Don't just go cheap!

joeyza

joeyza

Joined
Feb 27, 2013
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Was just reading Aron Ralston's story, the guy who got his arm stuck between a boulder and canyon wall (movie was 127 hours) and he mentioned having to use a dull multitool to do the job of cutting his arm off.
From wiki - "He never named the manufacturer of the tool he used, other than to say it was not a Leatherman but "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool".
Just shows how important it is too have proper tools an equipment when in the outdoors, especially when out alone! Of course not saying it wouldn't have hurt as much with a better sharper blade but would have been easier. What a guy!!
 
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I carry good knives for lots of reasons. I guess I'll add cutting off stuck appendages to that list.
 
A cheap knife doesn't have to be dull, and an expensive knife doesn't have to sharp. If he had a top of the line Leatherman, and he didn't keep it sharp...nothing would have been different.

I don't care how much you pay for a knife....it will get dull and it wont sharpen itself.
 
I have always stated that as one of my reasons for carrying sharp knives. "you never know when you are going to have to cut your own leg or arm off".

There was a guy that got his leg pinned under a huge tree he had just cut. His chain saw was in reach, and he could not get it started.

Before hypothermia got too advanced, he took out his little folder (looked to be a traditional in his interview). He had to rip the pants, because the knife was so dull. He put his belt on as a tourniquet and sawed away. the thigh bone was already broken, so that made it easier, He just had to cut away his entire leg, at the thigh. Crawl out of the woods. Drive his truck with a clutch to the hospital 30 miles away with only one leg.

He was in such good shape, when he got to the hospital, that they took him back out in the ambulance to see if the could recover the leg to reattach it. It was cold enough to preserve it, but they did not find it in time. In the dark, he could not tell where he had stopped, and gone into the woods.





On the 127 hour movie. It hurt to watch, especially the part where he basically had to rip the nerve out.

Part of the problem, he spent a long time trying to scrape away at the rock to see if he could pry it loose from the walls.

A larges sharp knife would have been heaven sent. He basically had to just stab his arm repeatedly, and tear the flesh.
 
I am going to have to say... no matter if your knife is sharp or dull, big or little... Cutting off your own arm/leg would seriously be horrible. However, at the point were survival instincts and fight or flight begin... Something seriously primal must kick in. I mean, even animals will chew off their own appendages if caught for an extended period of time.
 
Sat phone sure would have come in HANDY that day. No pun intended.
 
knife2Agunfight said:
It sure wouldn't have been called "127 hours" if he had brought a Busse FFBM with him that day :D
Click to expand...
9blades said:
No....it would be called 10 seconds and a scream
Click to expand...

Do not laugh, don't not laugh, do not laugh... Ahh crap, I'm seriously laughing like a manic and I know I shouldn't be. :D



Okay, now that I've worked that out of my system... I don't think it really matters what you to work with in a situation like that (though sharp is likely better). You're going to do what you have to do to survive and make do with whatever you have once your instinct to continue living kicks in.
 
Yeah, I'd just die. It would suck, but I'm not going to chop my arm off. I just couldn't do it. Maybe if I was really in the situation, but I'm pretty sure I'd be a gonner.
 
You would think that wicked sharp saw in most SAK's would be better suited to the job.
 
I would have at least tried to sharpen the knife against the walls of that cavern first. They looked relatively smooth enough.
 
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