survival knife

[RYP]

none of those are "survival knives" since survival depends on building shelter, fire and perhaps a smattering of hunting. The best thing you can have with you is this 25 dollar machete with saw blade on the other side.




If you were to add another "knife" to your survival kit, a leatherman with scissors or pliers pretty much rounds out your kit.

The folder is handy but I don't quite know what it would help you "survive". The Spetnatz shovel is for digging latrines and foxholes and an evil hand to hand weapon. The other kind of survival knife might be one that can quickly be brought into play and is designed for rapid self defense. I use a pen when I walk through environments that might lead to mugging or attacks, but will be designing a knife that will be released at the Janaury shot show.

[Bluemoon83]

Tell me just how is the "Tracker" not a survival knife? Have you seen the damn thing have you ever heard of Tom Brown JR.?
The tracker is a survival knife and an impressive one.

[RYP]

well first of all Tom Brown is the dude but his knife is kinda up in the Rambo knife category. Were do we start...well its $300 friggin dollars for a start. Secondly it weighs almost two pounds. Try wearing a two pound knife in the woods. Or even keeping one with you at all times. Finally it suffers from that crippling commercial problem of trying to be all things to all people. It might make a decent wood chopper but you can buy an axe, machete, saw and pocket folder and still have money left over and a pound to spare. The saw is a joke the point is useless and the blade and handle shape look like the best part of it.

The key here is "survive" in the wilderness" For that you need a multitude of tools and as I said before that would be a durable wood and brush chopper and a multi tool like a Leatherman or Gerber. And when pray tell is the last time any normal human been lost in the woods with a two pound knife???



Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker

Designed by famed Tracker, Tom Brown, Jr. and Manufactured by TOPS, this is the knife used in the movie "The Hunted", and was featured on the cover of the April, 2003 issue of Blade Magazine. It is a very real knife, designed to help you survive in the wilderness. It can be used as a draw knife, drill or awl, and for sawing or chopping. Each knife individually numbered with a serial number. FEATURES: • Full-Tang Fixed Blade designed by Tom Brown, Jr. • Blade Steel: 1095 High Carbon Alloy Rc 58 • Blade Color: Black Traction Coating • Handle Material: Black Linen Micarta® • Includes Lanyard Hole • Complete with Kydex Heavy Duty LBE Sheath order. Designed to be worn “Scout Style,” concealed close to your body at the small of your back, with a “right hand draw.” Can also be worn “Western Style,” on your belt at your Left Hip for a left-hand draw.
MEASUREMENTS:
• Blade Length: 4 1/4”

• Draw Knife: 2 1/8"

• Saw: 2 1/2"

• Thickness: Blade 1/4”

• Overall Length: 11 7/8"

• Weight: 1 lb 12 oz

Altucally if Gil Hibben added a real saw blade to his Rambo knife this might be a good contender:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216 ... mbo_IV.jpg

[Haydon 5]

I use a pen when I walk through environments that might lead to mugging or attacks, but will be designing a knife that will be released at the Janaury shot show.

I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[Woodsman]

A knife isn't a good survival tool for someone lost in the woods...

...A compass is.

Of course, if there is high iron content in the rocks, it will spin your needle around and get you all turned around, so then maybe a GPS is better...


Of course, if you're in the middle of a dense multi-tiered forest canopy, the GPS probably won't be able to receive sat signals, so then you'd better go back to the compass...


Of course, if you're in the middle of a dense multi-tiered forest canopy that is growing from soils which have high iron content in the rocks, well, you'd better have something to cut those trees down with so the GPS can receive signals from the sats.

From now on, nobody leave home without one of these:

[Dark11Crusader]

RYP, you pretty much have it, its not enough to take one tool. If you want a complete survival kit, its a good idea to go the George Washington Sear's Nessmuk route; a small folding knife, a larger (but thinner, not for chopping but for preping game) fixed blade of about 5 inches, and a small two- bit hatchet. A hatchet is the end all be all survival tool, if youre in the woods, but having a multitool and a well-made hatchet would pretty much have you set.

