Rescue knives

baxtrom

baxtrom

Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Messages
858
Hi BF,
What in your opinion constitutes the must-haves of a professional rescue knife?

Should it be a fixed blade?
Glass breaker?
Serrated?
Blunt tip?
Neon coloured?

What about blade shape. A recurved serrated blade perhaps? Or a double edged blade, one serrated and one plain? What about the tip? Are there special serration patterns to consider for reinforced windshields?

Any other special features?

First responders and others, feel free to elaborate 😊
 
From my experiences I never seen anyone use one. When I was a city fireman ages ago, (early 2000’s-2009) we all just carried regular knives. I carried a Buck 110 mostly. My stepdad, who was also my captain, carried a Buck 180, an old Gerber multitool on his belt, and a Case Sodbuster. Another guy carried a S&W SWAT knife. Everybody else had similar knives. Years and years later I was a sheriffs deputy and carried a Buck 110 and a Benchmade Griptillian. Sometimes the Benchmade would be swapped for something else, but similar. A pocket clipped one hand folder. Lots of others carried Kershaw Blurs or Leeks. There was one guy at the fire hall that had a Spyderco rescue knife and I don’t think I ever seen him use it. It just always stayed clipped to his gear.

Given my experiences in emergency services, I’m going to say that it doesn’t have to be a fixed blade. Blunted tip, yeah. Serrated? Ah, sure. I don’t think it has to be though. I don’t think handle color matters. Glass breaker tip could be handy but usually there’s other, better, things to smash windows with.

If I was to be in the market for one I’d want one of the old model Spyderco rescue knives, I say older model because I haven’t played with a newer model.

These are my observations and experiences, other peoples will vary.
 
JC972 said:
From my experiences I never seen anyone use one. When I was a city fireman ages ago, (early 2000’s-2009) we all just carried regular knives. I carried a Buck 110 mostly. My stepdad, who was also my captain, carried a Buck 180, an old Gerber multitool on his belt, and a Case Sodbuster. Another guy carried a S&W SWAT knife. Everybody else had similar knives. Years and years later I was a sheriffs deputy and carried a Buck 110 and a Benchmade Griptillian. Sometimes the Benchmade would be swapped for something else, but similar. A pocket clipped one hand folder. Lots of others carried Kershaw Blurs or Leeks. There was one guy at the fire hall that had a Spyderco rescue knife and I don’t think I ever seen him use it. It just always stayed clipped to his gear.

Given my experiences in emergency services, I’m going to say that it doesn’t have to be a fixed blade. Blunted tip, yeah. Serrated? Ah, sure. I don’t think it has to be though. I don’t think handle color matters. Glass breaker tip could be handy but usually there’s other, better, things to smash windows with.

If I was to be in the market for one I’d want one of the old model Spyderco rescue knives, I say older model because I haven’t played with a newer model.

These are my observations and experiences, other peoples will vary.
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Thanks, great info! 🙏
 
Likely going to depend on which branch of emergency services, and maybe what your commanding officer says is good to go.

Folks in an ambulance are (obviously) going to have different needs from somebody who is doing river rescue, or buttoning up their bunker gear.

If you can tell us what sort of rescues you're thinking about... well... round here, we hardly ever reach an actual consensus, but you may get some more relevant suggestions.
 
Shorttime said:
Likely going to depend on which branch of emergency services, and maybe what your commanding officer says is good to go.

Folks in an ambulance are (obviously) going to have different needs from somebody who is doing river rescue, or buttoning up their bunker gear.

If you can tell us what sort of rescues you're thinking about... well... round here, we hardly ever reach an actual consensus, but you may get some more relevant suggestions.
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If I’d have to be particular I’d say firefighters and/or units involved with car accidents. But feel free to elaborate upon other fields of application, it’s all of interest 👍
 
Huh.

I'm going to be very boring. Sorry.

Honestly, I would start by finding a prybar that I like, and find a way to carry it so that it's easy to get, but out of the way.

I would add a set of trauma shears. No excitement, here.

Finally, maybe a multitool. I like the Crunch, because it's overcompensating.

If you want to, search up something called an "alligator wrench". Might be handy to have.
 
They generally look like trauma shears. Sorry.

I carried the victorinox rescue tool for ages. But never had to can open someone out of a car with it.

But it was an excellent user knife if you have a sheath folder set up.

It still sits in my car waiting for the day I have an emergency clam shell package I need to open.

 
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A rescue knife must be able to withstand harsh environmental exposures, you must be able to perform a rescue in a land, sea, and air situation --- for this reason it must be fixed, having a mechanical failure in a folding knife during the most pivotal moments is a death sentence, I also think it should have serrations to cut ropes, as well as belt straps and cords, but not entirely along the length of the blade, some straight edge real estate must be allowed. So If I were to design a survival blade:
a modified sheepsfoot blade in AEBL/20CV/H1/LC200N steel, partial serrated. Fixed with grippy G10 to handle water, and good kydex/carabiner sheath system
 
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The Aqua Salt is a serious hunk of steel. The Enuff is more a rescue knife though.
 
JParanee said:
You could do a lot worse

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I believe you 😊

The fixed wharncliffe spyderco looks like it means serious rescue business. And the last one, the wrench-turned-knife will make short work of any windshield I imagine, in the absence of a more specialised such tool
 
I carry more than one knife.

I've used my 'brass knuckles' a time or two. Well, lent them to someone bigger and stronger. Excellent glass breaker!

I've used a flashlight and rope for several rescues. Alcohol + Boat=Bad/Unsafe idea. If you don't know how to swim, learn how to soon!

Knife?

Use one so many times: Jeans, ropes/strings, seatbelts etc
 
I've got a Benchmade Triage and Boker Cop Tool. I got them both long after any of the accidents/injuries I attended and I'm not sure they would have been a lot of help for the ones I did, because I was more focused on first aid. There are very specific circumstances where the extra tools on them would come in handy, but a decent multitool would be more useful overall. I was fortunate that the doors weren't locked on a vehicle so I could open the door to administer first aid to the driver. It could have just as easily been locked or worse buckled shut from impact, at which point you'd need either the Jaws of Life or the cheaper inflatable pads to pop the door off, and that's not the kind of kit I'm likely to ever have on me. If I'm breaking the window of a vehicle I'm in that is under water, I really don't want a fixed blade coming back towards me with the force of the water behind it, so that would be a consideration in that not very likely circumstance to find yourself in unless you're a fictional action star. As Johnny on the Spot, I'm pretty unlikely to ever actually need a rescue tool and it's much more important to just carry a proper First Aid kit in the vehicle. In any case, the pry bar on the Boker Cop Tool is a good thing for road trips to save you from misusing your nice knife.

I always have a flashlight handy (both for inspecting equipment and because the planet rotates). I always have some rope in my pack, when I'm hiking, ever since the incident. It's a lot better to have some rope handy than try to make one out of all the straps you can remove from a pair of backpacks.

Most of the divers I've known used the weight of their knives to fine tune their buoyancy more than as a knife. They rarely needed something sharp and pointy. One guy had a heavy dive knife for weight and carried it on his chest to help him stay horizontal on the dive. He had another knife for emergencies and the larger knife was just for weight.

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baxtrom said:
I believe you 😊

The fixed wharncliffe spyderco looks like it means serious rescue business. And the last one, the wrench-turned-knife will make short work of any windshield I imagine, in the absence of a more specialised such tool
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you have mentioned going through a windshield twice now, in rescue, time is important, you are not going to be effective with a knife of any kind (short of, maybe, a long bladed chopper) on a windshield (laminated glass). A small axe or hatcchet will cut through very quickly. I was an EMT/firefighter for 16+ years and have to say that the cutting tool I used most was a cheap pair of trauma shears. It really depends on your role at an accident, if there as a firefighter, already have plenty of better tools than a knife to use, if there as an EMT/Paramedic, you aren't likely to be cutting anything more than clothing.
 
catspa said:
Ha! I have one, rides in my work truck. You know their original use, right?

Check out the Stanley FUBAR.

Parker
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If I remember right, the original use for alligator wrenches was working on locomotives. They did the same job as what people think of as a pipe wrench, now. You can find some really impressive examples, too. The ones I have are quite dainty by comparison, made to fit a maximum of 1". I was tired of the excessive tolerances in the thumb-detectors I've run into, and I went from not knowing about alligator wrenches, to thinking they're a good idea, to having a set for a very reasonable price, in the space of one Sunday afternoon.

I have a FUBAR as well, and it is a monster! Paired with my Sawzall, there isn't much this side of solid concrete that I can't find a way to knock down. If you need to get into or out of a timber-framed building RIGHT NOW, the FUBAR will do it!

It's heavy, though! You're going to leave it on the truck unless it's the tool you need. Right next to your Halligan bar, demolition saw, extra batteries, and so on.

Since the OP asked about knives, I was thinking mostly of what kind of stuff you would have in your pockets or on your person, so that if you show up to the scene in your personal vehicle (I guess most volunteers do), you don't have to wait for FASP, you can grab your extrication gloves from the trunk and get to work.
 
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