I trust these knives !!!

After re-reading most of the responses here, I really do think we are all on the "same sheet of music"...that being, we use what we are most comfortable with, and know how to use. Is it "right" for someone to use a big blade, and others are "wrong" for not using one...or vice versa? Don't think so. Do we all use our smaller knives more than our bigger ones for normal, everyday tasks in the woods and fields? Yep, I would say so! Is it "wrong" to use a heavy bladed Bowie or bolo (or whatever) to chop and split wood? No. Is it "wrong" for someone to baton wood chunks into smaller, more readily-usable pieces? No.

So, what we're actually talking about here are PREFERENCES. If you look around, you can find TONS of articles written by any number of woods-wise folks about the cutlery they use. I know, I've done it! They use and/or recommend everything from Moras (Mors Kochanski) to the latest and greatest big choppers from T.O.P.S. (Dr. Ron Hood). And they are ALL "right!" Because they have taken the time to learn the skills to properly utilize their chosen edged tools!

Anyway, that's my $0.02 worth!

Ron
 
allenC said:
Man! That's really reaching for a senario.:rolleyes:

Even so, Getting a fire going is less important than getting out of the wet clothes and in to some warm dry one.
You did pack dry clothes and a sleeping-bag in a water-proof bag when you chose to canoe down a freezing river, right???


But what the heck, I'll play along....


Okay, you climb out of the river and attempt to split a log....

Now you're standing beside a freezing river, many many miles from civilization, holding the handle of your now broken knife.
The blade is now embedded 1/2 way through a piece of frozen timber....and you still have no fire. :(

Now you're thinking "Man! I sure wish that I had not broken my knife trying to split this frozen lumber".
Click to expand...


Exactly:thumbup: That's why you should carry a knife you can trust !!!:D
 
Ron53 said:
After re-reading most of the responses here, I really do think we are all on the "same sheet of music"...that being, we use what we are most comfortable with, and know how to use. Is it "right" for someone to use a big blade, and others are "wrong" for not using one...or vice versa? Don't think so. Do we all use our smaller knives more than our bigger ones for normal, everyday tasks in the woods and fields? Yep, I would say so! Is it "wrong" to use a heavy bladed Bowie or bolo (or whatever) to chop and split wood? No. Is it "wrong" for someone to baton wood chunks into smaller, more readily-usable pieces? No.

So, what we're actually talking about here are PREFERENCES. If you look around, you can find TONS of articles written by any number of woods-wise folks about the cutlery they use. I know, I've done it! They use and/or recommend everything from Moras (Mors Kochanski) to the latest and greatest big choppers from T.O.P.S. (Dr. Ron Hood). And they are ALL "right!" Because they have taken the time to learn the skills to properly utilize their chosen edged tools!

Anyway, that's my $0.02 worth!

Ron
Click to expand...

This is not a dig at you Ron it's just something I meant to ask earlier and you just reminded me....

If Mors Kochanski thought so highly of the Mora, why did he have it beefed up on the Skookum Bush Tool ?:confused:
 
This comes back to wits. How are you going to split a frozen log with any knife? What good would it do you to split a frozen log? How are you going to light a frozen log? Last but not least I guess is what do you consider a log?

I must add in this case, you deserve breaking your knife.
 
allenC said:
"....but sometimes we do not always have the correct tool for the job."

In a real "I just might die out here" survival situation, why would anyone risk breaking their only knife by doing something that knives were never intended to do?

Sure your knife might split a log....it might split 100 logs....but log number 101 might just break your knife.
In my opinion, in a real survival situation, a knife is just too valuable to treat it so carelessly.


And I can't think of a single survival situation that would demand that you push any knife, even a folder, beyond its limit.
Click to expand...


A clever man might own a blade that can do whatever a clever man wants to do with it and not worry about breaking thus tool.

A not so clever man who assumes his own or his gears limits may suffer.

Skam
 
Scrapyard Knife Co. Scrapper 6 has never let me down and I have abused it thoroughly. It is always my first go to knife. I have others that are prettier and more expensive, but the S6 is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest blades crafted by human hands. Come hell fire and high water, I would choose my S6 over probably any other knife I have ever encountered. The only improvement I could even imagine would be to have one made of Infi steel.
 
pitdog,

That was actually done by knifemaker Rod Garcia who was a student of Mors' in one of his classes. After seeing the new knife, Mors liked it a lot. It's still a smallish, scandi-ground knife, albeit with a stiffer blade than a standard Mora, and not what many here would consider a "chopper." I know I certainly wouldn't feel "underknifed" if the Skookum was the only blade I had on a wilderness trip! On a side note, Mors doesn't like using folders in the woods, according to some articles I have read.

Here's a link to Rod Garcia's site, with specs for the Skookum Bush Tool: http://www.skookumbushtool.com/

My point is that many different survival instructors and outdoorsmen/women have many different "takes" on what is an essential edged tool for them. I know that my selection will vary depending on where I'm going and what I'm doing. Do I trust the knives that I select for these times? Yes, or I wouldn't take them along. But I select them because I am comfortable with the fact that they will come through for me in a pinch, should I need them to. I have been afforded the opportunity to be in "survival" conditions due to the track my military career took, while I was still on active duty. And since, in my line of work, my choices in cutlery have been influenced by the environment I have found myself in. If you go back a page or so and read my reply there, you can see some of the various combinations I have used in the past three decades.

