Kitchen Knife Survival?

RoyalM

RoyalM

Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
2,150
So this thread has kind of spawned from the nearby Society is breaking down thread.

Knives like this are probably the most common and available to us:
MOPB3000-CHEF-080.jpg


So has anyone used a knife like this for survival? I'm thinking you have the clothes on your back a water bottle, some food and the knife now survive in the woods for a couple of days.
 
It would work fine. At least I'd have a lot of faith in my Henckels. Knife block makes for a poor sheath though :D
 
Of course it would work, it beats the hell out of a sharp rock. I chuckle a bit on this fourm reading posts with people saying that you NEED the latest and greatest fad steel or design. There was a thriving population of humans that survived quite well with no steel, much less wonder steel 5000 or what ever is in style this second.

You learn and adapt your skills to fit your knife not the other way around. Chris
 
I've got a 'Black Diamond' 10" chef's knife, full tang, laminated scales, great distal taper:D Not entirely ideal to my mind, but it would handle about anything you could throw at it short of prying (and even that could work in some circumstances). Oh yeah, people would leave you alone with that on your belt, too:p
 
You could get by just fine with one of those. Liek August said, beats the hell out of a sharp rock
 
I used a little IKEA kitchen knife like the one in the middle for a while, not a bad little blade...

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Meh, this is one of those times where our hobby can cause tunnel vision. What blade or what type is easily the least important part of the equation. It's about who's using it, if they know how to use it. When we need a cutting tool, something simple with an edge will suffice the vast majority of the time! Which is why many of us camped for many years before learning that custom knives even existed!

Here's an Old Hickory Boning knife that I just cut down and reprofiled a bit, it's worked quite well. Good carver and slicer, and a bit thicker than most old hickory's.

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SpookyPistolero said:
Meh, this is one of those times where our hobby can cause tunnel vision. What blade or what type is easily the least important part of the equation. It's about who's using it, if they know how to use it. When we need a cutting tool, something simple with an edge will suffice the vast majority of the time! Which is why many of us camped for many years before learning that custom knives even existed!
Click to expand...

Absolutely!!!! My grandfather was a true mountainman and I'm sure could teach a lot of "Survival Experts" a thing or two about the rural appalachians. What blade did he use more than any other? A trapper pattern kissing crane slipjoint, and common butcher knives. I am sure he would have got a good belly laugh out of most of the must have gear touted today. When we went camping we slept in leantos, the food consisted mainly of fatback, beans, potatos fried in the fatback grease, cornmeal and whatever we were fishing for or hunting for. He used a knife like it was growing out of his arm.

I think if you gave him 200 dollars to buy a knife he would have went to the feed store and bought an old hickory butcher knife and pocketed 190.

A knife is nothing magical or all powerful, just a sharpened piece of metal. Chris
 
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The old time Mountain men basically went out with a trapper's axe (24" haft, like the S&N Hudson Bay axe, or GB Scandinavian Forest Axe), and a couple of kitchen knives, one for skinning, one a bigger chef's/butcher knife.

Jeff Randall from RAT Cutlery has said several times that in the countries he goes to, people live their daily lives with a machete, and their second knife is usually a smaller kitchen knife.

I think it was Steven Dick in a past issue of Tactical Knives that mentioned in the Philippines, some sort of bolo or golok was the primary and a kitchen knife as the secondary, again for daily living.

I remember Mike Stewart of Bark River doing a demo of using a Guinsu steak knife to baton maple rounds because there was a heated thread about which Bark River you had to have to baton well. His contention is that if a steak knife can be used (and it can), then just pick the knife you like the most and it'll work for you, stop arguing over needing a particular model.

So, as long as you have something for the heavier work, a kitchen knife should be OK for the light work.
 
I haven't used it much out in the woods yet but that's what I modified it for. I try to use it in the kitchen to kind of get the feel of it. It's one of the most comfortable knifes that I have. Old Hickory butcher knife with rounded handle and choil added. It would compete with most of my knives except maybe my Khukuris for chopping. Seems like it would really be suited for skinning but since I don't really hunt any more is one reason that I haven't carried it more.

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RoyalM said:
So this thread has kind of spawned from the nearby Society is breaking down thread.

Knives like this are probably the most common and available to us:
MOPB3000-CHEF-080.jpg


So has anyone used a knife like this for survival? I'm thinking you have the clothes on your back a water bottle, some food and the knife now survive in the woods for a couple of days.
Click to expand...


Falls well within the philosophy that a "survival" knife is simply the knife you have on you at the time.

I don't know that it could be termed a survival situation per say....although one of the better parts of what I see as having been a long term survival situation. I suppose it was more of a primitive living situation as I was intentionally camping. Anyway, I know from experience that an Old Hickory butcher knife and small paring knife make a decent woods combination.

Those memories were the inspiration for post #116 on page 6 of this thread.


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=640368


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This is my most used kitchen knife and as you can see it works great on wood as well !

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I would say that in most survival situations, if you can't survive with only a kitchen knife, you won't survive no matter what knife you have. The only exception I can think of is really cold weather where a fire is a necessity, in which case an axe is king anyway.
 
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