Ultimate Survival Knife!!!!!!

[Mistwalker]

I got mine stuck in hard maple. Same story. I guess it is too good to make this thread, but it's the only hollow handle "Survival Knife" I own.

Hahaha me too, but my wife has a Chris Reeve Aviator....she won't let me take it out and test it though .

 

[MattM_Gilbert]

Hmmmm, that might have been the inspiration for the Kershaw, I heard some good things about it...but some bad ones too.

I have one of the Wilkinson Dartmoor knives. The hollow element of the handle fits under the grip. The tang is milled out, and a 14 mm radius by 40mm tall cylinder rests inside.

The knife is heavy and the factory grind has much to be desired.

Your thoughts?

 

[Snake Dr.]

Seeing the Hollow Handled Knive's got me to thinking of this one that Ray Made, I found this picture searching around and saved It, I had a Whole Bunch of The Made In China Hollow Handled Saw Spine Survival Knive's I got In Trade with the Compass end Cap, I Give them All Away "And Not Fast Enough" ! I sure like this one, Maybe Ray will add some Info., This Is a "Beauty !

 

[shangchi108]

The Buck Buckmaster gets my vote. Here's a link that you all may find interesting:

http://www.buck-184.com/

 

[sixgunner455]

That is interesting. As I was looking at the Buck 184 info, I thought to myself, hey, that scabbard and blade kind of resemble the M9 bayonet. Hey, so does the handle. Then I got to the bottom, and lo and behold, there's the M9 in all it's 'glory' -- a design descendant of the Buck 184.

 

[Mistwalker]

That is interesting. As I was looking at the Buck 184 info, I thought to myself, hey, that scabbard and blade kind of resemble the M9 bayonet. Hey, so does the handle. Then I got to the bottom, and lo and behold, there's the M9 in all it's 'glory' -- a design descendant of the Buck 184.

Yep...read that some time back....used to think I liked them both at one time, and have owned them both. Now I hope I never have to depend on either one.

 

[Mistwalker]

I have one of the Wilkinson Dartmoor knives. The hollow element of the handle fits under the grip. The tang is milled out, and a 14 mm radius by 40mm tall cylinder rests inside.

The knife is heavy and the factory grind has much to be desired.

Your thoughts?

I like the over-all concept I just think the overly large blade could be it's down fall if one tried to pry or do heavy chopping with it because of the tang being milled out. I have seeen the same thing done with smaller knife blades and incorporating a Bison tube or something similar and really liked that idea.

 

[Don Rearic]

The whole medication poked up a hollow handle and the saw back business spewed forth from exactly that with helis. I don't think survival knives as such existed before the triangle of 1] combat loses in the 70s, 2] a dodgy movie about those loses, 3] imagination run amok. Hence the huge survival knife fad in the 80s. I think these sorts of things are more true to the spirit of the survival knife commonly frowned on than any others.

That's not quite the whole story of the hollow handle knife. I believe Marble's held a Patent on the hollow handle knife back during World War Two or slightly before it. I'd have to look it up. It was a Matchsafe which should come as no surprise because Marble's also had a Patented matchsafe as well.

I don't know what a Special Forces Medic coming up with the idea to put Codeine, Amphetamines and some other things in there during the Vietnam War has to do with "combat loses in the 70s," I guess you're referring to Uncle Walter's pre-70 brainfart about Tet.

I guess #2 is about First Blood but #3 is interesting. Some people in the cutlery business did go a bit fruity when it came to the "survival knives" of the 1980s but hardly any of the people that were doing this were actually manufacturing them, they were importing them. Some of the imports were really great, primarily from Spain, a couple of them were so-so from Japan and the rest of them were horrendous that gave all of them a bad name...

