Knives of the pro's

DocGP said:
The Huaodani that we stayed with in the Amazon almost universally used a machete. Many carried smaller knives, but all had a machete.

I consider them experts as they live it 24/7. BUT, that is jungle.

Doc
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What style/type of smaller knives did they carry? This type of info fascinates me as much as what the survival experts carry.
 
Carolina River Rat is in no way, shape, or form an expert on anything except good beer and half-arsed carpentry, but I've heard he's been carrying the Condor Nessmuk and Vic Farmer lately and loves both of them.
 
This has been a good read overall.. the patterns are predictable in that military guys seem to prefer blades similar to what they where trained to use.. and no military guys seem to trend more towards the knives that there training utilized.. but in reality if a chick can sing opera does it matter if she's fat?? not as long as she can hit the notes it don't...and that's the real message here...these guys chose what they chose because it worked for them and they could do the things they needed to do with it, and learned to work with any particular knives various compromises.. and there is only one way to do that.. and its not in front of a keyboard.. WIsh it was though, cause I;d be a heck of a better bushman....
The fact is any one of us could be a canterbury, a lundin, a stroud, or a mears...but it takes sacrifices the least of whcih is the money laid out for a blade.. the biigest sacrifice is the time one needs to invest to acquire the knowledge and own the skill... any knife can be bought.. but it doesn;t make a better woodsman.. only knowledge and skill do that and they are hard earned.
 
I'm not an expert, but am former military (and was NOT a paper shuffler....) and 'big' knives made sense for lotsa tasks.

Then basic surival training came about and in some ways debunked the 'need' for a large blade. I've seen other SERE instructors who carried large knives some favored medium sized. ALL got the job done. Personally i've come full-circle, but have added a second smaller blade outta convenience.

What one pro chooses on a given day is more likely about what the mission will require - environment, etc.

I was taught something about perspective once; its important to remember that carpenters build houses, not hammers. No matter how expensive the hammer is, there are some folks who simply cannot put up a even a simple wall never mind setting trusses or putting doors/windows in.

Same goes with 'survival' gear.... not to say an expensive blade may perform certain tasks 'better', if someone doesn't have a good skill level it simply won't matter.

Pro's get bored with things too and if they can generate some small bit of revenue testing/prototyping some gear - more power to 'em. Its not like these guys are getting rich off teaching survival skills.
 
I'm no expert, I just love what I do and do it as often as I can like the rest of us here. Blade choice and skill set go hand in hand. Environment also dictates what you need. Here (Central Brazil) you can't function without a machete and every trip to the bush is a lesson in machete skills. It's also a lesson in machete deficiencies which is why I always take a small fixed blade of some type usually my Livesay NRGS necker or a scandi bushcrafter type knife.

IMO the expert is the guy I'm watching and learning something new from. I may or may not decide to use his tools. Most likely I'll adapt his methods to those I already have. Mac
 
Nicely said mac..ALthough some might argue with you on the "you're no expert thing"
I think your a topshelf outdoorsman brother... Thanks for chiming in.
 
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