What is interesting, is when I attended Air Force Survival School several decades ago, the cutlery choices of the instructors at that time were a "fat" Swiss Army Knife with a wide combination of tools (the "Champion" was the most popular) and a bolo knife with about an 8" blade. All the bolos had been procured by the instructors while attending jungle survival in the Philippines.

Now, after having said all of that, if I am asked personally about the knives I would take into the woods and fields, they would be the Fallkniven F1 blade blank that I handled in olive green canvas micarta, in a nice, deep leather pouch sheath, my Vic Farmer SAK, and probably a VIC Ranger SAK.

Ron
 
skammer said:
A clever man might own a blade that can do whatever a clever man wants to do with it and not worry about breaking thus tool.
Click to expand...
Well, I understand what you're saying, but the hard cold truth of the matter is this:

Such a blade does not exist.


I challenge you to show me a blade that can't be broken.
 
Ron53 said:
pitdog,


Now, after having said all of that, if I am asked personally about the knives I would take into the woods and fields, they would be the Fallkniven F1 blade blank that I handled in olive green canvas micarta, in a nice, deep leather pouch sheath, my Vic Farmer SAK, and probably a VIC Ranger SAK.

Ron
Click to expand...


Good choice Ron I think that most here would also trust a Fallkniven F1 !!!:thumbup:
 
allenC said:
Well, I understand what you're saying, but the hard cold truth of the matter is this:

Such a blade does not exist.


I challenge you to show me a blade that can't be broken.
Click to expand...

True but some come very close and it these that this post was about !!!

If a ScrapYard Scrapper 6 can stand up to all what Noss on Knifetests put it through, such as battoning it through wood with a hammer and stabbing it through sheet steel, then there is a good chance that it would survive what we could put it through abusing it in a forest etc !!!

I have quoted the S6 but many knives he tested amazed me with what they stood up to.
And before anyone quotes the knifemaker who said he could make a low Rockwell blade that would stand up to everything Noss does, these blades aren't low Rockwell they are good solid users !
 
Good point, you can come close but there is no 100 percent. If you have a knife that you use all the time be it a Busse or a Mora Carbon Clipper, you build a trust in that knife and you know what it will do and what YOU can do with it. Thats where trusting a tool with your survival comes from.

When I go out I always have a Kershaw Blackout or Buck 110. I always have a SAK. I almost alway have a Mora Sheath knife or the SOG Northwest Ranger. I always have a Hatchet on or with me if I when I venture OFF ROAD. If need be, any one of these along with my knowledge of their use have earned my trust. You can't carry a hardware store with you but trusting any one tool is iffy because many situations invovle dropping or loosing your tool rather that having one fail. You will NEVER find me with less that three knives.

Dealing with a injury may be more important that anything in the wilderness. You can't can't on being able to do everything you usually do. Many situations are caused by ordinary activities that go wrong and many occure because you fall or are otherwise impaired.
 
allenC said:
Man! That's really reaching for a senario.:rolleyes:

Even so, Getting a fire going is less important than getting out of the wet clothes and in to some warm dry one.
You did pack dry clothes and a sleeping-bag in a water-proof bag when you chose to canoe down a freezing river, right???


But what the heck, I'll play along....
.
Click to expand...

Can't find the first part of this article but the main part is here anyway on the left hand side of the page.....sh*t does happen !!!
article001-1.jpg
 
Things do happen. A month or so ago I posted a story about my son and I flipping a canoe in a storm on the wrong side of a mountain lake. It was just a day trip from camp and we had no extra cloths or blankets along. We had a knife and I had a zippo lighter and after we and the canoe washed ashore we propped the canoe up and got under it and started a fire which i have no doubt saved at least my bacon as I was already wet before flipping the canoe. The knife was a very old swedish made survival knife which I carried all the time and used to survive a hunting accident which left me alone and hurt over night in 0 degree temps.
 
Boy:eek: this thread took off didn't it! From what I'm reading though it looks like it turned into a flaming session.
 
I prefer to carry a large knife, 7 to 8 inch blade. Is it really necessary, probably not but I feel more at ease knowing I have a knife that could handle hard, heavy duty use if the need arises. Honestly, I usually have a folder, large chopper and a 4" fixed blade on me when I hit the woods.
If I had one knife I would have to say I trust it would be the original Tusker I made when I first started with them.
Scott
 

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I just took these knives off of my person for this picture. I carry these at all times. The Hatchet is in the jeep if I am driving in. On the boat if we are lake camping or on my belt if I am walking off road. The Mora is on my belt about 300 days out of the year. Where I live wearing a sheath knife does not raise an eyebrow. Nor does having a leatherman or Buck 110 sheath. More guys here have them on than those who don't. This is farm and ranch country and hunting and fishing country big time.

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pitdog,

You did notice how thin the blade is on the Skookum Bush Knife, didn't you? It's like 0.3cm. Although it is of good steel, either O-1 or A-2, that's still a rather thin blade. But I'm sure it would work just fine...as I said, I wouldn't feel "underkinfed" with it!

udtjim,

That's a GREAT selection of everyday "usin" cutlery and tools! When I'm home, I live in ranching and hunting country myself, in my part of Texas. Lots of folks (me included) run around with large folders and multiple knives in pockets. I like that!

Ron
 
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