Friend in the Marines, Needs a knife

The Moose

The Moose

Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
376
I dont know much about the army, but i do know about knives:thumbup: Anyways, he needs a SD knife... Thats what he described as... Any suggestions?

Ignore that i misspelled friend accidentally ignore it haha
(fixed it for ya -- EB)
 
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Is he joining the army or the marine corps?

I like K bars. Big, strong, ect.

EDIT: Doesn't he have a rifle for self defense?
 
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Self Defense knife for a marine? Hmm. More often than not he's going to need a knife for things other than defending himself.

I'd say take a look at any of these ZTs.
http://www.ztknives.us/ZT_Fixed.html

I'm partial to the 0121, but I've heard that the 0100 is a real beast. Plus, all ZTs have an unbeatable warranty.
 
send him a couple cold steel GI tantos. they are large fixed blades that only cost 20 dollars and have been proven to be able to withstand tons of punishment. you can sent him 4 or 5 so he can give a couple out to his buddies and keep an extra one for himself for the price of some of the others. the only thing about it is the sheath is kinda weak. he will be able to use it for self defense and for survival/utility.

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The Bark River Bravo-1 was developed BY Special Forces Marines off of the Gameskeeper design. Here is an excerpt...

This knife was developed with the assistance of the Training Unit of the Force Recon Division of the U.S. Marine Corp. These folks Bought a large number of knives on the Commercial market and tested them without saying anything to any of the makers.

The Bark River Gameskeeper came out on Top to Fit their Requirements of a Real Time General Purpose Survival/Bushcraft Knife.

BRKT was Contacted by them and asked to make a knife based on the Gameskeeper with a Few Changes.

The Bravo-1 is the Result of their Input.

The Changes were the addition of a Ramp Style Thumb Rest on the Spine and changing the Guard into an Integral Self Guard. They also wanted the Choil eliminated to bring the Sharp Edge all the Way to the Front of the handle Slabs for Leverage in notching.

The Balance of the knife had to be on the First Finger.

Balance Was Achieved by Skeletonizing the Tang to put the Weight Evenly over the First Finger Position.

The sheath was to be Kydex and attachable to the Issue Equipment and it's Molle Straps.

With the location of the Eyelets You can change the sheath from Right to Left Hand Carry--Upright or Inverted Carry.

You can also Attach an Optional Firesteel carrier and a Smaller Knife Like a Mikro-Canadian in an Optional Kydex Sheath.


The handle Slabs had to be Epoxied and bolted to to and through the Blade.

All of the Bravo-1's have the handle sets attached with Bolt Sets. they are non Removable. We grind off the Screw Slots as we finish out the handles.

The Synthetic Material Handles will all have Stainless Steel Screw Sets.

All the Natural Material Handle Sets are Attached with Brass Bolt Sets.

The Final Result is a Heavy Duty Bushcraft/Survival Knife that can stand up to Abusive use.

Specs:

Overall Length:9.065 Inches
Blade Length:4.250 Inches
Blade Steel:A-2 @ 59 rc
Blade Thickness:.215 Inch
Weight:7.375 Ounces

Sheath: Synthetic Materials have a Kydex Sheath and Natural Materials have Leather

This is mine. And believe me when I say this...dealers cannot keep these in stock. They are repeatedly, much to my dismay, pushing back production on other knives that I want. Several batches in the past couple months have already been sent over seas by Bark River and the demand is off the charts for this knife.

B-1001.jpg

B-1002.jpg

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there are around 50 different handle materials available for this knife and I would suggest something in a G10 or Micarta for durability.

The soldier has my gratitude and best wishes and thanks.:thumbup::thumbup:
 
what about sending him some stuff from a hardware store like some kind of durable drywall hammer or hatchet etc..


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Hey, Moose, is your friend new to this, and just thinks he needs a "self-defense" knife? Any good medium sized fixed blade will do just fine for that, AND will be a much more necessary field knife and utility knife.

Make sure he has a good multitool and maybe get him something like an RC-4 or an RC-6. The Ka-Bar Extreme is probably a good choice too.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Hey, Moose, is your friend new to this, and just thinks he needs a "self-defense" knife? Any good medium sized fixed blade will do just fine for that, AND will be a much more necessary field knife and utility knife.

Make sure he has a good multitool and maybe get him something like an RC-4 or an RC-6. The Ka-Bar Extreme is probably a good choice too.
Click to expand...

Esav gives the best advice here. My family and friends in the military universally say that personally owned fixed blades bring attention from unwanted cornders (non-com's and officers.) A good multi tool and a folder bring less attention and are more useful. If your friend already knows his Sgt well enough, and knows that a fixed blade will not be looked at with acrimony, than a RC-4, RC-6, or Similar knife will be fine. Take it from me, repeated offers from myself to my brother have been rebuffed for a good and decent fixed blade.
 
It's been said already, but here it is again: good multi-tool, then a folder, starting with maybe a Buck 110 type, then looking at others that are bigger/beefier.

thx - cpr
 
Victorinox swiss tool,and stout 4-5 inch fixed blade knife. The chance that he'll need a defensive knife is not great. The Swisstool is very versatile and well-designed,it'll do 90% of the tasks he'll need to do. The fixed blade is for rougher work,prying open crates etc.
 
Depending on his MOS, any knife that you give your friend he may have to hump along with the rest of his gear. If he breaks his ka-bar he can just go to cash sales and get another one. If you want to give him one I would suggest the Bark River Bravo-1 or the RAT RC-4.
 
I would'nt go for the D2 Ka-Bar. D2 steel is very difficult to sharpen. It chips easily enough and the Ka-bar D2's have a tendency to snap because of the rats tail tang. An ordinary 1095 Ka-bar is probably better. The Ka-bar Black Tanto and Black Fighter are slightly bigger than the standard ones but are probably too big. You could also look at the Buck Nighthawk.
 
Mission MPK12-Ti or MPK10-Ti (titanium)

The MPK-Ti was designed to meet the requirements of the Navy SEAL's and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Units. It has also been adopted and issued by the United States Marine Corps Recon personnel.

If you want the best, this is it. There are many other fine choices out there, including offerings from R.A.T., SOG, Ka-Bar, and BRKT, as some have already pointed out. For the money, you just can't beat the SOG Seal Pup Elite. I have one and use it for hiking, camping, and diving. $75 with Kydex sheath; easily replaceable when you don't want to lose some of the others. I would not recommend high carbon blades for work in wet conditions, but some here will tell you they are still very serviceable.

Mission MPK Ti
MisionMPK12ti.jpg


The inexpensive and totally reliable SOG Seal Pup Elite
Picture016.jpg


 
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Everything has been well-covered by other posters, but to the mix of fixed-blade, folder and multi-tool, I would also suggest a small durable folder (Spyderco Delica comes to mind) to clip to the inside of his skivvies or a sock in case he gets captured/abducted.

Getting captured by an OPFOR that follows the Geneva Convention in a conventional war is bad enough, but when dealing with extremist, uneducated, poorly organized religionists, well... we've all seen the videos.
 
Just send him one of the better Swiss army knives, lots of different models available, and he will thank you.
 
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