Misinformed Becker hate?

I think the article is pretty clearly the work of someone that doesn't actually use knives, but reads bits and pieces all over the place. This is a pretty common thing these days where people act like the know everything about something simply because they read about it on the internet. Sucks that more people will read that article and take it as gospel and make some poor decisions as a result.
 
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NJBillK said:
Ill take them off of your hands Salty. I'll even pay the shipping! Hell, for good measure, put that new zt450 in the box as well.

Lol, congrats on the win, what color ano are you going with?
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I've been using knives for as long as I can remember and do have much more to learn - but I have also learned some along the way. What I have learned has affected my purchase decisions. This has put Busse, Chris Reeve One Piece Range and Becker fixed blade knives in my safe over the years. Fortunately for me, I didn't have the benefit of Poor Fellow's writings back then or I would not have gotten the service and enjoyment those knives have provided me nor the pleasure of meeting their makers - all great guys who know knives. :thumbup::thumbup:

As for the ZT0450 win, I went with bronze. I have had one on my RADAR for a while; guess I'll soon learn what all the fuss is about. :D
 
It is nice, but I hope you don't wear anything larger than a L/XL glove. If you are over that threshold and into XL or larger, it might be too small. It is Tiny, but slicey.

It resembles a smaller, folding BK15 with a Ti frame lock. Not a bad knife. If I didnt have my zt770 I would have a 450 or 452.
 
DerekH said:
I think the article is pretty clearly the work of someone that doesn't actually use knives, but reads bits and pieces all over the place. This is a pretty common thing these days where people act like the know everything about something simply because they read about it on the internet. Sucks that more people will read that article and take it as gospel and make some poor decisions as a result.
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Hopefully, it doesn't have dire results... I haven't been in that situation before, but I could see where having more confidence in a knife than is logical (to us) could be a Very dangerous thing.
---Oh, Car wrecked in a white out snowfall? I'll be fine, I have my Gerber Paraframe 2!---
 
Skystorm said:
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The best survival knife is the one you have on you when shtf.
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The best footwear is the stuff you have on your feet.
The best car is the one you are driving.
The best tent is the one you have.

Kinda' eliminates the usual meaning of "best" - and the need for discussing knives.
 
Interesting thread. The 2 is a simple to maintain, strong, well designed, reliable knife. Maybe he looks at those qualities as boring.
I look at those qualities and find them comforting. I don't need the newest steel, or the newest trendiest blade shape or the coolest name.( BECKER does have quite a bit of gravitas to it though !)
I enjoy the 2, 7 and 15 that I own for those "boring" qualities. I buy good, quality things and take care of them. That way, when I reach for them ,they are ready to serve me. i like that my 2 is as reliable as a hammer.
 
HazeGray said:
The heck with you guys. I'm going to get my Bear Grylls knife RIGHT NOW.
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Say what you will, but that BG USK is an alright piece. I gave mine to a friend (yes, one that I like) but it was directly responsible for me getting my first of Ethan's knives - a BK9. I won't waste my time reading the article, but really, why worry what some "self-educated" non user says? The only people that will follow his suggestion have an approximately ZERO chance of knowing what to do with their unused and untested blade if the S ever does HTF.
We all start somewhere. My BG USK actually did some hiking & making/starting fires before I found this forum and gave it away. Better than a 2? No....but plenty of LMF's (and other Gerbers) have seen active duty...and the fire steel in the USK sheath works pretty well. I might even have kept it, if not for the garish color scheme.
 
"The only people that will follow his suggestion have an approximately ZERO chance of knowing what to do with their unused and untested blade if the S ever does HTF. "

Is it possible that the inexperienced would be harder on a tool and thus need sturdier tools than the experienced?
 