 

[hikeeba]

My 1980s Ultimate Survival tool (with $4 Parker companion):

A cheap Buckmaster 184 copy that ran me about $12. In the handle was your basic 'survival kit which included fishing gear, matches, and a sterile scalpel housed in a plastic cylinder that had Morse code printed on the side. The cap of the cylinder was also a magnifying glass. But instead of the two anchor pins that attached to the hilt, this knife had a hilt-shaped piece that went on between the handle and the butt cap. Two round-tipped pins screwed into this piece, and a slingshot rubber was attached. The slingshot part is what sold me. It was pure gold when I was 13.

An since were sort of talking about the 80s, here are a few more necessary 'survival' components to any 80s kid's kit:

 

[Katdaddy]

AHHHHH..the '80's.

(found in my Father-in-law's basement. No one to date has fessed up to buying it )


I'll stick to whats in my pockets.

I have one of those! A friend found them in a catalog and ordered one for each of use, 2 for $10 or some such. I tried for days to put an edge on that thing, just to see if it was possible and never was successful!

 

[baldtaco-II]

That's not quite the whole story of the hollow handle knife. I believe Marble's held a Patent on the hollow handle knife back during World War Two or slightly before it. I'd have to look it up. It was a Matchsafe which should come as no surprise because Marble's also had a Patented matchsafe as well.

I don't know what a Special Forces Medic coming up with the idea to put Codeine, Amphetamines and some other things in there during the Vietnam War has to do with "combat loses in the 70s," I guess you're referring to Uncle Walter's pre-70 brainfart about Tet.

I guess #2 is about First Blood but #3 is interesting. Some people in the cutlery business did go a bit fruity when it came to the "survival knives" of the 1980s but hardly any of the people that were doing this were actually manufacturing them, they were importing them. Some of the imports were really great, primarily from Spain, a couple of them were so-so from Japan and the rest of them were horrendous that gave all of them a bad name...

Hola,

I'll have to take you at your word about the Marbles patent for the moment as I don't have the information. Still, what I was driving at wasn't necessarily any one specific feature; the saw back, the hollow handle, or the over zealous size .etc more the flavor of those lumps that are peddled as “survival knives” that usually have two or more of those aspects. The hollow handle alone wouldn't necessarily qualify it for the “survival knife” deserving the shite and spite category that I think this thread was pitching at. Similarly there have been numerous high mass knives that certainly qualify as survival knives in my book; the Case V-44, the Model 1910/17 US Machine-Gunner's Bolo .etc, but I wouldn't be putting them in this mix. I guess we have that long standing problem of what is a survival knife. Without defining our terms exactly we're never going to get away from a woolly thread. My thrust is that although survival knives existed before that may have had a certain similarities in some area with the things we are nominating [lampooning] here, we're after those gilded lily '80s-esque offerings heavily compromised by aspects that have no relationship to cutting. Anyway, we digress, I suspect I'm supposed to be treating this thread as moderately humorous and destructive.

I think if he'd have started off with the Rambo 4 knife we'd all have done a lot better. And if he'd had a brain and cut some handle slabs from an old tire or something even greater still.

 

[MattM_Gilbert]

I like the over-all concept I just think the overly large blade could be it's down fall if one tried to pry or do heavy chopping with it because of the tang being milled out. I have seeen the same thing done with smaller knife blades and incorporating a Bison tube or something similar and really liked that idea.

I totally agree that the blade is too thick; definitely in the case where it is to be used as a wood saw. The effective length of the saw back is no greater than that of the 110 mm pattern SAK, or the disposable blade of a saber saw.

The tang remains thick enough in all axis to take a beating. Many other parts would fail prior to what remains of the tang.

The Dartmoor is not my favorite knife, but I wanted it because it predates much of the 80's tin survival knife fads. I also find the WSK pattern to be heavily rooted in what the Dartmoor offers.

I suppose I like it for the reasons I would like to have semaphore flags, a heliograph, or a wind up alarm clock: the dated items serve many of the functions which the subsequent designs have adopted and fully surpassed.

This weekend, I shall snap a photo with the grip off, and compare the spine saw to the SAK saw.