As is with many people my blades have gotten me into and out of trouble on many occasions. The most dramatic story that I have occurred a long time ago when I was a teenager. I was at the mall, having been dragged there by my parents, so I was wandering around aimlessly. I was riding the escalator down and a couple of people in front of me I saw a little girl, about 4 or 5 years old with her dress caught in the escalator and it was getting pullled tighter and tighter very quickly so much so that it was starting to strangle her. Her mother was screaming for someone to help while she and the two people in front of me frantically tried to free the girl from a literal death grip. I don't even remember really thinking about it but simply pulled out my SAK opened the blade and quickly ran it along the dress at the level of the floor where the "steps" disappeared into the floor. It sliced right through and freed her in one motion. As if without missing a beat I just quietly walked away because I was really shy and hated talking to people so I didn't want to have to talk to the mom or other bystanders. It wasn't until I was about 20 or more steps away that my heart stared pounding and I got all jittery because it actually dawned on me what I had really done--I had saved a life! I never did see the little girl or her mom again but I absolutely loved telling my parents about it on the ride home. I'm not sure that they fully believed me or not but it got me so pumped up I couldn't sleep all that night I just kept going through that 6-10 seconds of my day over and over again in my head.
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Has your knife ever helped you out of a dire situation?
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I can honestly say I've yet to encounter a "dire situation" in the outdoors that a knife would have made a difference.
In Urban environments, I can also honestly say that I have been in countless "dire situations" in my previous job (I worked for 7 1/2 years in a methadone clinic) that involved others wanting to use their knives on me
To be honest, a knife is a poor choice for a self defense tool. I preferred a 90 cm (3 ft long) piece of one inch pipe :thumbup:
When all the "clients" had either hepatitis (A, B & C) and/or AIDS from years of sharing needles, the added advantage of the pipe was you got far less of their blood on you than a knife would have
Now, this is not to say that I go outdoors without a knife because they are a very usefull outdoor tool :thumbup:
Kind regards
Mick
In Urban environments, I can also honestly say that I have been in countless "dire situations" in my previous job (I worked for 7 1/2 years in a methadone clinic) that involved others wanting to use their knives on me
To be honest, a knife is a poor choice for a self defense tool. I preferred a 90 cm (3 ft long) piece of one inch pipe :thumbup:
When all the "clients" had either hepatitis (A, B & C) and/or AIDS from years of sharing needles, the added advantage of the pipe was you got far less of their blood on you than a knife would have
Now, this is not to say that I go outdoors without a knife because they are a very usefull outdoor tool :thumbup:
Kind regards
Mick
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Dire situations, no, not really, but that said I've been in more than a few situations where things could have gotten much worse easily, and that I was glad that I would have been ready for it. to be honest I could get through most of my average week with just a multi-tool more for the tools than the blade, but I'd rather have than not need. As for owning your own knife, a good friend of mine only owned a Vic hiker and a mora for most of his life, only recently getting into other stuff, and never felt like he needed more knife, so don't feel like you need to carry big expensive steel. get a Mora and a small sharping stone, like a Dia-fold, a swiss army knife you like the look of, and be happy. I hope I'm never in a situation where I NEED a knife, but I like to be ready so that a situation becomes a non-event instead of a frantic fight to improvise.
Well, I once lost my shoes in a muddy meadow and made some sandals out of a piece of car tire. I probably could have walked out of there without shoes though. I just saw a shredded tire, some nylon cording on a post and I had my knife, so I figured, "Screw walking barefoot," since it was pretty rough gravel on the way into the area.
A better solution would for me to have gone with boots instead of sneakers, but I wasn't expecting the ground to be that muddy.
A better solution would for me to have gone with boots instead of sneakers, but I wasn't expecting the ground to be that muddy.
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I got my shirt sucked into my figure 8 about 80 feet off the ground on a sheer rock face. If not for my knife to cut the shirt free I have no idea what I would have done. Chris
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My thoughts exactly on this question. My main blade is a machete, I can't think of going to the bush without one here as it is essential for all of the non-harrowing mundane tasks such as moving from place to place and stopping for the night.
