine came from Harbor Freight. Black Aluminum handle, stainless blade. Same crappy saw as everyone else. I was prepared though for something or other...
 
I had one with a slingshot built into the sheath. The metal tines folded down from the hard molded plastic and the slingshot band was in the survival kit. A hole in the blade mated with the wire cutter post on the sheath to defeat barb wire obstacles. Super practical.

Took out a whole enemy compound with it before returning stateside, only to be persecuted by some local deputies.
 
Centermass said:
I had one with a slingshot built into the sheath. The metal tines folded down from the hard molded plastic and the slingshot band was in the survival kit. A hole in the blade mated with the wire cutter post on the sheath to defeat barb wire obstacles. Super practical.

Took out a whole enemy compound with it before returning stateside, only to be persecuted by some local deputies.
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Oh man, I totally had that one too! Did yours come with the harpoon point in the sheath also? I got that one when I realized the other one was a piece of junk...
 
Triton said:
Oh man, I totally had that one too! Did yours come with the harpoon point in the sheath also? I got that one when I realized the other one was a piece of junk...
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Yeah, if I remember correctly, there was a metal shim that slid into the sheath behind the blade that had that pointy thing and the slingshot band in it. I think the harpoony thing doubled as a fish scaler and had some measurements scribed on it.
 
It might have had a crappy sharpening stone on the back of the sheath under a flap of the nylon webbing. It was definitely better than the vinyl sheathed contemporaries with the exposed ball compass on the pommel.

Then, years later, Richard Crenna showed up and told me he needed my help again. Ah, memories.
 
baxtrom said:
....Don’t be ashamed, please share 😎
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Back in 1986 I purchased a copy of the Survival Knife Reference Guide, by Douglas Berner. It was a catalog of just about every hollow handled knife produced at the time, including factory, mid-tech, and many custom knives. I had some of them and slowly stated hunting the remaining knives down until I had examples of most of them and was left chasing things like the Jack Crain knife; which was hard to find since he was already known as a difficult guy to deal with. As things slowed down, I had more time to contemplate these knives and it slowly dawned on me, that although many were top of the line in quality and the fragility of the handle-to-blade tang connection was a myth and only a concern with the cheapest imported junk, that the design just plain didn’t work well. The handles were uncomfortable, the sawbacks ranged from silly to underwhelmin, the knives were way too heavy, and the tiny handle storage space didn’t provide much utility. So, I eventually sold/traded most of them off.

n2s
 
I had a Life Knife (I think that was the name)

Heavy metal handle, two end caps, one with compass, one that was very solid for hammering

The sheath was actually decent.

Sharpening stone, had a handle full of kit.

Don't think the steel was all that good.
Saw back was non functional.

I had throwing knives, including a bayonet with a 12 inch blade I threw for decades. I threw the survival knife maybe once....knife broke.
 
Surleyone said:
I was not really interested.What do you expect for $6-$10 ? My exwife bought me the most beautiful knife I had EVER seen which was a PUMA "Great White Hunter" in 1970, which I took halfway around the world. The sheath fell apart, but I still have the knife!
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Sorry to hear she is ex mrs Surleyone, that sounded like a true love story!
 
Centermass said:
I had one with a slingshot built into the sheath. The metal tines folded down from the hard molded plastic and the slingshot band was in the survival kit. A hole in the blade mated with the wire cutter post on the sheath to defeat barb wire obstacles. Super practical.

Took out a whole enemy compound with it before returning stateside, only to be persecuted by some local deputies.
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What was your experience shooting down soviet Hind attack helicopters with that slingshot? 😄
 
Centermass said:
I had one with a slingshot built into the sheath. The metal tines folded down from the hard molded plastic and the slingshot band was in the survival kit. A hole in the blade mated with the wire cutter post on the sheath to defeat barb wire obstacles. Super practical.

Took out a whole enemy compound with it before returning stateside, only to be persecuted by some local deputies.
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Aitor Jungle King
 
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i had the black version as a kid.i started collecting knives as 6yo and quickly noticed that this knife was garbage.the saw didn't cut at all,the "sharpening" stone was good if you wanted to dull the dull edge even more. i just thought it looked cool.
went to a knifestore with my father one day where i saw the Buck 184 (?) and fell in love with it... but it was too expensive,so i didn't get it...i was crushed..

what were those spikes on the buck good for?

edit: i wish somebody would make a high end version of the "jungle survival knife"
 
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GAGL said:
what were those spikes on the buck good for?
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Those "Spikes" have been the source of discussion and debate for decades. Any thread you find on the 184 will get into it. I can't remember if there was ever any definite purpose determined. But the ideas included an anchor for use with rope underwater, and a "tossing hook" to climb walls. I personally voted for the former. I my younger scuba days I have experiemced string current situations where I could imagine something that served as an anchor could be helpful. I could of course be way off the mark. But what I do remember is that everyone who had a 184, including myself, kept those spikes removed and in one of the sheath pockets.
 
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