Pocket Fixed Blades......Real Survival Knives ?

[pitdog]

People often say that the best Survival knife is the one you have on you so maybe it's the smaller/Pocket sized fixed blades that are the real survival knives. With that in mind I took two of my such knives out today.

Before I continue the post let me tell you about a weird thing that happened to me yesterday......I woke up and found I could sharpen knives !
Now don't get me wrong I've always been able to get a reasonable working edge on all my knives but I could only get maybe 50% of them shaving sharp. After quickly getting one to pop hairs yesterday I grabbed another and found I soon had that the same way. Today I tried sharpening my TOPS Wolf Pup and within just a few minutes that to had cleared a smooth patch on my shin, this was one knife that I'd never previously even had scraping hair sharp.......not exactly sure what I'm doing differently but it's working !!!!

As small as the Wolf Pup is it can still split wet wood down to get to the dry stuff.

And making curls is no problem.

If however you want a big knife feel in a smallish package then you need to step it up to something along the lines of my ML Small Survivalist. This is actually a variation on the one Matt originally came out with as I requested a few minor changes. He now has my version as part of his regular line up along with his original version.
If you want a knife for Bushcrafting making trap triggers, carving spoons and tent pegs etc and maybe cleaning out the odd Rabbit or Squirrell then a knife such as this is probably all you would ever need.

No puny handle on this knife !

I also did a little fire practice today, used the saw on my SAK to get some great Cedar shavings !

The Cedar lights easily with a ferro-rod but burns out very quickly so get some resin next to it for a long burn time.

And one final pic of my little girl, the big one doesn't stand still long enough for a pic !

 

[sutured]

Don't take any of this personally, Pit Dog, 'cause it isn't aimed at you or anyone else...

I like the smaller blades, but I'm coming to really hate the term "survival knife". I just don't understand it. A knife is a knife. Either it's handy for what you're trying to do or it's not. I can think of a few situations in my life where I had a very finite opportunity to keep a bad situation from turning much worse, and none of them hinged on what knife I had with me, though a couple of them hinged on having a way to cut things.

I think the whole idea of a "survival knife" is hype and rubbish. I think about what my grandfather went through in his life with nothing more than a small pocket knife at best, then I think about the current fixation with having a proper "survival knife", and I see a tremendous chasm in the current logic and reality. It's all just the Rambo knife all over again...the incorrect idea that the tool makes the man.

I can see the fun in it, but I just can't take it seriously, and I guess I don't see any purpose in it. Survival isn't a function of the knife and it never will be.

There is no such thing as a survival knife. There are just knives.

rant off

 

[Alberta Ed]

A survival knife is the one you've got with you when the SHTF.

 

[Hawkings]

Don't take any of this personally, Pit Dog, 'cause it isn't aimed at you or anyone else...

I like the smaller blades, but I'm coming to really hate the term "survival knife". I just don't understand it. A knife is a knife. Either it's handy for what you're trying to do or it's not. I can think of a few situations in my life where I had a very finite opportunity to keep a bad situation from turning much worse, and none of them hinged on what knife I had with me, though a couple of them hinged on having a way to cut things.

I think the whole idea of a "survival knife" is hype and rubbish. I think about what my grandfather went through in his life with nothing more than a small pocket knife at best, then I think about the current fixation with having a proper "survival knife", and I see a tremendous chasm in the current logic and reality. It's all just the Rambo knife all over again...the incorrect idea that the tool makes the man.

I can see the fun in it, but I just can't take it seriously, and I guess I don't see any purpose in it. Survival isn't a function of the knife and it never will be.

There is no such thing as a survival knife. There are just knives.

rant off

Well after a few years or so on the forums you'll get past it to some extent ( No you won't, not ever )

Pit
Thats how sharpenings skill works I think, you wake up and things just click.
Are you using a strop or is it straight from the stones ? I have a feeling its the later.

 

[bdmicarta]

People often say that the best Survival knife is the one you have on you

Well if you have to survive then you have to survive with the knife that you have with you. If you happen to have a BK9 with you then you might be in pretty good shape for some things, but if all you have is a small SAK then good luck.

