You guys want to talk about survival knives?

I have a Benchmade LEUKU in CPM 3V

So... Great Survival Knives, huh?

What makes em great?

Aren't lots of the supersteels that hold an edge, very difficult to sharpen? 1095 or 1075 carbon steel is pretty easy to sharpen with right tools. I have stones, diamond stones and ceramics, plus the basic worksharp 1st model. The kitchen knives have been done once on the worksharp and edges are still very good. We have a 10" Chicago Cutlery slicer that gets used a lot on slabs of NY steak. Just a touch-up on a white Arkansas stone and it is great still.

Fallkniven is supposed to have some great pocket stones. I have a Gingher stone that is very good for shaping. Gingher makes about the finest scissors on the planet. Also have the green & blue DMT diamond folding pocket sharpeners, for the BOB and a file for axe/hatchet.

Interesting to watch DBK test edges on antler or bone. Very few of the specialty steels don't chip. I kept a steel-working chisel and small ballpeen hammer head in my kit to work metal with. Figured could make the handle easy enough, but no rock can strike a hardened chisel more than once or twice.


First knife I bought after selling my older Gerbers & CS knives was a TOPS Steel Eagle with saw spine and a mini-eagle that resides in the knife hilt. Big knife & little knife. Both are great and the mini-eagle is super for fine work. The blades are super sharp and the sawback works for notching etc. TOPS is supposed to be making the 7" model w/plain back these days. The 5" eagle could be had w or w/o the sawback. Very fine knife, if want a 5" hd blade for under $150.

For Survival, tough to beat the 2 knives in 1 setup. The knife fits well in an old Kydex sheath I have so I don't use the sloppy TOPS pouch.

Any of my big knives, thick machetes will work for Survival. The Ontario SP-53 is a great chopper. Heavy with a nice curved belly like a kukri. Ontario Kukri will also work great, and the BK-9 and Junglas. Not too wild about Bowie knives with traditional end styling. The Becker BK-9 combat Bowie is full blade out to the tip. I have broken the tip off a knife before...

Most knives can benefit from using a lanyard. Lanyard wrapping from thumb around back of hand to lash point enables firm grip and rear-most hold for better chopping action.

Seems to me that great heat treatment and a relatively non-brittle steel will enable good edge retention and then relatively simple edge restoration. If you wear a leather belt, you have a strop. A chef's steel can be kept in a kit, with a diamond stone or two. Even a few sheets of wet/dry sandpaper can work for honing if you have a very flat surface.

that's what i buy. i keep losing pocket knives. i don't
want to spend big bucks on something that i'm going to lose.

What's the old saying?

A big knife can usually do small knife work, but a small knife can't do big knife jobs...

I am a big fan of the tiny swiss army pen knives. Nice 1" blade and scissors and nail file. Have Wenger and Victorinox.

One CS knife from the 90s I kept is a CS Bushman; cost maybe $10, has the rolled hollow handle and leather sheath. There's a cheap spear and has a good edge.


What about Neck Knives?

Used to also have a couple diving knives... Somebody mentioned them for "river work". Have a folding Rapala 6" filet knife that's pretty cool.

When I was a kid, used to buy Case pocket knives at the corner hardware store. Never could keep those little folders when I was young.


In Alaska, we can own automatic knives. Bought my daughter a Boker. Pretty neat, side opening action.


The Knife really is the basic tool of mankind. Even Mowgli in The Jungle Book exclaimed pride of ownership: "Now I have my Tooth!".

just...

Is it worth swapping the Mora Garberg for a Lion Steel M5 cpm 3v.

If just carrying a fallkiven ceramic stone.

Or another grade lionsteel M5.

A safer handle and a thicker blade. To go with Mora pro s

?

£100 more.

3 is 2, 2 is one and one is none...

Nice blade.

I only have my Rambo Survival Knife that I ordered from the back of a Popular Mechanics magazine in 1985.