Thomas Linton said:
"The only people that will follow his suggestion have an approximately ZERO chance of knowing what to do with their unused and untested blade if the S ever does HTF. "

Is it possible that the inexperienced would be harder on a tool and thus need sturdier tools than the experienced?
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Possible.....but not probable. I guess my thinking is that there are plenty of people with money and no sense - and a desire to buy knowledge.....which, it seems to me, is anathema. Hell, I still have a lot to learn about the capabilities and "survival" use techniques of the knives I have. Though I do feel reasonably certain that since I've actually used mine, I have a good chance of figuring out the rest. As has been said by the great philosopher (and physicist) Albert Einstein, “In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." Gleaning knowledge from the interwebz takes more than just reading. It takes a HUGE grain of salt, a lot of common sense, and some practice. If someone told you they learned how to fly a plane from the internet, but had NEVER actually put their hands on a yoke (and instead called it the "steering wheel"), would you trust them to be your pilot? Granted, using a knife is far less complicated - but I have a number of friends with high dollar kitchen knives that NEVER get sharpened and they claim to be excellent cooks. Some of them, in fact, are pretty good cooks - but they can't dice an onion worth shit. They are flabbergasted when they are in my kitchen and using one of my knives.
All I'm saying is (since I didn't actually waste my time reading the "review"), is the people that actually read it and think it's gospel most likely will never put their knives into regular use....because if they did, they'd learn something real and perhaps make different choices on their next purchase.
 
so.

i'm no expert.

a knife isn't necessarily going to keep you alive when the SHTF.

hell, a box of knifes, from $1-9999 won't keep you alive.

neither will various guns, a fully stocked shelter, or ...

YOU will keep yourself alive, or at least, alive a bit longer, if possible.

because ...

you. your brain. your knowledge. your desire to live.

you could go down in a plane, find yourself naked, at sea, or in the trees, or in a swamp.

no knife.

if you have the will, and the cojones too, with no tools, you will probably live. a while at least ;)

a knife will just make it easier.

now, if you are a f*tard, and abuse your knife, to baton shit, and perhaps cut down trees, and dig roots?

you deserve to die ;)

abuse your one advantage? die. :D

so: conclusion: survival. we're not talking "every day camping" or "oh noes, i broke down on the side of the highway", we're talking "REALLY BAD THING"

oh, sorry, in an actual "survival situation" where bad thing happened. probably most of us, with a full equipped bug out bag, would probably have a sorry ending.

knife, or no knife.
 
Let's just call this Muppet a Proton (see other posts for meaning) and move on, before he drops the Gauntlet on us and gives us even more BS advice!!

And who calls a knife crap just because of a name or spelling? Kids an idiot. If you look at the contacts section of the site, poor kid looks like he is 13 or just hit puberty, so obviously knows it all for survival, cos he's watched every zombie apocalypse movie out there!!
 
Bladite said:
oh, sorry, in an actual "survival situation" where bad thing happened. probably most of us, with a full equipped bug out bag, would probably have a sorry ending.

knife, or no knife.
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Yes, it is often ugly when fantasies get slapped away by reality. To be honest I have always hoped for the better side of human nature to rise in a horrific situation. But that may be asking too much in today's world. Hope for the best, mentally prepare for the worst.
 
Witty said:
By the end of the article it was clear to me that when people say "He's not special, he's just a limited edition!" - they were referring to folks like him.
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After suffering through that idiot's review, and then reading the responses in this thread, your quote is the BEST part of the whole thing IMO. I'd never heard that saying, but will definitely start working it into my daily conversations Thanks! :)
 
upnorth said:
I have always had a mild infatuation with this knife, can you please explain your above statement ? Thanks.
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upnorth - my apologies for not replying sooner. I kinda let this thread drop down my screen.

First, identification of the knife in question - The "Marine Raider Bowie" of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during the "Battle of Guadalcanal" was the Legitimus Collins #18 Machete Pequeno, or "Little Machete" in English. The knives were not available through the Navy Supply System (they were USAAC only) and so were a unit purchase using battalion funds. The 2MRBn was the ONLY raider unit to use the knives.

Myth #1 - Many of the knives purported to be MRBn Bowie knives are horn handled #18s.

