Perfect Sandbox Knife

I'm with the old school way of thinking, more the better. I think a good old ka-bar is a must then a smaller blade like my scrapper 5 for any real hard use and general cutting. A 3rd large blade or task specific blade would probably be carried along with a folder and multitool. Task specific would probably be determined by the duitys of the mission and what part of the world I would be in.

I'm sure my ideas will change in the years to come though.
 
Ill chime in.

I own many fixed blades, folders and multitools and have carried and tried them all over the place doing everything you could think of trying with knives.

As far as realistic carry of fixed knives a Kabar, CS SRK or somthing of that size range is what I normally carry.

Folders... I just pick one I like that is easy to maintain and use. Emerson or Benchmade.

Multitools... I carry an issued surge most of the time.

A starpening stone, ceramic stick or diamond hone.

I usually carry two of each in my bag so when I get to where I am going I have a back up knife to carry if I lose or break one out doing work.

If I was to be a designer of some sort of multipurpose knife for the military I would shrink whole the OKC3 Bayonet down to a 5-6 inch blade maybe even 4inches (Think Cold Steel SRK size). Make it a single guard style so you can choke up on the knife and get rid of the locking plate on the butt make it solid.

I would keept the design of the scabbard for several reasons. 1. the knife can be retained at all angles if you have some of the blade inserted 2. it can be used for left or right handed 3. its MOLLE capable ( I would change it a bit and make a quick attach belt loop to) 4. it has a honing rod built in 5. Its very weather resistant

MY .02
 
I sent a marine aGerber Mark II just before his second tour; took it with him; he is out now and walking on his hind legs; have no idead if he used it or not but when he got it he was pleased; so...............
 
I was in Saudi/Iraq/Kuwait in 90/91 and we were issued the big new bayonet. Pretty worthless, really. I had a Leatherman and a Camillus electricians knife (semi-issue) and they did 99% of the cutting. Most of the cutting was MRE's, and other everyday stuff. The bayonet wieghed about 2lb. and we had to hump a ton of crap when we dismounted (and I was a 63T), the grunts had even more. If it was take the bayonet or 2 more bottles of water, water would have won. The only time I can even remember using the bayonet was throwing it at a big sheet of plywood to see who could stick it from the furthest away.

I think some of the reason I didn't really even need a big fixed blade was we were mech infantry and we drove everywhere. We didn't mess around with urban warfare dismount stuff because there were damn few towns and the few we went through we mashed pretty flat to keep from having bad guys behind us (or "in our rear" :eek: as the captain said). No wood to cut for fires or anything (there was enough fires already). Certainly never got close enough to bad guys to think about putting the damn knife on the end of a M-16. By the time you got that close, they were either prisoners or KIA.

Maybe if we were humping in the jungle or something a machete would have been OK
 
Im active duty Marine Corps. We all get issued the Ontario Kabar Looking Bayo (when deploying). Its tough, but we really never carry it (POGs). Most of us invest in good folders (POGs) or we are issued great folders. I was issued a Gerber 06 Auto in Iraq. I traded a TV for a Strider SNG with a grunt, then lost the SNG.
 
Hey Godot, I'm waiting for you. ;)

Were I a soldier, I'd still want to carry a nice folder in my pocket in addition to my bayonet. I'd want something to play with. :D
 
Most guys I seen in Iraq carried the benchmade folders that were sold in the PX. Some had some cold steel fixed blades on their IBA's that were sold at the PX. I carried a Scrapyard dumpster mutt and it worked great, not too big and not too small.
 
I'll tell you right now that most soldiers don't carry their large fixed blades when deployed. Or if they do at first, they usually don't for long. With all the crap we have to carry, the heavy Ka-Bar type blades really don't seem so cool after a while. I think for most outside the wire (and inside the wire as well) tasks, a cheaper folding blade will probably fit the bill pretty well in todays operations. For one, while using your blade on duty, you have a drastically higher chance of losing your blade (and everything else). I think a blade like a Ontario RAT 1 would be my pick if I had to pay for it. I would probably take 3 or 4 of them with me. That would give me 1 blade for every 3 or 4 months, and I won't cry if I lose it or break it :).
 
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