What knives do Special Forces use?

marcinek said:
Have you read anything in this thread? Some Spec Ops guys are knife junkies....most are not. They want a reasonably priced knife that stands up to some abuse and certainly that is what Cold Steel does.
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as long as the one's they're using are made in the US, than they should be ok, cus the ones made in china are pos. :D
 
I am good friends with a Vietnam era special forces soldier who gets teared up when speaking about his Ka-Bar.he wants me to try and find him another as his was lost in a recent move.this really bummed him out.he loved that Ka-Bar.i hope to get him one for Christmas.
much respect,david
 
cards94 said:
well, the seals are the best of the best, and you would want the best equipment for your solders. when i think of the best, cold steel doesn't jump out at me. :p
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at the risk of sounding argumentative, I have to play devils advocate here. I have two issues with this blanket statement of yours... first off "seals are the best of the best" pretty bold when you consider the company they keep, so where does this absolute statement come from? I guess CAG/ACE/DELTA, or ODA/Green berets and on down the line are just useless and have no merit when it comes to "best" according to what you wrote. SEALs are the best combat swimmers the U.S. military has at their disposal, I recon... this is a statement I could agree as it stands to reason. are the seals the go to guys for long term reconstruction of a country's infrastructure or overthrowing a govenrment? nope... ODA. top counter terrorism pic... that goes to CAG/ST6, not conventional seals. its like me saying "a spyderco is the best knife a soldier can carry" for an emergency backup to cutting himself out of a harness maybe, but hardly the go to in a hand to hand fight... or breaching a door... everything is in perspective. the other part that gets me when you say things like this is that as stated numerous times... just because someone is a jedi ninja when it comes to being a super soldier, that no more qualifies that person to pick a good knife than it does to pick a good falafel. they are men who use the tools... the experience with those tools is varied as is their knowledge of what makes one of those tools better than the other.
 
rustyrazor said:
just because someone is a jedi ninja when it comes to being a super soldier, that no more qualifies that person to pick a good knife than it does to pick a good falafel.
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That's easy...there are no good falafels. :D
Shawarmas, on the other hand, are truly awesome. :thumbup:

As for what knives Special Forces use, I will now give the definitive answer: They use the type that has a handle and a blade.
 
cards94 said:
as long as the one's they're using are made in the US, than they should be ok, cus the ones made in china are pos. :D
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Yeah, because the people churning out iphones with insane precision are incapable of making blades. :rolleyes:
 
I plan to join the SEALs in two years, please do not speak negatively of that. I am not trying to start a debate on how hard becoming a SEAL is. From preparing for that and speaking with veterans and active duty soldiers it seems like knives vary. My bro wasnt spec ops he was just military police. He carried a black tanto Kabar in Iraq. He told me all the guys he knew careied Gerber, Cold Steel, or any given multi tool. The other veterans i spoke with confirmed this. Though they said Marines tend to lean more towards Kabar. As for spec ops, everyone i spoke to says they vary even more. Just that they are usually of highger quality. Most spec op guys arent knife enthusiasts that i know of though.
 
They use whatever they want, from a friend of a friend (don't know if its true) but he said seal can point to what they want in a catalog etc and they will get it
 
Fwiw, the Air Force survival instructors I met in Alaska had a LOT of SRK's in their knife pile. One mentioned really liking them; he also had an Esee 3 on his belt.
 
Cold Steel SRK is the only one that I can definitely identify from the SEAL bud/s class training video awhile back, on the discovery channel I believe.

Other services I have no idea.
 
Thanx for all the input Guys....been interesting!

Guess the bottom line is they are really no diff than you and me when it comes to knives.
I kinda thought their lives depended more on a knife.
But seeing as we don't have any ground wars like we did Vietnam and before......
Guess they aren't as needed now as they were then.
Looks like us as hikers and campers use a knife more than the Guys in the Military!
 
No... Not at all chief. Quite the contrary. These men use and depend on their knives in ways the average user never will... My point was simply that just because they carry knives for their jobs doesn't make them experts in what makes a good knife.
 
So, the SRK is issue SEAL?

So was the Buckmaster.

Procurement officers get a lot of recommendations, especially from outside sources, once it wends it way thru channels, the contract is let and the anointed blade is shipped to become a Navy SEAL! knife. Why that matters is up to who's done the best job in sales getting the contract - because he knows every wannabe and mall ninja in America will line up to buy it.

As said, SEALS aren't any different than we are, they certainly are not metallurgists, forgers, factory fabrication experts, or materials experts who could even begin to put up an informed opinion about knives. Bluntly, they use what is handed to them, or they try to figure it out just the same as we do. In that regard, they don't even have to like knives. Their primary weapon is a firearm first. They act - not sit around trying out new blade designs to achieve the perfect balance of karma and intrinsic death dealing power in one edged tool.

The whole crazy cult of the Navy SEAL knife exists among boys 13 and older, up to the point they join the service and learn otherwise. Those left outside never learn the facts and continue to collect them thinking they somehow are the icon of combative power and skill. In reality, not.

Seals use what is issued, and in a lot of cases, they barter them off when the knife is especially capable of attracting a good deal. In the day, it was reported the Buckmasters got a lot of trophy deals done before the new wore off.

It should be pretty obvious that having moved from the issue Navy knife, thru the Buckmaster, then to the SRK, that somebody in SEALs buying the knives either doesn't know much about them, or simply doesn't care. The next vendor is in line ready to pitch their wares, and the next NEW! Navy SEAL knife is waiting for a signature on the dotted line.

What will it be, next year, or the year after? They don't buy too many, and once gone, the next knife is waiting to be chosen.
 
In regards to folders and armed forces, I don't know that anyone uses these or not, not really the point. What is the point that 3 years ago I bought a Cold Steel Espada for a friend and remember looking up information on it. The locking mechanism on that knife can handle some amazing pressures without failing. Not to mention that it's almost a folding pocket sword so it's good for self defense. I don't know if it would be my first choice as I'd rather have some distance between myself and my attacker but to say that a folder can't be trusted is a little odd IMHO.

EDIT: As a matter of fact I am pretty sure that I remember that the Cold Steel Espada locking mechanism can handle 500 pounds of force against the locking mechanism without any sign of it buckling, breaking or otherwise failing.
 
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Folders are fine for backup... And yes. The lock mechanisms can handle a lot of force in some knives... The problem with most folders is when you put that pressure from the side or in a twisting scenario... That's where most folders run into problems compared to a well made fixed blade.
 
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