Castaway.Chuck Noland's SAK,A thought.

savagesicslayer

savagesicslayer

Gold Member
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
3,345
Most of you have seen Cast Away.Those who haven't go rent it ASAP.In that film the main character uses a SAK to do his daily chores.However,when he's lost in the plane wreck he had left it home with his girlfriend.
Now,my question is this.Had he had his SAK would he had been better off?Without it he was forced to learn the basic survival tasks that ended up saving his life.Would he have leaned too heavily on his pocket knife and not adapted adequately to his environment.
Thoughts?
 
I think he would have, because when I'm out in the woods, I don't look for a stone to make some flint, I look for my knife........jmo......
 
If his objective was "learning" then may be yes in some respects. But then, if he had a SAK "learning" wouldn't be precluded it would just be different learning, as in learning to do X with a SAK. If his goal state was something completely different, perhaps just survival, with any learning simply being the incidental satisfaction of sub-goals on route to the objective then absolutely not.
 
How would he sharpen it though? If he kept using the knife to make his spears and tinder and all that stuff, it would go dull pretty quickly I'd imagine
 
JCK said:
How would he sharpen it though? If he kept using the knife to make his spears and tinder and all that stuff, it would go dull pretty quickly I'd imagine
Click to expand...

He would most likely adapt to his environment and find something suitable that will sharpen his knife; a shell perhaps or maybe even a smooth stone. Looking for anything that can give a knife a WORKING edge would not be a bad thing.
 
Well, I know he coulda used all those VHS tapes (the ribbon) for making cordage or twisted and pulled tight it makes excellent fishing line, super strong....and lot's of it.:D Guess those movie guys aren't as creative as a person could be.:( Anyways, there are lots of ways people can make due in a situation such as this without a knife. I bet even a piece of hard shell sharpened against a rock would work as a makeshift knife. He had lots of time to learn flintknapping at any rate.
 
I would guess the volcanic rock would be able to sharpen a SAK.

I think the knife would have helped him in the early part of his isolation, but it would have taken him longer to choose to open all of the FedEx boxes, so that might have set him back a bit more in the long run.
 
Which particular SAK model did he have?

Imagine if he'd had a Champ, a magnifying glass to light a fire, pincers for pulling his tooth, scissors for cutting his nails, a saw and an awl to get into coconuts, plus he would have 2 blades and a fish scaler!....all very useful indeed!

Imagine if he'd had the SAK Champ survival set? He would've had a signaling mirror which he could've used to examine his tooth, a compass, some matches, needles and thread, plasters, safety pins, a sharpening stone...

Perhaps he would still learn to make fire by friction, but maybe as an exercise to alleviate boredom?

We always enjoy contemplating the best single tool for long term survival, environment obviously plays a huge part, but perhaps we sometimes overlook what a SAK Champ can offer! If the criteria was for two tools then regardless of the environment the Champ would be one of my choices, an axe or machete would be my other tool.
 
Knife > Skate for cutting

The look on his face when he was reunited with his SAK after his ordeal was hilarious.
 
Actually, what difference would it have made if he had the SAK blade, instead of the ice skate blade?

He would have used both for the same cutting tasks.
 
Sand and a stick to sharpen.Make a flat edge on the stick drill shallow holes on the flats fill with fine sand ala diamond hone, Reverse strokes not cutting into.
 
Great Fedex commercial:

[youtube]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/alSQpinagp0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/alSQpinagp0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/youtube]
 
Over a four year period he would have probably had a slightly different learning curve, but he also would have developed the same skills anyway, with or without the knife. Would have been easier to start though.
 
Knife would have made things easier. But the point of making do with what he had is what I liked about it. He's lucky to have had those packages. And though it's a movie, the psycological impact that Wilson had is pretty telling of what any human would experience in the lonliness part of a survival situation.
 
In a survival situation, everything you have on you is an asset.No matter what you have though, all items(no matter what) have limitations.
I'd be glad myself to have a SAK rather than no knife at all. I am not a big fan of SAK's though. I put myself in the mental scenario that Tom Hanks was in, and boy,would he of been happy to open a fedex box and find a machete !!
With one, firemaking and shelter would have become much easier tasks.
 
Ultraman said:
Not sure if I understand the question, but wouldn't cutting be easier with the SAK?
Click to expand...

Some would I think, but all that chopping and hacking of Coconuts and Bamboo, I actually think the skate blade would have held up better over 4 years of that kind of abuse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top