Special Forces Knives, What do they use???

E

EDGE!

Joined
Jun 11, 2000
Messages
68
What do you think the following Special Forces outfits carry, if you don't know what do you think they SHOULD carry?

Delta Force.
Green Berets.
Marines.
Ranger.
British SAS.
Navy Seals.

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Hunting?
Don't be a wise guy!
What d'ya hunt with a knife?
Name it!
 
Well contrary to the hyped-up "official" blades offered by a lot of custom makers and manufactures...you have some who are into knives and some who aren't. I served as a SIGO for a SF Battalion, deployed to Ecuador with a team a saw only a few really decent blades.

One carried a Randall #18, a few had Cold Steel Knives, one had a Tim Britton knife (he was also a local maker). Folders were mostly Spyderco and Benchmade, since most buy "out-of-pocket", you don't see anything too special, unless that individual is a bonified knife knut.

Me being a "non-tabber" had a decent selection to display to them. I carried both my Busse SH II, CR Project 1 and a Randall #15.

Dave
 
Dave is correct. Most guys in the military carry what they are issued or a factory knife. The thinking being, if you lose it, your only out a couple of bucks.

Walter Brend made a lot of knives for guys at FT. Bragg. He even has one of his knives in the SF Museum there.

As a Infantry Officer with the 101st Airborne, I carried one of Walter's model 2's for over 4 years. The knife never failed.

Factory knives consistently failing when put to hard use is what lead me to custom knives.

It's always struck me as odd, how the guys who really need the knives, don't have them. Mostly becuase they are underpaid.

It's like the joke about the very expensive and incredible sniper rifle. The only guy that would miss with that rifle is the guy who can afford it.



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Les Robertson
www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com

"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor"
Albert Einstein
 
Most of the groups listed above have the training knoledge and the trust of their superiors,so they have the oppritunity to carry whatever works best for them.

Kevin
 
Very few of the guys in my unit carried fixed blade knives other than the standard M9 bayonet - thinking being that why should they waste their money on something that the Government would not replace if it broke. Everyone had a Leatherman or Gerber Multipliers though - you couldn't get by without one, especially when it came to caught pins on the parachutes and doing demo work.

I carried at various times a Cold Steel SRK, Gerber TAC II, and a KaBar. SRK is the only one that survived.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Brits in the same boat.
SRK's, multitools and some not particularly expensive folders, as found in any PX. Otherwise issue, the Golock and the ghastly MOD survival knife being most often seen. Some may go as far as a Chris Reeve or something as exotic, but they are very rare indeed. The odd Cold Steel Kukri for the ones "into" jungle survival skills, and even one or two Kar-Bars.
Hell, its a job; and the company should provide the pencils. It was hard enough not to have to use the SA8O.
 
When attached to an ODA as an FSO, I carried whatever I felt was suited to the mission. Usually a Khukuri and a Multiplier. Sometimes my CS push dagger and Multiplier. Common denominator, the multiplier...
-Redleg out.

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"What you do in life, echoes in eternity..."
-Maximvs Decimvs Meridivs AD 180
Commander of the Armies of Rome,
General of the Felix Legions
 
As a former commander of the 229th Supply & Service Company, the supply support activity for the 10th SF Group at Bad Toelz, Germany, I found these guys carried a few custom knives but mostly factory knives like the Camillus Pilot's Survival and the "fighting/utility" (I can't bring myself to call it the USMC fighting/utility knife, although it is commonly called the "kabar", nothing against the USMC but I'm Army, not "Navy" -- ask a Marine to show you his ID card, "Department of the Navy!").

Bruce Woodbury
 
Come on now Bruce, don't be badmouthing our chauffeurs
smile.gif
.

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Semper Fi

-Bill
 
Being assinged to the Air Force SFS and being deployed all of the time I have only really used my issued Phobis M-9. At crappy deployed areas, I will sometimes bring along the really cheap, Pilot survival knife 5" blade, as a throw away. A couple of Ranger buds of mine really like the Gerber MK-2. But nothing replaces that cheap $25.00 throw away. Some jobs are just not worthy of a more expensive knife. I also carry an Emerson now to replace my spyderco MIL.
 
Being assinged to the Air Force SFS and being deployed all of the time I have only really used my issued Phobis M-9. At crappy deployed areas, I will sometimes bring along the really cheap, Pilot survival knife 5" blade, as a throw away. A couple of Ranger buds of mine really like the Gerber MK-2. But nothing replaces that cheap $25.00 throw away. Some jobs are just not worthy of a more expensive knife. I also carry an Emerson now to replace my spyderco MIL.
 
It is really hard to pin down one knife or family of knives to SF units. There are plenty of K-bars and the cheap air force survival knives there mainly because they are readily availble. A lot of it depends on the degree of interest of the individual. You can be fairly certain that there are plenty of Leathermans and Spydercos, though.


Doug
 
I have heard that you'll find kukris more abundant in the SAS than other units. Then again, I think they spend more time in the jungle than others. In the jungles, golocks and parangs are also carried, but I hear that the SAS do not like the gov't issue golock. They call it a "tree beater" as that is all you can do with it
biggrin.gif


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"Come What May..."
 
A friend of mine who is on SF uses only factory blades. His main one is a Ka_bar and a CS SRK. He has abused them and they haven't failed. I asked him about getting handmades/customs. He said he would love to, but it would be out of his pocket and he would be afraid of losing it, one way or another. Some of the foriegn militaries his group works with have customs about trading gear. He doesn't want to end up trading a $500+ custom knife for a used field jacket or something like that.

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If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance,
baffle them with your BS.
 
My cousin is with the Army 5th Special Forces Group out of Ft Campbell and I remember him showing me his heavily used Trailmaster in Carbon V during one visit.


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Clay Fleischer
clay_fleischer@yahoo.com
AKTI Member A000847
 
As a young Marine in an Infantry unit I had purchased an EK double edged dagger model with the paracord handle,a beauty. First time in the field it was all scratched up from sand getting into the sheath. Last time I took it out.

Later, the new Battalion Commander had absolutely forbid any none issued knives in the field. It was the K-bar (not all got one) or a bayonet M-9 all issued. At the nearing of my end the new Buck bayonet was standard. Less stuff you carry the better. No knives to a firefight.
 
Frank, no knives to a firefight? Wow, things have changed since my brother was in the Marines. His Ka-Bar was with him, everywhere.

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If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance,
baffle them with your BS.
 
Yea ! Believe it or not only select few got issue K-Bars. Everyone got the dull M-9 issued. It was Unautherized If you wanted to spend your own dough on a better tool. I never saw the harm in a nice blade. Then again it was the Marines and it would make sense.
 
You forgot the Black Angels
smile.gif


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