Testing out my PSK knife

thurin

thurin

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I'm guessing a lot of us have a PSK (Personal Survival Kit) that contains a knife. For me, I use a Kifaru Pullout that contains my necessary gear including an Altoids sized tin that houses a Turley Suicide Squeeze PSK knife. Practicing with the PSK is always a good thing as you need to know how it'll perform when it's called into action.

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The first thing I do is build a makeshift handle for the knife. Sure, it could be used as is or paracord wrapped, but if I'm going to do any serious work, it needs a better handle.

Cut and split a branch to be used as the handle. The split goes through a knot which is keeping it together. Used a wedge to keep the split open so I can get the knife in there.





I wrapped the handle in paracord for a couple of reasons. It'll be more comfortable, but mainly to keep the knife secure and the handle from splitting the rest of the way.



Now I have a good sized handle, even if the blade is short, and can get about doing some real work.





Thanks for looking.
 
That is a very cool little PSK knife! I really like your PSK too!

I need to start building another PSK, my last one was lacking in proper gear.
 
Nice post, I had an awesome little PSK knife from Bryan Breeden but it seems my niece and nephew managed to lose it when they came to visit !:(



 
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Cool outing. It's amazing how nice even an improvised handle feels. PSK knives really need cord with them for such a thing. I've done it with my izzy a couple times.
 
Thanks guys. That's a cool PSK pitdog. Bummer it's gone. :(

Here's my complete current PSK if it's of any use. I need to add a pencil and field notes to it.

Knife, firesteel, paracord, compass, flashlight, whistle, blanket, water bag, fresnel lens, match case, marking tape, snare wire, signal mirror, TP, ranger band.

 
Nice thread Thurin!! I wish Iz had more knives readily available. I like this little PSK, but alas, there are none available!
 
The hand made Turleys are hard to come by. But check out the TOPS version based on his and IA Woodsman's original design. Comes with a complete Tin Kit. And there are other choices like the JK tin knife. Wolf Creek Forge makes a good one too.

 
Gives me an idea. I should try that with my bk13 and see how much better it will do for heavy stuff. could be interesting considering that the tree I was chopping up today is very dense wood, with a very curly grain, it would be a good challenge.
 
I was unaware of the TOPS PSK knife. I'll have to check that one out. I just got in my pouch to build the PSK. I'll have to post some pictures when I get it all set up! Thanks for sharing these pictures!
 
Great post Thurin!! How did it feel in action once you got it wrapped up with the handle?
 
It felt great with the handle. Wishing some of my real handles were that comfortable. :)

The knife slipped around a little bit, especially when batoning, but it never came lose nor did the split in the wood get any longer.
 
Cool post Thurin. With the size of your hands, I imagine that handle was a necessity :)
 
thurin said:
The hand made Turleys are hard to come by. But check out the TOPS version based on his and IA Woodsman's original design. Comes with a complete Tin Kit. And there are other choices like the JK tin knife. Wolf Creek Forge makes a good one too.

Click to expand...

The kit that comes in the tin looks like a winner. I may pick one of those up while back in the US this summer. However, I will hold my breath and hopefully land one of the Turley handmade ones too. If anybody has one they want to get rid of, shoot me a PM!
 
I see some of you bemoaning the fact that this or that PSK knife is presently not available. This is not a problem as one of the best (IMHO) PSK knives is available from Bryan Breeden as is noted above by pitdog.

I have long had a Bryan Breeden PSK knife and in reading the posts above, despite my ongoing disability (too many rye and cokes on Saturday night :( ) I thought I would post up my version. For those of you that don't know, Bryan Breeden makes some excellent knives at a quite reasonable price. IIRC, all knives are made of O1 tool steel with a beautiful full convex grind, subject to any correction by Bryan himself. Anyway, please excuse the following picture that has suffered some degration due to the ubiquitousness of Crown Royal wonderful rye whiskey.

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Everything I have seen from Bryan is top notch. I do, however, notice that Bryan is not as present in this discussion forum as he once was.

I should add that this PSK knife just fits corner to corner in an Altoids tin.

Anyway, Happy Easter, everyone.

Doc
 
It was noted in another, largely parallel, thread that Bryan's full-time employment has taken him away from his work bench. That's a shame. I have several of his knives and have used others in survival kits. His PSK knives are 01 and terrific examples of the type.
 
Thomas Linton said:
It was noted in another, largely parallel, thread that Bryan's full-time employment has taken him away from his work bench. That's a shame. I have several of his knives and have used others in survival kits. His PSK knives are 01 and terrific examples of the type.
Click to expand...

Thanks Thomas. I wasn't aware.

Doc
 
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