In the Middle of Nowhere

Elen said:
To be perfectly honest, if I was only allowed to take the proper clothes for the season and one other object, that object would not be a knife. I'd rather have a compass
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Ok I am using Elen's message to make one of my points. Nothing personal Elen as your post is one of the better ones .

Proper clothes for the season is sensible but seriously are the clothes going to be enough for survival overnight ? I wouldn't be traveling at night in the dark in unknown country. I would need two snowmobile suits for sleeping outside at -4C assuming I made a bed of dryish material.

In that area of Ontario at this time of year it often gets down to freezing at night. In fact I just checked the weather forecast in that area for the next three days. Tonight it is going down to -4C or 25F , tomorrow will be sunny then the next day has a good chance of showers.

In the boreal forest you don't need a knife to gather wood, YOU USE STANDING DEAD WOOD that you pick , break off and push over by hand an axe helps but the kidnappers took that away from you ;) You don't even need a knife for tinder wood , you are in birch country so you gather peeling bark and use the smallest branches at the ends of dead evergreen limbs . Anyone who has spent time in the bush knows this.

The only thing the knife is for is making a fire by friction kit.
 
probably either a chris reeves one piece or a fall river from BRKT.


carbon steel for sparking.

tough enough to rely on

20 miles a day in land you do not know or have a map of seems a bit unrealistic, 10 a day seems better,
 
Bwilson said:
Without question - swamp rat Ratweiler. A knife that will never fail me, is small enough to use for "normal" tasks, and chops surprisingly well (after I reprofiled it). First time I've ever come across a 7.5" blade that chops like a 9-10" blade. Excellent knife.
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Straight handled steel heart II (Same Shop) for more or less the same reasons. But I prefer the SH if I have to do much chopping, the handle ismore comfortable to me.
 
Pentlatch said:
Proper clothes for the season is sensible but seriously are the clothes going to be enough for survival overnight ? I wouldn't be traveling at night in the dark in unknown country. I would need two snowmobile suits for sleeping outside at -4C assuming I made a bed of dryish material.

In that area of Ontario at this time of year it often gets down to freezing at night. In fact I just checked the weather forecast in that area for the next three days. Tonight it is going down to -4C or 25F , tomorrow will be sunny then the next day has a good chance of showers.
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It depends on how cold it will be and who you are. If you're from the tropic, you're probably not going to love it no matter how you're clothed. If you're from where I live, you're probably not even going to notice the cold. -4 C is pretty comfortable. Try -30 C for not so comfortable. :D Leaves, moss and green branches of conifers can be used for making insulation to protect you from the cold, if you need it. In a coniferous forest finding shelter from the wind should be easy enough.

Quite frankly, I'd find this thing much more of a challenge if it was in the tropic, what with all sorts of lovely poisonous critters and large predatory animals not averse to biting my human flesh.
 
The Wabakimi area is full of lakes, lakes and more lakes. A 3 days walk out would be near imposible. On the larger lakes I'd likely find a fly in fish camp and I would stay there. The kidnappers had to get me there someway. Short of a parachute or the road that they drove in on the lake must be large enough to land a plane on or else if they took a road I could follow it out. If I didn't see a cabin I would build a shelter, stay put and try to signal the numerous bush planes that fly overhead.
My knife - always a Falkniven S1
 
Stryker D said:
The Wabakimi area is full of lakes, lakes and more lakes. A 3 days walk out would be near imposible. On the larger lakes I'd likely find a fly in fish camp and I would stay there. The kidnappers had to get me there someway. Short of a parachute or the road that they drove in on the lake must be large enough to land a plane on or else if they took a road I could follow it out. If I didn't see a cabin I would build a shelter, stay put and try to signal the numerous bush planes that fly overhead.
My knife - always a Falkniven S1
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Can't say I'm familiar with the area, but unless it's an island, walking out shouldn't be all that hard, lakes or no.. Lakes, at least, make very fine landmarks, and waterways generally go somewhere. If this is a park area where people go canoeing, there's bound to be a river or road that people use to move into the area and out of it. Find that, and follow it out. :)

I like lakes. A good source of fresh water, fish, and all sorts of things. And I'm kind of used to them. After all, Finland only has about 190 thousand lakes. :D
 
TWBryan said:
Probably my Benchmade CSK in D2 or one of my HI Khukuri's. Do you get to have stone or ceramic rod to touch up the blade?

TWBryan
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I've been thinking about the knife, does it have even minor chopping ability?
 
