How do I use a survival knife?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “camp knife uses“
About Ivy
Written by: Ivy
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How do I use a survival knife?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “camp knife uses“
About Ivy
The main function is for the first night in hunt camp. When I walk into the hangar I make sure everybody is watching to see what sort of knife I have. When I whip out my Randall Made Model 14 and slice the top off that 12 pack of diet Mt Dew to dump into my cooler, yeah, they know…
Also in the picture you see a Buck General from 1972. I loved the fold over flap sheath. All of the buck knives back then had them. The General had a 7″ blade and it was a great camp knife.
The Randall Made had a 7″ cutting edge plus about 3″ of the top edge is also sharpened at a steeper angle, specifically for breaking open big animal joints. It works for that too. I’ve butchered more than a few hogs and several times I used that knife for some of the heavy duty stuff. Granted, I didn’t have to. I actually like a small fiskars hatchet for that, but the Randall is more impressive.
This is the knife I actually use to survive when camping, hunting or fishing. It’s a neck knife made from a farrier’s rasp. It’s super comfortable and …
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My observation is that most knives marketed as “survival knives” are primarily used to separate people with little to no survival knowledge/skills from their money.
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Mostly they’re used to shore up the sagging egos of the guys who buy them because they didn’t know any better. The best of them will feature a hollow handle that contains a half dozen matches with sticks so thin they snap when you try to strike them, some fishing line that’s not long enough to get down to where the fish are, and a couple of fish hooks. It will feature a compass in the pommel that will only get you lost because it’s always pulled off line by the knife blade which is made of 410 or 440 martensitic stainless steel which is magnetic. If you’re lucky the sheath will have a little pocket with a sharpening stone that you’ll really need because even though that stainless steel blade can be coaxed into taking a pretty decent edge, it won’t hold it and you’ll need to sharpen it frequently. Oh, and that blade will have some sawtooth looking things along part of the spine but I’ll guarantee you won’t cut much wood with four inches of dull teeth that have no set. That’s the “Rambo” style survival knife made popular in the movies.
Oh, by the way, that thing is so blade heavy it’ll wear you out before you get anything cut and you’ll have to lie down for a nap.
Then you have the ones that are designed to appeal to the ultra fragile egos. The main feature of these is that they look bad!!
Note the extensive use of teeth along the spine that are aligned in the wrong direction so that all the cutting (more precisely: gouging) action takes place on the pull stroke where you only have arm strength instead of the push stroke where you can get your shoulder behind it. Also notice the bad-ass looking openings along the length of the blade to ventilate and weaken it.
Best advice? Stay away from Survival Knives. They’re gimmicky and even the ones that try to be serious just end up being a collection of compromises that don’t do anything well. Get a good sheath knife that fits your hand and is properly balanced. Then get a nice Leatherman for the other stuff.
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“Typically” used for?
Think again and pick you’re survival knives wisely. Camping is a lifestyle for me, and with that came my passion of collecting survival items. It wasn’t until I visited New Zealand that I realized how important a sharp tool is in the outdoors. I’ve had my fair share of woes with blunt knives, and to be honest, if those woes were a book, it’d be thicker than Bhagwan’s Biography. It takes a lot of time to find the perfect knife, but when I found this this knife it only took a second ( it’s being given away for free ). It is simple to use and takes up little space. It’s so light that I sometimes forget I’m wearing it. The way I can carve wood and cut rope with this thing makes me feel at ease. No difficulties at all. This product is amazing.
It has been my observation that most young folks who come into my shop looking for such things are typically using them to impress themselves and their friends. Many of what are sold as “survival knives” on the market today are not at all what a serious survivalist would ever carry. Many are little else but cheap junk knives that look neat but are not at all practical or ergonomic.
They often are poorly tempered or simply not tempered at all, poorly balanced, won’t hold an edge, will bend and stay bent if torqued, have handles or grips that will work themselves loose if used for anything other than showing your college or high school pals.
If the blade or sheath is inscribed with the word “survival” or some variation of “warrior”, “assassin”, “jungle”, “ninja”, “ranger”, “zombie”, “fighter” or some other written explanation of its intended purpose because the target consumer is the sort who would need to have that explained to them — then it is likely unfit for that purpose.
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Typically, they are used for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Another common usage is the sacrificing of virgins.
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Survival situations are rare indeed. I have been in a number of them, but they were always the “housebreaking” sort, not the “getting lost in the woods” sort. Here in California, we are pretty short on woods, anyway. Most of it has been removed, with buildings substituted.
Lots and lots of buildings. I guess my urban survival situations were to be expected.
But, “lost in the woods.” “Lost in the woods” That’s the situation.
No, my survival knife, and probably most of them elsewhere in the country, spend most of their time digging in the garden, pruning branches and rooting out weeds. This is actually a good idea, by the way. Use that tool. Does it work? Is it comfortable in your hand? It is always a good idea to see if your tool actually works as advertised.
My Swiss Army Knife trims my fingernails more than anything else. I use the can opener often enough. Works real good. The blades I keep plenty sharp, just in case.
That’s My main survival knife. And everything else knife, too.
Though I do have survival knives like the ones you’re talking about. They sit and wait for when I need them. I check them now and then to see if they ’ve gotten rusty, but then I put them back, thankful that I don’t need them.
Yet.
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Usually a survival situation only last a couple of days. A survival knife can help you with two of your most important priorities. Fire and shelter. Many of the answers I’ve read, seem to be hung up on the hollow handle, Rambo style survival knife. This is not a good choice for a survival knife. The hollow handle leaves the knife weak, and prone to break when you need it the most.
