How Do I Pick Out a Survival Knife?
Posted on September 17, 2007
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A survival knife is not a fighting knife. These are two different items and should not be confused. A fighting knife is more akin to a bayonet. The idea of the fighting knife is to eliminate a threat in whatever form it comes. A survival knife is your key tool too surviving in the outdoors.
There are so many “survival knives” available on the knife market that would qualify as may different types of knives such as the aforementioned fighting knife, tactical knives and others. What I want to do here is separate a good solid survival knife from the less practical.
Let’s talk about what you don’t want in a survival knife.
Survival Knife No-No’s
Do not buy a double edged “survival knife”.
The double edge is a design that has been perfected for a fighting knife such as a bayonet. The design allows for an easy thrust and an easy removal. The drawback is that the tips on these knives are weak and tend to break.
Avoid Massive Knives
The bigger the knife, the better. Well, not for survival purposes. Knives that are too big are very unpractical and extremely difficult to handle. These large survival knives are for the movies, not reality. Can you see yourself constructing a shelter of limbs and such trying to make accurate cuts with a Crocodile Dundee knife? I don’t think so.
The Hollow Handle Survival Kit Knives
This doesn’t work and isn’t wise. These hollow handles do not last very long. They are not full tang, obviously and are usually glued in place with a few roller pins. You take one of these into a tough situation and you’ll be coming back with a handle in one hand and a shiny blade in the other.
The Must-Haves of a Survival Knife
First, you should ensure that the inscription on the blade says “Rambo III” and you’ll be fine. Just kidding, ignore that last comment.
Full Tang
Isn’t that the stuff astronaut’s drink? Well, yes it is, but Tang hasn’t volunteered to send me a commission check to advertise their product, so we’ll leave that for another time.
A full tang is simply one solid piece of steel. One end is turned into your knife blade, the other is thick, solid and extends up into the handle. The full tang is virtually indestructible. Commonly, the scales, or handles are attached to each side of the tang to make the handle.
Then You Have the Narrow Tang
Nope, it’s not diet tang to make narrow astronauts.
A narrow tang is still a solid piece of metal. However, the handle side of the blade is narrowed down so that a handle may be designed and fitted around it. At times, a pommel or end cap is added and secured by a bolt or a weld. However, this is still a good knife as the tang extends fully into the handle. It’s still near impossible to break the blade from the handle. You’re safe with one of these.
Is It the Size of the Blade that Makes the Man?
Well, that question can only be answered by each and every individual. If you find that you are short in stature, you may wish to purchase a long blade knife to compensate. Again, I’m kidding, and I apologize to any short survivalists that I have offended.
Let’s get down to business. I like the blade on a survival knife to be about four to six or maybe even seven inches. These are ideal. My idea of surviving may be different than some though. The majority of my survival experience comes from military training. With this, you are instructed to live and move. That’s it. You are looking for a way out of your situation.
I know that there are many folks who define survival in a much more complex way. They want a survival knife that will help them in a world-is-coming-to-an-end type scenario. They plan on building shelters and such and want a huge knife to hack down small trees and large limbs.
I go with the shorted blade because it is compact. If I foolishly decide to pry something with my knife, it’s less likely to snap than a longer large blade. I can prove my theory by my drawer full of knives with extra short blades, and many still snapped that I haven’t spent the day sharpening back into an odd looking point.
The more compact blade also is ideal for working longer hours with your knife. Try hanging onto that Bowie/Croc Dundee/Rambo: First Blood knife and work on something for a few hours. That muscle between your thumb and pointer finger will be quite fatigued and your hands will ache for days. The compact knife is designed for work and fits the hand snuggly.
What About Steel? Is It Going to Rust?
Well, it sure might and most likely will. The thing with survival is that you are in an extreme environment that isn’t friendly to the body or equipment. You have to exert much more effort to maintain your equipment than when kicking back on the couch with your Lansky Sharpener (What’s a blog post without an ad? Come on now, a man’s gotta make a living.) and your favorite knife watching the ball game.
There are some steels that are better than others. Although the topic would fit nicely here, I’m not going to go into it too much. There are so many opinions on this and a million tests reside on the Internet for your consumption.
The biggest point here is maintenance. Now, if you are surviving your tail off, you may not have a bottle of oil handy for lubricating your goods. And, even if you do, you will likely run out over time. What you must do is try to keep that blade dry as much as possible. The condensation and moisture will make your blade rust.
Now, your blade is not going to rust to pieces in a month or two. You may see rust, but don’t stress about it so much. That blade will still work.
To keep your blade dry, just simply wipe it down often. To clean it, stab it into the dirt a few times. (Note – This will dull the crap out of your blade though.) I know one of my jungle warfare instructor used to say that animal grease, you know, after cooking the little rascal, is a great lubricant. But, it also attracts the creepy crawlers when you sleep at night, or day if you are a vampire.
Well, that wraps it up.
~ Cole
P.S.
I almost forgot, I’m toying with doing some static pages about knives and such. I was inspired to write this article because of one I did yesterday about cheap survival knives.
Check it out at Survival Knives Cheap.
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Good post. There are just so many things to take into consideration when buying a knife. Especially if it is easy to carry around or not.