What ever happened to the real knives!?!?!

orca8589 said:
Funny - I was running around on errands this morning and that very thought hit me: I've not heard of a tip breaking off of a kukri from HI
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Good point! Another good point is that I've not heard of anyone being able to use a HI kukri's tip for anything even remotely resembling "precise work." Those things have a tip more akin to a hammer's head than a knife's point. Is it any wonder if it doesn't break? ;)
 
tirod3 said:
Opening C-rations with a Kabar has always been a defining moment in discovering who in the squad needs to be watched out for. 1) They can't hang on to a simple thing like a P-38, even tho they were packed in every frickin case and handed out like candy; 2) they use a large knife when they could have borrowed their buddies P-38; 3) they think knives are can openers, entrenching tools, or prybars. Most quit carrying them.
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well speaking of p-38 can openers, this was a tool designed for opening cans!!! However they became very popular for many uses such as

Can Opener
Seam Ripper
Screwdriver
Clean Fingernails
Cut Fishing Line
Open Paint Cans
Scraper
Digging
Reach in and Clean Out Small Cracks
Bottle Opener
Gut Fish (in the field)
Scale Fish (in the field)
Test for 'Doneness' When Baking on a Camp Fire
Prying Items
Strip Wire
Scrape Pans in the Field
Lift Key on Flip Top Cans
Chisel
Marking Tool
Deflating Tires
Pick Teeth
Measurement
Striking Flint
Stirring
Puncturing Plastic Coating
Morse Code
Box Cutter
Opening Letters
barter
Write Emergency Messages
Scratch an Itch
Save as a Souvenir
Bee sting removal tool (scrape off w/ blade)
Knife sharpener
shuck oysters
 
Elen said:
Good point! [:D] Another good point [:D] is that I've not heard of anyone being able to use a HI kukri's tip for anything even remotely resembling "precise work." Those things have a tip more akin to a hammer's head than a knife's point. Is it any wonder if it doesn't break? ;)
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Khukuri come in many and differing styles. Some have acute points (but not like a MORA), and some do not. Some are more curved than others. Some are broad and others proportionately narrow. All HI khukuri are relatively thick, made of spring steel, and differentially hardened. They should be able to take stress and impact, but you could chip out the edge misusing them for screwdrivers.

Of course, khukuri traditionally come with a small utility knife in the scabbard in recogition of the need for a knife for fine work. You don't select a kilo of khukuri as the tool of choice to trim your toenails. I use a small puukko as the utility knife for one of my fairly large HI's.
 
tirod3 said:
Opening C-rations with a Kabar has always been a defining moment in discovering who in the squad needs to be watched out for. 1) They can't hang on to a simple thing like a P-38, even tho they were packed in every frickin case and handed out like candy; 2) they use a large knife when they could have borrowed their buddies P-38; 3) they think knives are can openers, entrenching tools, or prybars. Most quit carrying them.

The innocence of youth is great to remember, but the inability to learn better becomes the stumbling block of adulthood. Stories like "opening cans with Kabars" are told to kids for a reason - they did it once and learned better, can the kid?

I fondly remember using tools the wrong way with the same warm thoughts of using an outhouse in January . . .
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P38s were not always easy to get. They were packed only one per four boxes of rations, the idea being that eventually, everybody would wind up with one. I used my Boy Scout knife can opener, never had a Kabar, but by the late '50s, bayonets had shrunk to knife size, the theory being they could serve a dual purpose. Actually, they were all but unusable as knives. Their best use was to open C ration cans, although forget about cutting up the cardboard B unit containers. We were told that dull blades were better for skewering your opponent because they were easier to pull out. Fortunately, I never had the opportunity to test this in practice. :eek:

Thomas Linton said:
1. Boy are you dating us! C-rats!!! (Wanna' trade limas and ham for beans and franks?)

2. The leading use of issued combat utility knives in WWII was opening C-rats. My uncle was even taught how in Basic (spine at 90 degrees to rim/cut a cross in lid/bend down resulting tabs when done/watch sharp can edges).

3. While I understand why one might be forced to misuse a tool, doing so by design is another deal. But to each his own.
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Ah, a true gourmet. Beans and franks, or chicken and noodles, were the only C rations I tried that didn't leave a nasty aftertaste lasting for hours.
 
Thomas Linton said:
Khukuri come in many and differing styles. Some have acute points (but not like a MORA), and some do not. Some are more curved than others. Some are broad and others proportionately narrow. All HI khukuri are relatively thick, made of spring steel, and differentially hardened. They should be able to take stress and impact, but you could chip out the edge misusing them for screwdrivers.

