What do police officers (or military, or whatever your service was) ACTUALLY use, from what you've seen?

Hashishiin

Hashishiin

Joined
Dec 29, 2021
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I know we have a lot of LEO, former LEO, military, EMT, firefighter, basically "service" people here. Much respect to all of you. Anyways, this question isn't about what YOU carried, though feel free to say so! It's about, through your time working as a police officer or other job, what did you notice those around you actually using and carrying in practice? Did it really differ, or did you notice any themes? I am asking this because of the ridiculous cheap "Police" knife shown in the Tacticlol thread, which made me think that, while sure, by and large, it's "cop-freaks" and folks who don't know any better buying that kind of stuff, I have to assume there are also some blade-ignorant LEOs who's dad knew they were going into the force and got them a knife like that as a good "Police knife" as it has a seatbelt cutter and serrations, or whatever. And the cop, not knowing anything about knives his whole life, thinks it'll do a-okay. I am sure there are an equal amount of cops with good, quality knives from brands of repute.

What did you notice?

And you don't have to be anything to reply to this, if you ran into a cop with a really nice custom, or with a Tac-Force, you can tell about it here.
 
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I know all the guys on my team carried BM710's. I know, because that is what I bought all the guys on my squad for Christmas 20 years ago. :)

Most of the LEO's I know and/or worked with, carried a knife or multi-tool of some sort. Half of them had quality (BM, Spyderco, the occasional Emerson or Strider), the other half needed to be..........."educated".

I don't know any cops that carried anything custom. You don't know the abuse that cops put their knives through. :)

In my experiences, I would guess that about 25% of LEOs are knife-guys, and have an interest in them over-and-above simply being another tool in their tac-vest pouch or on their duty belt.
 
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I was issued an Ontario 499 pilot's survival knife, and a Camillus utility knife, when I was in the Navy, and I still have them. I was also issued one of those "switchblade" shroud cutter knives (the one with that was supposed to have the spring on the shroud cutter, but they got it backwards, and put it on the blade, instead 🤣 ). I don't know where that one went. I also carried my own SAK, which saw more use than the others.
 
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Benchmade and Spyderco were the two major brands while I still carried a badge. Gerber was also seen, and sometimes issued.
(We had a fixed blade, USN MK III, issued to our SRT team, but no one generally carried it. I gave mine to Fred Perrin as a gift.)

My most carried was an AFCK...doubly sweet because I later found out that Chris Caracci was the co-designer...and he was my first SWAT trainer back in the late 80's when he was a police officer.
 
Blues said:
Benchmade and Spyderco were the two major brands while I still carried a badge. Gerber was also seen, and sometimes issued.
(We had a fixed blade, USN MK III, issued to our SRT team, but no one generally carried it. I gave mine to Fred Perrin as a gift.)

My most carried was an AFCK...doubly sweet because I later found out that Chris Caracci was the co-designer...and he was my first SWAT trainer back in the late 80's when he was a police officer.
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Did they ever put his mustache in a museum? Because that mustache belonged in a museum.

It would be interesting to know how many LEOs carry a Spyderco Police Model and what percentage of Police Models in the wild are carried by LEOs.
 
A lot of the people in the military, as you rightly assert, are not 'knife people' and it shows.
Many have some form of cheap multi tool, typically Gerber or some cheap alternative.
The few that have a knife of some description will typically have a 'no name' folder of dubious quality, maybe one or two have a Victorinox.
Fewer still will have a Mora or other cheap bushcraft fixed blade.
The majority of these knives are used for cleaning rifles (scraping off the carbon - I know, madness...) opening boxes, cutting banding and prying/poking holes.
There are very few who have any actual interest in quality knives, but those that do carry some good to decent kit. Benchmade, KaBar, TOPS, SOG, Lion Steel, Eickhorn, Cold Steel are all brands I've seen carried by military personnel.
 
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rhino said:
Did they ever put his mustache in a museum? Because that mustache belonged in a museum.

It would be interesting to know how many LEOs carry a Spyderco Police Model and what percentage of Police Models in the wild are carried by LEOs.
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Mine was way better...

:cool:

I've had a Police model since the late 90's...but never carried much on the job.
 
Both of my brothers are cops.

One carries about four knives including a custom folder I made him, a large CRKT and a Gerber. Can't remember the fourth.

The other carries a MT Ultratech and a small fixed blade I made.

As for all of their co-workers I've met....the vast majority carry cheap junk, sub $40 knives.
 
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