Have you really used your "Survival Knife"?

[Colin Thompson]

With all of the recent survival threads, one question continually pops into my mind. Have all of the folks posting their recommendations on survival knives actually used these blades in the field? FWIW, my favorite tried and true survival blades are a Mad Dog ATAK and HI Ang Kohla. Forgive me if this post seems brash. I am just trying to separate the cyber talkers from the doers.

 

[Gunner]

Hey man, I know what you mean! Its hard to tell who is a talker and who is a doer. Well here is my SURVIVAL KNIFE story. It was last summer working as a wilderness guide in maine. We (myself and 11 others) were canoeing and camping down through the water ways. One night while preparing the evening fire our axe handle broke and left us only with saws, which are useless for splitting wood. So i pulled out my USMC Ka-Bar and split all the wood and did so for several days. The knife took minor damage, the finished wore off some and the razor edge was lost. The edge wasnt hard to fix but the finish never was the same. But hey it chopped the wood that cooked our meals so not a bad trade really eh! There thats it nothing to glamourous but it stuck in my mind and caused me to get the next generation and try that one too. Its awesome as well.

[This message has been edited by Gunner (edited 21 August 1999).]

 

[Snickersnee]

All my knives, including the Project 1 that I currently own, see much use as a survival tool during multi-week long hunting and "communion with nature" trips that I once made quite frequently but unfortunately have less and less time for recently what with work and school and all...

Anyway, they are used to kill game, fashion shelters and weapons, prepare food, you name it. Both my tools and techniques are thoroughly tested and have withstood extended periods in the field. I am not famous, I don't have a website, video, or take yuppies camping in exotic locals, but I am quite definately in the "doer" camp.

That said, there's always room to improve, and I always strive to do so.

 

[tknife]

I use my survival knife all the time when I'm out stomping around. I have not been in a true "survival" situation where I would have died without my knife. But it's VERY reassuring to have.

 

[RadarMan]

I have "really used a survival knife" but I can't say that my life depended on it. Although, had it, I would have survived by the knife.
In my years BC (before children, vise AD... after dependents) I would spend upto 5 days out on the water fishing and running nets in the Pamlico Sound. We would launch a 16 foot aluminum vee hull with a 25hp (not a skiff but it worked) at Ceder Island and live on a small abandon island locally known as Harbor Island (replete with haunt stories). Our main tools and appliances were USMC kabars. My fishing mentor was a retired USMC 1stSgt (known at the local docks as "rambo"). He taught me the many uses of this knife. The Ka-Bar opened many oysters and scallops, cleared the nets of crabs, shark, and other undesirables, flounder giged, chopped oak pallets into kindling, hammered other Kabars into cans and such to pry them open, hammered nails........ the list goes on. I do not remember a kabar failing us on the water. For the price we could just retire a knife after a hard trip if we didn't feel like reconditioning it.
The kabars served us well. At that time I never new about some of the over priced sharp pry bars on the market, I was just blindly following a retired force recon 1stSgt with 2 tours and boat-load of knowledge.




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&gt-RadarMan-(< age:38

He who thinks by the inch and talks by the yard gets moved by the foot.. Vermont Proverb