What survival knife was this? *Now solved

Ruari

Ruari

Joined
Jul 5, 2014
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In the early 90s, like most kids, I wanted one of the Rambo survival knives with the hollow handle, compass butt cap and saw back blade.
My father would never agree to it. He did however, surprise me with a survival knife as per this picture;
3WNIyJ.jpg

I'm not sure of country of origin, but it had a hard, black plastic handle, with a black plastic sheath. The sheath, chunky, boxy, slab sided, contained a clear plastic box insert that held the survival kit in it. I forgot to draw the integral magnifying glass that was moulded as part of the clear plastic box.
The knife itself was 6" blade or maybe more, and had a very well machined staggered saw back blade.
I do vividly remember that the handle/blade edge angle was 45°.

I never did appreciate the knife, though better than the Rambo crap, it wasn't 'cool'. Unfortunately I do not have the knife anymore.

Can anyone give me an idea as to what this knife was (maker, name, model etc) as I cannot locate anything like it through my online searches.

***Thanks to rover rover this is now resolved, it was a Marco Polo survival knife.
 
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I think it looks good. Like a knife which could get some serious use out there in the wild.
 
I seem to remember that plastic box with the survival stuff.
I sold stuff like that up until the mid/late eighties at gun shows.
I would try Spanish brands like Aitor or Muela, I did a lot of that.
Hope that helps!
 
Wow that's a tough one. I had a Buck 639 which was one of the very few sawbacks that had a "plastic" handle. But that came with a pancake style camo nylon sheath. Nearly all "survival knives" at the time had compasses, but they were either either in side the cap of the hollow handle, outside the cap like a lollipop, or completely separate. Very few had the compass at the bottom of the sheath, although I know Frost had such a sheath for one of their Japan imports. Hope this puzzle gets solved, rather curious now.
 
Wurger190 said:
In the early 90s, like most kids, I wanted one of the Rambo survival knives with the hollow handle, compass butt cap and saw back blade.
My father would never agree to it. He did however, surprise me with a survival knife as per this picture;
3WNIyJ.jpg

I'm not sure of country of origin, but it had a hard, black plastic handle, with a black plastic sheath. The sheath, chunky, boxy, slab sided, contained a clear plastic box insert that held the survival kit in it. I forgot to draw the integral magnifying glass that was moulded as part of the clear plastic box.
The knife itself was 6" blade or maybe more, and had a very well machined staggered saw back blade.
I do vividly remember that the handle/blade edge angle was 45°.

I never did appreciate the knife, though better than the Rambo crap, it wasn't 'cool'. Unfortunately I do not have the knife anymore.

Can anyone give me an idea as to what this knife was (maker, name, model etc) as I cannot locate anything like it through my online searches.
Click to expand...




Wow! That knife looks almost identical to the knife used in the "Get to the Chopper" scene of Predator. Not sure if any of you are old enough to remember this Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. This guy Billy decides that his knife was a better weapon than a gun to fight the Predator... Poor Billy. Check it out. Stop the video at around :46 seconds into the scene. There's your knife! Keep watching and see if Billy survives the Predator!
 
Black Cat said:
Wow! That knife looks almost identical to the knife used in the "Get to the Chopper" scene of Predator. Not sure if any of you are old enough to remember this Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. This guy Billy decides that his knife was a better weapon than a gun to fight the Predator... Poor Billy. Check it out. Stop the video at around :46 seconds into the scene. There's your knife! Keep watching and see if Billy survives the Predator!
Click to expand...


Nope! Not by a long shot! That's a machete by Jack Crain. He made Arnold's knife too for the movie!
Google Jack Crain knives. Go to images n pan down a bit! All 3 movie knives are there in a picture!!!
 
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Black Cat said:
Wow! That knife looks almost identical to the knife used in the "Get to the Chopper" scene of Predator. Not sure if any of you are old enough to remember this Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. This guy Billy decides that his knife was a better weapon than a gun to fight the Predator... Poor Billy. Check it out. Stop the video at around :46 seconds into the scene. There's your knife! Keep watching and see if Billy survives the Predator!
Click to expand...

Yes, almost identical. Except for the handle material, bolster, blade length, blade profile, grind, and sawteeth on the spine. The Marco Polo knife looks nothing like Bob Crain's knives. But yes, very cool scene. I remember seeing it in the theater four times in 1987..lol.
 
I don't think Billy thought it was a better weapon, he just knew that it was the end of the line and somehow knew that the predator alien would fight him in close quarters combat out of a sense of honor. He was right. Although to be fair I'm not sure how honorable it was in the end since the predator was also invisible... Also I'm disturbed that this is a classic movie. Makes me feel old...
 
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