Real Hard Use of Knives, Field Experience Only Please

Marion David Poff

Marion David Poff

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
Messages
5,403
OK

So, all you folks who use a knife to survive and craft the wilderness to your convenience...

What do you use a big knife for?

What are the tasks that get done by your field knife?

Please include the circumstances of your use situation.

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Marion David Poff aka Eye mdpoff@hotmail.com
Coeur D'Alene, ID
http://www.geocities.com/mdpoff

An interesting business oppurtunity... http://www.geocities.com/selouss

"We will either find a way, or make one." Hannibal, 210 B.C.
 
Hello,

Well a topic right up my alley!!! 8-)

ok where do i start??

ok i went on a Field excursion once, packing the normal Field load of Pack, sleeping equipment, , Limited food, a .22 marlin rifle, an a 9 inch Combat patrol bowie i make. it was Full flat grind , 1/4 inch stock , zone hardened 5160, with brass guard and Black canvas micarta handle and 6061 Butt cap. being that i didnt bring a Tent, because i wanted to make a Expedient survival shelter, i used the knife to Cut 5 inch round supports6 feet long to make a primative leanto, not a problem at all.

Then knife was used to cut pine limbs for thatching said shelter, and to provide a ground cover inside.

Then it was off to find Fire wood for a warming fire. Stumbling along i found some dead fall areas that provided more wood than i needed. and as luck had it they were small enough to be able to be braced against a tree trunk an snapped under foot to make sizes acceptable to carry and for the fire.
the knife wasnt used for this as it wasnt needed. On the way back to cam i spotted
the allusive Tree Squirel, that was handily dispatched by the .22 and then hauled back to camp along with the fire wood.

yes i used the knife on the squirel to great success, once a fire was started i set about cutting some forked sticks and a Cross stick to use to Cook said varmit over the fire, used the knife for this also.

But i think the best use of my Knife ws one of COmfort, you see after that fine squirel dinner i had to do a Number2 in the woods
(defecate that is) and being that i hapened to bring some tissue paper i set out to find a spot away from the camp site, i came across a fallen tree that looked like i could sling my BUTT over and do my buisness.
but as i dont like sitting on Rough Barked tree trunks, i used the Knife as a Draw knife and removed the bark in an expediant manner(cause i really had to go!!) down to the Soft underlying wood undr the bark, and completed my makeshift Toilit.

Then it was back to Getting more fire wood, again without the use of the knife.

I did use to Knife to Sharpen some smaller Chunks to build a Reflecting wall in front of the fire to Reflect heat back into the shelter ,but all in all the knife performed what it had to do. And was still Shaving at the end of the day.

I know this isnt a Romantic tale of Killing Rouge Moose, or Killer Grizzly`s, but it was what was required of my knife that day, and it performed to my need.

Take care,

Allen Blade


PS, David when are we going to go out and build that 3 bedroom Log cabin!!!!.......lmao
i will bring the Knife you bring the TOP RAMEN!!....hehhe
 
For an actual survival situation (car crash) check the HI forum for a recent story. Or for more mundane regular work, in the last couple of weeks I took down an old fence and stripped off the barbed wire with a blade. The wire was surprising difficult to remove considering the amount of rust. I figured I could crack it with ease, no such luck. Or how about digging an arrow head out of a tree after my brother decides to max out the pull on his new bow (70 lbs) without adjusting his aim. Or the more mundane use of removing the continuous growth of weeds from my great grandfathers grave that refuse to stay dead no matter how much I salt it (and of course the lawn stays dead no matter how much I try to convince it to live, I am considering doing a transplant). Or doing a quick repair job on the surrounding wall (pry out loose pieces of brick) before the frost sets in and busts it wide open. Or prying off some loose boards off of a bridge on a trail that had rotted and pounding the nails back. On the same river chop a log in two to make the pieces managable that some idiot thought was a good idea to chop down and leave in the river for some reason. No, no lives saves no damsels rescued, but my blades do get used on a regular basis, and sometimes even for actual practical reasons.

By the way Marion, if you ever do get those blades made by Allen that you mentioned in another thread (khukuri/bolo khukuri) I would be interested in seeing a picture and hearing how they perform.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 08 December 1999).]
 
Hello,

oh yea and , David when are we going to Chop that opening in your Automobile Roof for that dang sunroof!!!!

LMAO........ 8-)

Take care,

Allen blade


PS , maybee we could do it out in the woods to make it Match the Topic.......lmao
 
Not that I needed it for survival purposes, but I have used my field knife to assist me in making and modifying various fighting positions, aiming stakes, clearing fields of fire, etc.....

Oh yeah, and the unenviable task of rebuilding sand bag walls in the desert, by first removing, opening and emptying the old ones. Talk about hell on an edge.

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The vague and tenuous hope that GOD is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the conscience of millions.