A real survival knife is well built with a full tang, that’s the part of the knife that is the handle. It’s not going to be that big either. A good survival knife will have a very manageable length blade. Usually 4 to 5 inches.
You would use it to get tinder to start a fire. Let’s say that it has been raining, and all wood is wet. You can use your knife to scape the bark off of a birch tree, or get pine rosin from a pine tree or a fir tree. You can find a dead log 4 inches or less in diameter, and split this using your knife by batoning. That’s where you place your knife at one end and use another peice of wood as a hammer and hammer your knife through the log to get to the dry wood on the inside. You can use your knife to get lighter wood, or some people call it rich pine, from the inside of a rotting pine log. Then using your knife to make small pieces of lighter wood, into tinder, or make a fuzzy stick out of it. The knife is your main tool for making a fire to last through the night.
You would use your knife to build a shelter, out of what you have available. You can cut limbs and saplings down to build a lean-to. Or cut cordage to build your shelter. It can be used to skin fish or animals. It can be carried by hunters or campers, to be used as a tool for lots of cutting needs.
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A survival knife is one of the worst knives you can have when your life depends on it. It only comes in handy when the alternative is no knife at all. Any knife with the hollow handle.
These hollow handles are meant for storing survival equipment. But, they also reduce the usefulness, and controllability of the knife. They also are prone to breaking where the blade attaches to the handle. Not to mention that the handle provides very little space for survival gear.
You would be better off with a full tang fixed blade with a storage pocket on the sheath for a whetstone or flint spark striker. The rest of your survival equipment should be kept in a separate compartment, sealed and watertight if practical.
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I would say that survival knives are ‘typically’ used – as in the majority of people who own them (including myself) use them for practicing skills or just ‘playing’ in the woods, etc. Most people who own ‘survival knives’ – which can be any of a wide range of knives – are never going to be in a true ‘survival’ situation but may practice skills just in case and because they enjoy doing so. Now, if you are talking more along the line of ‘Rambo knife’ type ‘survival’ knives then the majority those are probably typically used by twelve to fourteen year old boys (and, yes, I was one of those boys back in the ’80s) to show off to their friends in an attempt to look cool as most of those are otherwise pretty useless.
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One of the biggest uses for a survival knife is to cut things.!
Preparing caught animals or fish to be cooked and eaten, manipulating wood for various applications such as kindling for a fire, making a spear, and cutting various other things. In a survival situation you would be surprised how many things need to be cut, like a piece of rope or paracord to tie up a shelter or tie together pieces of wood to make a shelter. You might want to carve up an apple from that wild apple tree, or Orchard you just came across.
You might want to extract some big fat grubs from a piece of dead wood for some emergency protein if needed. The possibly uses are literally endless. The more you know about survival, the more uses you will find for that knife.
You can also carve up a pumpkin to put a smile on your daughter’s face around Halloween, until she’s old enough to no longer believe in the Pumpkin Fairy, or is that the Tooth Fairy?
You may need to sterilize it, and use it to perform an emergency appendectomy on a friend or loved one. This exact scenario has happened before, but around the World War II era.
Self defense if necessary, against man trying to hurt you or your loved ones and take what you have, or beast trying to take you out.
I’ve read some of your responses and I’ve seen your picture. You know a lot about the Russian military. You look like current or ex-Russian military to me. Why are you asking such a question?, You know what survival knives are used for, and you certainly look like you can take care of yourself.
I am definitely curious why you asked this question.
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While I am sitting in my living room, it isn’t essential at all. It is one of those things that isn’t essential till you need one. There are many alternatives, and some ‘survival knives” are not made that well. A knife is basically a tool. Ideally you pick the right tool for the job and circumstances. If you have just crashed landed in the Alaskan wilderness, without a knife, saw, compass, can opener, matches. or band aids you might wish you had a survival knife with you. Kind of unlikely that I would be in a situation where a survival knife was needed where I didn’t have them. It is only essential when it becomes necessary for survival. If you are well prepared and equipped at best it may be nice to have. If it is redundant to other things you carry, it could be useless or detrimental.
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The classic survival (Rambo) design has various items stored in the hollow handle of usually a saw-back bowie style knife. These items are usually matches, fishing line with hooks, lures and weights, a needle and thread, maybe a magnesium striker for fire starting. In truth, these knives immortalised by Sylvester Stallone’s character Rambo are a bit rubbish. I got one as a 14 yr old after watching First Blood and my friends and I hacked and cut things up (including ourselves) and I had a better one than my friends (a Winchester with an 8in blade) and where theirs broke, I still have mine thirty years later. Bug-out and survival enthusiasts probably have one, but those who know more settle on a solid through tang camp or bowie knife and carry more than a one-day survival kit.
These self-contained survival knives were issued to pilots in Vietnam – perhaps they still are – and they would have offered a reassuring tool or weapon. However, the K-Bar is twice the knife of any of these. The fact the handle is hollow means the structural integrity is compromised. As a fighting knife, the K-Bar or Fairburn & Sykes are miles ahead. The oversized ones in the Rambo films are too big for many knife fighting ‘experts’.
If someone is serious about using a ‘survival’ knife – usually bushcraft – then they tend to stay away from these.
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I haven’t quite figured that out, and in my (much) younger days, my late husband and I spent quite a lot of time out in the woods, he hunting and me fishing. (He spent quite a lot of time in the desert and didn’t enjoy it much—it was on the govt’s dime.)