The one time my machete did get me out of a "death or grave bodily injury" situation was when a friend and I were threatened with attack by two men at an isolated beach here in Brazil. If it hadn't been for the machete they would have started right in with their attack but the 14 inch blade in my hand gave them pause. It was resolved peacefully even if it was a Pax Romana. Mac
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It is funny you mention this. I had the exact thing happen to me and I resolved the problem in the same way. :thumbup:
deltablade
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The newspaper here had an account of an interesting one. An older couple were taking their 22' boat up the Tennessee River, which requires going through locks every 25 miles or so. Procedure is to enter lock, tie the boat to the side on cleats that move up or down along with the water as it rises or falls. AS the water started rising, one of the cleats failed to move, so the rope was pulling that part of boat down, and would have either pulled out the boat cleat, or swamped the boat. Too tight to untie, so the guy grabbed his knife and cut the rope. problem solved. how many of us carry a knife in our boat? I do now, always.
I had my hand sandwiched between a boat and a hungry zombie while on a booty search, managed to cut it off with a kershaw I had. Lost that knife hand senselessly then, but I would like to get another when fiances permit.
Yeah, same thing happened to me. Small world
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Back in the day, I had to cut myself out of parachute harnesses more than once when stuck in tree tops and once in a power line. I carried several pocket knives in several pockets in addition to issued or 'okay to carry' belt knives. I suscribed to the idea I would be able to get to something sharp no matter how tagled up or disabled I might be if I had several knives. Since I'm still here I guess it worked. You don't forget those because it is 'hairy' using your reserve chute or emergency rope to climb down 30 or more feet out of a @@#$%$#@!! tree that should have moved out of the way.
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I can't think of many times where my knife actually saved a life but they sure are handy to have when you do need them. I always carry a knife no matter where I am from the time I wake up to the time I lay in bed.
Last week I did have a sort of a dire situation though. We got a puppy named Maddy about 3 months ago, a 3/4 German Shephard and 1/4 Australian Shephard who is about 5 months old now. We keep two small recycling bins in a pantry by our kitchen with all of our paper, glass, plastics etc... Whenever we open it up Maddy runs in and steals something and plays with it like a chew toy trying to keep it away from us, its sort of her game. Anyway she took an emptied topless 5 lb. tub of protein and was playing with it in the living room. I was there watching TV or something letting her play with it not really thinking about it when she stuck her head completely inside it and got it stuck.
I thought it was super funny because she was walking around bumping into the couch and stuff. I called my roomate down to check it out and we were both standing there watching and laughing when all of a sudden it hit me. "Shoot she can't breathe inside there!" The opening was just large enough for here slender head and ears to slide inside but once it got passed her ears it was locked in and her thick fur was making a seal around the opening not allowing any oxygen to enter. Within about a second I came to the realization and said, in a much more graphic manner "She's suffocating!". We instantly went to work trying to get the tub off of her head, meanwhile she's starting to feel the full effects of suffocation and is freaking out making it much harder for us. I came to the conclusion that we would have to cut the tub off but I didn't want to do it with my knife because I would have to get the blade right next to her neck to cut from the opening down. I instantly pulled out my Burke Production Rockstar from my pocket, grabbed the tub, with her head inside, and carefully yet quickly poked a hole in the end to create some airflow. At that second, Maddy gave one last big tug and pulled her head out of the tub as I held it.
She was huffing and puffing like crazy when she was finally freed and was hella wierded out. She was and is fine but it was a pretty scary experience.
If I hadn't had a knife on me I don't know what I would have done, the scissors were like 10 feet away behind the couch and even if I had them, it would be very hard to penetrate the hard plastic to make an air hole. Also, my room mate was just about to go to bed so he didn't have the small slipjoint that he usually carries. Just goes to show that even though you may never use a knife to assist you in any kind of emergency, they are invaluable if you ever do find yourself in such a situation.
Last week I did have a sort of a dire situation though. We got a puppy named Maddy about 3 months ago, a 3/4 German Shephard and 1/4 Australian Shephard who is about 5 months old now. We keep two small recycling bins in a pantry by our kitchen with all of our paper, glass, plastics etc... Whenever we open it up Maddy runs in and steals something and plays with it like a chew toy trying to keep it away from us, its sort of her game. Anyway she took an emptied topless 5 lb. tub of protein and was playing with it in the living room. I was there watching TV or something letting her play with it not really thinking about it when she stuck her head completely inside it and got it stuck.
I thought it was super funny because she was walking around bumping into the couch and stuff. I called my roomate down to check it out and we were both standing there watching and laughing when all of a sudden it hit me. "Shoot she can't breathe inside there!" The opening was just large enough for here slender head and ears to slide inside but once it got passed her ears it was locked in and her thick fur was making a seal around the opening not allowing any oxygen to enter. Within about a second I came to the realization and said, in a much more graphic manner "She's suffocating!". We instantly went to work trying to get the tub off of her head, meanwhile she's starting to feel the full effects of suffocation and is freaking out making it much harder for us. I came to the conclusion that we would have to cut the tub off but I didn't want to do it with my knife because I would have to get the blade right next to her neck to cut from the opening down. I instantly pulled out my Burke Production Rockstar from my pocket, grabbed the tub, with her head inside, and carefully yet quickly poked a hole in the end to create some airflow. At that second, Maddy gave one last big tug and pulled her head out of the tub as I held it.
