not wilderness but survival related

Myal

Myal

Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Messages
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My brother drives a tow truck , he is often first on the scene of a crash ( the tow industry is kinda competitive where he is ) and has to do stuff like cut seat belts and help people out if their car looks like goin up in smoke , or cut the battery cables if its going to stop the battery smoking up because of a dead short ... somewhere in the crumpled wreck

other times he gets called to tow a car out of the sand or mud or from where its wedged in a tree or down an embankment , usualy this kind of call comes after 4 or 5 Good Samaritans have had a go and left their bits of tow rope knotted on the stuck vehicles tow points , he has to cut them off before attaching the chains to haul the car out

till now he has been using a high end folder I sent him thinking it would be a safe queen not a user ... and he mentioned that after doing this for a while , the blade has lost its shaving sharp edge ( wonder why ? )

I decided to make him a knife that he can abuse the daylights out of and not buggar up

so far this is what I have :
knifeblade.jpg

knifeblade1.jpg


it took me a couple hours this afternoon with my trusty angle grinder to turn a Starret red stripe all hard hss blade into this .. well , I have a lot left over still so Im going to work out what to do with that too :)

I figure the saw blade cuts steel , like massive steel , so as a knife blade it should cut rope and copper cable easy enough .

the blade spine and but of handle are hopefully made so that he can slip the point under a rope knot with the spine against the tow point and thump the blade thru the rope when it is too hard to get under and slice the stuff off .

The blade is hopefully short enough that he can still cut a seat belt safely without hurting the guy / gal in the seat , and strong enough that he can basically abuse it like a ham fisted towie does and not bust it ..

I guess its not so much a knife he is depending on for survival , but others may well depend on him having a good knife for their survival even if they dont realise it .

Im open to suggestions for any changes . or ideas for the next one .
 
looks great for a kinfe to beat on.
what are the dimensions, and how is the stiffness?

one thing i'd consider for the next one is a hawkbill shaped blade with a blunt tip, it wouldnt be as good for general use, but it ought to make short work of rope & seatbelt cutting with significant reduction in chances of injury.
 
I dunno, if some tow truck driver was trying to cut me or mine out of the seatbelt just so he could beat the other TT driver because it's so "competitive," he might be better off with a bullet-resistant vest.
 
xxguitarist said:
looks great for a kinfe to beat on.
what are the dimensions, and how is the stiffness?

one thing i'd consider for the next one is a hawkbill shaped blade with a blunt tip, it wouldnt be as good for general use, but it ought to make short work of rope & seatbelt cutting with significant reduction in chances of injury.
Click to expand...

I thought of the hawkbill , but I think that for the work I have done with him , this would be the more functional option .

this is a bit over 7 1/2 "long 2"wide at the widest point , about 1/8 " thick

Don Rearic

I dunno, if some tow truck driver was trying to cut me or mine out of the seatbelt just so he could beat the other TT driver because it's so "competitive," he might be better off with a bullet-resistant vest.
Click to expand...

having BTDT and knowing what happens , the only folk who are cut out are ones unconscious and injured ,and their car is obviously going to go up in flames ,all else is the responsibility of the ambos , fire crew and cops , but if they arent there when the guy is going to die , he takes the risk and gets them out .

If you are the kinda guy who wold pull a gun on a bloke haulin your backside out of the way of your car goin up in a fireball , hey so be it , its a hell of a lot less risk to others if you DO stay put till the fire has run its natural course .

for what its worth , burned cars dont tow , they got to be hauled on a tilt tray , so if he uses this knife to cut some unconscious guy free , its not so he gets the job , its just cos he was there before the fire truck and ambos , and was doing what he had to to save a life .
 
I remember when it was that way in Maryland, it was a predatory business practice that ended in a lot of cars getting towed that should not have been and some violence as well. Not saying your brother is like that.

Basically, I think the fewer laws, the better, but when it comes to towing companies, the more, the better.
 
This is Aus , there is some push n shove among drivers at times , but nothing more than words and a rude finger usualy if it gets even that bad ... cowboy days are over pretty much .

I prefer to have less of a nanny state myself , the govt takes away enough freedom as it is , but this is my opinion .

this is not for american towies , but for an aussie towie who has allready saved lives hauling a family out of their burning car , I guess he shoulda left it for the authorised folk to arrive and report on the bodies found ?

I would rather not see the day come when those actions are outlawed here
 
Myal,

I'm sorry man, I don't know Jack-Sh*t about Australia or towing there, etc. Just speaking from experience here, that's all. Should have known better when you said "bloke" but a lot of people here pick up words from the Brits, Canucks and Aussies so I really didn't think anything of it.

I'm generally for less government intervention myself, but the TTs were really getting out of hand around here in the 1980s until the State cracked down on them.
 
Don , dont worry about it . there was brawls here over who got the jobs at times , but thats all been settled now pretty much , the cowboys self destructed , the real workers are pluggin on still .

had about no time much today to mess with the knife anyway but I did stick some slabs on for handle , hoping to get a interesting looking grain happening .

right now its waiting for the urethane to cure and its looking ugly but here it is :

handleson.jpg


handleson3.jpg


tomorrow I hope to find the time to make it look more like a knife again , there hopefully will be interesting pattern from the grain .. all going well :)
 
I'm not a big fan of serrations, but I wonder if they would have a place here on a knife intended to exclusively cut rope, belts, and cables?
 
maybe , maybe not . I will give this some serious thought and maybe make another with serrations later , I personaly have never had good things from serrated blades
 
OK , today its done , handles sanded into shape , edge tested for durability :) , and make sure it still slice paper after

have you ever tried to photo yourself slicing paper ? its not easy to do , I gave up .

the finished knife :
knifedun1.jpg


the test of the edge , hey other people baton , this is for a guy who deals in smashed cars and wrecks ... so its tested to do the job its got to do

knifeduntest.jpg


it does this OK , after the initial penertration , just lean on the knife and if slices the steel , kinda icky feeling :) but hey , makes a neat photo I reckon .... , since I was theorising that in a worst case scenario , he may have to cut a door skin and yank on the lock rods to get the door open , and still have to slice a belt inside the wreck , I wanted it to stay sharp after having been shoved thru a panel

so a paper cutting test , if you look close you can see the pain flakes still on the back of the blade:
knifedunpass.jpg


I reckon if it will slice paper easy itll slice seat belt easy enough .

its a knife built for abusing , not looking pretty , so Im not going to worry too much about the detailing more than its done allready , I reckon my bro , being a rough n ready kinda guy anyway , will get a kick out of this one :)

if he use it to save another life , so much the better .
 
Thanks :) ( this is cos just saying thanks aint enough letters for the minimum post )
 
It looks good...the slight humped area at the back of the blade is a good idea, allowing the thumb to have more control and downward pressure.
 
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