Subject: Re: Knives for Wilderness

From: [email-masked] (Joe Bushong)
Date: 17 Sep 1994 05:53:10 GMT

*WARNING* everything that follows is just MY opinion! (And I hate having 
to start every sentence with "In my opinion,..." so it's implied from now on)

The most important thing about a "survival knife" is having it with you 
in a survival situation. Period. It doesn't matter if you've got an 
awsome outragously expensive knife in the car, at home, whatever... If 
something bad happens - you need a knife immediately and have to have it 
on you.

To me, this limits the discussion to medium sized folding knives for 
unplanned events. I carry a Swiss army knife 24-7 (OK...whenever I am wearing 
pants...). I have owned my Victornox Huntsman for many (+5 now) years. I find 
it to be the perfect size for keeping in my back pocket alongside my wallet. 
It is the perfect width to hold easily in the hand (mine at least...). The 
giant Swiss Army knives are MUCH to wide to be useful...and half of the junk 
on them is dead weight anyways. The Huntsman has the perfect selection of 
tools. The saw is excelent (cross cut?)and will cut down a 3-4 inch tree. I 
bought the Boy Scout version (heh...I was a Boy Scout at the time...never 
knock an organization that teaches honor as a virture) and feel that ALL 
Swiss Army Knives should have a Philips-head screwdriver in place of the 
corkscrew. The Swiss might carry bottles of wine with them for all I 
know but in the "real world", the corkscrew is pretty much useless. Both the 
large and the small blades can be made extremely sharp (I use a Lansky 
sharpening kit with a diamond Fine hone as my final step).
All in all, the perfect knife. Very moderately priced at $30 or so. Also 
makes a great gift (trust me...they will love you for it...)

The Leatherman tools are very nice but are more of "a pair of pliers 
with a knife on them" than the other way around. In my day-to-day life, I 
just don't seem to need a pair of needle nosed pliers all that frequently, 
and when I do, I bring a pair along. I know people who swear that the 
Leatherman tool is the greatest invention since fire, and if it works for 
them...who am I to argue.

I would also consider the Spyderco Clipits series as great carry knives. 
They can be opened with one hand (with practice this becomes automatic). 
They come in a variety of sizes (go with the Zytel plastic handled ones, 
the stainless ones are heavy and expensive). My only reservation is not 
being able to sharpen the serrated versions but I have had friends tell me 
that the special SpyderEdge pattern never seems to get dull. And did I 
mention the full range of handle colors...All in all, probably a much 
better "knife" than my Swiss, but definitely not a better "tool".

I also own a Cold Steel SRK sheath knife which I would carry if there 
wasn't a stigma against large, openly carried, sheath knives. The SRK is 
an excelent knife and will do everything that an expensive hand-made 
knife will do. Cost me $50, which is an tremendous value/cost ratio. 
K-Bars are the same way and they are available everywhere. I just can't 
see putting any hard use on a knife that I couldn't afford to replace ,and 
if you own a "work knife" what's the point of you having the "good knife"? 
The Carbon-V steel will rust in the places you scratch off the black 
coating. The handle on the SRK (and all Cold Steel knives) is perfect. They 
have knife ergonomics down pat. It feels exactly right. If it ever came down 
to a "me and one item" senario, my SRK is what I would bring. I don't 
think there can be any higher praise than that.

If you are interested in the best prices for knives, email me. I have a 
couple of knife catalogs.

Tapeworm