We tended to carry matches, fishing line and hooks, etc., but in film cannisters and condoms, carried a hatchet, and utility knives, and I could bone anything from fish to a deer with a single edged razor blade.
Definitely a learned skill and one that requires being very careful of one’s fingers, but a huge knife just gets in one’s way, though a filet knife is nice if you have it.
Now I carry hub’s old Leatherman tool, an old utility knife with a hex end that I can hammer things with if necessary, and I don’t hunt and fish anymore.
In school and during the rough years, I carried a very old flick knife that my father taught me how to use (I was physically and emotionally abused in school ), and that my husband also trained me with.
It was a beautiful knife and thankfully I never had to use it for what it was meant for, just show it a few times.
It was passed on to someone who needed it more than I did when the time did, along with many hours of training by my husband.
In that case, that knife, then nearly a hundred years old, enabled her to make her escape, with her 2 children, from a violently abusive partner, with no serious damage to her partner or her or her children.
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The knife at bottom right is the second USAF/US Army Pilot Knife I’ve owned. The first was given to me by a retiring SF LTC. I lost it. I didn’t lose this one. Its intended as a survival knife and does well. Its 5″ blade is good for hunting and survival tasks. The rather subtle notches on the back of the blade are intended for cutting notches in the triggers of traps. . The butt is good for pounding things. Not the perfect hammer, but better than most. The sheath has a sharpening stone and holes to lace it on flight gear or LBE.
Its not the best at holding an edge, but can take tremendous abuse. Its cheap and unlikely to be stolen off your LBE, like a Randall. The holes on the quillions allow it be tied to a pole.
USAF PJ’s and survival instructors seem to favor it. LTC Hal Moore equipped all his troopers in the 7th Air Cav with it. I carried mine when I wasn’t issued a bayonet. I also carried a Buck 110, Gerber EZ-Out or a Spyderco and a Swiss Army knife.
The other knives, clock wise from top left, are a Pat Mitchell of Sheffield hunting knife, a replica of a WW1 trench knife (a gift from a friend), my Pilot Knife and an old Western hunting knife I butchered into a survival knife (dumbdumbdumb).
The Pat Mitchell is a superb deer knife. It can tear through a deer sternum and still be razor sharp. Too pretty for military use. Its too big and clumsy for small game, but a smaller one was avail. The trench knife is a replica of a GI, or doughboy, issue weapon. Notice the Army no longer issues them? The Western is still a good hunter and holds a razor edge through a lot of use, but lacks the survival features of the Pilot Knife.
Most of those so called survival knives are junk. They are fragile. The compass is crap and there isn’t much room for stuff in the handle. A good soldier already carries plenty of useful stuff in his pockets, LBE or ruck. A pilot is issued a survival kit. Even a civilian should carry things in his backpack or pockets.
If you want a “survival knife” or hard duty sheath knife, get that issue Pilot Knife or its latest GI issue version. My knives have been made by Camillus or Ontario.
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I don’t put much stock in what some people sell by calling it a “survival knife”. A knife with a hollow handle packed full of little goodies is a disaster waiting to happen. A good knife can save your life and can be used in many different ways. By good knife I am talking about a full tang, thick carbon steel blade, “fit your hand” handle with proper sheath. On the sheath should be a separate pocket with a sharpening stone. These kinds of knives are not cheap but considering their use and need well worth the investment.
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I once heard (read) an interesting and valuable rule: “You can judge the experience of an outdoorsman by the size of his knife. The more experienced the outdoorsman the smaller the knife.” This always made me smile, because after a lifetime of enjoying the woods and deserts I carry a tiny pen knife that serves me well. I rarely need anything more than that unless I am skinning game or clearing brush, and for that the best thing is a saw, ax or my trusty cane knife (I am from Louisiana and there we use a cane knife instead of a machete).
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Survival knives are used by those who find themselves or might end up in a situation where they are totally dependent on skills and equipment they have on them in a hostile environment. You might find yourself up against a cardboard box that is between you and your new printer. Or you might have a sandwich that needs to be dispatched before it can provide sustenance. The uses are as many as there are knives.
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Survival, in the old days, or in the Pacific Theater of WW2. They could stab an enemy soldier, open a can of food, slash bamboo for some webbing for a raft, cut some wood for a fire, machete through thick underbrush, slice some meat or fish for cooking, dig a hole, etc. My son has my father’s WW2 Navy-issue “Jap-sticker” (no offense, people, that’s just what the squids called ‘em), and 75 years after the fact, the thing is sharp AF, and while having turned grayish-blue, is still a blade I could mince garlic with.
Nowadays, a survival knife is for Mommy’s Basement Incels who spend all afternoon playing online war games where they shoot brown people. They can take e-photos and Instagram them to their racist poorly socialized “friends”.
A Leatherman is actually pretty fucking useful, however.
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As I believe any knife is a survival knife, typically they are used day to day for common tasks such as cutting twine and opening mail. That same knife, be it a Swiss army knife, a Leatherman or a small tactical folder, becomes a survival knife when you find yourself in an emergency situation. At that point, it becomes one of the most indispensable tools you could have. Making fires, building a shelter, dressing game, fishing, cooking, all of these become much more practical with a knife, even a small one. A decent knife, one you actually have on you at all times, can mean the difference between an uncomfortable time and serious trouble or even death.
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I can tell you what MINE get used for. Filleting fish, cutting open packages, opening cans from time to time, sharpening sticks for tent pegs, skinning branches off of sticks to make emergency fishing rods, cutting bait, cutting hammock rope, cutting 550 cord, cutting fishing line.
