Knives Used By SEALs (member Qs)

jdm61 said:
I was around some of these whacky guys in the late 70's and early 80's. I do remember that the knife selection at one store in Fayetteville, Cumberland Knife and Gun Works, was better than what you see today, but the same thing could be said of say Ranger Joes at Benning back in the early 80's. I remember Cumberland having a pretty big selection of Randalls along with the more typical Gerbers, Bucks, etc. They probably had a different customer base than some of the other Randall dealers like The Acorn in Gatlinburg or Stoddards in Boston. The "specialty" knives we know so well today like Al Mar, SOG, Pacific/Benchmade, Syderco, Cold Steel, etc started showing up in quantity a bit later IIRC. First place I remember seeing a case full of Al Mar stuff was in the early to mid 80's at Tamiami Gun Shop in Miami. I asked a family friend who was in Vietnam with SF what they carried. IIRC, he said the Buck fixed blade (119?)was popular because it was stainless.
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Ranger Joes was like heaven when I lived there in the nineties (parents were active duty).
 
Quiet said:
Well, keep in mind that even though our special forces guys are some of our best warriors, they don't get paid a whole lot. So, the odds are probably low that a SEAL or Delta guy is going to spend $500-$1,000 for a knife when he may have a family at home while he's on deployment.
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That's pretty much their attitude.
 
I work around a lot of military retirees and while not specialists operator types most of them like a lot of firemen will see them carrying lots of benchmades, Kershaw, sogs. I work around a lot of Leos and benchmade is the most i see. The only guy around that was actually a Ranger knows nothing of knife quality and will carry those gas station zombie knives. Just my observations.
 
whitty said:
You guys want to talk to a Navy Seal just swing by a knife shop. 2 out of every 5 customers that walk in the door claim to be Navy Seals. I am shocked by how many retired Navy Seals chose my neck of the woods to retireo_O.
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You must live in East Texas...my favorite one (military poser) was a guy I overheard at Bass Pro in Mesquite one time loudly proclaiming how he carried a Sig when he was a "SWCC" and "all the team guys do"...I have to at least give him points for creativity in picking a pretty obscure unit to lie about being part of.

One look at the guy (who was about 23) and clearly the answer was no...
 
BladeScout said:
Assume issue knives with a sprinkling of non-issue knives. The SEAL teams dont seem that interested in knives and why should they be. Its only in the fevered imagination of 'us' knife afis, they 'we' think they should and do care a great deal about knives (because we want them to, dang it).
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The answer seems to be "it depends" and to the best of my knowledge, I covered that topic here:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...fe-in-afganistan.1633785/page-3#post-18672886
 
goldie said:
I cant really see them carrying real high end knives, and in their line of work theres a better chance of the knife getting lost; so I doubt their carrying anything exotic or highly expensive.I know I wouldn't...
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At that level, down to an individual who wants to spend the $, but I would suspect that's rare, but there's a lot of choices between say an issued K Bar and highly expensive, that for example, a team may use some of their budget to get something they feel is a better choice. Anyway, it was just an idea I had if enough people here cared to know, and I don't sense there is. If I remember, I'll ask someone a few Qs on the topic and see what they say.
 
Heh - I always assumed the lightest cheapest one that will get the job done. Don't let the NSN number stuff hold too much sway, it's a bunch of paperwork and lots of suppliers simply won't keep up with the adminstrative garbage of selling to the DOD. It's a tremendous pain in the ass to deal with the NSN, NAICS, Cage codes, FBO and all the other requisite BS.
 
This thread needs pics.

LO-MU TI

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No Seal, but I used to be a boxing instructor for GIGN groups here in France. I did this for three years before becoming an inspector.

From what I know, special forces, don't carry folders or expensive knives. It must be cheap, fixed, though and three inches blade minimum. That's what they're taught and I think it's the same in the US.

I can give another insight. GIGNs are taught to never engage in a knife fight and those situations rarely happen anyway. They carry guns and are allowed to use them. Their knives are more utility tools than self defense weapons.
 
Chapp said:
No Seal, but I used to be a boxing instructor for GIGN groups here in France. I did this for three years before becoming an inspector.

GIGNs are taught to never engage in a knife fight and those situations rarely happen anyway. They carry guns and are allowed to use them. Their knives are more utility tools than self defense weapons.
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PERRIN!
….désolé, that was a kneejerk reflex:D

Anyway, I agree with your statement ('never engage in a knife fight and those situations rarely happen anyway. They carry guns and are allowed to use them') and thats basically, what Ive been implying.
 
BladeScout said:
PERRIN!
….désolé, that was a kneejerk reflex:D

Anyway, I agree with your statement ('never engage in a knife fight and those situations rarely happen anyway. They carry guns and are allowed to use them') and thats basically, what Ive been implying.
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Even going by my sole opinion, I agree that if you have a gun and are allowed to shoot agressive people, you better rely on that than trying to do some knife bullshido. I wouldn't bet my life on a knife.

Knives as selfdefense weapons are only good enough if you aren't allowed to carry a gun on you or if you don't want to. Which isn't a problem for spe forces like seals.
 
Im no operator but Id certainly prefer to NOT engage in a knife fight. I bet the Teams avoid them as well if at all possible. They certainly have the hardware, as you say.
 
WillB said:
This thread got me to thinking. Per my comments in post #47 of that thread, knife use by SEALs is all over the place. If members here are interested, I could probably sit down with one of the guys and ask them some Qs on the topic such as what was/is issued, what they carried, etc. See my comments in thread above for how it seems to work on the Teams. If I didn't answer the Q, and there's some interest, I could probably arrange to some answers from the various gents who can be found at the UDT-SEAL Museum.

If that's of interest, post your Qs in this thread, and I will put them together, and see what I can do. Obviously, there are topics they can't/wont discuss so keep them to obvious Qs.

Finally, if there's interest, I'd be happy to give a personal tour to a a group of B.com members should someone put something like that together.

PS, there is a knife display at the museum. I will try and take a pic. Nothing special in terms of choices, such as SOG, CRK, etc. and one LOL worthy which was added as something of an inside joke.
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My questions are what length fixed blade do they carry, and in what steel. And do they have a favorite brand of fixed blade.

Thanks!
 
On the ship I was on, we had one billet for a Seal, during my stay the first guy was pretty cool and interesting, I don't recall any particular knife but his favorite weapon was a blowgun, he rigged one up from a piece of copper tubing, made a small dart from some welding wire? wrapped tape around one end to provide a 'seal' yeah I know too obvious, but then he demonstrated it's power. He put a 3 n 1 oil can on the work bench, walked back about 15 feet, he turned around dropped to one knee and shot the dart into the can, it went up to the tape and then the can fell over, pretty impressive and fast!

He left for another ship and his replacement wasn't as outwardly friendly as he was, kept to himself, quiet, never got to know him really. Both guys were medium to short in height and wiry in build.

They are pretty much no nonsense kind of guys so I would agree unless the person is infatuated by knives, they look at them as a tool but rely more on themselves than 'things'

G2
 
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