Favorite survival knife?

By definition, your survival knife is the one you have on you when you need it to survive,
If you mean a hollow handled sawtoothed Rambo knife, that's easy! My hollow handled sawtoothed Rambo knife! A Lile made SlyII mad by Jimmy Lile and bought from him personally many years ago. What do I keep in the hollow handle? A lock of my wife's hair.
For the situation to be so dire that I must rely on the contents of a tiny capsule too small to hold a 12 ga. round, I figure I've farked up so badly that I probably deserve to die. My pockets hold a lot more gear than that little hidey hole can!
What's the scenario? I wake up in the middle of the Outback naked and holding my survival knife? Might be a fun mental exercise, but not very realistic.

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I cut it, and I cut it, and it's STILL too short!

 
I agree with Sid Post about trying out your survival gear. I remember the first time I tried to shave pieces of magnesium firestarter. Got the pieces too large and they wouldn't light with a match, let alone a scraped spark!

Ken, I'm not much of a hollow handle guy but if I still had my Randall #18, I would at least put in a few matches and dryer lint to start a fire. Although I don't smoke, I always carry a disposable lighter in my pocket to start fires but I'm not going to waste the space in the handle and a duplication of some life saving basics like fire making stuff don't weigh enough to matter.

My choice for a "pure" survival knife would be a HI Khukuri.
 
Check the "kukri cont." thread in about 3 weeks. Cliff should have gotten the following Ontario knives from me by then for testing: 1) Survival Bowie; 2) Marine Raider Bowie; 3) Bolo; 4) kukri. I like the price on the Ontario knives ( $30 to $50 range ) but I don't know enough about knives to judge if they are worth the price.

((edit 03-24-99 04:48 PM - just checked and online you can buy an Ontario 'kabar' or air force survival knife for $25 and their Bolo for $30 - that's $55 for both. For $165, I'd rather have a pair in my truck, a pair in the car, and a pair at home ( or with me ) than one expensive knife not with me. Provided the Ontarios hold up decently, which is why I'm having Cliff check them out.))
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Russ S


[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 24 March 1999).]
 
Bruce,
I carry a Zippo, and a magnesium fire starter block with me at ALL TIMES. Also a surefire 6Z, w/spare batts, small Silva compass, tiny little never used and very sharp cheapie keyring knife, A BM AFCK, and a P38 can opener. My wife HATES emptying out my pockets when she want's to wash my clothes.
So, with all that (I didn't even mention my pistol and spare mags.) I really don't think I NEED anything in the little hollow handle.
BUT, the space isn't wasted. One of the keys to survival is to NEVER give up. Most SAR people will tell you that when they go looking for somebody and find them dead, that it looked like the guy just gave up. He just sat down and died. THAT is why I keep the lock of my wife's hair in the handle. If in some unimaginable circumstance, I find that I am losing the will to live, I need only look in the handle and remember why I can't give up. I figure that with that lock of hair, and water to prevent dehydration, I can go for a week with nothing else.
Sounds hopelessly romantic? It's called WILL and it's the one thing that you can't live without.
Something to think about

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I cut it, and I cut it, and it's STILL too short!

 
Ken, You are so right about remembering what to live for. I was teaching my wife the "Rule of Threes"

You'll Live:
3 seconds without thinking
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food
3 months without hope

She didn't get the last one until I explained to her that my hope is seeing her and the kids again.
 
Ok, now for my two cents. I know you great guys are going to laugh, but for a survival knife (in the field) I carried in my personal toiletries bag a couple packs of double-sided razor blades. No kidding, when I knew the job took a sharp delicate blade, out came the RAZORS. These razors could be bought at any PX,.99 cents for a pack of ten. But seriously, I like Joe Talmadge idea of a combination of two knives sizes. I always had a swiss camper with sissors (to cut acetate) on my belt, a five inch fix/folder hidden(old habits are hard to die) and tiny Sears two blade stock knife in my left breast pocket.
When I was a very young LT, I bought a K-BAR for my main battle/survival knife. It came in useful for cutting the steel banding straps that held together the projectiles (artillery rounds) but it got more attention from senior officers as a no-go to carry. I finally learned to downsize on blade length to accommodate regulations. Strange thing as a battery commander, I personally did not like my soldiers to carry big survival looking knives. Why, because they were always able to cut themselves for reasons of boredom/horseplay while in the field. Big knives in the billets were a big no-go and they were locked up in the armsroom. Now that I think about it more, it seems that the reason my soldiers had trouble with their knives was that they were unfamiliar with the knives' shape, weight, edge retention, and so on. Thus I like Ken Cooks thought that the one knife(s) on you is your survival knife. That makes sense. I go one step further, pick your knife carefully (METT-T dependent(Ken, I know you can talk this acronym better than me), use it and carry it like it is part of your body(in the military that no problem, but in the cilivan world that a different story). So, what do I carry in the garrison for the next two years, (remember METT-T), a Remington Stockman pocket knife ( to cut paper and string) and a G10 Police on/off duty(to cut more things than paper and string).