Few, if any, of the "real" MRBn Bowies had horn handles. Collins had quit importing horn in 1936 and had begun using black plastic bakelite material for handles. If the Marines ordered the knives directly from Collins in 1942 (2MRBn was formed in Feb 1942), the odds that Collins would have had 1000 horn handled #18s lying around gathering dust is nearly non-existent. Horn handled #18s were still in the ARMY supply system as part of the M1939 Jungle Survival Kits on USAAC aircraft flying in Central and South America (at least until the B2 kit came out in 1942).

Myth #2 - Real MRBn Bowies, while "rare", have been available occasionally for purchase.

I suppose a very few made it back to the states, but I doubt the number exceeded double digits. Heck, I’d be surprised if the numbers brought back made double digits. I’d be willing to bet that most of the Collins’ we see for sale on fleabay were never even in the AAC/AAF. Remember, Collins was making them with horn handles until 1936 and then plastic handles through the war, for the CIVILIAN market as well the AAF. Western and CASE XX versions were only made during the war for the military.

Assuming 133 men per company (the complement of Carlson's Raider Battalion companies) and 6 companies per Battalion, that would be just under 800 men in the battalion.

The machetes pequenos were issued shortly before deployment to Guadalcanal (according to a letter from the Raiders’ Association to M.H. Cole for inclusion in his book).
According to a veteran of Guadalcanal, when the 2MRBn was removed from Guadalcanal, very few of the Bowies remained in use. The poor quality leather sheaths fell apart in the rain, mud, high humidity conditions and the knives lost. It can also be assumed that some of the equipment of wounded Marines was stripped and left behind while tending the wounded. Carter Rila, a well-known military knife specialist once interviewed a Guadalcanal 2MRBn survivor who stated that “the few remaining Bowies were turned in and replaced with Kabars” (1219C2s), which had become available by the time the 2nd redeployed..

At Guadalcanal, many of the companies had suffered extreme levels of casualties and were below platoon strength. Example - Companies C & F landed with 266 officers and men - They left with 57 total.

So between operational losses, casualty losses and failed sheath losses, the quoted veteran was probably accurate in “very few were left to turn in”. Most of the few, turned-in knives probably never left Espiritu Santo Island, where the 2MRBn retired after Guadalcanal.

The next myth is that the “model #” of the MRB was “V44” as in “The V44 Marine Raider Bowie”. Again, the initial brand and model was Legitimus Collins #18 Machete Pequeno.

2 additional companies made clones of the #18. Case XX and Western Cutlery made them for the USAAF up until 1942 when the 1939 Jungle Emergency Kit was replaced by the “improved” 1942 “B2 Jungle Emergency Sustenance Kit” and later the 1943 “B4 Universal E.S.K., which were both equipped with the folding machete. Somewhere along the way, Kinfolks made some clones of the #18. Case did not have a an internal model number for it. Western assigned the model number and model name of “Bx54 Bushman”.

The “V44” designation comes from Mr. Coles’ book. He listed the Horn handled and the plastic handled Collins as Type 1”, and similarly plastic handled Case XX, Western Bx54, and no name/number Kinfolks as Types 2,3, and 4.

The fifth knife listed by Mr. Cole was the “Type 5”, a Case XX non-folding machete that was the same size as the Case XX, Cattaraugus, Camillus, and Imperial folding machetes used in the B2 and B4 ESKs. This short-lived machete was made in 1944 for the US Navy Aircrew Survival Kits and had the CASE XX INTERNALLY assigned model number of V44.

So I guess my bitch is people ::
calling them “V44s” when they aren’t,
calling them “Marine Raider Bowies”, when they aren’t (especially CASE XX, Western Bx54s and horn handled Collinses and almost virtually ALL plastic handled Collinses).

To the aircrews that flew with them and used them, they were “Jungle knives”. Yes, the Second Marine Raider Battalion used them for 1 battle, a famous, hard-fought and costly battle. No doubt about that. The 1219C2 was used by more men at more battles and for more tasks than the MRB ever was.
 
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