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A

ajrand

Joined
Aug 30, 2001
Messages
166
You can choose a firesteel and tinder, or a medium/small fixed blade, no more than 5 inches or so, to survive a random wilderness experience. One or the other, not both, plus the clothes on your back. Which do you choose? Would your choice vary depending on where you were to be? What is your reasoning?:D
 
The parameters are rather broad but I would choose the firemaking equipment. Keeping warm is the hardest part of survival in Canada. Without a way to keep warm you will die. A knife substitute can be improvised from pieces of broken rocks and even wood for many knife uses.
 
Originally posted by Pentlatch
The parameters are rather broad but I would choose the firemaking equipment. Keeping warm is the hardest part of survival in Canada. Without a way to keep warm you will die. A knife substitute can be improvised from pieces of broken rocks and even wood for many knife uses.
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Yes, but you can always make a bow drill or something. Or even find some flint somewhere!
 
Yes, but you can always make a bow drill or something. Or even find some flint somewhere!- -

Easy to say ... you can't "always make a bow drill " only certain woods work and they must be dry. I'm not an expert in using a bow drill but can do it under ideal conditions.

Making a fire by bow drill requires dry wood - here is coastal BC this is not the norm. You can slowly dry wood in the sun but it has to be sunny and this is the exception most of the time. There is no flint anywhere in BC and to my knowledge there are no good quality sparking rocks in BC.

A knife is a luxury in a true survival situation. True survival involves just the very basics of life - air , warmth and water. If these three basics are met you can live for weeks.

In my years of bush experience it is just keeping warm that is the single most important thing. Hypothermia is an ever present danger year round where i live. Ask any Search and Rescue Technician they will tell you this.
 
Originally posted by tknife
The knife for sure. Fire is nice, but a shelter is top priority.
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agreed, humans survived for a long time before fire. with a knife you can make shelter and make weapons to hunt with. this will yield skins and furs to keep warm.

without any form of dry wood at all you would struggle to make a fire just from a handful of tinder anyway.
 
Having tried it many times, I have to agree with Pentlatch that it is far, far easier to talk about making fire without a source than it is to actually do it. I think the expected conditions are the key to this choice myself. Anyone who is of the opinion that they can make fire with stuff they find ought to give it a try before they stake their life on it. Tain't easy as it sounds!
 
I would most definitely choose the firesteel. Around here exposure is your worst enemy. I will live much longer without a knife than without a fire.
 
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Originally posted by ajrand
...plus the clothes on your back. Which do you choose?
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Moot question, since "the clothes on my back" minimally contain a folder, SAK, Busse Assault Shaker, Swedish Firesteel, whistle, ceramic rod sharpener, 550 paracord, wallet (paper tinder), cell phone, Inova mini-LED light, sometimes an Inova X5 & CMG Infinity lights, and occasionally a fixed-blade knife on my belt for yardwork. I like to think wearing that 4-pound pair of pants will help trim my beltline measurement. ;) :D

If I were restricted to have only one tool, being either the knife you describe or a Firesteel, IMHO having the knife as your "one and only tool" would probably be my choice. You can make other tools/resources with a knife. You can't always fabricate or fake a knife from other resources. Also, the western Washington state area where I live is fairly temperate, which helps reduce fire as an IMMEDIATE priority.
 
Originally posted by ajrand
Dang, Rok, do you rattle when you walk?;)
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That could be put to music! What are the rest of the lyrics? :D

I'm with Rok- the point is moot as I carry both almost everywhere. But I'd take fire over blade (wrong forum for that statement!!:eek: )
I've constructed shelters of good substance w/o a knife, and I've eaten w/o a knife. Water purification can be a serious problem without fire...

-carl
 
I know his is a knife forum but I would definitely choose the fire kit. Shelter can be made without a knife. Primitive tools can be fashioned with rocks, sticks and vegetation.

-- Jeff
 
Rok> you aren't alone in carrying enough to survive on your body...

currently my carry(if I have my jacket too, just for the foodstuffs and rope):

a few knives, large zippo w/ 2 spare flints, book of matches in wallet, ceramic sharpener, cellphone, x5mt, roll of quarters, nail clippers, multitool(pliers), small firstaid kit(personal use, rather limited by pocket size kit), pack of gum, 2 (chocolate & granola) meal bars, 2 (chocolate chip) granola bars, 30' of 1/4" braided cotton rope(holds my weight when used as pully on tree) on a 400lbs (snap weight) 'biener. Also in my jacket is a butane torch, takes standard bic lighters(with adjustable flame).
 
you can make alot of things with the coals from the fire.


but I would go with the knife because I am damn close to getting a fire from a bow drill.
 
Carbon steel knife. You can make sparks with the knife and a rock to make a fire, thus avoiding the firebow task.

The knife can then be used to build a shelter and to build traps and spears to acquire food.

Indeed rubbing two sticks never made a knife.
 
I don't believe that most carbon steel knives will spark when used with a piece of flint.You might want to try it with the particular knife you plan on using.
I would choose fire over a knife here in the midwest since you can make shelter without the knife faster than you can make fire without a spark but I would probably need both to get a fire (if not something better like a road flare or something) at my skill level in fire making.
 
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