80s jungle knife bonanza

KenHash said:
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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According to this book, the pins are some form of emergency anchor pins apparently required by navy SEAL or something. You can read a line about it in one of the preview pictures.
Looks truly uncomfortable and impractical though, but then again I am not a navy SEAL 😀

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GAGL said:
....what were those spikes on the buck good for?...
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They were anchor points, that literally converted the knife into an improvised boat anchor. The kit had been designed for the navy SEALs, and they wanted a way for a scuba diver to hold in position until a designated demarcation time. You could jam the points into submerged feature and use the lanyard cord as an anchor rope.

n2s
 
buckmaster may have been a blast for navy seals.
but most folks are not water babies.
it truly was a ballast way inland.
enough to anchor down
the wearer in a gale.
and yes, it was pretty heavy
on the wallet as well.
who would have imagined that
its been well over some 30+ years since;
and it still being faithfully cloned today.
2005%E7%84%A1%E7%81%AB%E6%9F%B4-1.jpg

so it may seem like the world still
hasn't given up on this classic design.

btw, here are the descriptive facts,
as presented in the patent...
 
I remember the ads and the knives, my friend bought one and asked me to sharpen it. It was the one with the camo handle.
It wouldn't take an edge.

The knife I wanted back then, but couldn't afford was this one.

KLC14054.jpg
 
I never had one, but the ads for the Robert Parrish survival knife always got my attention in Blade magazine.
 
I had one when I was in the army back in the mid 80's. Thought it was really cool even though I had no use for it. It was great for taking cheesy ass pics with, black band around the forehead too. God knows what ever happened to it.
 
Centermass said:
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.
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You have a good memory, I don't remember those details, just the harpoon. I never actually used any of the items included. You are right about the sharpening stone though!
 
not2sharp said:
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 connectionll with yw 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
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That's wild! I thought I might have had the world's biggest collection with two of them! You don't happen to have a picture do you?
 
GAGL said:
71EzJrFDfoL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


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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I did exactly that about two years ago. I think mine was built in 1984 if I remember right. Wish I had bought it on n 1984, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper.
 
Wait.. You had a Lile Rambo knife that you broke throwing against a tree? That might have been a bit of a pricey throw!
 
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