I sent cash, even though they said not to, and still got it.

Inside the handle is everything you need to survive, LOL!




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second comment on that site said that knife rusted in one week. That shouldn't happen with quality knives. That's an expensive one for rusting in one week.

Carbon steel will rust.....whether it a cheap or expensive knife made of it....carbon steels can be coated from the factory which give some protection until its worn thru or you can develop a patina that will also give some protection......basic knife care .....what did the people do before stainless steel came into use?.....

As I was given to understand, even stainless or rust free knives should be kept with a thin layer of oil on their edge.

If you are going to use a carbon steel knife for cooking, food prep etc, then it should be dishsoap washed and kept oiled with food grade oil. You're gonna wash it again after you use it, to remove bacteria and clean it for later use.

Every metal can oxidize. I have not used a ceramic knife, but they are out there. It is said that a napped blade is the sharpest for surgical scalpel use. I know there are microtomes capable of cell layer percentage slicing. Perhaps there are lasers many times finer than the head of a pin used for laboratory slicing?

The hollow handle with fishing line and hooks, matches and I think there was a wire saw in there…

I’ve never had a carbon rust because I’m not a shithead…that reviewer sounded like a shithead

in a survival situation a knife is a tool.. only that.

buy a tough knife that you can easily field sharpen.

Yep, Fish hooks, line, weights, a compass on the cap, a wire saw, matches, a bandaid,a superthin length of paracord.

Basically; EVERYTHING YOU NEED.



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Yes he my ex let him steal my knife from storage.

So... thread has come this far, but still no mention of Tracker designs?

The TOPS trackers are very versatile. The full-size #1 Tracker in finished configuration is a .25" slab of cutting machine. A bit wide to be an efficient slicer, but heavy enough to do hatchet work, use the front round edge like a Ulu, has a pretty lengthy straight edge, and that Great TOPS round edge that transitions the two and makes so many other tasks possible.

Not really a big fan of the scout carry metal clips TOPS uses on their Kydex scabbards, but other hardware can be rigged to work. If you had only one knife to work with, a Tracker might be what you'd want.

I mean, what are The Key Bushcraft Skills, for a survival event? Being able to create tinder to make a fire, process small wood for tending the fire, cutting and processing roots/vines for cordage, being able to baton small to medium diameter wood pieces, notching to enable fastening and tie downs. The Tracker reviews I've seen all remark about the knife's design working okay but not excelling greatly at all of these survival situation chores.

Pretty obvious that the Tracker works for skinning and other meat processing chores.

We once bought a young sheep from a homeschool friend down in Tx. Processing the carcass on our kitchen utility table was a very big task. I'd killed deer, but never processed and wrapped the meat. Not much of a big deal with an 80lb sheep, but splitting the pelvis was one helluva job. We have a Dexter meat cleaver, commercial grade, very thick steel. To cleave the pelvis I had to baton the cleaver with a piece of 2x4, which was fully destroyed by time the pelvis finally split.

So game processing is likely to be a real chore with any knife. Then there is the fact that bones are so heavy and brittle, as The DBK Guys show often enough, hammering bone will chip many of the hi-tech knife steels.


While the TOPS Tracker is meant to be a heavy-duty wilderness tool box of capabilities, I really wish could get it w/o the notching sawback spine. Maybe the splintering of your baton wood is supposed to happen to make fire starting materials? I dunno, but the whole notching thing is kind of over blown.


My own preference is the TOPS Skullcrusher design. Pretty much the same knife, except less blade sweep up front and a longer area for drawknife work behind the rounded transition edge between front and back. The SXB also has a bit more versatile handle and better sheath.

What I don't have, but have considered is the TOPS Cuma. One of these is available w/o the sawback. The Cuma has more of a Kukri sweep and lacks the focused round edge, but does have the solid spine, enabling easier use as a skinning blade. The Cuma also has a more versatile point for hole-making. Seems to be a modified short Kukri in many ways an excellent design.


