Need a good survival knife

T

tridend

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Aug 9, 2006
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I'm looking for a good quality survival knife without breaking the bank. There is so much out there and I don't know what to choose. I'm looking 9 1/2 inch over all length knives with top teeth only.
 
How 'bout a US Air Force Survival knife? Decent 1095 steel, can be had for about $30. Top serrations. Everybody seems to have one. Comes with sharpening stone.

Really, it's all the knife you need (but not all that you'd want to own, eventually).
 
Why do you want (I can't imagine who would need one) saw on the back?
E.g. TOPS make knives with saw on back, some other manufacturers too but generally it weakens the blade and isn't much useful (e.g. imagine batoning with such knife).

Abstracted from this then it depends what you mean by survival knife. If it means knife with hollow handle (popularised by Rambo movie) then you probably won't find anything better than CRK.

If survival means knife you would take for survival situation then there is bunch of good knives for reasonable price.
Check e.g. Ranger Knives, Bark River, Fallkniven, Ontario RAT, TOPS, Swamp Rat... (I'm sure others will come with more).
 
Becker BK Line are the best blade to $ knives I have ever seen. You won't go wrong with these. The BK 7 and BK 1 models are my favorites.

Bark River makes an excellent knife as well.
 
Id either go with swamp rat or tops. I like the WSK . Its a solid design. Its only drawback is that it is geared towards being able to handl most chores adequatley but none perfectly. Some people dont much like that about it. Also the

Chris reeve knives are the best hollow handle nives available so if you like those go for it.

As for swamp rat... well they are built to be abused. Not as exepensive as a busse but about 80% as good which is excellent.
 
Sawbacks generally don’t work very well (if they work at all) on wood. The pilot’s survival knife’s sawback was intended to cut aluminum aircraft fuselages and won’t cut wood at all.


If you really want something with an integral wood saw that works, I would suggest a SOG Revolver.



Another option I would recommend is a Fears Survival Knife from Foster Knives combined with a wood saw equipped locking blade Victorinox 111mm SAK such as the Hunter or one-hand opening Trekker.



The Fears Survival is a sturdy full tang hunting style knife with G-10 scales and an excellent custom Kydex sheath from Eric at On Scene Tactical.






- Frank
 
If you want a sawback that's halfway effective, get an Ontario sawback machete. Not as good as a regular saw, but does a pretty good job. IMO, sawback knives that are made from thick stock are useless.
Scott
 
Tridend, what are some of the things you see yourself doing with the knife? If you're just going to be doing basic woodcraft, you can probably get by with an Eriksson or Frosts modern or traditional Mora knife. They're inexpensive, and you could get several and try them out without breaking the bank. If you really want top teeth without breaking the bank, look into a Pilot Survival knife. I'll recommend hacking off the top portion of the guard to give the knife a little more flexibility. A couple other suggestions, without a saw, would be:

Cold Steel Master Hunter
Becker BK10 Crewman - Chunky, not many gripping options, but a decent piece
Marble's Woodcraft - can get a 'Made in China' with Safe Grip handle for about $15

There are lots of others. The SOG Seal revolver is a cool concept, but I have never handled one. I'll also recommend lanyr SAKs with a saw and/or Leatherman Wave.

The CRK Aviator is a sa-weet piece, but spending that sort of cha-ching on a knife might land me in divorce court.
 
Get you a Vic Camper (with saw blade, can opener, etc) and a Becker Crewman. Total cost less than $65.00. The two of them should do most anything you need or want to do.
 
I would recommend the Ontario PSK, but after seeing the Aviator recently, something from the CRK fixed blade survival line would be tops on my list.
 
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