Camillus Pilot Survival Knife

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dnhald

Joined
Oct 11, 2010
Messages
128
alright i have heard bits and peices about this knife but i dont know enough to feel confident in owning one. i just got one from a friend what do you guys know? good survival knife?
 
Heavy, clunky, hard to sharpen. I was recently given one even after I told the fellow I didn't want it - so, sold it for $20 at the last gun show.

Your opinions and that of others may differ from mine - and that's ok too.
 
dnhald said:
alright i have heard bits and peices about this knife but i dont know enough to feel confident in owning one. i just got one from a friend what do you guys know? good survival knife?
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Is it the best all around knife in the world? maybe not. It is what it is "an issue survival knife" with a stick/hidden tang and by nature survival knives aren't great at any one thing but rather good at several things...or at least adequate. That said I like them and will always have a fondness for them. I carried one for years and though yes there are other knives I'd rather have... I also would not feel under-knifed carrying one of them here in the south east. It did take a bit to get the edge where I wanted it, but once I got that worked out I was fine with it.
 
I prefer my Pilot Survival knife:

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:thumbup:
 
I'd prefer the F-1 for a bushcraft knife for sure, but would rather have a Camillus or Ontario pilot's knife for an actual "survival" knife and yes would definitely have money left over. Now...that said... I'd take the Fallkniven A1 I have over either :)
 
Stick tang means it is not a survival knife. Period. I've bent more than one stick tang style knife at the guard because there wasn't enough steel in the handle. Granted, they were Ka-Bars, but those are pretty damn similar to the knife in question.

For the price, though, it's an okay blade.
 
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For the price it's a very decent and serviceable knife. Depending on your definition of "survival", it should handle the majority of tasks. As mentioned, it's a stick tang (as are many hard-use Finnish knives), which handles most knife cutting/chopping tasks, but doesn't provide the strength needed for heavy prying or battoning. The Camillus Pilot Survival Knife is one of the first I've ever owned and it's still going strong in a new sheath and used by my son.

I finally picked up a new one. The steel is decent, but they definitely need some re-profiling. I'm going to put the new one in my truck kit bag. I wouldn't feel under-knifed if I had one and was dumped in a remote oudoors location.

ROCK6
 
NothingCoherent said:
Stick tang means it is not a survival knife. Period. I've bent more than one stick tang style knife at the guard because there wasn't even steel in the handle. Granted, they were Ka-Bars, but those are pretty damn similar to the knife in question.

For the price, though, it's an okay blade.
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This post doesn't make sense. How can a stick tang knife not have steel in the handle? If there's no steel in the handle, then there is NO tang.

It strikes me as funny that with how weak a stick tang is, so many makers still manufacture that way. Most scandinavian brand knives have stick tangs and those knives get used much harder and more often in their respective countries than 95% of us use ours.

The classic Buck hunting knives (among others) such as the Special, Pathfinder, etc, are 3/4 length stick tangs yet no one complains about them and their lack of strength.

I've had two fixed blade knives break, and they both broke in the center of the BLADE while batoning logs. One was a Normark Hunter (half tang) similar to a Mora and the other was a Buck Fieldmate with sawback.

I've used stick tang knives my whole life and I've NEVER broken one at the handle. I've batoned them, beat them, abused them as much or more than my full tang blades. I've even done light (emphasis on light) prying with them and have had no issues.

If you doubt the ability of stick tang, 1/2, or 3/4 length tangs, watch the videos on knifetests.com. Most of the knives break eventually, but look at what it takes to do it.
 
I once bought 10 of them to put in gift BOB's and every one of them had to be re-profiled. I used a friends belt sander but it can be done by hand. I also ground off the top guard and the bottom one down about half way. Makes it much more user friendly. I have one in each of my car BOB's and would feel comfortable in any situation with that, a multi-tool and machete. A few mods can make it a very good hard use woods knife.--Just my .02$-;)--KV
 
Mine cuts, saws, pounds, batons and shaves. I do not know of any other need in a survival knife. It doesn't pry very well, or take to lateral force at the handle. I wouldn't feel underknifed by no means with it. I have broke Kabars also, but it took a helluva lot of abuse before it did. I have broken 3 to date and not one of them broke immediately. The last one batoned every piece of hardwood I put in my wood stove for 3 seasons. It cost 50 bucks. I got my moneys worth out of it. I bought a bunch of Pilot Survival Knives at one time, and gave most away. So far, not one has broke. Just sayin'. Moose
 
That's going to depend a lot on what the 'survival concept' means to you.

As they stand for their intended purpose I think they aren't so bad. It's a cheapo compact disposable beater for short term use with an emphasis on toughness rather than excellence at cutting. You've got a stubby little grind with a guard to stop you hurting yourself at a time when you many not be as in command of you faculties as you might hope, a back spine specially for hacking at a very limited type of material, and a pommel for brute force pounding. So, your aircraft fails or whatever, you've got a tool to get you out and knock up some sort of salvage shelter, cut ropes, make a splint or something, and wait for extraction. Chuck it away at the end or keep it for a souvenir. If you're dishing kit out conveyer belt style, cheaply to people that on the whole are probably quite ignorant about knives it made sense. Pearls before swine and all that. Finesse would be wasted.

On the other hand if 'survival' evokes some different concepts it could easily be conceived of as rubbish. That's the camp I'm in. Survival knives to me are no different to regular decent utility knives that form part of my total outdoor kit, and thus prevent survival scenarios arising to begin with. They are not a Tarzan-one-stop-soluton, they are part of a system. The small utility knife used in conjunction with something bigger for chopping and a saw removes any of the niche requirement s of that Ontario. I can then load up on cutting ability and versatility. As part of a system the £30 that knife would translate as to me would find me picking something very different.

Still, one can have a lot of fun with those cheap beaters. The one below has a geometry far better suited as a cutting instrument and that patina effect on the blade is very effective to my eye. In fact it's the only reason I would pick a small knife which rusts that easily. The effect is so simple to produce using cold blu and bleach a child could do it, but at a glance makes the piece look worth a hell of a lot more than it is. He did a pretty job on the handle too but given the superior quality of his custom pieces I wouldn't expect anything else.

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have an old one that someone gave me yrs ago. it already had the tiniest bit of the tip broken off. so it lives in the car as a beater to do whatever i need to do with it. since the tip is already broken i dont mind abusing it however...its held up for many yrs of just such abuse.
 
It's a capable blade if you know how to manipulate it. I buff out the microbevel on all of mine, so it is effectively a scandi grind. It makes life alot easier when it comes to sharpening. I use an arkansas softstone and don't go any higher grit than that. There are some things you want to verify before buying one-the Camillus blades tend to be much nicer than the Ontarios, and you want to make sure the bolt, the guard and the washers are secure and not loose and rattling. I find the knife very comfortable, the leather washers sort of conform to your grip over time. It's not a refined bushcrafting knife that's for sure, but for general cutting tasks and rough use, it gets the job done. The pommel heavy balance takes a wee bit to get used to as well but again... it doesn't take away from the knife's functionality.
 
interesting. does anyone know if it can actually saw through the side of an aircraft like the internet claims or is this another bs legend? i mean i would try it my self but i dont have many extra planes just sitting around lol
 
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