would you lend your knife in a survival situation?

I would say No. It your knife, which means that you are better able to gage its abilities and limitations. Just because it works for you doesn't mean that it will work for your buddy. It may very well be broken, or perhaps just add to the level of frustration. How many times has someone handed you a knife that just wasn't sharp enough for you, or perhaps even too sharp? If something needs to be cut then cut it yourself. The last thing you need in a crisis is to get into a sureal debate on whether, or not, you know how to sharpen or use a knife.

n2s
 
Nope. Never. If they're too dumb to bring a knife, they deserve to die:D . However, I might loan a cheap beater if I happened to have one available, and felt compassionate on that occasion.
 
After living in a Fraternity house, I learned quickly that the best thing to do was to carry a couple of those now infamous box cutter razor knives. I buy them in bulk from a wholesaler who prints different slogans on the sides.

TC
 
chris

Thanks for steering me back on track ..... still a hard question.
I like the comment on the chainsaw, ha ha ..... I don't lend that one out very often.
I have thought about this subject a little more and find myself debating the value of life vs that of the blade. I also think that it depends upon the person you are handing your blade to. The worst case scenario is that you don't get it back. I like to think that all my study of survival will help me to not depend so heavily on the blade. I tend towards the thought of having the blade being a bonus but not to count on it too heavily because I could be without it through no fault of someone else.
In the past the thought of not having a blade led me to the study of flintknapping and other primitive tools. This path has opened my eyes to survival with a very different frame of mind.
With all this in mind I would say YES. That knife may save my life in someone elses hands with the right instruction.

Survive with nothing but your life ...... my will is my most powerful tool.
 
dartanyon, yes, you are right to develop skills that make do with out a knife. I sure could use some practise in the flint knapping arena.
 
Years ago at work a guy asked to borrow my knife. I handed him my SAK and he promptly tried to pry the cap off of a bottle with the main blade. I showed him the cap lifter, and got my knife back. I think that people that know how to use a knife already carry one. I carry a SAK and a Sebbie, and hang on to them. Just my $.02. John
 
Shoot, after reading all these horror stories, my answer is, "No Way."

If somebody abused my Sebenza, I don't even want to know what I might be capable of!

(shudders at the thought of his own fury!):o
 
I'm never with *only 1 blade*... so I always have a beater. if they bust/ruin a 60USD knife, it's only 60USD out of *thier* pocket.

thinking of buying a cheap vic SAK for a beater though. maybe a soldier model.
 
Sometimes I think its worse to have your first aid kid in the wrong hands than your knife.
 
As a knife carrier, I always have a first-aid kit on me(or right next to me). My BDU pockets carry a small one, and the main one is in my pack. The small one can handle pretty much anything short of amputation of limbs. Not much danger of snakes or bears here.

have both my Emerg and Standard, as well as CPR "B"... not too much I can't handle, but I still keep in constant communication with "base"(radio comm, and truck available) or carry my cell(switch to analog, an no problems reaching civilization).
 
i have to agree with everyone here.i have never and never will loan many of my knives to anyone. not even my own parents. last time i did that my dad had tried to steal it on me. i have this old beater myself but i wouldnt even lend it out because theyd look at it and figure i dont want it back so they would leave whereever they please(and it has happened) as for carrying a first aid kit. i dont own one and even if i did i probably would not take it anyways. i know it would be wiser to have it, but even to make a sling you only need willow branches, or for a guaze you have leaves. a couple weeks ago i guess i had undermined the actual sharpness of my knife and it came straight down on my when i was sawing of a know with the serated edge of it(the seraated edge is meant for sawing wood and bone). and it had ome stright down on the back of my thumb(and yes i was cutting away from myself, it was just that when the blade slipped it came backwards rather then forwards from the action i had used) but anyways, it came down and went straight into the bone and would have kept going if i hadnt dropped everything when i felt it pierce the skin. but i had looked at it and moved my thumb around and kinda laughed at my own stupidity for cutting myself like that. so i picked everything back up and finished the knot before i realized my hand was covered in blood so i just took a leaf and some willow branches and tied it tightly around the wound.


anyways im getting off track now. but it is true. no matter who you lend the knife to its going to come back not the same as it was when you lent it out.

i advise do it yourself or let them suffer. thats my opinion but im sure most of you think otherwise.

adios for now.
 