Endre

Gotta love Mom's Kimchee!



[This message has been edited by ENDRE A GAYER (edited 25 March 1999).]
 
Combination CS SRK and Outdoor Edge Wedge, and most likely my Gerber Multi-Lock.

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Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.
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[This message has been edited by Christian (edited 25 March 1999).]
 
Ken, you sentimental guy, you, ya got me! A lock of my wife's hair might be better than anything else you could put in a hollow handle! By the way, did you ask her for the hair or did you just cut it while she was sleeping? If I asked my wife for the lock of hair, and told her why, that would make a lot of points with her. I bet you asked her, didn't you?

Endre, I know what you mean about the troops and knives. As a company commander in Germany facing the red star, I too made the troops keep their knives in the arms room, for the same reason, they kept hurting themselves. I also never issued the bayonets to them for the same reason. I hope now that I would be smarter and teach them about knives. But you know, when that Battalion Commander is looking you in the eye asking what you could have done to keep Joe Snuffy from stabbing his German girlfriend (actually happened), it's tough to come up with anything meaningful.

(METT-T)=Mission, Enemy, Troops, Terrain, Time Just had to put my Command and General Staff College graduation certificate to use!
 
OK,

I was being ironic the first time I posted but here we go, since you guys are serious.

I have a differentially tempered 5160 8 inch drop point and 6 inch bowie. I know either could do the job, but I prefer the bigger one.

Now, everyday I carry the following: Old Silva(now Nexus) Ranger Compass, Pelican Stealthlite and spare batteries, 150 feet of paracord, two warerproof containers of matches, magnesium match, swiss army knife, US Knife, trip wire, and three pocket knives usually my M2 AFCK, Delica, and Native, sometimes more...

One of the first knifes I am going to make is a Barong, it will become my survival blade.

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Check out the future possible Spyderco Worker 2000 www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/000224.html

One may want to keep an Eye out for my review of the Bob Kasper designed, Kevin Gentile modified AFCK and interview of Bob Kasper. Sorry about the wait, my review and interview should be online shortly, luckily Spark has graciously offered to do the pictures, look for it right here at BladeForums.com.

Marion David Poff ska Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

"A journey of a thousand miles begins but with a single step" Lao-Tzu
 
I think that the best survival knife is the "Buckmaster". Why? It has a pretty long and a durable blade that can cut almost anything. The spikes on it's handle make it perfect if you want to use it in close combat. The spikes won't kill, but they ca cripple pretty well. I've gotten my Buckamster from a friend in U.S.A. and i think it's great. I have some older survivals, even some from Vietnam. But i still that Buckmaster is the best survival knife until now.
 
Boris, I've got disagree on the Buckmaster. It's hollow handle design is inherently weak---there is just not much holding the handle on. Not good in a survival situation. If you want a hollow handle Chris Reeve is the way to go. I find it to be too heavy and very uncomfortable in the hand. The saw teeth are absolutely worthless for sawing and not much good for anything else. How would you use the spikes in combat? They are designed to be screwed in facing the rear of the knife so that the knife can be used sort of like a grappling hook but they are not intented to hold a person's weight so it could only be used to snag and retrieve something not really very necessary or useful in a survival situation. Given the choice between a Buckmaster and a $20 G.I. machete I'd take the machete hands down. I got a Buckmaster as a gift and immediately traded it for a Cold Steel tanto. As far as I'm concerned the Buckmaster is a big, ugly, very functional paperwight.

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who dares, wins

 
From current carry, I would say the Cold Steel Recon Scout, need a Kydex sheath though.

Eventually, I am looking at a Chris Reeve Fixed(Shadow) or a Busse Battle Mistress.

But $$$ will decide all. OTFW

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God bless!

Romans 10:9-10

"Military" Fans Unite!!

 
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