Fonly-I haven't done much chopping with it,other than vines (kudzu etc). I like the D2,very aggressive edge and it will retain a good usable edge for some time. Have heard reports that D2 is too brittle for chopping,but kinda wonder if that is dependent on heat treat. For chopping I use a Kukri or hatchet.

HTH

TWBryan
 
I have not been in that part of Canada, but read about
it many years ago. Mostly rock (Canadian Shield) with thin
soil and many lakes and rivers. These lakes, rivers, and
swamps could be a considerable barriers. Hard to avoid.

With no map and not knowing your position, hard to plan
a route. 10 miles a day might be optimistic, because many
detours could be needed; going through water features
is possible, but it would be slow, risky, and cold.

So considering this, staying put, and signaling or waiting
for rescue, might be best.

Cabin = Bonanza. Trash piles are good too.
I like the "finding a cabin" idea, but am not confident that a
hunting party will show up. Do they show up and hunt for
moose, and if so when. Maybe the season is over, or a month
away. A Transitional Season could mean no visitors.

If you find a cabin, and thus some fire making and other
gear, you may decide to walk/swim/paddle out, NOW.
If you wait for a 18 inch snow, it will be too late to walk.
Can you build skis and a toboggan?

Go or Stay, I find no easy answer here.

BTW, rivers do not necessarily flow to a desirable place.
Some rivers look like lakes, and some lakes have a gentle currant.
Some "land" is just a bog or a beaver pond with some willows
that disguise the water.

Knife: 9 inch, straight blade, 1/4 inch thick, good for splitting.
Splitting is needed for making boards. Splitting for dry wood, also.
 
In the Boreal forest, shelter and firewood are going to be two keys to surviving. I would want to take a larger knife that holds an edge.

Sounds like my Swamprat Battlerat would fit the bill.
 
I have used my Becker BK-7 the most. I would probably choose it because I am comfortable with it and I have it reprofiled how I like.
 
I guess I'd take my DM as it is what I carry all the time anyway. It's tough enough to batton through the toughest wood yet small enough for finer finer tasks !!!

MtWork040.jpg
 
I think I'd pick my Bark River Northstar. I could admire the curly maple handle as I lie slowly dying of exposure.:p Okay, seriously I think it is robust enough for hard use but small enough for me to craft other implements and things, and being carbon, I could try striking sparks.

However, a very good point was made early on about a multitool being handy for modifying any trash found along the way. I'd be happy with a Vic Swisstool as well.
 
SAK Rucksack or my mora. Although If I could only take one item I'd prefer a roll of trash bags a la Ron Hood.
 
If it has to be a knife, my Swamp Rat Gen 2 Howling Rat would probably be the best choice when it come to my meager assortment of wilderness and survival type knives.

Are you sure the kidnappers didn't drop me off with a sat phone, a GPS, and a handfull of extra batteries?
 
I think a three day walkout is totally, totally unrealistic. And I have done 30+ km daily for days at a stretch with heavy gear in bad weather.

If you are not on a trail, unsure of where you are going, and cold and hungry, I think it's much more realistic to figure on 5 km a day and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

In the event of a major snowfall that could be cut down to 1 km a day, no joke. I am bigger and stronger than most people and I do heavy physical work day in and day out, and I have a lot of experience in major trekking expeditions, and I have had 1 km days in heavy snow.

Anyway there are two ways to go for a knife in this kind of situation - a big chopper to replace the obviously more effective axe, or a slicer and hope that good slicing ability is enough to let you get away without chopping anything.

I would be pretty annoyed to be without an axe in this situation, but without an axe, I could go either way on chopper/slicer. A big chopper of any sort would be good in some ways, and a smaller 4" slicer could do you a lot of good as well.

Right now I wouldn't expect severe cold, so I would be thinking small fires would probably do you, making the sacrifices you make to get a good chopping knife probably not worthwhile. If it's only five or ten below big fires are not TOO necessary - although at those temps I find the weather is often much windier, so it could be a bit of a toss up.

Still, I think I would lean towards a slicing knife.
 
misanthropist said:
Still, I think I would lean towards a slicing knife.
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Your post made sense to me until your last sentence.
This is not an EDC for hiking, this is known survival situation.

Why would you want a slicer? Why would you not prefer
a more robust American semi-pry-bar, or a Leuku, or a kukri.
The additional strength and length of these would be useful
for wood-working chores.

I would be afraid that a slicer would break.
 
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