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A2A: Nothing. Most purpose-made survival knives just sit around doing nothing. This is understandable as survival situations are obviously rare. Moreover like most emergencies they have a nasty habit of occurring when least expected, and most people don’t carry a survival kit on their person constantly. Moreover in many places it is actually illegal to carry the sort of knives generally marketed to survivalists on a casual basis so the odds that someone will have one available in any given emergency are quite low.
In fact you could even go so far as to say that if you were able to preempt emergency situations, and were well-equipped to face them in many cases they wouldn’t really be emergencies anymore. I mean if your car breaks down in the wilderness that can certainly be an emergency, and on isolated roads in places with extreme climates it can easily have fatal consequences. On the other hand if your car breaks down in the wilderness, and that car has a CB, you have a box of MREs, twenty litres of water, a satellite phone, space blanket and a GPS locator in the boot well then it’s more of an inconvenience than an emergency.
Having said that though in many survival scenarios being in possession of a cutting tool, of any sort, is an asset whose value is difficult to overstate. You have to be practical though. The famous SAS Survival Guide may extol the virtues of the Parang (a type of re-curved machete) but how many people do you know who carry a fifteen inch long jungle knife on a daily basis? Hell where I live that would get you in some serious legal trouble post-haste. Not only that, but the edge profile makes it difficult to sharpen and in my experience when edges are difficult to sharpen people often give up on maintaining them in short order.
A tiny, sharp pen-knife in your pocket is more valuable than the fanciest, dull Parang, much less one hanging on your wall at home, and that’s saying nothing of those silly ‘Rambo,’ style knives, often marketed as survival tools, that look like the inbred, over-grown child of a Kabar and a Bowie knife. If you’re going to carry a big, heavy knife (assuming it’s legally feasible) you might as well make it something genuinely useful, and Jungle knives like the aforementioned Parang, or a Khukri, Bolo, Barong, and many others are extremely versatile tools widely used by people in less developed areas for a reason . They can be exceptionally useful for a very wide variety of tasks provided you have the equipment and patience to maintain the edge. Overgrown Kabars not so much.
In a survival context though, what sort of things might you use a knife for?
Realistically in many survival situations it makes more sense to point out what you can’t do if you lack a knife, and the simple answer is most things. Even the smallest, least practical knife is an extremely versatile tool with a genuinely enormous range of different uses and applications compared to no knife at all.
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Survival Knife For Bushcraft A good survival knife can have some of uses, such as cutting tree limbs, which can be used for splints for broken arms. It can be used as a pry bar or digging tool. Cutting strips of vine to tie a raft together or a pet shelter.
# Survival Knife For Bushcraft – (Step By Step) – Survival …
## Survival Knife For Bushcraft
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Thanks for the a2a!
Basically, fantasies aside, in a true survival situation, your knife should help you in
Building a shelter
Preparing wood for a fire
Building other tools
Seriously, usually a survival situation does not take much longer that 72h, provided you were smart enough to tell people you are out in the woods (and where, exactly or what path you will take!). You should also have regular intervals in which you are supposed to get back to them and they should alert SAR if you do not. This reduces the time you need to survive on your own drastically.
If you have taken above precautions, you only have to stay put and take care of a subset of the Rule of Threes
3 Minutes without oxygen
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
Hypothermia is usually your biggest enemy in the first 24 – 48h, assuming you are in a boreal environment. It can kill you in a matter of hours. Get out in damp clothes when it snows for half an hour and you will get a picture of what I am talking about. Ensuring that you will stay dry and warm even in pouring rain is your most urgent task, and this is where your knife comes in handy for cutting branches to length or off the tree, if required, making notches to ensure stability and stuff like that.
Using charcoal from your fire, your clothes and some gravel, you can build a water filter, because water will be your next most pressing problem.
Although survival becomes a calorie game sooner or later, for the average person, it takes at least more than a handful of days and potentially even weeks before food becomes a serious problem. So while a survival knife might be used to acquire/prepare food, if you really have to use it for this, you are in deep podoo. Personally, I would choose a knife which is perfect for the stuff mentioned above and bad at prepping food since you have a hell of a lot more time to forage food than to build a shelter.
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I have what I consider to be the finest “survival knives” ever made, by Chris Reeve (sp?). It’s in the safe out in the shop right now where it has resided since I first bought it 20+ years ago. It remains new, unused and unsharpened. Otherwise I could give you the exact spelling of the maker’s name and the blade length for sure which I think is somewhere between seven and nine inches. The thing that makes this particular blade stand head, shoulders and torso above all the rest is that it is machined from one solid billet of steel and not bolted together at the juncture between the handle and the blade. Thus is the basic, inherent weakness of the entire genre eliminated. There is no built in compass and I long ago found that a roll of silver dimes fit neatly into the cavity. I still have yet to wear it and for my occasional sojourns into the wild I usually opt for a five inch Cold Steel San Mai Tanto.
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The short answer is in the name of the knife AKA “survival”knife.
K-bar a survival knife. Us 1940’s area military issue. Used to open cans k-rations. As a makeshift hammer. Dig a trench not recommended. General all-purpose knife.
Bowie knife generally considered a survival knife. Originally made by Bowie. He was almost gored to death by a bull he wanted a knife that he could have killed the bull with. So we took a file and made the first Bowie knife. He was on a sandbar and decapitated a man with this knife. Nicknames for this knife was an Arkansas toothpick. I could be wrong but I think his knife is more akin to a machete than what people in this day and age would consider a actual knife. And just for those who would nitpick me to death a machete is technically a knife.