I agree, having a one-size fits all heavy survival knife is just that, something that does all tasks in a mediocre fashion. A combo works best, but just make sure its a combo you can USE.

And woodsman, you're SOL if you find yourself in that situation haha

[RYP]

Personally, I think a Sat phone might work better to get your ass out of trouble. But failing that I carry an axe and a large Randall Knife that I reshaped the blade to make it more a kukri shape. I also have a rusty machete with a honed blade you can shave with. I have used a winch a lot more than an ax though.

But if you really want something to save the day. Just have have a fifth of something expensive tucked into your survival kit.

[Dark11Crusader]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh God's magic medicine...


Though I also wouldnt say no to Woodsman with his chainsaw haha, that could come in handy in a tight spot

[Bluemoon83]

Ive carried the Tracker since 04-05 I love it I bought one for my buddy he was carrying that stupid Jungle primitive peice of shit, he loves it. I wear it alot, I wear it to hunt, I wear it in Iraq, and I wear it when Im knocking around on the farm, You'd get some strange looks in the city but its a good knife, and a survival tool with any utilitarian ideals it upholds the one life one knife standard. And yes I carried a sog multi tool and I have a woodsmans pal strapped on my pack sometimes. oh yeah and that machete you posted is like 17 feet long who the hell carries that? Id rather have a 2 pound knife than a 17 ft machete

[Dark11Crusader]

I'm more than happy with my gerber ASEK II, I've put that beast through its paces and its great if you have big hands. Not a superb chopper, and on the heavy side, but I like having it with me.

[Dark11Crusader]

And did I mention it was 50 bucks, unlike the 280 dollar tracker?

[media]

[Zero]

I'm far from a logger, but I've used a winch, an axe, and a chainsaw to knock down trees. The axe is hard for my pansy ass, the chainsaw scares me, and the winch is fun but feels like it would not be a complete solution, because there might be places where it couldn't be deployed.

So I have this:

http://www.campingsurvival.com/pochsawofacu.html



That's a 5oz solution to cutting through stuff.

I'm actually in the market for a new survival knife, but I'm waiting to see 'the RYP' before I actually try to make any kind of decision.

The hideaway is hard to beat for general utility


I'm thinking about this for the size category between 'pansy-ass 1.5in blade' and 'machete'.
http://www.crkt.com/mak1extrik.html

Also, I'm not much of a fisherman, but this seems cool:
http://www.crkt.com/muk.html

[RYP]

more people are rescued because they had a cel phone or matches than a knife and survival kit. But honestly a GPS is the bomb. I use it in cities to mark my hotel, i use it in the woods to estimate time over distance and ultimately if you get lost its all about losing your sense of direction and position and a GPS solves that. If you break your leg or are incapcitated you can light a fire with a BIC and if you are in range of cel phone service not only can you find where you are by triangulating cel towers you can actually call direction info for the nearest ranger station.

I have written books about this but most "survivial" lore is based on WW2 era stuff written by the Craighead twins for the airforce. The idea being that if you THINK you can survive you can hold out long enough for a plane to spot you. But real survival is much, much different.

[Dark11Crusader]

Very true, if we are considering it as a true survival situation. But truth be told, with the exception of RYP or those of us whose employment is placing our lives at stake, a knife isn't a survival solution. For myself, however, it is not so much having the knife to survive life and death situations. I've only had one or two of those in my short life. A knife is more of a tool, especially if you are skilled in using it as such. So for me, a survival knife would be one that, supplemented with my small home-made emergency kit, makes an unexpected night spent in the woods on a hunting trip more comfortable, or other such uses.

And obviously, one knife never does the trick. It's a combination that works best, and that's based solely on individual preference and what kind of activity you are doing. And cell phones and gps's are WAY more effective for being found, but a gps doesnt fix a snapped tent pole, or cut firewood when you forgot a hatchet, etc etc

For 98% of people, a survival knife (and more importantly, the knowledge and skill of how to use it!) are comforts, knowing that you can fare better in any situation you are in, be it proving to be fatal or not.

Sorry, I think we have a lot of conflicting definitions of "survival knife" being thrown around, through fault of my own as well