for all you eagle scouts...

A

andrew7978

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Mar 19, 2007
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I was talking to one of my friends trying to convince him that it is smarter to bring a fixed blade knife on a camping trip as opposed to just a folder. He wouldn't budge on the issue so I decided to go talk to my friend who was an eagle scout for support. Turns out he only carries a folder too. So as I never quite made it up to eagle scouts, my question is do the scouts really not stress bringing a fixed blade into the woods? (I mean I have the old scout knife that I got when I was like 10, but I would hardly call that a woods knife.)

Just so you know what I am talking about, this is the model of scout knife I received.

ks5.jpg
 
I think the thing is that these days the vast majority of people spending recreational time in the wilderness do so without any substantial cutting tools at all. They can do this because they carry all the specialized gear that the cutting tools are traditionally used to improvise eg. they have no need for firewood because they're carrying an ultralight multifuel or gas stove. When I was in the scouts we would often use the tech approach when the emphasis of the activity was not bushcraft or wilderness survival.

disclaimer - I was in the scouts for quite a few years but never became an eagle scout.
 
I'm an Eagle scout.

To my knowledge, there is no national BSA rule that forbids the carrying of sheath knives. Its handled at a local level. Generally, it is discouraged, because most Scouting activities don't require one, and they are also (supposedly) more likely to be seen as weapons.
 
I got my eagle in 1972 and at that time fixed blades were allowed and approved. There were even "official" BSA fixed blade camping knives (made by western i believe). My oldest son got his eagle in 1999 and by that time BSA rules had changed so no more fixed blades were allowed. He started in Cub scouts in 1990 and even then no fixed blades were allowed. I was a District Commissioner back then and asked about the change but nobody could tell me exactly when the rules changed or why. Now the have a whole variety of official approved knives including some nice lock-backs.

Kev
 
I received my Eagle in 2000, worked all the way up from cub scouts. Although we were always pushing the "rules" on knives, I always had my folder with me. We were taught to use an axe, hatchet, saw, and knife properly. I think that I never carried a fixed blade because I was taught to work without one. I still carry only a folder into the woods and i never feel unprepared.
 
I worked my way up form cub scouts, I used a folder for almost all of it. I prefer a fixed blade, but scouts made me use a folder. So I am proficient with both.
 
I'm an underachiever i only made it to first class. I'm also old {48} but back when i was in scouts you'd see a fixed blade every now and then but not often. mostly the old brown scaled camillus scout knife, wish i still had one. pretty good knife. had a really good time in scouts.
 
ahgar said:
I'm an underachiever i only made it to first class. I'm also old {48} but back when i was in scouts you'd see a fixed blade every now and then but not often. mostly the old brown scaled camillus scout knife, wish i still had one. pretty good knife. had a really good time in scouts.
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Thats what I saw too.

We all had Axes and Folders.
There were Fixer Blades and I carried one, but they were rare.

I was Order of the Arrow also.
 
Hey andrew, I got my Eagle in 2004. That knife that you are showing is the Camilus Boy Scout Deluxe. If you guys like those knives you better buy them NOW. I stopped by to say "hi" to my scout buddies at the local scout shop and they said all of the knives are starting to be made in China. They are all about $12.00 now, but they are stamped with "china" on the blade where it once said "Camilus." Surprised the hell out of me since Boy Scouts of America is as American as it gets, and now the knives are from China! Buy the Camilus ones while you can find them. It's a great knife and that is the one that I took to Philmont twice.
 
Came up from Cubs. While we didn't have a rule per se against FB knives, it was discouraged. Mainly because we all bought CCC "Rambo" survival knives that were complete junk. A nice Wenger official BSA SAK carried me all the way through. For heavier work we always used a more appropiate tool, (axe, saw, etc.)
 
We were always advised to used folders when doing in scouting activities, except for the OA stuff. Once you made it into OA, nobody would give you any gruff about carrying a fixed blade. I remember a lot of (dare I say idiot parents) in the scouts who thought fixed blades were the devil. I saw more accidents from improper use of a folder than anything else in my run. Folder or fixed blade, respect the blade or it will demand it's respect from you.
 
I got my Eagle in 2006. I don't see fixed blades around too much, at council camps they are "strongly discouraged." Pretty much everyone carries a folder of some sort. I see Vic Tinkers and Camillus BSA scout knives more than anything else.

Shame to hear the new official knives are china made. There's still the old Camilluses (Camilli?) out there, as well as BSA Case knives.
 
I carried my Kabar USMC knife everywhere except school when I was a boy. When we did athletic things in the scouts, I tool it off.
 
One of my wife's friends has two kids in scouts and I asked them what kind of knife they carried and they told me they carried a multitool, so I asked about a fixed blade and they said they were not allowed to carry one.
 
when I was in the scouts we were discouraged from carrying fixed blades, I've carried a folder on me everyday since I was 7, I never even really thought about carrying a fixed blade until I started visiting here...and most of the time I never felt at a disadvantage...for scouting stuff a folder is all that is needed.
 
andrew7978 said:
I was talking to one of my friends trying to convince him that it is smarter to bring a fixed blade knife on a camping trip as opposed to just a folder. He wouldn't budge on the issue so I decided to go talk to my friend who was an eagle scout for support. Turns out he only carries a folder too.
Click to expand...

Listen to the Eagle Scout.

I can't agree that's it's "smarter" to bring a fixed blade on a camping trip as opposed to just a folder. I've camped for years, spending time in the swamps of Florida, in the forests of central Europe, and tent camping around the Turkish countryside. I've never carried a fixed blade. I own two that were my grandfather's (a Buck and a Case - he never used 'em, just owned 'em), but they're in a box under my bed. I just never found a need for them.
 
I earned my Eagle in 2001. My troop only carried folders. But, each patrol (6-10 kids) would have a hatchet/ax and a saw....ditto on the above, tho - we were encouraged to carry folders and not fixed.
 
I'm an Eagle. Finished in about 1985, and did lots of outdoor/wilderness stuff in connection with Scouts back in the '70s-'80s. Lots of us carried sheath knives back then. I remember seeing fixed-blade Buck Specials, a few Camillus pilot's survival knives (I carried a knock-off of one of those, as I couldn't afford the Camillus); I remember seeing one Solingen-made knife with a pewter eagle-head pommel, of a kind that I'd seen marketed in, I believe, Scouting's "Boy's Life" Magazine. Most of the kids used BSA folding knives on a regular basis, and only carried the bigger stuff for outings. Our outings, by the way, were usually done by my troop alone--so it was just us and our dads, rather than BSA bureaucrats setting the rules. We were a pretty wilderness and hiking and survival-oriented troop, so spent a lot of time where there weren't other people.

I distinctly remember seeing in the OLD Scout Fieldbook (I think vintage early 1960s, and thus old even when I was in Scouts) a statement that a fixed blade had "more romantic appeal than practical value" for most people, though it was grudgingly admitted that a fixed blade could be handy around a camp kitchen. The pictured knife was the official BSA Western/Case variety, with a stacked-leather handle and (I think) aluminum pommel.

Sigh. Not sure what Scouting is coming to, these days. Just yesterday, my eldest son (age 7) needed a picture of his favorite activity for a poster for his (private, Christian) school. He'd decided "exploring" was his activity of choice, so we decided to pose him, standing against a leafy background, wearing a canvas hat with brim half snapped up, Aussie style, wearing binoculars, pointing off into the distance. He draped a rubber snake around his neck for effect. To complete the picture, I was going to strap an 18-inch Himalayan Imports khukuri to his belt, but he nixed that idea, saying that since the picture was for school, he was uncomfortable with showing a knife. (Sigh.) I'm glad he has that instinct for keeping out of trouble, I guess. (It's not that he's any kind of weapons-phobe, either--we'd just gotten back from the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association's Western National Shoot mere minutes before, and he was eager to try the khukuri against a mesquite log, and loves using knives, tomahawks, etc. for bushcraft practice in the back yard.)
 
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