A Gurkha is considered survival knife also a combat knife.
There are many more . I can never seem to remember the specific names of the seals knives or the Spetsnaz knives or the knives used by the Green Beret. Another popular knife in World War II was called the Fairbanks Commando knife. Made very similar to a stiletto. When most people think of survival knives the first thing that seems to come to mind is Rambo’s knife. This is a big knife.
Key things for most survival knives is a hard spine that goes all the way from the tip of the blade to the end of the handle.A very well-balanced knife. That can be used for multiple tasks.
What many people don’t think of as a survival knife is a simple Swiss Army knife. The weapons of choice of the Boy Scouts which is a military formed entity. Is a hatchet and a Swiss Army knife. And cordage. I think sometimes even Special Forces don’t go to all the extensive training that the Boy Scouts do.
Why I’m very impressed with the Boy Scouts is because if you want those merit badges you have to actually be able to demonstrate the skills to functioning level to be awarded that merit badge. Now of course there are a bunch of people that BS around about it. And don’t take scouting all that seriously. I think it’s the shorts that the kids ware and the fact that they are kids . But if I had to picture a actual adult Boy Scout. There are two people that come to mind. 1 is the guy from the movie The Green Berets who said he was an eagle scout. And two would be Steve Irwin. I mean crikey the guy is a Madman. How many grown men do you know. Will jump in a swamp looking for 12 + foot saltwater crocodile? The reason he comes to mind is because he likes to wear the same clothing as most Boy Scouts. And while he may seem a little bit on the Wild Side oblivious to the dangers that the crikey snake that he’s holding could kill him. He also has enough sense to survive what he’s going after. Stingrays excluded.
A survival knife’s purpose is to help you survive. Whatever it is you might find yourself facing.
In the woods some of the basic things that you need to be able to do it’s the make something to accomplish whatever task it is you’re trying to do this is true in combat as well as in the woods. A combat knife in a survival knife are not necessarily the same thing a combat knife is designed for combat.
The original drill sergeant of the Continental Army of the United States taught the army the importance of having a knife at the end of your rifle. This knife is called a bayonet. It is taught and used not so much as a polearm or a spear but as a axe. The spirit of the bayonet is to kill. It was effectively used by Continental Army to route an opposing Force. When no ammunition was available. When a group of men R train to function as one unit instead of a group of men they become incredibly formidable. To think with one mind. This is a large part of why armies learn to March. So they can effectively function as a group. Instead of as a mass. In history an example of this would be the Celts versus the Romans. The Celts were a bunch of individuals fighting an army that had a single mind. The difference between a professional Soldier and a civilian. The civilian even though they may outnumber the soldiers just simply don’t stand a chance against someone trained to fight as a single unit.
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A2A THANKS
Survival knives can be used for trapping, skinning, wood cutting, wood carving, and other uses . Hunters, hikers, and outdoor sport enthusiasts use survival knives. Some survival knives are heavy-bladed and thick.
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I guess that depends on the person. If a person knows nothing about survival or if they can’t sharpen the knife or know some other uses it probably isn’t to essential. But also a knives like the 2 I carry wouldn’t be very useful either for survival in the woods but in the city it’s a different story and that’s where I currently am.
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To be honest the average tacticool guy never uses their knife for more than opening boxes and mail.
I use mine to make shelter, fire, skin game, protection, create fire wood, make snares to trap game, it is always with me and is absolutely essential
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Camp chores actually; cutting shaving wood, meat, digging etc. Improved spear, all purpose, whatever you need to do to survive.
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Well the answer is in the question, survival. That is the short answer, and in reality they are used for what you are able to do. If you have a *survival” knife but no skills, then there is no point. Another thing is that any knife can be a survival knife, just takes skill and knowing the limits of the blade in question.
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Making their owners feel that they have something special and more useful than is reality.
They are somewhat comparable to most fishing lures, that are better suited for catching would be fisherman, than fish.
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survival knives are normally used for things like bushcraft (whittling and such) hunting, food preparation or as a weapon of course.
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A good, sturdy knife is probably the single most important piece of survival equipment you can carry, along with some way to start a fire and some way to purify water.
Note that most things sold as “survival knives” are neither good nor sturdy, especially the hollow-handled pieces of junk inspired by Rambo and similar works of fiction. A good, solid fixed blade 7″–9″ Bowie knife like a Ka-Bar or something similar will serve as a good foundation for a survival kit / go bag.
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You can use it to defend yourself against redneck police. To rescue POW from Vietnam, to save Afghanistan from Russia, to rescue missionaries from southeast asian, finally you can go to Mexico to avenge the death of a loved one.
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Opening packs of MREs and beef jerky, mostly….
Also useful for shaving kindling off logs light fires, and everything else you might use a knife for when outdoors.
Not the best type of knife to carve up a carcass if you’re hunting, but it will do the job.
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I’m assuming by survival knife you are referring to a larger fixed blade type of knife…. These are typically larger as they need to be stronger/sturdier to handle any myriad of task needed to accomplish whatever task is needed to stay alive.
More specifically, they can assist with shelter building, feathering stocks for fire making, holding a bow drill, batoning, chopping fire wood, animal skinning, fish gutting/filleting, spear/tool making, carving, etc.
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Pretty important, otherwise they would call it a “Low Priority Knife”. The mere fact it holds the name “survival knife” means it’s fairly high on the list of essential gear.
OTOH, you need to avoid what many merchants call a “survival knife”. This is a small cylinder, (the knife “handle”) with a couple fish hooks, line, matches, and a couple other things(i.e. a “survival kit”) with the blade glued onto the end. Looks great, breaks very easily, and is a life-threatening waste of time, in the wild.