It seems that you're talking about the knife that you would carry with you every day to work. I carry knives such as a Paramilitary 2 which is a pretty capable knife for things short of batonning wood. I have thought about what size fixed blade I could EDC and I think I could get by with a knife around 7" total length. I don't know how I would go from sitting my my office in an office building with this 7" FB in my pocket to needing to create shavings for fire starting. I would be much more likely to be needing the FB to pry open doors and such to get out of this building in the event of some sort of disaster, and that would be a pretty rare situation. (More than likely I would need to fight off some kind of attacker in our parking garage or in a restaurant parking lot so I should trade the FB for a Glock.) Anyway I have been thinking of a 7" FB with 1095 steel slightly thicker than 1/8". I could use it for some woodcraft but also I could use it as the proverbial sharpened pry bar to pry open doors and such. TOPS actually makes several knives that would fit with my criteria, I need to pick one and try it out.

 

[Maniacal Pete]

The term "survival knife" doesn't bother me.
It makes me automatically envision a knife that is perhaps a bit on the stout side.
I carry my Fallkniven F1 (3G) most of the time.

With it, in the woods, I could survive, in the sense that I could build a shelter with it,
catch, clean and eat my dinner, basically anything I would need to ask a knife to do in a pinch,
without the likelyhood that it might fail in the process.

I believe that I could use my BRKT Bravo 1 for the same tasks with even more abandon.

Will I ever need it?
No, but it is a fun hobby, and personally valuable to me
to stay in touch with the ways some things outdoors were accomplished in the past,
as well as to contribute to how they may continue to be practiced in the future.

BTW, pitdog, I like your threads, the traps you make are cool.

I too, have a Jack Russell; old guy named "Buddy." This evening he ran out the door barking to nip the
heels of a moose who happened in to our back yard, who himself then proceeded to nose-roll the little guy.

Talk about a stresser.

He's hiding in the bed with a his head under the blankets right now...

 

[bigghoss]

"Survival knives" are those cheap, hollow-handle-with-a-compass-in-the-cap pieces of crap they pawn off on people who don't know any better. Evaluate your needs, then purchase and carry accordingly.

It's cool to see what the smaller EDC knives are capable of but I can't think of a time when I ever needed to baton a log to get dry wood, and I've been in the mountains many times in the rain. Even after a heavy rain I can just grab some lower branches of a tree. The bottom branches on large trees are usually dead anyway and the moss on them makes good tinder.

 

[Codger_64]

I've never felt handicapped with a smaller fixed blade knife in any situation I have been in. As some of you know, one of my favorite long tome "go-to" knives for outdoor activities has been the Schrade Sharpfinger which is comparable in size to the OP knives. I do like some bigger knives and have a number of those in my collection and among my users too. But the portability of the smaller knives, to me, makes them much less obtrusive to carry often. It doesn't interfere with motion, sitting, climbing and doesn't weigh me down. It is easily ignored until needed. I cannot think of a time when I wished for a bigger knife when I had only the smaller one on me. But there are chores (and play) that a lot of guys here use a knife for that I do not find needed with my activities, environment and skillset. There have been a few times in my life when I found myself needing a knife and not had one on me at all, yet I improvised and made a "knife" to accomplish the chore (chert flake and broken glass). I've also found myself needing a knife for a bigger chore than my knife (a case mini-stockman) was designed for and yet I accomplished the task, dressing and skinning a deer in that instance.

Skill and the ability to innovate overcome a lack of blade or blade size much better than an abundently proportioned blade will overcome a lack of skill and innovation.

 

[TheGame]

The term itself doesn't really bother me. The way people always say they want a 'survival knife' is starting to get on my nerves a bit, though. You don't want a 'survival knife' unless you plan on being lost somewhere. Otherwise, you just want a certain type of knife.

That said, I could do with only a small fixed blade. They are just less fun than the big knives.

 

[Maniacal Pete]

Skill and the ability to innovate overcome a lack of blade or blade size much better than an abundently proportioned blade will overcome a lack of skill and innovation.

Man, you can say that again.
I could easily get by with just my EDC Spyderco Endura or my BM Griptilian for the end of the World as we know it.
And they're both folders!

 

[coaldigger]

Nice pics 'Ol Bud...Snicker looks great ! I like those "Little" knives, they seem to get get more use !

 

[Thomas Linton]

People often say that the best Survival knife is the one you have on you.

Yes. It gets said a lot, and wrong every time. If whatever you have is the "best," there is nothing to talk about. And some tools simply are better than others for a given task

A survival knife is the one you've got with you when the SHTF.

That would be undeniable. You have to make do with what you have. The better knife at home won't do a thing for you. So skills with what you do carry trump superior tools at home.

There is no such thing as a survival knife. There are just knives.

