Youth hiking/camping trips... knives?

peripatew

peripatew

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Jul 31, 2007
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So, I'm all in favor of knife education. And I'm all in favor of using the outdoors for enjoyment, rest, and teaching opportunities. I'd love to teach some of my students (I'm a youth minister) proper knife etiquette, but I also don't want to make that a bigger priority than it should be. Mean, I don't want to spend 50% of the time teaching them about knives in order to feel comfortable with them using them. A lot of kids have zero knife time, and I don't want to teach people how to sow up jugulars with floss 5 miles into the wilderness.

So, I plan on using the wilderness a lot in what I do, sometimes just a short hike, an overnighter, or a 3+ day trip. I'd likely save big knife education for the longer trips since it would be more manageable. I'm all about being holistic in teaching, but what are your thoughts on knifes and short term trips for students (ages 13 - 18, and I would definitely have parental consent first, and some nice liability and medical forms too).

SO,if you were going to do this, what knife would you buy for everyone? I'd thought about a bucket-o-moras... but I've little experience with them, and I don't know how good they are at slicing. I much prefer a full flat grind for a general camp/backpacking knife. Other thoughts? I wouldn't mind being able to get the blade customize with a simple logo or something as well.
 
I always call Mora's on here but that's just to get a bit of a reaction !
I think a bucket of Mora's would be a great idea. Look at how many survival instructors issue Mora's on their courses, if this was just because they are cheap then why not Gerbers, Bucks or one of the other companies that offer budget lines? The simple reason is that Mora's do work and work quite well !!!!!
 
The moras would work fine on slicing. The downside would be that they are extremely sharp and lack any sort of blade guard; maybe not a good idea for beginners.

Now that I think about it, some of the moras do have blade guards. Almost any of the modern mora knives from Erickson's or Frost's would work. Check out Ragnar's:

http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html

I like the 510, 840 and 780, but there are many other options.

Good luck with your educational hiking trips. Sounds like a great idea. :thumbup:
 
Well I have already given my little guy his 1st couple of blades but he only carries in the woods. I started him off by having him help me cut strings and the occassional piece of tape or paper. We had some basic safety 1st and later after he demonstrated he understood the safety stuff, I would ask him to help me. Things like "Would you cut this string while I hold the ends?". Just kinda look for times when it is safe for the little ones to cut and don't make a big deal out of it. Safety is very important but you don't want to make the kids afraid of knives by overdoing the what ifs and you don't want to overstimulate them by making knives a part of everything around camp either. A healthy respect is what you are looking for :) Oh and do keep a 1st aid kit and some knowledge of what to do for cuts. Eventually everyone gets bit. They'll need to know how to react and what to do. Things like don't panic,tell an adult, hold the cut closed and press. I have gone as far as to explain how my son is alowed to take his shirt off and use it for a bandage if he needs to.
 
I remember my first knife. A Schrade Barlow given me by my Aunt Dottie on my 5th birthday. It was cool. I don't remember that well but my mom tells me my first "bushcraft" chore with it was to cut footholes in my baby brothers play pen so he could climb out:thumbup:

Good 60's liberal parents raising me on Dr Spock's book they just laughed and didn't even take the knife away! As I recall the plastic scales finally fell off it.:D

Siegle,

My wife still has a pocket knife given her by her dad similar to the one you picture with the point gone.
 
I think Bill hit the seal on the head. That's pretty much exactly what I would suggest. However, if you wanted to have more of a "knife usage and awareness course" of some kind, obviously it would be taking a slightly more indepth course of instruction. You could have a little time now and again to do kind of an "arts and crafts" session once in a while using knives. Before each session, you could just touch on general knife safety and then turn them loose. Not too much emphasis on the safety, just enough, and more on the cutting techniques. As far as the type of knives to use, I would still go with a Mora. They make some with a front guard only (i.e. Laminated hafl guard) or a double guard (i.e. the Scout Model) so you can decide. I personally would recomend one of the half guard models as it will keep their hands from sliding up on the blade, but still offer them the option of using their thumb up on the spine for certain kinds of cutting. All of them are nice and inexpensive.
 
moras and SAKs like the one Bill's boy has in the pic are great. some of the "my first victorinox" series have a saw as well as the round tip blade and come with a couple of lanyard and leach type carry options.
I live and care for 6 boys who all have multiple mental health issues and when we "carve" in our camp we use these knives, small puukko and opinels.
You can get all of these, screaming sharp pretty easy also, which I think adds to their safety factor.
be safe... Ted
 
Bill Siegle said:
Well I have already given my little guy his 1st couple of blades but he only carries in the woods. I started him off by having him help me cut strings and the occassional piece of tape or paper. We had some basic safety 1st and later after he demonstrated he understood the safety stuff, I would ask him to help me. Things like "Would you cut this string while I hold the ends?". Just kinda look for times when it is safe for the little ones to cut and don't make a big deal out of it. Safety is very important but you don't want to make the kids afraid of knives by overdoing the what ifs and you don't want to overstimulate them by making knives a part of everything around camp either. A healthy respect is what you are looking for :) Oh and do keep a 1st aid kit and some knowledge of what to do for cuts. Eventually everyone gets bit. They'll need to know how to react and what to do. Things like don't panic,tell an adult, hold the cut closed and press. I have gone as far as to explain how my son is alowed to take his shirt off and use it for a bandage if he needs to.
Click to expand...

Bill I don't know a thing about kids but that one looks happy.

-RB
 
I think the Mora idea would be perfect ( with proper task training) .
My twin boys first bush set will be matching Mora clippers & 12" Tramontina machete's :D Their firs pocket knives will be a couple of Vic. SAKs !
 
I second the Moras and SAK. If you are gonna buy the Moras, go pick them up on sportsmansguide.com before I buy the rest of them for my future uses. As far as SAK, the Boy Scout models are the best IMHO.
 
I think SAKs would be best. That might as well learn to use one of the most flexible knives there are. I would throw in a few fixed blades for special projects.
 
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