I was never in a real survival sitiation, but I had some moments in live wich convinced me to consider very thorough whom I lend a knive.

on a day hike a friend asked me for my fixed to make a feather stick.
20 seconds later his left hand was bleeding, the doc made 3 stitches on the sinew and 3 more to the skin :barf:

one night at the camp, another friend asked for my knive. I told him to be careful, because it was freshly sharpened. He looked hurt at me and told me he KNOWS how to use a blade. Then he turned around and cut some meat on a METAL PLATE!!
:grumpy:
Since then everybody who asks for a blade gets a short, determined NO

In a real I`m on my own situation with somebody else????
DON`T THINK ABOUT IT PAL

:mad:
 
OK ....... so another way of looking at all this is from the other side of the fence.
Would you ever ask to use someone elses blade if for some reason you don't have your own?
Or are we all hypocrites?
 
I would ask to use a knife. If my 2 to 5 I normally carry are not available :rolleyes: I would also loan a beater if worth less that $15 or so, and it was not my last one..... (though i may allow them to think it is my last one)

If there were people together who knew eachother's abilities, then the question of loaning the blade is pretty much predetermined. If unknown people are thrown together, it has to be decided on the merit of necessity. If i am pinned down by the log/tree/brush/ropes/whatever and the knife or other blade has to be used by someone else to free me, i just might have to trust someone i normally would not.

Reminds me of the movie scene of the "retired" gunslinger, forever looking over his shoulder for the threat of someone wanting to make their name by plugging him, being shaved by the barber with a straight razor, laying back in the barber chair holding his pistol under the cloth ;)
 
NO!!!!! A couple of months ago I lent someone at work my month old Emerson Commander, five minutes later I got it back, still open(they could'nt work out how to close a liner lock:rolleyes:), edge dulled, and bloody great scratches in the blade coating:mad:. So never again, whilst I'm posting does anyone know if Emerson offer a refurb service?

Shaun
 
A point to consider is that in a "survival" situation you may have to lend your knife to another either because you can't do it (injury) or need to share the work load.

-Cliff
 
A friend of mine has been known to say "I'll loan anything but my car or my wife, because the borrower might throw a rod in either". There ought to be some similar phrase for knives and guns.

Anyway, folks I go into harm's way with are all clear about what is important and why it is important. To them I would either borrow or lend a knife- even if it was the last one on earth. Anyone else that wants my knife can have it. I'll take it back after they bleed-out.

Why so harsh? In a survival situation you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Anyone who finds themself in a survival situation without a knife (or who broke or lost theirs) becomes part of the problem. And, as hard as I try to not depend upon this simple instrument, learning alternatives like making my own or doing without, it is still among one of my most prized and often used implements.
-carl
 
Back in '90, while deer hunting with my BIL in NV, I got my deer and did my thing. BIL got skunked that weekend.

We went out the next weekend to get his.

He had "forgotten" to bring a blade. Doh!

He then asked me for my knife (a Dawson 36). Like a fool, I took it off my belt, watched him put it in his right rear jeans pocket (sheathed) and walk out of camp.

He came back later that afternoon at dusk dragging his buck, already gutted.

I asked for my knife. He reached back to his right rear pocket and kinda gave me a weird look. Doh!

I knew it. Never loan your knife to ANYONE. The next morning I got up and backtracked to where he'd shot and cleaned his deer.

Found it. Dew all over everything, sheath was soaked, back of blade was all scratched up.

I was P.O.'d at him, but madder at myself for violating one of my Dad's rules (Never loan your knife/gun/tools to anyone unless you don't want to see them again).

When I got back into camp and BIL was just waking up I lit into him. The scratches came from him pounding on the spine with a rock to break the pelvic bone. Plenty of wood branches all around but he picked a rock to hammer a $175 blade into bone.

He and I no longer hunt together but that's another story.

I do not recommend loaning a knife to anyone, ever, period. If they think they don't need to carry one with them, who am I to argue.

Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid.

Adios
 
As a rule I don't loan or lend any of my tools, and especially those with which I have a personal connection (come on guys, you know what I'm talking about!). Normally I will give a tool to someone who needs it, but I never expect that tool to return, or, if it does, I don't expect it in the same shape. And I only give tools that I have one or more spares!
 
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