Of course, khukuri traditionally come with a small utility knife in the scabbard in recogition of the need for a knife for fine work. You don't select a kilo of khukuri as the tool of choice to trim your toenails. I use a small puukko as the utility knife for one of my fairly large HI's.
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True words! :thumbup: The small utility knife is of course small, and then it's not very strong - so it's not good for prying stuff, so there we go again. :D
 
What is worse than to pose a 15 cent question and to have to listen to a $385 answer?
 
From the best song ever written about a knife, or at least that I've ever heard:

My father was a good man
A lawyer by his trade
And only once did I ever see
Him misuse the blade
It almost cut his thumb off
When he took it for a tool
The knife was made for darker things
And you could not bend the rules.

The Randall Knife by Guy Clark
 
I have collected military knives for many years and the only one that I own that came with a story of being used was a WWII Kabar (Camillus actually). I got it at a sort of surplus store. The guy said that the guy who brought it in had used it to dig a quickie fox hole on a landing beach. I'm trying to remember which beach, but its not coming to me. He said something about being pinned down by machine gun fire.
 
The best All-Around Knife, if you could only have one, in my opinion is:

1. Cold Steel Bushman or GI Tanto
2. Cold Steel Recon Tanto, or SRK
3. USMC Combat Knife by Kabar, Ontario, Camillus or Spec-Plus,
and never go without at least 1 P-38.

Semper Fi!
 
Trading beanie weinies for ham and lima beans is like trading lasagna for a dehydrated pork fritter. Yeah, sure!

There in lies a point - from the WWII era, then the inclusion of P-38's to do the job right, to today, where an MRE can be opened by hand with no knife at all.

If y'all are looking for P-38's, the Sportsman's Guide offered them in their latest Surplus Catalog in both sizes. I always carried a Vic SAK to do the job - it could open cans, cut leather, saw wood, bore holes, twist flat and phillips screws, and trim my nails and hair. And it wouldn't open up and spear me in the chest hanging off my dog tags.

That's a real outdoorsman's tool.
 
Wow! This thread is all over the place! I'm getting dizzy!

Something for everyone! :D
 
I think some poeple miss the whole "prying" issue with thicker stock knives.

Stanley makes a fine prybar. I carry a small one in my go bag. And have larger ones at home that seem like they could pry anything open. Cheap to boot. So if all I need to do is "pry" something then the prybar is my tool of choice.

But oddly enough they do not chop or cut very well.

On the other hand I have knives that are .25" thick and thicker, but still manage to pushcut through a 2" phone book several times. (Yes I have video of this). That is sharp enough for anything I might be cutting. And yes, they can even pry decently if my prybar is not around. They chop good as well.

I love thin knives and feel a well sharpened, thin knife makes a better cutter/slicer than a thick knife. But the thin knife will not be able to pry nearly as well. So if I need one tool to do many jobs well then my thicker knives work best for me. They are surely sharp enough, can easily chop or baton, can pry, and more with out the worry of the tip/edge damage my thinner knives would suffer.

Sure I could take a prybar, shovel, axe, hammer, and a knife with me to ensure that I had the very best tool for each individual job. But I just do not like carrying that much gear around unless it is in my car.

So, and this is just my opinion:

(1) Thiner knives: best slicers given the correct geometry.
(2) Thicker knives: Best all around single compact "survival tools" that still cut damn good.

Knives have evolved into tools that can be specialized or very broad in their intended tasks. Just choose one that works for you and use it. ;)
 
I cut things every day. On an average day I put in a total of several minutes of cutting. On a busy day it may get up close to a solid hour. I don't think that I have pried anything (at least using a tool) for a year. Usually I find other ways to apply some leverage.

So for me cutting effectiveness is about 10,000 times more important than ability to pry. If I need a knife to be more durable I switch to tougher alloys, broader blades, and only moderate increase in thickness. The only reason that I go thicker than about .2 inch thick is if I want something to work like an ax, not because I want to pry.

How often do you guys use your prybars/crowbars?
 
Jeff Clark said:
How often do you guys use your prybars/crowbars?
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Well, I had the unusual opportunity to replace the engine in my F150 a while back and used several different pry bar lengths to get er done. Separating the heads, engine from tranny, engine from the mounts, and countless other push/pull tasks. Its amazing how much shoe horning is involved in removing and replacing an engine. A pry bar is useful for getting that stubbord drive shaft out of the tranny, and frozen u joints are easily taken care of. Looks like I might have to pull and rebuild the tranny soon, enter the bars! :)

I got a multi pack of 5 different sized pry bars for Xmas a few years back, from 6" to 24", those buggers have been the most useful tools I have.
 
I have used my large prybars countless times during many hours of home improvement. Separating 2x4s, deep nail removal, and just plain old demolition. But to be honest my smaller ones just sit in my BOB for emergencies. But I plan on changing that as they are so useful.
 
I'm of the mind that a knife is not a pry bar.

However, that said, I don't mind prying with some of my fatter Busses.

Case in point...

FatW2.jpg
 
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