Robert Parrish Survivor

V

Vermonster

Joined
Jun 17, 2000
Messages
262
I purchased one of these last year on Ebay of all places at a very good price. I had not seen any for sale except at a gun show in '93.
When I got it, it was everything I had hoped and more. The quality was perfect in every way. I went through a stage and ended up selling the knife to HDCharlie. How I missed that knife. I contacted Charlie a few times to get it back. He was not selling. Then this week he decided to sell and I got first dibs.(Charlie is great to deal with)
Needless to say its coming home.
I spoke with Robert Parrish tonight about his Survival knives. He stated that he is still making knives on a very limited basis, about 3 per year. I asked him about making his Survivor mods in different steel. He stated that he has used ATS34 and 154CM in very few of the Survivors. He stated that he prefers 440C for field use. He said that 154CM is brittle and ATS34 being the worst of the three. I thought that was very interesting. We spoke for 20 minutes about heat treating, steel, and knives. He is very nice and willing to share.
I have seen few reviews on these knives. One being in an old SOF article by Bagwell and the other in the book Fighting/Survival knives by Leroy Thompson. Bagwell broke the first 2.5inches of the tip, but still said it was one of the best HH knives around. Thompson speaks highly of it with no bad remarks. Are there any other articles that you guys know of about Roberts knives?
I also emailed Les Robertson as he seems to be the only one that I can find that has USED a Parrish in the field. He speaks highly of the knife as well. I have not heard for him yet. Have any of you ever used one in the field? There has to be someone out there that has seen or used one back in the day. I have a very close friend that was in the 10th Special Forces '81-'91 who said he remembers seeing them used by other members but he was not into knives enough to pay attention to performance. Any info would be AWESOME.

Thanks alot,
Matt
 
There was an article in an issue of Knives Illustrated (late 80's I think) that featured the author taking a whole bunch of hollow-handled knives out to a junkyard to cut up cars. The contest was a dead-heat among the Parrish, a 9" Chris Reeve piece, and something else I don't remember..............

I DO recall REALLY enjoying the article, but it's not something I can put my hands on. Actually, I would really like to read it again myself...........

I hope that helps a little.............
 
Hi Matt,

I emailed you as well. The Parrish was the first custom knife I had ever bought ($185 in 1983). That was an incredibly expensive knife at the time.

The knife was put through it's paces and held up very well. The main reason I bought the knife was for the serration's. They were designed to cut through aircraft skin. Since I anticipated jumping out of planes, riding around and "exiting" helicopters in various ways. I thought a knife that could cut through aircraft skin would be helpful.

I used the knife till 1986. My Battalion in the 101st was being sent to Somolia on a "peace keeping" mission. Some of you may remember the "We Are The World" concert which raised millions to help feed those starving around the world.

Well it appears that the former Soviet Union confiscated the food given to Ethiopia (something about payment for weapons). Anyway they went over to Somilia and started taking their food. So we got a one week vaction to the "a**h*le of the world.

Any way before you deploy you go through this paperwork drill, Will's, shot records, etc. It was during this process I was informed by a JAG Captain (lawyer)that the serration's on my knife violated the Genevea Convention. As such I would not be able to deploy. I informed this Non-Airborne, Non-Air Assault, Non-Nothing qualified "Soldier" that if it would help I would personally insure that any "combatant" I stabbed with this knife I would make sure they were dead. It was at that point my Company Commander pulled me out of line.

Side note here, I alawys found it amazing that even in the Miliatry. They focus on the knife. I carried a M-16, .45 had 44 trained killers backing me up with M-60 machine gunes, M-203's, hand grenades, mortars, artillery, off-shore Navy gunfire and Tac-Air Support. I even went through a course that focused on the use of a 60 pound nuclear device. All of this and this JAG Captain was worried about me using a knife on someone????

Any way, it was shortly after that two things occured. First, I read an article in SOF about this knife maker in North Carolina and we called on alert to go to another possible "live fire exercise" (which was aborted as we were loading the plane). I was told again to leave my knife at home. But my C-4, Det Cord and blasting caps were OK.

Overall the Parrish was an outstanding knife. Having used one or two more "Tactical" knives since then. There are other knives I would recommend more...like from that guy in North Carolina.

Personal opinion here... I feel that 440C is not the best steel for a large tactical fixed blade. D-2 and 3V are probably the best choices in 1/4" - 5/16th range. A-2 is good as are many of the Carbon steels. However, these require excessive maintenance in the field to keep them from rusting. This is especially true if you are working in a salt water environment. Oddly enough this is where 440C would excell.

If you are in a sitution (as most of are) that you are not in a unit that is on occaison locked down so you can be wheels up to go anywhere in the world in 24hours. You will know which environment you will be working in. As such, you should not only pick the right tool for the job, you should pick the right steel as well.

Compared to when I first started "using" knives the choices of "tactical" style knives is now almost limitless. They didn't even have a magazine called "Tactical Knives" back then.

Matt, with Robert making only 3 a year. You may want to look for a knife to "hold you over" till you get yours. I can even recommend a place to start looking <G>.

Good Hunting.
 
Recluse, That sounds like a very cool article. I would LOVE to get my hands on it or at least a copy. Thank you.

Les, thanks for getting back to me here. Actually I do not have to wait for the Parrish, it should be here today or Friday at the latest.
I might be having problems with my Email because I did not get one from you yet. Shoot me another at your convenience of course.

Anyone else out there with any stories or experience?
 
Still looking for good articles from older Blade, Fighting Knives, Battle Blades, SOF and Knives Illistrated. Anyone?


Thanks
 
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