A good Survival Knife has a solid build, you don’t want this thing to break, when you need it the most. An Air Force Survival Knife is a solid value. Be sure it has a Mil-spec#, and isn’t some twenty dollar knock-off. At any rate, any knife you have to depend upon, and trust your life with, in the wild, should be well made, and rigorously and thoroughly tested, BY YOU. It should have a solid tang thru handle construction, and be a strong grade of knife steel.
Get a separate survival kit, or you will wind up with a couple cheap fish hooks, and a broken knife, when your life is on the line.
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Bushcraft activities:
Cutting
Whittling
Carving
Batoning
Skinning
Feathering
Spearing
Other activities:
Picking your teeth
Reflecting
Self Defense
Prying
Looking cool on your belt
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This is really a terrible term. It is terrible because there is no common acceptance of what that means. In the 80s it meant a hollow handle knife that contained a mini survival kit and a blade with a saw on the back. These were absolutely shite except for the Chris Reeve knives which are one piece. Still, I wouldn’t want a round steel handle, let alone the pay that much for it.
To Mors Kochanski, a famous modern survival instructor in northern Canada, it means a blade you can drive one third of the way into a tree and stand on, a blade that is as long as your hand is wide, an oval handle, as well as other well defined perimeters.
The SAS Survival Handbook has its interpretation of a blade with a sharpened top portion and a double guard.
There are TOPS knives that often take strange shapes with thick and massive configurations. Some are useful- many are not. That is subjective and just my opinion. I find the ATAX to be a surisingly useful multi tool for outdoor living tasks despite it’s radical shape.
There are endless other examples, but you see where I’m going with this. What is a common perception is a single cutting tool that does everything. I personally think the idea of one knife that does it all is really a fantasy. You will end up with a cutting tool that does all of your jobs mediocre at best. That to me just seems like the bad planning of an inexperienced person trying to cleverly reduce the weight in their loadout. While any knife can be a ‘survival knife,’ if you are planning for any of the various scenarios, your choices of blades will matter in terms of energy you expend using them.
What is it used for? You have to remember ‘survival’ means different things to different people. Some think that is escaping from a situation where you are stranded behind enemy lines in a military application. To others, that is getting lost and toughing it out until rescue or finding their way back. To others, that is intentionally living long term in the wilderness.
Some say the back must have a 90 degree shape to scrape a ferro rod. Others say it must be capable of batoning. Others say that is a dumb way to use your knife. Some say stainless steel is a must. Others say carbon steel is a must. Which brings us back yet again to why this is such a vague and therefore bad choice of term. What is most agreed upon by all these mentalities is it should be able to make curls for starting a fire.
Which means shaving sharp. Now to me, that means carbon steel. Especially if you are relegated to sharpening your knife in the field. You can take a cheap Old Hickory butcher knife and achieve that. Will it be indestructible? Absolutely not. Serviceable? Absolutely so within its limitations (and all knives have limitations). Native Americans used similar knives for hundreds of years. But they also paired that knife with a tomahawk for heavier cutting tasks. It notable they did not have the endless selection of tools that we have today-they used what was available to them from traders. But it’s easily arguable those two tools in combination have been used on very long journeys to great efficacy.
But at the end of the day ‘survival’ anything is to me the nomenclature of marketing to the unfamilliar. Even though sometimes there is no other accurate descriptor.
The two best knives for the money for use in the woods are the Mora, which I prefer with the old school wooden handle that has less junk in the way (but it isn’t nearly as strong as the one with the plastic handle), and the Opinel Carbone folder which comes in several sizes. You can add to these with you own interpretations, but I think you would be well pleased with the performance of these at less than US$30 at most for both.
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The exact same way you would any other knife, assuming you actually get a real one.
Actual ones are generally thrown into a bag or toolkit to be there if a knife is needed in an emergency. Those are usually full tang, single edge, non serrated blades with fairly robust, solid handles, or in the case of the really good ones, literally be all one piece construction minus. handle material, usually something like leather wwashers that have been treated with glues. Those will, almost as a general rule, not have the purely decorative “saw edges” they will not have a compass in the bottom, or randomly color, or have weird shapes, or hollow spaces that serve as break points. They’ll usually have a fairly simplistic edge geometry, often being a simple wedge shape instead of the slightly more complex ones you’ll sometimes see in folding knives, or kitchen knives. They’ll usually be made out of a decent grade of steel that takes, as well as maintains a fairly good edge.
A good survival knife, is to be rather blunt, a good general purpose knife that you’d probably carry with you anyways if you do any kind of work where you need a knife a lot.
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Really I dont know, when. I was 16 i was given a “Rambo” survival knife by a well meaning uncle. By 16 and a few minutes older I had broken the damn thing.
If you had to depend on one of these for survival you’d well be screwed.
Now my daily survival knife for the mean jungles of the streets is the leatherman skeletool.
Good knife blade sharp and will hold ab edge. A #1 and a #2 Phillips bit and a small and large flat head bit, plus a decent set of pliers. Oh and a bottle opener.
For hiking the AT, I have that and a small full tang Bowie, I can baton that to get to heartwood for kindling. No frills no oooo cool just function. Or if I’m feeling adventurous I’d switch the skeletool out for a leatherman signal. Kind of a bigger version of the skeletool.
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It’s a tool….You can survive without it, but it makes things a lot harder and keep in mind that a lot of survival items require a knife as an accessory.
