"Military gear is generally designed to do the job efficiently and be sturdy and reliable, but the job a piece of gear is designed for may be very different that what an ordinary person might use it for. Also, govts may have other design criteria that have nothing to do with utility, such as ease of manufacturing and cost savings."
Don't think, for a second that Commercial Producers don't use the same criteria. remember, they are in business to make money FIRST and FOREMOST. Ease of manufacturing and Cost Savings are the primary concerns of any business. That goes for knives, hatchets, packs, and titanium encrusted widgets.
The military has a final gross weight they MUST adhere to. Everything is designed to that weight. The lgihter the other gear, the more beans and bullets the soldier can carry. So the military is very concerned with "Pack to Weight Carrying" Ratio. (I just made up that term, but you guys know what I mean).
Carry is not "hold". Carry is comfort, durability, useability and ability to take beating all rolled into one. I've used commercial packs, military packs, and even packs I've fashioned from sticks and a shirt with the neck tied closed.
They all have their merits, although the only positive I can give the "Shirt and stick" pack is that it was better than nothing, and even that was debatable.
It was nice to veer a bit during this thread, but, saving a pound to carry another pound is a matter of personal decision making. If our mate Tikirocker shed his Alice pack, and got a 7lb pack, I'd bet he still wouldn't hitch on even a 12 oz. hatchet, though he would have the "bandwidth" to do so.
He would take the weight reduction as a savings, and put it in "the bank",
or already has another need, a necessity, a deficit he has discovered previously, to fit into that bandwidth he created. Well that' my guess, not speaking for him, but following what he has been conveying.
The ex-hiker in me hasn't died.
But he
could entertain bringing along that single Foster's Lager.
We should certainly start a Pack thread, and go over all of this and more, it's good stuff.
What I read initially was that some folks like carrying hatchets due to their utility, not that they had saved so much weight from other equipment they could afford to carry one, that's like saying it's not a necessity, but since you found a way to shave off another pound, you'll bring it along anyway.
And by no means do i think anyone is saying that.
Whether it be Bug Out, Hiking, Survival or whatever, it boils down to necessity. What is necessary?
Water (bringing or finding) is a necessity.
Starting fire is probably considered a necessity, most times.
Shelter, Food, etc.
I'd bet that each and every one of us would have a different idea of "necessity" after we had humped our gear for 10, 20, or 30 days straight.
I have watched people try to pawn off good serviceable gear on their fellow hikers, once they realized it was slowly dragging them down.
Personally, for wilderness survival, a knife with some heft or a machete is a necessity for me. For pure hiking, travellign ponit A to Point B, maybe not even. But also, For me, a hatchet or hand axe is definitely not.
If someone is saying the hatchet is a necessity, and the Big fixed blade is not, then, I say, "Carry that hatchet!"
(just don't swing it at me) Let's bury it, instead.
This
is a great thread.