There really is no other company like TOPS for all their incredible designs and quality results. Could they do better sheaths? For sure.

Back to the Tracker though... The #1 and #3 are the largest sizes; 3 being titanium, iirc. These knives are heavy and have a real hawk-hatchet sweep on the forward blade. With enough lanyard to choke way back on the micarta handle, they chop pretty effectively. The #2 is medium sized which is very versatile, and the #4 is a mini-Tracker, maybe a great neck knife if you want the a small package of Tracker features.

Not a fan of the blade shape and also there is no such need to an “all in one” knife in my opinion

Benchmade OTF Infidel

Yeah nice blade but illegal in my state of PA

That Tommy Lee Jones movie The Hunted didn't do the knife any favors...

Ever read the Tom Brown Tracker books? They're very good. In hands of a trained outdoorsman, no doubt the one-knife tool kit offers a lot of options.

I modded my SXB by grinding a finger choil and like being able to choke up on the blade. I like the smaller sweep angle, but I like skinner designs. Don't need the sawback, but I have Kevlar gloves could wear if doing much skinning work inside a carcass. I like my SXB very much for EDC as it is pretty lightweight. I am also unlikely to ever be without gear anywhere I might go off the AK road system which is so pathetically limited.

In the early 60's my family did Summer Vacation in Colorado. All the tourist traps had these big pocket knives with a spoon and fork on each side. Junk knives, with a thin leather pouch, but I remember bugging for one as a souvenir. So much has evolved since those days. Backpacking, custom knifemaking. Survivalism. Prepping....


OP says "not a fan" of Tracker knives... Sure. But, is being able to do a number of tasks pretty-well, in a Survival Situation, better than performing only one with excellence? I can argue the point that the more you can do pretty-well, the better off you are...

I filleted salmon with my big-ass Gerber Aussie Bowie. Great knife, but not the best slicer. A filet knife could have done a better job; but the Aussie did fine.

Are you likely to have all the gear you need when a Survival situation presents itself? Like, "aw shit, I'm lost and have to make a fire and get out of the wind"... Whatcha gonna have on you to accomplish that? Me? I probably have a medium ALICE Pack, a big caliber revolver and rifle, along with a few knives, fire makers, an 8' or 10' tarp to wrap meat in, plus some snacks an water. Sounds like a good camping trip down in the lower 48. Up here, it's common sense.


I dunno. Seems like a "survival Knife" is mostly compromise and up to the user to use it insightfully to accomplish many tasks.

A big chopper has more uses up where I live. Junglas, SP53, BK-9, Terrava Skrama, TOPS Vector, Kukris.

Why not carry a froe if splitting wood is a major task you envision?


Personally, I think the bushcrafting thing is an affectation. If you're SAS or Special Forces on an operation, then making a bed from timber with paracord might be a skill to employ, but carrying contractor bags and filling with leaves, foliage etc makes a decent short term bed too. How much paracord you gonna carry to Bushcraft your comfort in the wild? A 500' reel? Two or three?

Is a 2" neck knife or a belt carried push dagger a "Survival Knife"? Might be all you need to survive a street attack or mugging?


A buddy of mine used to have a Case hatchet & sheath knife combo. Cool set, but never saw him use it. Very collectible, I'm sure. I have an Eastwing hatchet that has seen a lot of use. One piece, forged. Very nice w/leather washer handle. Good steel.

Wow I had one of those as a kid…it was brown stag horn scales I believe..fork and spoon on the sides…wish I still had just for collection

SOG 4" blade

That’s a good blade but 4 in I’ll only do folders

I really don’t understand the hate for this thread?

BEST survival knife EVER. HOODLUM. [link to www.bladehq.com (secure)]

Wow, that is nice…

Brah, for $255 you could by a nice sword.

I don't think they make the same knife I have now, bought it over 20 years ago at a surplus store for like $45, great deal

In form and function sort of looks like this knife