The Perfect Survival Knife - Finally!

[Thomas Linton]

Almost every one of these posts is "just hypothetical forum farting around", IMHO. I have a knife made before 1900 that would serve me just as well in most survival situations as the one made in 1928, 1936, 1944, 1967, 1978, 1990, 2000, 2008 or recently. Each has slightly different design and construction features but I cannot think of any reason any of them would not suffice in any of the 199 different survival scenarios put foreward here every year for the past ten years.

Conversely, I have been in situations where I had no knife, improvised one as distant ancestors were wont to do, and achieved my tasks just fine. I've also been in situations where no knife of any description, with me or not, would have improved the situation, solved problems, ensured my survival.

Which is why I value wilderness survival learning mostly for the value of learning how to think in reaction to an emergency. You may never have your safety on the line in the woods, but few get through life without having to deal with crisis.

 

[Hammer67]

Codger, I don't necessarily disagree with you at all. But if we can acknowledge this, can we at least quit throwing the word "survival" around, where it doesn't really have any meaning?

 

[Thomas Linton]

Codger, I don't necessarily disagree with you at all. But if we can acknowledge this, can we at least quit throwing the word "survival" around, where it doesn't really have any meaning?

I suppose you mean "survival" as in "survival knife."

There is no consensus definition when a "survival knife" is anything from a SAK to a khukuri (much less "whatever you have with you")

 

[Codger_64]

Codger, I don't necessarily disagree with you at all. But if we can acknowledge this, can we at least quit throwing the word "survival" around, where it doesn't really have any meaning?

Fine with me. IIRC, the term was originally used to refer to military pilots' knives before the civillian market craze came about with the hollow handle jobs of every ilk. And Stallone movies. And then the entertainment based made for tv survival shows. And let's not forget the current "Zombie" insanity. The pilot knives were included in fliers survival gear, some of it attached to their flight suits, some in onboard bags. In their training and equipment, there was an attempt to provision for an E&E in the event they were downed in a variety of terrains and circumstances.

Now, if you were dropped blindfolded into an unfamiliar jungle with just one...