Question about Gerber LMF II- IR Resistance???

[Vanguard.45]

So, I understand that the "Foliage Green" model is the only one that is considered Infra-Red Resistant, meaning that it is harder to see with night vision.

Why, or how, would this be important to the average user? I mean, do I have an entire outfit that would be IR Resistant where the knife, if it lacked such capability would, by itself, cause me to stand out at night to some spec-ops guy patrolling my backyard???

I guess I am wondering if this "IR Resistance" has value to me (or, by extension, to the average civilian customer)?

What are your thoughts?

For those of you who own this knife, does it live up to the hype overall as a survival knife?

Thanks for your time.

Vanguard.45

 

[Sevorius]

no value for civilian IMO. Its a military thing. Unless of course you are some kind of smuggler/poacher/other nefarious occupation which would cause someone to look for you with IR. Still its a neat feature.

 

[Keith]

The military likes it because some material tend to reflect infra-red and near infra-red(the light NVG's are most sensitive to) light very well regardless of how well they reflect normal "white" light.

Look here towards the bottom of the page to see how somethings look with NVG's.
http://www.militarymorons.com/misc/camo.html

It's really only useful to police SWAT/SRT teams and military units, unless a civilian user's up to something illegal.

 

[Stainz]

I've used the LMFII in the yard - it worked well. I still don't like the serrated blade. The angled hammer head looks interesting, although I haven't tried it yet. I have used the Buck 650 Nighthawk in similar conditions to the LMFII - and, as a knife, it is nicer. For that matter, I used an old WWII KaBar, like my replacement shown, for a lot of camping, etc, - and remember it as quite functional. I just got a new RAT RC-5 - green blade - and it has real promise - should be the 'ultimate' severe woods knife.

As to IR reflectance, I know that flat black - especially an irregular pattern/surface, at least in theory, should be best, ie, have less reflectance. Of course, a knife is generally sheathed - so the sheath would seemingly be more important. Now, emissive IR - with me around, I'll blind the IR device! Neither is something I am concerned about... those black helicopters have better equipment than I can afford, anyway!

Stainz