Canoe/Camp trip goes wrong which knife ?

I'd take the Mutt, but only with a locking SAK or multitool piggybacked onto the sheath. If there can be only one, then the Nessmuk.
 
pitdog said:
Ok so your Canoe/Camp trip with your buddies goes wrong your Canoe tips and you get washed up with little other than some matches and your knife......which type of knife would you want to have ?
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When I've been canoeing in the Boundary Waters, I certainly didn't (wouldn't) carry a long fixed blade on my belt - its just too uncomfortable and has too high a danger of snagging on something if the canoe flips. Such large knives would be stowed in our bags. Also, we had also brought along a folding Sven saw rather than a heavier axe, but that too was in a bag. The reality is that the gear bags are lashed/strapped to the canoe, so if the canoe and bags are lost, all I would have is what is on my person. None of the knives you list are going to be available.

What will I have? I'll have the gear in my pockets - a folding knife - for me, my Ritter Mk1, a lighter, a sparker, a whistle, and a bandana. Shelter would be fashioned from existing downed trees or smaller saplings that don't require an axe or large knife. There is a lot of "stuff" out there to work with. Fire materials can easily be gathered without chopping. Even if wet, a small knife can split enough 1-2" sticks to get dry wood for starting fires.

Of course the reality is that I'll swim through hell before I'll loose my canoe, paddles, and the packs. I've canoed rivers so swollen that they've flipped me a dozen times per day (not a lot of fun), but I never lost a canoe - though I did have to bust my butt to get the paddles a few times (usually the most at-risk critical items), so the canoeing scenario is kind of iffy.

I'd really rather have a lightweight thinner bushcraft-style knife AND a decent saw than a heavy chopper or axe.
 
I have to agree with Doug Ritter that when the need comes to "SURVIVE" if it be a downed plane, tipped canoe or lost while day hiking, it is the knife you have with you that you will have to use and it better be a good one.

Having said that I camped and conducted "survival" weekends for twenty years with military surplus and hardware store knives and they did a dern fine job. Any locking folder with a stout blade will perform the basic tasks of survival and bushcraft. If you have a sheath knife with a thick spine blade so much the better.

I have never crashed in an aircraft but I have canoed long distances in wilderness areas and day hiked or backpacked in some pretty wild areas. In the old days I would have struggled to the riverbank with a Shrade Bearpaw locking folder on my belt in its leather pouch and a Buck two or three blade folder in my pocket. It always seemed to me that a sheath knife was too uncomfortable for long periods of paddling or wearing with a packframe that has a suspension type waist belt on it. Day hiking I normally carried a sheath knife. It seems like a weird reversal but when I day hike I use a knapsack and it is comfortable to carry a sheath knife. so if I had gotten lost 15+ years ago it would have been with a USAF Pilot's survival knife on my belt and a Buck two or three blade folder in my pocket.
I have simulated these situations on survival weekends and I know this equipment worked.

In these recent times my long distance backpacking has been pared down to overnight hiking and my canoe trips focus more on time spent with my kids then bucking class 2+ rapids with a block of foam tied in the center of the boat. Still, things can and do go wrong. I will fuge a little here and say the best knife is still the knife you have with you. Nowdays it would be a Benchmade Mini-Ruckus clipped in my pocket and a first class bushcraft knife on my belt. That knife might be a BRK&T Nebula or Aurora or it just might be my Stewart Marsh Bushcrafter it depends on my mood when I was packing. Recently I have discovered that one can overcome some of the problems inherent to sheath knife carry by putting your knife/sheath on a cord around your neck. I made up a leather neck cord with a section of flexible tubing on it. The tubing goes behind the neck to keep the cord from binding the skin on your neck. A good safety idea is to put a section of cord in that would break before your are choked to death in case you get hung by it.
 
I like the comments that mention big knives would be lost to if the bags and boat were gone. I'm definitely not keeping my BK-7 around my neck! I have a CRKT ABC Hammond on my vest, and I think it is to big most of the time. I only wear my vest when the water warrants it, or if I'm with my family.

Reading threads like this just make me more confused personally. It makes me want to have my axe, my BK-7, my SOG Revolver, my multitool, and about 10 more knives!
 
I've canoed rivers so swollen that they've flipped me a dozen times per day (not a lot of fun), but I never lost a canoe - though I did have to bust my butt to get the paddles a few times (usually the most at-risk critical items), so the canoeing scenario is kind of iffy.
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Nessmuck himself, George Washington Sears, had the same problem. So he tied a line from his canoe to his paddle. As long as he kept hold of one, he could get to the other.
 
I would pick the Fallkniven F1 or the S1 or even the WM1.
Why?
Because the F1 is very light so it might be on you at all times. The S1 is a bit bigger but might work too. The WM1 could hang around your neck or be taped to your west.

