Cliff, don't be silly. It is
NOT a HUGE PROBLEM IN PERCEPTION.
It's dealing with reality. It's self actualization, and the ability to recognize that survival situations don't happen when we are most prepared and best equipped for them.
-We weren't talking about clothing nor being a CPA. You digress.
-We didn't say you could transfer one skill for another.
You are not even arguing a tengential point, it's an entirely different point altogether, and it's one that no one has suggested. We did NOT say you could compensate for lack of fire by collecting more water!
Why would you even make that leap, or suggest that is what is being supported? I find that absurd, to use your own words.
It's apples and oranges.
Optimal has nothing to do with it. A survival situation is far from optimal. More on that later.
You cannot compensate for water collection by conducting a financial audit (duh?) No one went there.
However, to a great extent, you CAN compensate for lack of a 7" inch knife with a 3.75" knife. Just like you can compensate for not having a $100 compass by having a $5 pin-on compass. It's all just gear. [gasp]
(I know, I know, there are many "Knife Centrists" around, and we may have trouble lumping knives in with other gear).
Along those lines, We COULD use this same logic with many pieces of gear.
We can get along without a $50 titanium cup by using a metal soupcan.
We can compensate for lack of a tent with a poncho or even a hefty bag.
We can compensate for not having a 10" knife with our 5" knife.
and so on.
In the big big world of broad generalities, the one you have opened, from clothing to CPAs , a blade is a blade. It's one more piece of gear, yes, an important one, but, it's gear. The knife you have with you at the time you find yourself in a survival situation WILL, by default, BE your survival blade, that is, should you survive. If not, it's your "death blade".
I wonder what kind of knife the woman in Gila N.M. had?
Whatever it was, even if it was a small imported (cheap) knife, it WAS her "survival knife". If she never used it, then one may be able to reasonably say it wasn't really her survival knife. But if she did use it, then it aided in her survival, therefor becoming her survival knife.
But, contrary to the clothing example you used, the Alaskan fishermen, any given knife does not automatically doom your existance. Just like a chosen knife does NOT gaurantee your survival. One could reasonably argue that a $3.99 chinese-made folder would reduce your abilities to survive by a measured extent, over having a Large high carbon fixed blade, but , it doesn't mean you are automatically Dead because all you have is a cheap folder.
SO Cliff, are you saying after being swept down stream and the person only has a small folder after the ordeal, they should simply throw it in the river, since it is obviously worthless and wasn't designed with survival in mind? [rhetorical]
If we spill our canoe in the rapids, and we drag our sorry ass to shore, and check our pockets, and have an SAK, (our hatchet and fixed blade are gone) and the SAK is all we have, tell me, at that moment, as we stand there wet and cold, what is our "survival knife"??
It's not the fixed blade at the bottom fo the river. It's the SAK, of course.
(I don't think this concept is lost on many of the readers.)
Would we "prefer" a different blade? Well , probably.
Should we have prepared better and had our favorite fixed blade fastened to our person? an emphatic "YES".
AT that moment we get to shore, do we have a choice? No.
To reiterate: NO, we are wet, cold, and standing at river's edge with our SAK.
Attention:
Survival Situation begins HERE.
(disclaimer: Not a knock on SAKs, I would actually be relieved that it was my SAK.) Replace SAK with Mora Clipper, etc. still the same idea.
Cliff, If you claim we should strap the correct gear onto our bodies, firmly, so that we DO, in fact, have the exact necessary survival knife/gear, with us, at all times, then you are only reiterating what Pict and others have already said, and correctly so.
And that is actually the point to all of us, if we don't want to end up at river's edge with only a folder, we better damn-sight make sure we have our most precious gear strapped to our butt all the time. Otherwise, our survival gear, not only our blades, will be determined by the balance of: the sum of our gear, minus what went to the bottom of the river.
You interjected the word
optimally in your last sentence, somehow changing the arguement?
I would submit that a survival situation is never "optimal" , or else, it wouldn't be a survival situation. What makes it a survival situation are any of the handicaps or challenges, a person may be faced with: no knife, no firemaking, no shelter, no water, bad weather, hungry bears, etc.
We mitigate the number of survival situations we find ourselves in, and the severity of them, by being skilled, prepared, and equipped to deal with them.
Optimally speaking, if we were skilled enough, prepared enough, no sitaution would truly be a survival situation.
"A Survival Knife is the one you have with you when you find yourself in that situation" .... can also be stated another way ...... "Prepare yourself with a proper blade, one that can handle all of the tasks necessary in a survival situation, becuase if not, you may find your only survival knife is a cheap chinese folder in your pocket, and you really wouldn't want that, now would you?"
"The one you have with you" is not a statement of complacency, to somehow say, "HO hum, whatever you have is FINE" , Not at all!
It's a wake up call!!
It's a statement meant to provoke action on an individuals' part, to prepare themselves, and remain prepared or face the consequences for lack of preparedness.
It's like saying , "Carry a quality knife, meant for the tasks, as your life may depend on it."
Surely no one here will argue that statement? :thumbup: