A Survival Knife Should Be Able To........

A survival knife must replace all other cutting tools. Chop wood, work wood, chop cut and slice anything, fillet/gut/prepare fish, skin/chop prepare game. Basically to be a somewhat poor but functional replacement for a saw, axe, skinning knife, fillet knife, bushcraft blade, shovel, awl, and anything else you can think of while being stout enough to be able to resist breakage while performing these tasks. It should be the one knife you will have on you when you need it.
 
-It needs to be able to hold a good edge but be quickly sharpened in the field.

-Grip needs to be good. If It gets wet it should still be grippy. Kraton/sythetic rubber type material or micarta usally fits the bill.

-Good sheath. If it's kydex, I want multiple points of attachment and no rattle. If it's leather, I want it to be able to hold the knife upside down without dropping the knife. Hole for fluid drainage i.e. blood, water, oil etc.

-Blade 3.5" or longer.

-Lanyard hole.

-Thick enough to pry, thin enough to slice.

That's what I look for in a survival blade. I expect the knife to slice up potatoes, handle most of the kitchen chores, skin and gut game. I want it to hold up to batoning through hardwood. I do not expect it to chop, there are other tools for this like machetes and axes. I'm still new to the whole 'survival knife' thing but those are the kinds of things I look for in a knife. I just recently snapped a mora, I bent it like crazy, using it to pry between a branch. It's too thin for me. That's the kind of stuff I do with it though. I've forund that 3/16" is too much for me doing slicing and cutting meat. I think 1/8" is just right for a survival knife. I just recently traded my HEST because it was too small. It couldn't baton through pieces of wood larger than 2.5" very effictivley so I need a knife with at least a 3.5" blade. Any ways, those are what come to mind when I want to drop some dime on a survival knife.
 
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pitdog said:
Thought it might be interesting to hear what your expectations are of a survival knife.
This may bring up some tasks that could be encountered that others have not thought about !
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Work in multiple aspects of fire crafting

Help in building shelter

function in making traps and snares and food acquirement

Help in water collection (chisel through ice, bore small holes for an improvised filter)

Work as a weapon if needs be.
 
mistwalker said:
Work in multiple aspects of fire crafting

Help in building shelter

function in making traps and snares and food acquirement

Help in water collection (chisel through ice, bore small holes for an improvised filter)

Work as a weapon if needs be.
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Thought yours would be longer. :D;)
 
pitdog said:
Cheers Bill, your knives are some of the ones I envisage when the term survival knife is mentioned. For me the prime criteria is that the knife must not fail, it must be sturdy enough stand up to missuse when dexterity may be compromised and I think all yours are up to the task !;):thumbup:
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I Can ASSURE you--they ARE!!!!!

I have a hard time "dulling one"--much less ever breaking one.

---another point
A survival knife must be easy to control and use --with either hand.

I know a VAST number of people that NEVER train with the weak hand.

See how well your best / favorite knife does in your weaker hand.
 
mistwalker said:
Work in multiple aspects of fire crafting

Help in building shelter

function in making traps and snares and food acquirement

Help in water collection (chisel through ice, bore small holes for an improvised filter)

Work as a weapon if needs be.
Click to expand...


My thoughts exactly. I think a survival knife has to be a Jack-of-all-trades type of knife , able to do all of the above most satisfactorily. And as previous posters have said, one that won't break or fail easily,be comfortable to use, and relatively easy to sharpen. This may be have to be done on something as simple as a smooth rock, if the survivor in question has no tool to sharpen with. The ability to be used as a defensive ( or offensive) weapon is an important consideration, if carrying only one knife .
Good thread.
 
Minnesota said:
Thought yours would be longer. :D;)
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Well...I'm so freakin' far behind in my work I don't have time to be long winded right now :) Though I did mean to add easily maintainable in the field...but I just saw where that had been covered :thumbup:
 
put fear into the eyes of an attacker..... :p


seriously it should be able to last with use in all areas mentioned.
 
I think it depends on what we mean when we say "survival".

For me, "survival" doesn't mean camping or hiking or some recreational activity. It means a situation has happened (maybe during a camping trip or a hike) that I didn't want to happen, and I want it to be over as soon as possible. My priorities in a survival situation are to keep warm (or cool, depending on what part of the world I'm in) and to stay alive long enough to be found, or to get myself back to where I can go on with life. It wouldn't be my intention to hack civilization out of the wilderness, but rather to hack my way out of the wilderness back to civilization.

I really don't like the idea of depending on just one tool to survive, but if I could only choose one thing to have on me, it would be a small machete, regardless of latitude. If I'm surviving, I'm not thinking of whittling spoons while I'm waiting to be found. I carry a Condor Golok, which has a 14" blade.

