Military for outdoor use

I have never used a Military outdoors, so my comment is not worth a whole bunch, but the Military in my view is more of a slicer - albeit one that is solidly made - than a camp/bush/survival blade. There are better knives for hacking, digging, splitting, drilling, woodcarving, etc. that the outdoors requires. I still love the Military as an EDC knife, however. JMO.
 
millies are fine in the boonies as whittlers, slicers& can be used to clean fish. one thing is use in mud & sand requires washing in water to keep grit from clogging the liner lock. a straight knife is usually a better choice since cleaning is easier.i have friends that will only use folders for all tasks even deer cleaning, however folders require more cleaning since they have moving parts. the cutting is'nt the problem it's the cleaning.
 
I agree with the sentiment that a straight blade knife is the way to go.. but what do you mean by outdoor use... if you are whittling and skinning bunnies than any pocket knife is fine.. if you are building shelters.. and splitting wood than maybe not...
Utimately what matters more is you...your activites, your experience.. and your other battery of tools
The military's are repotedly tough..but even the toughest folder can fold on your hand.. and will always happen at the worst time...Happedn to me 2 years ago.. Lucky I didn;t get bit too bad.. I got off easy.. could've been mush worse and I was miles from help.
 
RescueRiley said:
I agree with the sentiment that a straight blade knife is the way to go.. but what do you mean by outdoor use... if you are whittling and skinning bunnies than any pocket knife is fine.. if you are building shelters.. and splitting wood than maybe not...
Utimately what matters more is you...your activites, your experience.. and your other battery of tools
The military's are repotedly tough..but even the toughest folder can fold on your hand.. and will always happen at the worst time...Happedn to me 2 years ago.. Lucky I didn;t get bit too bad.. I got off easy.. could've been mush worse and I was miles from help.
Click to expand...

When I go camping I always have a fixed blade (Mora or Izula) for those things. By outdoor use I mean woodwork, filleting fish, and food prep.

Andrew
 
The Millie is an excellent outdoors blade and I think it compliments a fixed blade very well. Often times when I was mountain guiding it was my only knife, due to weight concerns. When I wasn't at base camp it was the knife I used for all of my food prep (which sometimes included carving meat). When I did long distance hikes it was my only knife to save weight and having a bigger blade allowed it to easily be used for self-defense work too. Is it the ultimate outdoor blade? Far from it. Will it get it done? Without a doubt.

Sometimes I feel it would be better if it had a shorter blade on it to make it handier for woodworking, but it can do the work. Mine is an old one with CPM440V steel, not S30V, so it doesn't hold the edge as long, but it does hold an edge a long time and it's very easy to sharpen. It has kind of a choil area so it's relatively easy to choke up on for finer work. It has jimping where it's needed. I have a pinky loop in the lanyard hole and it does a good job for gripping the bottom half of the handle to limb smaller branches. It has a thin tip so gutting a fish isn't a problem. It has a more open frame design to help in keeping it clean (which is very helpful after gutting). The G10 is textured well without eating up your hands. The opening hole is larger than the normal Spydie holes so it's easy to open, even with gloves or mittens on. It's available in blaze orange to help you keep track of it (not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it), or you can get it with a titanium frame lock for extra strength and cool factor and spend even more money!

My biggest complaint is the pocket clip deforms easily (and this may not be a problem on newer models) and it's set up for tip-down only carry. If that's a deal breaker you could always send it to STR here on the Makers Forum and get a titanium clip set up for tip-up carry if that's your preference, which is something I will eventually do once I get around to it.

A similar knife, but one better optimized for hunting tasks is the Bladetech PH Magnum Hunter in S30V or their original slightly less robust Hunter in 154CM (my favorite steel). The blade is better for skinning, has additional jimping on the blade and is a completely open frame design which makes it even easier to clean. Also available in blaze orange for the Magnum version.

Heed everyone's advice and warnings above and don't expect it to be a fixed blade and you'll be happy. If it were my only folder though and I were using it for bushcrafting, I would prefer a SAK Farmer or OHT Trekker. A saw is awfully nice to have sometimes.
 
Last edited:
I carry a full sized Military and have for over 15 years...field, two deployments (Iraq and Afghanistan). I started with a fully serrated version in and now carry one in CPM440V and cary a version in CPM D2. It's a great slicer/cutter. I will admit I take the Military's smaller brother, the Para-Mil, for outdoors, backpacking. The blade profile is excellent for food prep and will do wonders carving. I've never had a failure of any kind with my Military's or Para-Mils. They've served well and I've carried them in some of the most extreme environments (my other folder is/was an Emerson CQC-8). This is a well executed liner-lock.

ROCK6
 
For a dedicated slicer it sure has a useless belly... I think for the money you could do better for an outdoor knife
 
I have a Military
carried it for maybe 2 weeks at work.
cleaned out a teeny weeny bit of paint from
a screw hole and promptly bent the tip.
it now sits in the back of my junk drawer.

to cut stuff,its probably OK
to use for anything rough,Id say a butter knife is stronger.
 
andrewthetuba said:
When I go camping I always have a fixed blade (Mora or Izula) for those things. By outdoor use I mean woodwork, filleting fish, and food prep.

Andrew
Click to expand...

It will compliment the Izula nicely. It has a pretty open construction, so keeping it clean is easy. It is a hell of a slicer. Works so well at food prep, I use one in the kitchen. It is also surprisingly easy to carry for such a large folder. Using it to clean critters and fillet fish? Absolutely!!

IMG_3526.jpg
 
fishshooter what a meal. catfish, froglegs & my favorite fat perch. makes me hungry at 5:43 in this morning. by the way you really know your cleaning. beautiful work .
 
DennisStrickland said:
fishshooter what a meal. catfish, froglegs & my favorite fat perch. makes me hungry at 5:43 in this morning. by the way you really know your cleaning. beautiful work .
Click to expand...

:thumbup: Thanks! There is also some crawfish tail meat and Crappie fillets in there. ;) Product of a couple days in the swamp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top