Knives you carried while Active Military

bonafide

bonafide

Leather Sheathmaker, JouFuu Leathers
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Me & Chris aka Osprey Knife & Tool were talking the other day about knives we carried with us during our Military tours .. and talked about getting a thread going amongst friends about what we had etc. I know swonut had Fiddlebacks shipped to his APO address while deployed, but my time was a weee bit before Andy started making knives. Any other veterans out there still have their blades from active duty days?

From top to bottom;

* The AK-47 bayonet was awarded to me from some big cheese Colonel for a mission I was part of in South America in the early 90s. It still has the packing grease on it.
* The green handle/green sheath Black Jack Marauder Mk I - I ordered this from US Calvary in 1988 while stationed in Panama. I carried it with me while on a mission in Costa Rica for 6 months. Used it maybe a couple times for something like processing an Iguana to eat (they taste like pulled pork). Sheath has sweat stains cause I carried hooked in my shoulder rig. Love this knife. It means more to me than most.
* Machete .. smh .. the Panamanian, sharpened on a rock, broken tip, and hand made in the jungle sheath. I acquired it during Operation Just Cause.
* The two folders, a Schrade and a Sod buster. One of many given to me by my Father & Grandfather. Carried these most often than not. The Sod stayed on my belt, the Schrade in my pocket - but I did not carry the Schrade with me on missions.

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Carried a buckmaster on my lbe in the 80's. Heavy and too big to be useful but made me feel better if that makes any sense. Had a case peanut in my pocket that got much more use!
 
So that's the backdrop for your sheath pics...

Had to carry the M9 anchor...stayed in the ruck until I needed to cut chain-link fencing. CRK Sebenz was on my web gear for over 15 years, favor field knife was a CS SRK in carbon 5...put that one through hell.
 
I carried a Runt in the ankle pocket of my pants. Here it is posing for pictures as I walked the perimeter as part of conducting a vulnerability assessment.

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and posing for a picture as I was waiting for a SPACE A flight. My team figured it out once and we waited something like 175 hours for flights over the year I was deployed. In the end, I was a zen master at remaining calm and doing nothing at a LZ or air termina.

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You guys were allowed to carry your own knives in the army?

As far as I remember that wasn't allowed over here in my day.

I remember being sooo excited when they told us they were going to issue us our knives that day somewhere in that first week of training! I really thought we'd be getting some sort of survival knife ala Rambo, haha. Imagine how disappointed I was when they gave us one of these:

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I took that picture from the web by the way. Mine was a KL '91 (KL stands for Koninklijke Landmacht, which means Royal Landforce. The number revers to the year it was issued), but it was taken from my checked luggage on a trip to Spain earlier this century :(
 
Stromeng leuku and ontario rat1 most of the time but also spyderco endura, byrd hawkbill, sog seal 2000, sog pup, bark river fox river and a fletcher delta foxtrot. Maybe some random multitool as well depending in the circumstances.
 
A couple of months before heading to boot camp a friend of mine ordered a Randall, so I thought it would be just the thing to get one, too. They were very similar to the Randall No. 1-7 USMC model, stainless, stacked leather handle, long and pretty thin. Carried mine through about half of my first tour and decided it was great for some things and not so great for everyday carry. Traded it off for a regular issue KBar, 1095 steel, stacked leather handle. Much better for opening cans and all the other mundane chores, but still quite lethal as needed. Managed to hold on to the KBar through another 12 months. Also had a Schrade 3 blade in the pocket which is the only one I still have. Got to thinking about the Randall several years ago and forged out two that were very similar in shape and style, but some what upscale from the original. Here's a couple photos.
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I thank you all for your service.

As a civilian, I'm curious what common non-lethal uses you found for knives while deployed?
 
Spyderco Delica and Cold steel SRK. Had a Leuku and Mora as well during service. All saw lots of use and abuse, learned the hard way that loaning out knives isn't a great idea at most times...
 
Thanks Phillip! Fun to make, but only really useful for one thing. Not worth a dime for opening a tin or better yet a beer can. The Schrade saw a lot more "action", and after looking again, mine looks to be identical with the one Bud carried.

Hey Bud, what type of sheath did you use in the hot, wet climate? I had leather, combo leather/canvas, but was always a problem. Hate to think about some of the different greases used on the leather trying to keep it sound.
 
Rick Lowe said:
Hey Bud, what type of sheath did you use in the hot, wet climate? I had leather, combo leather/canvas, but was always a problem. Hate to think about some of the different greases used on the leather trying to keep it sound.
Click to expand...

The Sod Buster i carried in an OD green nylon belt sheath. The brass button would get a fresh coat of Sharpie marker black on a pretty regular basis.
 
dmourati said:
I thank you all for your service.

As a civilian, I'm curious what common non-lethal uses you found for knives while deployed?
Click to expand...

Opening boxes,mres, screwdriver,limbing branches, digging, smacking frozen canteens, removing clothing, seatbelts, making tent pegs, cooking, etc mundane tasks. Never used my blades in the army for anything lethal, not even in the sandbox.
Sees alot more use here in the arctic though.
 
Well I don't mean to totally hijack this thread with something not knife related but sense it is very military related I'm think you guys might let it go. I was working on thing to day so I thought at the end I should be able to play around with this Vietnam Era Willies (jeep) I couldn't help but to pretend shoot the 50 cal.



 
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I spent my time as weapons squad, squad leader and M67 Gunner. Weight was an issue carrying that spine compressing stove pipe so the only blade I carried was my issue M7. If I couldn't do the job with the M7 then it didn't need doin'.
 
I didn't really carry a knife on active duty. My job was on the flight line with a Marine Attack Squadron. However, I did manage to smuggle this Balisong out of the Philippines in my sea bag. :thumbup::D





 
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