She was huffing and puffing like crazy when she was finally freed and was hella wierded out. She was and is fine but it was a pretty scary experience.
If I hadn't had a knife on me I don't know what I would have done, the scissors were like 10 feet away behind the couch and even if I had them, it would be very hard to penetrate the hard plastic to make an air hole. Also, my room mate was just about to go to bed so he didn't have the small slipjoint that he usually carries. Just goes to show that even though you may never use a knife to assist you in any kind of emergency, they are invaluable if you ever do find yourself in such a situation.
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I use knives to get my food when out of the civilization, for example killing a sausage or opening a PE bag with instant noodles
I have one true survival story, too:
I was taking a nice stroll with my GF last autumn outside the town, and we saw a few walnut trees standing in the middle of some bushes. GF wanted to pick some walnuts, so we headed there and while aproaching the trees, a sudden wind blow threw thorned rods of a wild rose bush at me. The thorns stuck to my jacket so that I couldn't get them off, they literally embraced me.
I pulled out my Benchmade Vex folder and cut the rods off to free myself. Due to the wind there was really no chance of unwinding the rods off me without the need to cutting them, they were after me like a giant thorned freaking mad man-eating hungry octopuss
Of course, once I had to cut and whittle a branch to support my tent when the plastic composite tent pole snapped...
I also do some minor field surgeries with my knives, like excising a wood splinter or said thorns out of just anyone who needs it and has the courage
I have one true survival story, too:
I was taking a nice stroll with my GF last autumn outside the town, and we saw a few walnut trees standing in the middle of some bushes. GF wanted to pick some walnuts, so we headed there and while aproaching the trees, a sudden wind blow threw thorned rods of a wild rose bush at me. The thorns stuck to my jacket so that I couldn't get them off, they literally embraced me.
I pulled out my Benchmade Vex folder and cut the rods off to free myself. Due to the wind there was really no chance of unwinding the rods off me without the need to cutting them, they were after me like a giant thorned freaking mad man-eating hungry octopuss
Of course, once I had to cut and whittle a branch to support my tent when the plastic composite tent pole snapped...
I also do some minor field surgeries with my knives, like excising a wood splinter or said thorns out of just anyone who needs it and has the courage
After the hurricanes here 5 yrs ago I had to help the cable guys fix the cable in my neighborhood, they were new guys from out of town and didn't know the system. They were having a hard time figuring it out and I was watching. I got in the pedistal looking around and figured out the loose connection in the tap ans whipped out my Buck112 and fixed it up. Majic! The cable is back on..
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Once went for a hike after a very windy storm the night before. The wind knocked down a tree over the trail and there really wasn't an easy way around it. A few minutes later, thanks to my Fallkniven S1, I had a nice tunnel through the tree and was able to continue the hike.
Knives have become of utmost importance in my life because of all of the situations they have gotten me out of (and have gotten me INTO a couple of situations, too, involving authorities).
When climbing I've used a knife dozens of times to cut away old anchors. I've also cut a tangled haul line when big wall climbing. And once I had to cut my rappel line that got horribly tangled in high winds. To me a serrated blade is essential for climbing so that you can cut nylon quickly and one handed, and in a tight corner, chimney, etc. you can saw through rope even if space is limited.
I've used my knife to cut branches for shelter, insulation and firewood during unplanned bivies.
I've also used a knife to defend myself when overseas and Americans were seen as the enemy.
People who know me well don't understand my interest in knives, but that's because they haven't been in dire situations. To me there is no tool more versatile or more important.
When climbing I've used a knife dozens of times to cut away old anchors. I've also cut a tangled haul line when big wall climbing. And once I had to cut my rappel line that got horribly tangled in high winds. To me a serrated blade is essential for climbing so that you can cut nylon quickly and one handed, and in a tight corner, chimney, etc. you can saw through rope even if space is limited.
I've used my knife to cut branches for shelter, insulation and firewood during unplanned bivies.
I've also used a knife to defend myself when overseas and Americans were seen as the enemy.
People who know me well don't understand my interest in knives, but that's because they haven't been in dire situations. To me there is no tool more versatile or more important.