I'd consider myself fortunate to have a smaller folding knife or multi-tool, such as Victorinox Trekker or a SwissTool, along as well.
 
SouthernCross said:
Please, please, please, please don't tell me this is advocating tying your survival knife to a shaft to use as a spear :grumpy:

Kind regards
Mick
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Yeah, I'm not sure what got that started but there is NO WAY I'm tying my one knife onto the end of a stick and sticking it into anything. D@mn good way to lose or break a knife. Just sharpen the stick........
 
Survival... it reminds me of...


includes "Bushcraft"
--every public/commercial services/infrastructures is unavailable

of course "Daily"
--this situation continues eternally

temporary omits "Urban, Metropolitan"
--and all dependent risk is veiled off

sometimes needs "Fighting"
--enough to start to keep alive by(and for) themselves


So every knives what I have should be my "survival" knife.
 
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mistwalker said:
Yeah, I'm not sure what got that started but there is NO WAY I'm tying my one knife onto the end of a stick and sticking it into anything. D@mn good way to lose or break a knife. Just sharpen the stick........
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Guys, I have to disagree. While I shudder at the idea of some tenderfoot lashing his knife on a staff and hurling it through the air, I can see legitimate uses. What if you have treed a furry bundle of meat and teeth? Being able to stab further than arm's length could be important. Certainly, protecting your "one knife" in dire circumstances is critical, but I wouldn't rule this out completely.
 
Being the simple, caveman type, I have a simple need for a survival knife:
It has to be able to take more punishment than I can dish out.

After being on these forums and reading people's posts and asking "I wonder if I can do that?", and then going out and trying it, I'm confident I can get along with just about any sharpened piece of metal (not that I don't have preferences) -- so long as it doesn't break.

So, I guess the most important thing in a survival knife is that it has to survive me.
 
From an old Backwoodsman mag :

A survival knife must be able to cut,chop and split wood for fuel and shelter. It must be able to carve fire boards and whittle shavings, fuzz sticks and kindling. The knife must be able to facilitate the acquisition of food by carving trap triggers, spears and bow staves and dress, butcher and skin the bounty of those traps. The knife must be able to harvest reeds and grasses to provide cordage and thatching, dig roots and wild edibles. It must be a weapon if the need arises. Then there are the unexpected uses.

ness_knife_split_2.jpg
 
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I don't have all the answers but I do have a story that's related. My wife and I took our toddler on his second camping trip along with some friends who's son was under 2 years old. The forecast low temp was supposed to be 43F but according to my thermometer it got down to 28F where we were.
Firewood was scarce where we stayed (as you can imagine, hiking with two toddlers late in the day left us little options as far as choosing sites). Once we processed and started burning all we could find we knew it wouldn't be enough. Luckily I had a Scrap Yard Dogfather that performed admirably chopping up a 10-12" caliper downed tree that was to large for two grown men to move. I chopped it into 4 foot sections and we were able to move it over to the fire.
Granted it wasn't life or death but I was glad to have brought that knife that day, it earned my trust.
 
hoopster said:
I don't have all the answers but I do have a story that's related. My wife and I took our toddler on his second camping trip along with some friends who's son was under 2 years old. The forecast low temp was supposed to be 43F but according to my thermometer it got down to 28F where we were.
Firewood was scarce where we stayed (as you can imagine, hiking with two toddlers late in the day left us little options as far as choosing sites). Once we processed and started burning all we could find we knew it wouldn't be enough. Luckily I had a Scrap Yard Dogfather that performed admirably chopping up a 10-12" caliper downed tree that was to large for two grown men to move. I chopped it into 4 foot sections and we were able to move it over to the fire.
Granted it wasn't life or death but I was glad to have brought that knife that day, it earned my trust.
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It wasn't life or death, because you had a tool that could handle the task at hand and do it in the time needed.

I have said it before, no one will stop walking in time to REALLY prepare for their first night in the bush when lost or in your case with children. When it gets dark, the only thing you will find are big chunks of wood for fire and shelter, and you better be able to turn it into something you can move and use, or it will turn into a survival situation fast. You better be carrying a knife that you know can do this.

The real survival test is the first night. After that, you will know where you stand as far as your situation for the next night or two and you better plan accordingly.


I also think that we are confusing a survival situation with planning to go out and live off the land. To me, a survival situation is a night or two or three stuck out in the bush and rescue is coming at some point. I am not carving spoons, trap triggers, or building anything but a small shelter to wait in and keep a fire going. That's all that knife has to really do for me.
 
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