*A. W. Tozer

2 Cor 5:10
 
Hey MDP!

Would you mind throwing this exact question out over at the new Wilderness Forum here at Bladeforums? It would be a great topic!

Thanks,

Brian.
 
Sorry I gave you another forum you had to monitor...

NOT!

wink.gif


Hope to see more of all of you over there...

Best,

~B.
 
I've had two seperate issue pilot survival knives break on me, both during training, and both while attempting very simple tasks.

The first time I broke one, I was using it to peel off strips of medium sized kindling from a piece of dead wood that I had collected for a fire. I was trying to split off a piece of wood about the thickness of a standard pencil from the main piece. I applied what I considered very light lateral pressure on the blade, using only wrist strength when the blade snapped off at the tip.

I broke a second knife during SERE school, once again I was using it lightly, even more so than previously as a result of my first experience with the "survival knife".

It was these experiences that first got me interested in finding a more durable knife which could withstand hard use and even abuse. For the money I think the SRK is hard to beat, I do not think I could break it unless I set my mind to it in which case I think any knife can be broken.

Sorry for the rambling, I'm in a hurry to go.
 
I used a spyderco worker in the field to cut MRE's open. It never failed me once.
Though I managed to dull it on the cookie bars
 
I used a spyderco worker in the field to cut MRE's open. It never failed me once.
Though I managed to dull it on the cookie bars
 
2nd hand story..but very interesting anyhow. glenn hornby made this BIG survival knife for this army guy...5/16" thick...saw teeth on the back....hollow handle...about a year went by and lo and behold, a package comes in the mail with said knife inside..with about 1/2 inch of the blade broken off and a demand for a new knife..glenn calls for an explanation and the guy says he was in desert storm, on a 50 cal browning team, when the bolt got stuck...out came the knife and the bolt was freed, but not without the above consequences, the guy said three guys were hanging on the knife to get the bolt open....glenn made him a new knife.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
while im here i should tell one of my own. i made an all purpose knife for my good friend dennis, who is the hpd armorer..now you know why he is my good friend. free knife by the way..called it mr ugly cause of the shape. carved mr ugly in the handle...very thin very hollow ground for cutting only...well he decided to peel coconuts with it...this is the only knife (that i know of) that i have ever made that snapped....right in the middle of the blade...i made him another. 3/16"+ flat ground...hasnt broken it yet, although he tries all the time..his favorite thing to do is cut metal pallet straps with it....

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
I've got a CS Trailmaster that I use for what I consider to be the tougher jobs. I use it to chop and split wood, I've used it for digging quite a bit. I've not used it as a pry bar and don't intend to, however, I don't worry about it breaking due to lateral force or torque even while applying a lot of force to it.

The only damage I've done to it has been right at the edge when I have accidently hit rocks with it. Once, while hacking through a branch that was lying on the ground, the blade went through the branch on the last chop and hit a rock that was an inch or so under the soil. The blade chopped the rock in two (I don't know what kind of rock it was). The end result was a small dent in the edge of the blade which was sharpened out with a diamond hone. I trust the TM to withstand hard use as well as inadvertant abuse (after all, I don't believe that CS intended it to be used to cut through rocks).

About 8 years ago, I bought a CS Tanto (stainless). I was anxious to use it after reading all the hype in fighting knives about how great it was. I used it to clean some geese that I shot. I didn't consider that to be an especially tough job for my new "super knife" until I noticed several fairly decent sized half moon shaped chips missing from the edge of the blade. The chips were caused by chopping through the lower (hard and thin) leg bones of the geese.

I didn't think the edge should have chipped, after all, the tanto had pierced a steel drum and a car door with no damage, at least that's what the ad said. I don't know, maybe I'm stupid, but I didn't think that skinny little goose leg bone should have chipped the edge. At least I learned a lesson. I also got a lot of sharpening practice removing those chips with ceramic stones (didn't have the diamonds yet).
 
About 1989 I made a 7" combat knife for a good friend who just enlisted in the ARMY. It's blade was made of 01 and sported a brass guard and rag micarta scales...all housed in a nice Kydex sheath. He sent me field reports of that knife about every six months.

It skinned wild game in Alaska for over a year as well as salmon. It went thru Arctic survival school (the KYDEX survived).

It later spent nearly a year in Bosnia, where he was told in his unit not to wear it because they were "on a peacekeeping mission"...he wore it under his cold weather gear.

It came back with him to Fort Knox....and it spent nearly one month lost in tall grass after he loaned it to his brother. When it was found...it came back to me for cleanup...talk about natural bluing!

When he left for Korea for a year of duty there...it was confiscated at the airbase. When he went to reclaim it a week later....it had disappeared.

He is still in...combat knife-less...but we will fix that on his visit at Xmas!!

Greg Covington
 
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