Sorry for the long off subject post, but this post reminds me of back when I was in an alternative high school (not that long ago) in St. Paul, MN called project Lead. The idea was to get hyperactive outdoorsy type kids like myself who didnt fit into traditional school out into the woods. Also to gear the classroom education to something that related to the outdoors, so we could stand it. Great idea.
Well anyway one of the trips for the year was to be a 10 day Boundary Waters canoe trip (anyone not know what the BWCA is?) and I was all excited to go, the BWCA is one of my favorite places and have gone almost yearly since I was young. By this time I had already taken the Basic at the Tracker School (I was an adult, as were most of the kids in the program), and was fairly well read in the survival type stuff, and a proficient canoe tripper. Anyway my dad had thought me to canoe and camp, use and sharpen a knife, build a fire, etc. all stuff boys (and girls) should learn from a young age (even if there from the city like me). Several things he thought me to ALWAYS take to the BWCA were: a good fixed blade knife and a means to sharpen it, an extra set of wool cloths, cordage (para cord), reliable fire starting materials, compass, first aid kit, maps in waterproof sleeves, and extra shoes.
So to make a long story short (is it too late?) I was looking through the individual gear list for the school trip, and there was no mention of a knife of any kind. Well, I figured for liability reasons they didn't want us delinquents to be carrying knives (I think at the time I regularly carried a double edged Randall boot knife to school
), so they must have some backups in one of there kits in case. Well I go and talk to the instructor and she informs me that the only knifes they will be taking with them, for a group of 15 or so people, are one medium sized Swiss army knife and a small serrated kitchen knife (you know the type).
When I asked her what would happen if we were separated from our gear or stranded somehow (like when the blow down happened up there) and forced to make due till we were found or could get out, she replied that she would not allow those situations to happen. WHAT!! Are these people crazy!? Instead of preparing reasonably for this type of situation they rely on their super human will power to simply stop emergency situations from occurring?!? Anyway after arguing and explaining as best I could I got her to finally admit that there was a remote possibility that we could be stranded in a survival type situation. At this point I brought up the need for a good knife, and to this she said, I kid you not what would you need a knife in a survival situation for anyway? thats when I walked out and didnt come back, I was not about to go into the woods with these people.
The point is that as many have eloquently stated before me, from batoning to chopping to cleaning game (and comfortable carving with good leverage I might add) a fixed blade is ABSOULOUTLY ESSENTIAL in the remote outdoors. You may not find many uses for it in day to day life, but if your out in the woods and the SHTF, you will thank god a thousand times that you had the foresight to bring the best fixed blade you can. I agree wholeheartedly with the old school folks here that society today is, for reasons of politics and who knows what else, afraid of fixed blades. How quickly we forget our own history, and where we would be as a human race without the invention of the one-piece steel knife.
