If you had to take one knife to war

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Busse hell razor and victorinox field master.....would be hard to leave my xm18 and RMJ shrike though
 
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ESEE 5 would be a lot of load weight at a pound. I think I would go with a Cold Steel SRK at half the weight and get the blade that is more resistant to corrosion. Most people will use their knives to open MRE's anyway. Maybe a SAK Farmer or One handed Trekker in the pocket.
 
Blade master said:
If you had to take 1 folder and 1 fixed blade knife to war what would it be ;)
I would pick a cold steel gurkha kukri
And a cold steel xl espada
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Buck 110 for the folding knife. I carry this Buck knife all of the time now! I know this knife. I feel comfortable with it even if it is a heavier knife compared to OTHER smaller folding knives.

I already have and carry a Buck Ranger Skinner fixed blade knife on and off in the woods/wilderness and when I camp. I know this knife and I feel comfortable with it! I would not hesitate taking this knife with me.

Side note:

I am used to the fixed blade knives below and they fit me well even though I have smaller hands. They are here in the house now. I can't suggest some other knives that I do not know or have not handled several or many times.

Buck Vanguard knife.

Tops Cougar Claw knife.

Cold Steel Canadian Belt knife.

D.H. Russell Canadian Belt Knife - the original design by Grohmann and Russell.

~~~

I LIKE this one below very much but I have not handled it yet.

D.H. Russell
Boat Knife, Canadian Armed Forces or Yachtsman Design.

~~~

There are some survival knives that are heavier here at home including an older Vietnam - NY Camillus knife but they do not fit my hands well. One other one is really nice but it is too big for me and it makes me feel awkward holding it.

I would rather handle the camp axe, hatchet and tomahawk that I own than those knives. Why? Because they FIT my hands and I am used to them. Estwing, Sog and Fiskars are the brand names. I would NOT be hauling them with me to war plus some heavy military pack even if those axes are not super heavy like the ones that my late husband and I used when we were much, much younger!

Old Lady Cate
 
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Mora companion and zt 0350. Mora is tough enough for a wide variety of tasks cheap to replace and light to boot. And the zt is a great beater folder
 
Blade master said:
If you had to take 1 folder and 1 fixed blade knife to war what would it be ;)
I would pick a cold steel gurkha kukri
And a cold steel xl espada
Click to expand...

1380697092809.jpg



I would like to take swiss pocket knife/multitool and one of those fixed blades.

lL0Pgny.jpg
 
A good bud of mine is a three tour veteran of Vietnam, he was Special Forces when it required a College Degree to be Special Forces. He carried this commercial Kabar made knife. It is light and thin, and he said the reason he carried it was because he could slice the bread inside the C ration cans. The pommel has fallen off and been lost.







Some might recognize this very rare covert ops knife he brought back. Regardless of the lethality of the thing, bud was not impressed. The first one he had, the tip broke chopping saw grass. Not a single manufacturer or point of origin mark on the knife, and this was for a reason.




Bud made a comment that a Randall was carried by virtually every Infantry Officer. For the early 60's Randalls were advanced designs and stouter than the average commercial knife.

I have had time to talk knives with several guys who have deployed, most recently another Special Operations type who was over in the Middle East. Generally Soldiers buy what is in the PX, and bud said he wanted a “throw away” knife. That is something such that the loss of it is not financially crushing. He did get blown up, gear was missing when he was emergency evacuated. He missed the loss of his Aladdin thermos more than anything else. Bud told me that he wanted a steel he could sharpen with a small three inch stone as that was all that was available. Super steels that dull in theater are of no use if they can’t easily be re sharpened.

With all of my military friends I have the very distinct idea that guns are for killing and knives are cutting tools. Anyone thinking that they are going to slay dragons with Vorpal swords http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorpal_sword have missed out on a couple of centuries of military technology.

I would take a Swiss Army knife and something light, short, less that $100.00 and carbon steel. I guess I could live with AUS 8.
 
helobite said:
A good bud of mine is a three tour veteran of Vietnam, he was Special Forces when it required a College Degree to be Special Forces. He carried this commercial Kabar made knife. It is light and thin, and he said the reason he carried it was because he could slice the bread inside the C ration cans. The pommel has fallen off and been lost.







Some might recognize this very rare covert ops knife he brought back. Regardless of the lethality of the thing, bud was not impressed. The first one he had, the tip broke chopping saw grass. Not a single manufacturer or point of origin mark on the knife, and this was for a reason.




Bud made a comment that a Randall was carried by virtually every Infantry Officer. For the early 60's Randalls were advanced designs and stouter than the average commercial knife.

