New to BF and have a Question on Survival

Midnight Scout

Midnight Scout

Joined
May 27, 2007
Messages
299
Hi every one!

I am new to Blade Forum and I am thinking of getting a knife to carry with me when I am on my new deer lease. One of the features I would like to have on the knife is a pommel/butt cap that I can also use to hammer things if I need to in a survival situation (putting stakes in place for snares and crushing the shells of acorns or whenever a hammer would be handy). I have noticed that not many knives are sold with hammering capabilities. Beside the obvious reason that a knife is not a hammer, can anyone explain why so few knives have butt caps that are capable for hammering? Insights?

I don't want to really use the knife as a hammer, but I would like to have the capability if I needed it.

Thanks!
 
I always used to like having an exposed tang for hammering. But found I didn't really use or need it. A nice rock or log works much better and is a lot safer. But if you still want one, the ka-bar has a nice wide steel pommel.
 
The only knives I've seen with a hammer style pommel were military or wannabe military, which weren't exactly the best bush knives, but quite a few people seem to like the Kabar style of knife for GP duties. What have you been looking at up to now?

If it were me and I needed a tool that would hammer, as well as be a fine cutting tool, I would opt for a Gransfors Bruks mini hatchet found here.
 
Well, as for using a knife as a hammer, I saw someone put a 3" gash in his head trying to do just that. One of the upswings was too close, and the tip caught him.

If you want a good survival piece that will multitask, get a nice hatchet/hawk with a sheath that will still cover the blade while using the poll as a hammer. this is both safer and more effective.

Ken
 
I agree, the hammer-pommel, seems like a great idea at first but there are other found objects that would be better suited.

If you are in a survival situation, you should be able to find a rock or a brick without looking very hard.

You could even make a baton which could hammer stakes for snares and help you in other chores as well.
 
Most knives with screwed on or riveted pommel will eventually come loose.
Knives like Fallkniven F1/S1/A1/A2/H1 and the Gerber LMF II ASEK has the tang come out in the end.
Some of these knives were developed to be used as "survival knives" and the F1 is very popular with the bushcraft community. The LMF II having a pointed end is useless for hammering.
There is even an instruction in a book written by Lars Falt (sw army survival instructor) how to fell a big tree by hammering the F1 into it several times.

So in short. Choose between the F1 or S1. The F1 is made for "survival" and the S1 is a "forest knife". There are specialised knives as the H1 for hunting and the MC1, a mine probing sword :).

If you dont like the "industrial" clean look on the F1, the go for the NL5 or TK series. Most Fallkniven knives are also available as bare blades if you want to handle them yourself.

So in short, get yourself an F1. Now you are safe knifewise. If you have to hammer down stuff, then use a piece of wood or a rock. Use the knife for CUTTING and it will last forever, but with the F1 etc you do have the capability to hammer stuff if needed.

Naturally there are other knives as good, qualitywise, like Bark River.
It also depends on what type of "nature" you are going to be in.
An F1, a multitool and a hatchet/axe or folding saw will solve most problems.

http://hem.passagen.se/nodh/trio.jpg

Here is my trio. If I dont have to carry it for long I add a Fallkniven WM1 and a U2 and an axe.
 
Fallkniven F1. But don't really use the pommel. Use a rock.
 
Consider that a miss will bash your hand. I used to use my Ka-bar pommel to crush ice back in college. Mac
 
IronWolf said:
Well, as for using a knife as a hammer, I saw someone put a 3" gash in his head trying to do just that. One of the upswings was too close, and the tip caught him. Ken
Click to expand...

I would normally would have laughed at that but I saw a Marine slash his leg open in Nam trying to open an old type MRE....The knife just slipped off the bag and into his leg....was the worst wound in the platoon I was in...lol
 
Thanks for the tips. I never really thought about it, but yeah, I would have to have the knife unsheathed to use the hammer and I can see where the cutting end could cause problems with it doing exactly what it is designed to do--cut things. :D

I was looking at the Ka-Bar, the USAF Survival knife, and something called the Silver Trident (retails at $150 and out of my budget).

I think that I will stick with rocks and logs for hammering duties and I will look into the F1.

What is a "baton" as I have read a few guys refer to "batoning" a knife?

Thanks again for the advice.
 
Batoning, a description of procedure an outcome :)
A: You need something to be split, say a piece of wood.
B: You need something to split it with, say a Fällkniven F1.
C: You need something to baton with, say another piece of wood.

Place A in a vertical position on a hard surface.
Place edge of B on top of A.
Place C forcefully on the back of B.
Result: A parts in half.


So in short, batoning is when you pound something on the back of a knife to make it go deeper into something else. It is like hammering, but you turn the knife horisontally to split something.
You figure it out. There are lots of pictures of an SRK being batoned into a piece of wood, and the handle is next to it :)

It works like a charm for smaller pieces of wood. With larger knives like A1 first you pound above where the edge goes into the wood, when that is no longer possible pound on the blade closer to the edge.
 
A "baton" is basically the right sort of stick, generally found while out hiking/ccamping/whatever, and used as what I would call a mallet.
 
Midnight Scout said:
What is a "baton" as I have read a few guys refer to "batoning"...

Thanks again for the advice.
Click to expand...

This girl is doing some serious batoning.
She's even got the skills to use two batons at the same time.

batonrw3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

/ Karl
 
By pressing firmly against the material that needs to be split/cut, and batoning a knife through, you can split wood, or bone with less chance of damaging the edge of your knife than hacking at it. It dosen't even take that much force with the baton either. For example splitting the pelvis on a deer or elk, I have seen many chipped edges from hacking at the bone with a skinning knife. Batoning the blade through will help prevent that, as well as giving you more control.
 
Thanks for the baton info (even you too Karl5 :rolleyes: ). I have more to learn, but this site is great for asking questions. It will save me lots of time. Thanks again.
 
I have a fallknivn f-1 (great knife) the tang is exposed for that very reason I've used it to open lot's of wallnuts and brazil nuts...Haven't tried hammering stakes with it yet,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top