I assume that, in the falling out of the canoe scenario, you only can bring what is in your pockets and on your west (or personal over water surface floatation device whatever).
Firesteel, matches and such can easily be found in your trouser pockets or in some fancy pouch on the west. A smaller knife can be found in the same place. Where do you store a big knife so that it doesnt obstruct your normal canoeing operation. On the back of the west in some kind of samurai configuration? strapped to your leg?

I have not tried the DM but to me it looks like there is too much space between the handle and the knife edge (it that the ricasso?). It seems to be hard to do precision work with it, but that is my opinion.

So, what would work in a falling out of the canoe scenario? The knife that you manage to get to shore, the knife that you carried in your pocket or on your belt or on your west. The 2000$ fancy pancy super ultra 32 piece "survival system" knife made from the space shuttle is right now somewhere BELOW you and the only knife you have on you is the Leatherman in your belt and the rescue knife on your west.
So the best way to know which one is the best is to try them out in a realistic scenario.
Pack everything that you might bring on a trip and go out to the forest. Leave EVERYTHING in the car and walk some meters into the forest and try to "survive". Eventually you realise that you need the knife and the firesteel and whatnot. Go and get it from the car and "survive". After some time walking back and forth you will have a small "survival-pile" of things you MUST have. Now you have to come up with a way to keep it on your person when canoeing. Isnt there any type of canoe wests that have pockets on them? Couldnt a knife be stored in a pocket vertically on your back between your shoulders? You have a small rescue knife on your left chest for the canoe egress situation and the bigger knife when you get ashore.
 
My vest has lash tabs, and I have my ABC Hammond on the front one. Then I have a multi-function whistle attached to the outside. It's cheap, but it works well, and I like to be able to quickly check the compass.

I have two big pockets, but they can get bulky quick. I'm going to add a firestarter once I decided on my options. And I'm thinking about switch out my ABC Hammond to a folder... but I'm still personally debating that.
 
soccergod04 said:
Pick!? Which one?! Who only carries one knife?:D
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I'm with you on this one. I carry a tact folder and SAK everyday. If I go out into the bush, add 1 or 2 fixed blades. It all depends on how far out I go....However, when I take 2 fixed blades I"ll leave my tact folder home.
 
I guess I should have given the wording etc a little more thought before I posted this.
The Canoe scenario was just my way of suggesting you are left with nothing but maybe your knife and contents of your pocket....matches etc !
What i was really getting at was which type of knife you prefer if this was your only knife.....a heavy survival type such as a Cold Steel SRK or Master Hunter, Becker Crewman, Ranger RD6 etc or a thinner bushcraft type such as the Nessmuk, Mora, Ritter rsk etc !!!!
Forget debating what you would have when Canoing, I never go in Canoes anyway !!!
TrayandPaul092.jpg

:D :D :D :D :D
 
pitdog said:
a thinner bushcraft type such as the Nessmuk, Mora, Ritter rsk etc !!!!
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Always my pick, I use this type of knife much more than the big, uber tough knives. As a matter of fact, a mora and a mag/flint on your pfd and you are pretty much good. Chris
 
For me one a canoe trip i would take the Nessmuk without a doubt. In my experience shelter building can be done much quicker without chopping anything, let alone chopping with a 5 inch blade. If you dont believe my abilities look at les stroud AKA survivorman. He can build great shelters that are comfortable and very effective without chopping anything.
 
We conduct fairly regular survival weekends where we go into a patch of woods that may be less than 400 yards from a road or shelter of some type but we act as if it was the back side on nowhere. As we build skills we push ourselves into deeper wilderness for the same but higher quality experience.
In my observation most people fail to see the half made shelters all around them. Blown down trees, overhanging rock ledges, ect. ect. In fact I have had kids start building debris shelters from stratch within 20 yards of a blown down cedar that was 85% a shelter already.
 
a kabar. i've chopped saplings, split logs using a billet of wood as a mallet, and gutted fish. its too big to carry all the time though, and the best in my opinion is the one i have with me. whenever i'm on the boat, i carry a butane lighter, 100 or so feet of codline, a buck 110 with a codline lanyard attached (which i've also cut saplings with), and a coarse sharpening stone. since the 110 is always with me, it would be the knife.
 
I am in the biggest, toughest knife camp on this one. A large knife can do most of what a small knife can, (so what if my rabbit is not sliced thin enough) but, when you need that big knife, a small one just is not going to cut it.
 
My preferance would be hatchet, 7-8 inch knife, 4-5 inch survival knife, and then a leatherman. I've never used anything like a mora so I can't really say what I would be comfy doing with a thin knife like that.
 
In a canoe or a kayak, something small- never seen on that had a lot of room in it, can't really wear a large fixed blade without it getting in the way. So whatever was in my pocket is what I'd have with me when I get out of the water- a multi and/or a SAK.

In a perfect world, I'd second the vote for the Ka-Bar MKII, but in a perfect world, you be in that situation. *shrugs*
 
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