The Ultimate Survival Knife

Been a woodsman all my life. I make do with the blade I have, which has been a Busse for the last several years. For the finer tasks, one needs a bit of imagination to get them to optimum performance, but things like gutting a fish or skinning a squirrel or rabbit are clearly within the scope of their capabilities. The good news is that they are also choppers.
-carl
 
Myakka said:
I agree about pry-bar survival knives, they really do not cut that well because of the thickness of the blade.

Here is my EDC Swiss Army Knife.
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If a "pry-bar survival knife" is one that does "not cut that well because of the thickness," my Busse Badger Attack and my Bark River Forager must not be "pry-bar survival" knives. True, they are thick (4.8 mm and 5.1 mm) compared to a Mora and have been used to pry apart firewood, but they have acute edges (The Bark River came that way). They do quite well at putting points on wood or preparing feather sticks -- as well as my Mora, Helle, or Iisakki. Slices of cheese or sausage are a little thick compared to what the thinner Scandis can do. On the other edge, in a "survival" situation who would care about that?

Which model of SAK is that in your attachment?
 
A heavy duty knife that is expected to stand up to hard use and even abuse in a survival situation cannot be expected to slice and dice like a paring knife. If you pair a so called "pry bar" survival knife with a SAK, there is not much more cutting power you would need in the woods. Can someone, with 100% honesty tell me they would rather have a Mora as their only cutting tool in a life or death survival situation, than a large Fehrman or Busse etc?
 
If I could only carry one blade with me, the Becker gives a good compromise between pry bar and slicer and would be my choice. Otherwise, the M2K is my go to blade.
 
longbow50 said:
If I could only carry one blade with me, the Becker gives a good compromise between pry bar and slicer and would be my choice. Otherwise, the M2K is my go to blade.
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Are you saying that, given unlimited choice amongst all knives out there, you would select a Mora 2000 as your second choice? If so, is the Mora teamed with an axe?
 
My 1st choice would be a mora and GB Mini Hatchet.
2nd choice a 6-7" Busse or Ferman, Swamp Rat, RAT 7, Becker. ) along with a SAK)
 
My Simonich Raven with a Gerber Multi-tool and diamond rod in the pouch of the ballistic sheath.
 
I am not sure if I have an ultimate survival knife I really have become a huge fan of Scandi knives over the years like the cliper and M2K and Moras. They are in expensive tuff and in the right hands a tool to appreciate.

What is the use of a rope that will with stand 2500lbs of shear pressure if you don't know how to tie a knot the use of matcheds that will strike any where and burn hot if you don't know how to build a fire and the use of the best stocked medical kit if you know nothing of first aid.

What ever knife you have be it a prybar or a paper thing razor it is useless if you lack the skill I Guess I got hooked on Conan and the rule of steel when I was young thats right "do you know the rule of steel"
 
My ultimate dream survival knife would be a Leatherman Super Tool 200 with a full flat ground drop-point blade made of VG-10.

Allen.
 
Thomas Linton said:
Are you saying that, given unlimited choice amongst all knives out there, you would select a Mora 2000 as your second choice? If so, is the Mora teamed with an axe?
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Thomas, unfortunately I have very limited knowledge of the vast supply of blades available to me, so I try and limit myself to what I own and know and even though I prefer the Mora for daily use, I'd choose it second to the Becker.

In all the years I've been hitting the bush in this area, I've yet to need an axe. However, I did order a swedish military axe and it's on it's way. I figure it couldn't hurt to have one on hand and who knows, it might be a real nice tool for the money. It'll stay in the truck with a buck saw and a WWII khukuri. As far as what I'd team the M2K with, in my ruck, I carry the Becker BK7 as well as a Buck made, T handled dual edge saw that's limbed a whole lot of downed oaks and sycamores.
 
Speaking with my credit card, I recently ordered a Becker BK7 to fill the pry-bar survival knife role. It's time to retire the Randall 14 I've been using in that role and maybe clean it up a bit. Anyway, I liked the Bk7's price and felt that if it didn't work it was a fairly inexpensive experiment and then I'll try a Swamp Rat.
 
