The long running thread on Whats a big knife for? got me to thinking about what I normally carry as a survival knife and what I have used it for. I always carry a stout 6 or 7 knife whenever I go hiking or camping in the wilderness. For years I carried a Ka-Bar. Then replaced it with a CS SRK and a BQ survival sheath which I still carry occasionally. Nowadays I primarily carry an EK Warrior that I customized again in a BQ survival sheath. It seems to me that whenever the debate over big knife, small knife, axe or saw comes up on the various forums I frequent, most of the posts come down to talking about how well a knife performs in working with wood, e.g. splitting fire wood, cutting branches for a shelter, making fuzz sticks or trap triggers. Occasionally someone brings up the issue of how a knife may perform in skinning or cleaning or camp cooking chores. Granted these are probably 90 to 95 % of how you would use a knife in the wild, but what about the other 5 or 10 %? I would like to explore other non-traditional uses for your favorite survival blade. On the Whats a big knife for? thread I mentioned reading about the late Dave Alloway using a CS SRK as an expedient peton to help him climb out of a dead end canyon. I myself have used my wilderness carry to cut through corrugated roofing metal and barbed wire. I have used it to pry up rocks and to twist wire to make a hose clamp. In my days as a commercial diver I carried 2 or 3 Ka-Bars sharpened with an 8 bastard file for cutting up to 3 inch line out of ships wheels (props). That was in the days before serrated blades became popular. I have read about stamping inclination marks on a blade to measure distance and height in the wilderness though I have never done this myself. Also using it to determine direction. So my question is, what non-traditional uses do you know of for a wilderness survival knife. Particularly what uses have you put your knife to or have you heard or read about? I say wilderness knife because I am mainly thinking fixed blade here and those are seldom carried in urban areas, but if you have used your survival knife in an off the wall way anywhere lets hear about it. Trying to think outside the box here.
OldSalt.
OldSalt.