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Camping, hunting, wilderness hiking, and any type of work or play that requires being out in the wild are perfect places to carry a survival knife.
With just a survival knife, and enough experience, a person dropped into most wilderness could survive for weeks. They could build shelter, hunting tools, get water, ext… with just that survival knife.
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That all depends on what you consider a survival knife. A 12″ long Rambo looking knife is just about useless, but a solid 4″ knife is an amazing tool. If I were making a buy-out bag I would have a dependable 4–5″ full-tang knife with no serrations as one of the first items. It would be a supplement to the Leatherman Wave I always carry.
Victorinox Fibrox Pro Knife, 8-Inch Chef’s FFP, 8 Inch, Black
They are mostly used for non-survival stuff in possibly camp conditions, but otherwise just general use.
I have a fair few knives, but no “survival knives” as such. I use whatever I get my hands on when I need one, but I also try to match the knife to the job at hand.
It is stupid to try and cut a log with a peanut sized pen-knife, when I have a much larger hunter that can do the job better, or even a Swiss Army piece with a wood-saw built in.
I do not go around bashing the back of the blade to try to split logs, as I have a small hand axe for that purpose, and knives are not made to be bashed around to split logs with.
Common sense rules in general when it comes to applications of knives in general. Or at least it should.
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Event thingyou can’t do with your teeth.
Here is a cheep field and stream (my k-bar is in the jeep) As you can see in the handle is a compass, fishing kit and matches. There is rope in the handle. This should be paracord (parachute cord) Paracord is very strong . You can also pull the strands out which work well for more fishing line and making snares in case there is no fish. The knife sones with a sharpening stone which goes in the sheets. There is a saw on the back fire wood and shaping anything you can scrounge.
The blade can be used for cutting and as a weapon. You can also sharpen wood for spears or make arrows you can also tie tge knife to a stick to make a spear. This can be used for hunting or defense (animal or human) You could use it to chop it dig but that could damage it. You can cut branches and grasses to make a shelter.
So ti sum up. It is used to provide food, fire, shelter, and a way out of your situation.
I recommend downloading SurvivalGuide off the Apple store it’s free. When you open it you’ll discover it FM-21–76 US Army survival guide. This will give you more information. I have a solar charger for my phone too.
Download FEMA’s app and the American Red Cross app. The FEMA app will get you started on building a 72 hour kit. The Red Cross Gide will get you started on first aid. That’s another use of your knife is cutting bandages and even a tourniquets from what you have.
I buy MOLLY style packs. You can get a small one at Walmart for $25. Walmart mostly sells junk but they have a few things worth buying.
CJRB CUTLERY Folding Knife Crag
The survival knife is designed to be durable and used in a survival environment- it usually includes a case/sheath that can be hung on a belt and handily carried by the owner – it’s uses would include preparing/dressing fish, foul or game animals, foraging and in minor wood craft actions.
if your rifle or pistol isn’t handy, the survival knife could be useful for self defense.
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The knife is your primary survival tool be it a 3″ pocket knife or a 12″ Bowie. It is VERY useful for shelter building, fires, traps and snares, skinning. Just about anything you do you will need some type of cutting tool and having a knife is better than fashioning one out of bone or flint.
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Most of them are cheap garbage which couldn’t hold up to any real use. I have an old 1970-ish Buck 124 Frontiersman I keep by my side when I’m in the woods. It’s been a great knife for the 36 years I’ve owned it
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In USAF Survival School I used mine to kill, skin and butcher a porcupine (It was awful) and build a shelter – shelter and food: That’s survival.
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The ones advertised as “survival” knives? Mostly separating fools from their money. Badly designed, poorly made junk.
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I still have the kabar I carried in Vietnam. Now that is a survival knife. It will not tell you which way to go or store fishing line (compasses, fishing line fire starting equipment go in your pockets), but it will cut anything you need to slice or dice.
Btw: since I came home, it has not been carried or used; it just sits in my gun safe.
MOSFiATA 8 Super Sharp Professional Chef’s Knife
A survival knife is among the first pieces of equipment that come to mind when most people think of bushcraft. The versatility of a survival knife as tool and weapon makes it one of those elite items no woods-wanderer should be without; many authorities consider it the single-most critical item of survival gear. A versatile and quality survival knife in the hand or on the belt alone serves as a critical confidence booster.
SURVIVAL KNIFE USES
While the usefulness of a survival knife as a hunting or fishing spear or survival weapon is popularly known, this tool is invaluable for a staggering spectrum of situations.
Digging Tool: A well-constructed survival knife can serve well as a shovel for all kinds of tasks such as gathering edible tubers, excavating fire pits, disposing of human waste, and carving out distress signals in snow or dirt.
Weapon: In a situation requiring you to procure your own food, a survival knife can be used to harvest small game or even fish. With a little ingenuity the survival knife can be uses as the ultimate emergency weapon.
First Aid: While a clumsy, unpracticed hand can do as much damage as good with a knife in a medical emergency, the tool is as versatile in first-aid as in basic campsite routines. It’s useful for cutting improvised bandages, for example, or—with a sterilized tip—draining pernicious blisters.
Splitting Wood or Cutting Saplings: If you’re only accustomed to flimsy, cheaply made versions, you may have trouble envisioning a survival knife as a hatchet and axe substitute. However, a large, full-tang model with a flat edge to the blade back can be a formidable wood-splitting or cutting implement. The design allows you to use a piece of wood or mallet to pound the keen edge into a log or sapling. This is often called batoning.