I sympathize. Many knives will do - and have done. It's really not complicated: stout, comfortable, and capable of doing what you expect to do. But as not every knife is a good as every other, there are not "just knives." So, like it or not, we get to have this forum - inclusive of plowing the same "soil" over and over and over and over and . . .

 

[Thomas Linton]

And if "survival" is bothersome, how about "tactical"? 0___0

 

[wildmike]

My favorite small fixed blade is my Swamprat Rodent Solution with a conveyed edge. It would easily perform all knife duties in a survival scenario. Couple with a hatchet or axe and one could easily thrive.

 

[sutured]

And if "survival" is bothersome, how about "tactical"? 0___0

Well that's a good point. Personally I think that "survival" is the "tactical" for people who have more firesteels than handguns.

Admittedly this is a personal neurosis which I shouldn't have burdened Pit Dog's excellent post with. But I see the "survival" label as obfuscating the real value or practicality of a knife...any knife. For one thing, in a tremendous number of "survival" scenarios, a knife is pretty useless. In the scenarios where a knife can be put to use, it's probably not going to be the deal breaker, but rather just a small part of a much larger series of events and actions. If there's a scenario out there where it requires a certain special "survival knife" to keep from perishing, I've never heard of it and can't imagine it.

I don't know why it bothers me, but I see an endless parade of people who seem to believe that so long as they have the right knife, they can "survive", which is pure hogwash. A water bottle, stocking cap, extra jacket and large Hershey Bar will trump a knife in most people's emergencies.

I think a far more practical, descriptive and honest label is "utility knife". You know...something a person can utilize.

But again, I clearly see that this is just my hang up.

Pit...that ML looks like a great blade.

 

[pitdog]

Admittedly this is a personal neurosis which I shouldn't have burdened Pit Dog's excellent post with.

No burden buddy, any discussion is good as far as I'm concerned. The moniker of ' Survival Knife ' has always amused me which is kinda what prompted me to do this post. To put restrictions on a blade by virtue of it's name has always struck me as very odd. Could that Moose Skinner blade not also work on Elk or Deer....you get the idea ! In my mind the top and bottom of it is that for any kinfe to aid in a survival situation it has to be a blade that you have with you. If the SHTF then that $1000 Busse with it's 8" blade of INFI goodness will do you no good at all if it's sat all oiled up back at home in the bedroom drawer.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

While I like large fixed blades, the reality of the situation is that most people simply don't carry them as often as smaller knives.

For the most part, you are unlikey to need a large fixed blade for many tasks.

A small blade in your pocket is better than a large blade left at home!

 

[Codger_64]

No burden buddy, any discussion is good as far as I'm concerned. The moniker of ' Survival Knife ' has always amused me which is kinda what prompted me to do this post. To put restrictions on a blade by virtue of it's name has always struck me as very odd. Could that Moose Skinner blade not also work on Elk or Deer....you get the idea ! In my mind the top and bottom of it is that for any kinfe to aid in a survival situation it has to be a blade that you have with you. If the SHTF then that $1000 Busse with it's 8" blade of INFI goodness will do you no good at all if it's sat all oiled up back at home in the bedroom drawer.

While I like large fixed blades, the reality of the situation is that most people simply don't carry them as often as smaller knives. For the most part, you are unlikey to need a large fixed blade for many tasks. A small blade in your pocket is better than a large blade left at home!

Yeah, I think you guys got what I was trying to say. Because of a small overall size, I carry a smaller fixed blade most often, therefore I am most likely to have a knife of that type with me when I encounter "must-have-a-knife" type tasks. Nice ensemble of compact fixed blades Pitdog. They are'nt that much different in scale from what Dall DeWeese prescribed back when he hunted big game with Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the century. Last, not this.

 

[upnorth]

I know the basis of why I have always wanted a large knife in isolated bush. Bears and mediocre bush craft skills. I still don't trust blackies and never will, rational or not. I am slowly working on skills through help from this site, it's members and outside resources. If I am not in blackie or wolf country I could care less what little knife I carry. I also realize that in a bear/knife confrontation they would likely find my keys in a pile of bear dung, but it makes me feel a little more secure. I have been in extremely isolated country and an incident was a remote but real possibility. Of course common sense also tells me that hypothermia is far more likely to nail me than any bush dragons, demons, or whatever my residual concern is.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

"Survival knives" are those hollow-handle-with-a-compass-in-the-cap pieces. Evaluate your needs, then purchase and carry accordingly.

Damn straight! Almost bought one of these babies the other day.

I thought it would be a real fun piece to use with some upcoming videos.

Doc