I have had time to talk knives with several guys who have deployed, most recently another Special Operations type who was over in the Middle East. Generally Soldiers buy what is in the PX, and bud said he wanted a “throw away” knife. That is something such that the loss of it is not financially crushing. He did get blown up, gear was missing when he was emergency evacuated. He missed the loss of his Aladdin thermos more than anything else. Bud told me that he wanted a steel he could sharpen with a small three inch stone as that was all that was available. Super steels that dull in theater are of no use if they can’t easily be re sharpened.

With all of my military friends I have the very distinct idea that guns are for killing and knives are cutting tools. Anyone thinking that they are going to slay dragons with Vorpal swords http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorpal_sword have missed out on a couple of centuries of military technology.

I would take a Swiss Army knife and something light, short, less that $100.00 and carbon steel. I guess I could live with AUS 8.
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Excellent advice sir, and I couldn't agree more. Guns do the warfare and knives just open stuff.
Thank you very much for posting the pictures of your friend Bud's knives. I love the looks of them! So much history in those blades. :thumbup:
 
I would take my cold steel ti lite as that thing was AMAZING for me my first tour in Iraq, and I would replace the Ka-Bar with one of Storm Crow's Benghazi Warfighter.
 
So, this is dreamland and I get to pick?

Fixed blade- What ever they issue.

Folder-Benchmade Adamas

Real life: I carried a CRKT Prowler or a M16-02 most of the time. Liked the Prowler better. Now days I would grab a Leatherman Wave or a Griptillian of some sort. Maybe the Prowler again.
 
Folding: Camillus "Demo" knife/Camp knife/Scout knife or a good copy thereof, such as a Marbles.
Fixed blade: Probably my Cold Steel Bushman, since it can be used as a spear head, and I cannot afford an Ontario Pilot Survival Knife or a Ka-Bar Marine/Army fighting knife.
 
I think it is amusing that we look down on anyone who would want to take a larger fixed blade into 'combat'.

The OP mentioned a Ghurka Khukri.......and we mock him.


But hell, a large Khukri of about that size has been issued to some of the best professional soldiers for generations. People who used them in combat, and to great effect.


We tend to scoff these days, especially in the era of armored personal carriers, and fixed defensive positions, where soldiers are not sleeping rough, not holding positions in trenches in the woods.

I understand not carrying an additional 1.5 lb knife when you are carrying 50+ lbs of gear, and jumping in and out of vehicles many times daily.

I know a few people who still carry hawks and a fixed blade.

I think the days of trudging through the woods, and building bunkers with wood and a shovel to fill sandbags it probably not on many modern soldiers minds as much, but that could change depending on where the next war is fought.

a 12 bladed chopper may not make sense in the desert.



If I had to pick, I would take something the size of a Busse Ash1 (6 inch blade, heavy duty enough to pry), or maybe one of the earlier Arragon Assault (trench knife. so no real utility, it is a fighting/trench knife), and a smaller fixed blade too.

But if I thought I might have to use a knife for cutting some one, a person could do worse than 12 inches of curved sharp steel!



I don't have to go to war, so it is a moot point for me.


When my cousin deployed to Afghanistan, he went with a Busse Satin Jack (no choil), with a sheath by David Brown. He rode .50 cal on convoy guard, and never fired his rifle, or the .50 in combat. They took mortar fire, and direct fire frequently, but he was never given weapons free (he was Marine MP).

He did say they used small/midsized fixed blade got used all the time for opening crates, etc.

I'd hate to be in a position where I had to use a knife in combat for offense (it would likely mean something went very wrong, or I ran out of ammo!).
 
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An AR15 armorers tool. If I'm in a war, I don’t give a damn about a blade. I want something to keep my rifle going.
 
1. I joined Special Forces in 1964 and spent 24 of my 30 years in the U.S. Army in Special Forces (Four tours in RVN). To the best of my knowledge you NEVER had to have a College degree to join, even Officers. As far as what knife to take IMO it depends a lot on where you are going. If you are going to the jungle you may want a large chopper, but what purpose would it serve in the desert? I almost always had a Demo knife, until their back springs started to break all the time and went to a SAK, as in those days we still had C-Rations and a can opener was nice to have, and I used those two knives more than any others, just carried a Demo knife in Ranger School. I also carried a Ben Hibben Jungle Fighter and later a Randall 14 (for 21 years) and in SE Asia I would have a Parang i got at the British Army Jungle warfare School on the side of my ALICE Ruck, but admit I did not use it often. Look what AO you are going to, what the terrain is like,think about your mission, and make your decision then. John
 
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