Hammer: The butt end, or pommel, of the survival knife handle is its own hammering tool, handy for driving in stakes for shelters or snares.
Gear Adjustments: On an extended foray in the backcountry, you invariably need to make little adjustments to clothing and equipment in the interest of comfort and safety. A survival knife is the perfect tool for emergency modification of your gear.
Stake: In the absence of other materials, a survival knife can be driven into the ground to serve as a stake—as when anchoring an emergency shelter or a food bag balanced in the tree canopy out of a bear’s reach.
Tool-making: Some may think a knife in a wilderness emergency is simply a tool unto itself, but one of its chief purposes in a wilderness emergency is really the manufacture of other, more specialized survival gear. It’s essential for making a fire bow and drill, which is of utmost importance if you’re lacking other means of alighting tinder.
Fire: Speaking of fire-making, a survival knife allows you to flay out ribbons of inner bark from a branch to produce so-called “tinder”—invaluable when making a “birds nest” and igniting a fire in any condition. A survival knife can also be used to strike your ferrocerium rod (ferro rod) when igniting tinder.
Shelter-making: A knife blade serves handily to trim limbs in the event you must build a shelter. It can also be used to notch the limbs before lashing them together.
Courtesy: Knifegeeky
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Well…. If you are in a “survival” situation…. Say, lost in the wilderness or whatever, then a good knife is fantastically useful. You can use it to help make shelters, weapons, etc.
Most dedicated survival knives will include potentially-useful items like a match-safe, compass, perhaps some fishing line and hooks, etc…. All stored in the hollow handle.
But beware, a lot of these knives are way cheap items… Little more than junk. A quality survival knife will set you back a bit.
Also… Unless you just want one… Most people will never find themselves in such a situation. Now if you’re an Alaskan bush pilot or something…..
Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops SWA24S 7.1in S.S. Folding Knife with 3.1in
The typical, off-the -shelf-Rambo-style-hollow handle-filled with “survival-crap”- knives?
Only thing they’re good for is to show how big some pinky-dicked wanna-be’s manhood is. P.S. the match stick is equivalent most of the time.
OOOOOOh! Those scary skulls will really help you when TSHTF!
Need a real knife for emergencies? Get something like this:
Mossy Oak Survival Hunting Knife with Sheath, 15-inch Fixed Blade
Not much I would imagine Viktor. Perhaps to baton to split kindling even when there is no need because the forest floor is covered in small kindling sticks. Mostly carried because it makes some people feel good when they go camping. No one tool can perform all tasks with equal efficiency, if you want to go bush & survive, then you need a good hunting knife (butcher knife), & a tomahawk. You will obviously be better off with other items as well, but the knife, the axe & the gun are still the main items you should be carrying regardless of anything else Viktor.
Tools of the Trade.
Tools of the Trade.
Keith.
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I use mine for cutting string, but it also has a can opener and a little bit that works as a screwdriver if I happen to have an L1A1 SLR with me (unlikely!)
Call that a knife? This is a knife!
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Showing off
Pretending to be action men
…
I have a Swiss army knife in my pocket, an urban survival knife. It opens beer bottles, scews and unscrews things and is an emergency cork screw.
Oh and letter opener.
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YOU USE IT TO SURVIVE // MOST OF //SO CALLED RAMBO KNIVES //HOLLOW PIPE GRIP AND BOLT ON BLADE //HOLE FILLED WITH LOW QUALITY JUNK AS FEW MATCHES , FEW FISH HOOKS A STRING SAW // IF YOU WANT TO GO THIS WAY ONLY GOOD THINK IS THAT HOLLOW PIPE GRIP CAN BE MOUNTED ON STICK TO GET SPEAR / BUT EXPECT TO BRAKE OFF BLADE IF USE LIKE SHOULD// A GOOD DIVING KNIFE WITH MAGNESIUM STICK TO CREATE FIRE EVEN IN RAIN //WITH SOME PRACTICE IS MUCH BETTER CHOICE
MICRO COMPASS ETC IS SHIT YOU SEE WHEE SUN IS RISING SO IT IS IF NOT COMPASS PRESISE AT LEAS 100 PERC SURE TO BE FACT
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Seriously? Pretty much anything for which you need any knife when out and about in the wilderness. Survival knives are typically a bit more stout and heftier for chopping things. The spines tend to be either 3/16″ or 1/4″, as opposed to 1/8″ thick. Blade lengths can range from about 4″ to about 7″. Personally I prefer a somewhat longer blade (6 – 6.5″) with a full tang. Longer blades make it difficult to do fine, or detail, work. A pointed tip is also helpful. The type of blade steel is also important. I like SOG’s series of knives and ESEE knives are quite good. Expect to pay for quality, after all if it’s your survival you’re interested in, why go cheap?
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“Typically” used for?
It has been my observation that most young folks who come into my shop looking for such things are typically using them to impress themselves and their friends. Many of what are sold as “survival knives” on the market today are not at all what a serious survivalist would ever carry. Many are little else but cheap junk knives that look neat but are not at all practical or ergonomic.
They often are poorly tempered or simply not tempered at all, poorly balanced, won’t hold an edge, will bend and stay bent if torqued, have handles or grips that will work themselves loose if used for anything other than showing your college or high school pals.
If the blade or sheath is inscribed with the word “survival” or some variation of “warrior”, “assassin”, “jungle”, “ninja”, “ranger”, “zombie”, “fighter” or some other written explanation of its intended purpose because the target consumer is the sort who would need to have that explained to them — then it is likely unfit for that purpose.
Tac-Force- Spring Assisted Folding Pocket Knife