Longbow, weekend before last I was backpacking in SE Ohio. It had been raining virtually every day for weeks and it rained all Friday night and off-and-on Saturday. The only dry wood was inside ash, oak, maple, and hickory limbs/trees 4" diameter or larger. Due to the lack or proper gear, some members of the group were wet and cold. We needed some tool to get at the dry wood. Fortunately, we had a hand axe (old Norlund). A stout knife could have been batoned through the wood -- slower but clearly doable. I know, in theory, I could have batoned open the wood with my Mora 2000, but I wouldn't want much riding on the success of such an exercise. I wouldn't want survival to depend on the thinnest fixed-balde knife I own.
 
Battoning and hacking with large blades is highly over emphasised you don't need to look inside large pieces of wood to find fire wood and if you do you don't need a large knife or even a knife in some situations.
 
canranger said:
Battoning and hacking with large blades is highly over emphasised you don't need to look inside large pieces of wood to find fire wood and if you do you don't need a large knife or even a knife in some situations.
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Friend, I don't know where you live, but after thirteen days of rain in fifteen days and fourteen hours of heavy rain in the last twenty, there was no dry wood to be found except inside large pieces of wood. That was the reality -- the "situation" -- at that place at that time for fourteen adults.

And I didn't say one needed a large knife. The axe worked fine. The Mora 2000 -- that I was carrying and that I like just fine -- would hardly have been ideal as an axe substitute. A 4.5" Busse Badger Attack or Bark River Forager would have been a better axe substitute.
 
Thomas Linton said:
I know, in theory, I could have batoned open the wood with my Mora 2000, but I wouldn't want much riding on the success of such an exercise. I wouldn't want survival to depend on the thinnest fixed-balde knife I own.
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My opinion exactly. I want a stouter blade than the Mora for heavier work like batoning. Yeah, we don't have near that kind of rain here. Our annual is more like 15" and dry wood is usually readily available.

However, California is a big state and I decided to add the axe because a few hundred miles in any direction takes us into areas in the North where they get 100" of rain a year, Mtn. snows in the East and desert in the South with a mix of terrains in between.
 
An old saying friend is "go to the living to find the dead" I live in Canada and when I usually go out on long trips it is in the Canadian shield area Boreal forest country nothing is really ever that dry. I have found enough to start a fire even in wet swampy areas but then the tools do fit the task and territtory now.
 
My Eklund custom Snakewood scandi is currently my using knife, and this means that it is also my favorite 'survival' knife:

eklund_sw1.jpg


This one teamed up with an SFA and a saw would do nicely :D

-Emile
 
My 3 standard knives I take in the woods:

-Bill Siegel HoodlumII with"Baby Hoodlum"piggyback
-FRN,50/50 edge Spyderco Endura
-Leatherman Supertool 200

And for everyday carry, a Leatherman Wave, and a SS 50/50 "Glasshart Special" Spyderco Endura
 
If the question what is the ultimate and only knife, then probably, it is going to be my Busse BA3. But don’t think I will tell a lot of good things about it. I like the knife, but it is, like many multi-purpose knives, does all the jobs, but either not comfortably, or very slowly. You try to obtain the best proportion between the length and weight, but something is difficult to combine. Plus, it is an expensive knife.
I have a few knives, but each for its own purpose and I think as a package they work better than Busse: Spyderco Delica just to have something always with me, Tramontina Sports knife for cooking (it has thin long curved pointed blade with a place to put my thumb, therefore it is comfortable to skin small animals, gut fish, peel and cut vegetables, this way it became my favourite for all travels), Muela Skinner for skinning, Victorinox SwissChamp and some Chinese multi-tool as tools (never used Chinese tool yet) and Victorinox Picnicker as peeling and carving knife. Busse is used as a chopping instrument, but so far it chops bones in the kitchen only, I did not have any need in its toughness while I was camping (I would not consider preparation of food as a good indicator because Tramontina does it better)..
Regards,
 
I doubt any of us carries just one blade. I've always got my Vic SAK on me, along with a Leatherman tool and am seriously thinking of adding a Benchmade #551 Griptilian to my EDC. The reviews from owners say it's a good blade and the axis lock makes it more secure than any other folder I have. Not to mention that the price isn't all that bad.

There are always tradeoffs when choosing the ONE blade that you'd bet your life on in a SHTF situation. From SAK to Khukuri, any blade I own would get me through, just some will do it better than others and unfortunately, in a SHTF situation, there's more to worry about than the elements and what nature can throw at us. We also have to deal with the 2 legged vermin who will be looking to get what they can without asking and if faced with that situation, I'd much rather have a large, sharp blade in my hand, than a SAK.
 
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