by Leon Pantenburg

Elk Lake, Oregon is one of the major re-supply places for hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail. Every year, a handful of through hikers will attempt to walk border-to-border on the trail. They generally start in Mexico in April, and start trickling in to the Elk Lake Resort about August. They need to get to the Canadian border before the snow flies.

My wife's Victorinox Classic model Swiss Army knife is a good choice to accompany a large sheath knife as a survival combo.

I was eating lunch at the resort two years ago, and noticed a young lady trekker at a picnic table. She was loading her pack for the next section. She had opened her re-supply box, sliced a chunk of cheese, opened several large packages and cut a shoelace, all with her tiny, Classic Swiss Army knife.

The Classic had been her only knife for nearly three months on the trail.

“It’s all you need,” she commented. “I have to go lightweight and I don’t carry an ounce that isn’t needed.”

For lightweight hikers, who go long distances with minimal equipment, a Classic may be a reasonable choice. On a trail like the Pacific Crest or Appalachian, you’ll seldom be isolated from other hikers for very long if you need help.

If you’re out on a dayhike with a large group of well-prepared hikers, you may not use a knife at all. But (DANGER!!! DANGER!!! SURVIVAL COMMON SENSE ALERT!!!) that doesn’t mean you don’t need a knife. Get separated from the group, off the beaten path in the backcountry, or in some sort of wilderness survival situation and you may desperately need a real survival knife.

Calling a Classic a survival knife is quite a stretch, and I’d never carry that knife as my only survival tool. But it doesn’t matter where I am, or what I’m doing, if it is legal, I have a Classic with me.Victorinox Swiss Army Classic Pocket Knife

In most areas, it is socially unacceptable to wear a sheath survival knife with your dress or business suit. But at 2-1/2 inches long, a Classic is virtually un-noticeable. (Don’t try to take one on an airplane or into a courthouse – the Classic does show up on metal detectors!)

If an emergency develops in an urban, business office environment, maybe all you’ll have are the survival tools on you. And I’d much rather have a

These items are lightweight, easily-carried and could save your life if you're injured while running. From left: handwarmers, cell phone, flashlight, Swiss Army Classic knife, Boy Scout flint stick, whistle, and firestarter.

tiny knife, than no knife at all. A Classic can be an important part of your survival gear.

Here’s what you get with a Classic:

• The best tweezers in the world: The value of this is easily seen when you get a sliver in your finger gathering firewood. If you go outdoors with kids, this feature alone makes the knife worth owning!
• Toothpick: Removes annoying food debris from your teeth.
• Scissors: Great for cutting anything. I’ve used mine at weddings, in the office, on campouts and for trimming unruly facial hairs. I’ve used the tiny scissors to cut bicycle tubes, Moleskin, ribbons on packages, duct tape and bandages.
• Blade: The 1-1/2 inch blade can be sharpened easily, and cuts well for its size and design. In an emergency, the tiny blade will probably work much better than a sharp piece of glass, broken beer bottle, or jagged rock cutting tool that you have to improvise.
• Fingernail File: For a survival situation manicure? Actually, tear the corner of a fingernail in the backcountry and you’ll be really glad you have some way of filing off that jagged edge!
• Low cost: A Classic is cheap. In Hawaii, I bought a Classic for $12 and used it for a week. I presented it to the baggage handler as we boarded the plane for the mainland. At one post-Christmas sale at a major department store, Classics were going for $3 each. I bought all they had. Watch for sales and you can get really good deals. Classics make great gifts, and could be a great prepper barter item. Victorinox Swiss Army Tinker and Classic Knife Combo

Here’s a tip to add one more tool. Take a Dremel tool and grind the end of the file so it fits the hinge screw of your glasses. Nobody ever has a glasses screwdriver when you need one!

Outdoors, depending on the terrain and activity, I may take several different knives that are used for special tasks. As an overall survival and big game hunting knife, I use a Cold Steel SRK. SRK
For upland and small game hunting and cleaning fish; camp chores such as whittling wiener sticks, spreading peanut butter, peeling potatoes and chopping onions, and other mundane tasks, I generally carry a Frost Moro knife. Frosts Master Craftsmen Triflex Knife
For everyday carry, either in my pocket or a belt pouch, I prefer a thin, two-layer thickness knife with multiple tools, such as a Swiss Army Tinker.

Occasionally, I’ll take along a multi-tool. My favorite over the last ten years has proven to be the Leatherman Wave.

The Cold Steel SRK (top) and Moro knife are good choices for all around use. Combined with a Swiss Army Classic, they can provide a good survival tool kit.

Leatherman 830040 New Wave Multi-Tool with Nylon Sheath

When it comes to weight, the Classic is the lightweight champ, tipping the postal scales at one ounce. The Swiss Army Tinker weighs 2.5 ounces; a Frost Moro also weighs about 2.5 ounces (5 ounces with the six feet of duct tape wrapped around the sheath) and the SRK is 8 ounces, with 2.5 ounces of duct tape on the sheath.

Carry a Classic in addition to any of these larger knives, and you have an effective multi-tool set. In and of itself, the Classic is an inadequate survival knife. But combined with a larger knife, the knife will prove to be worth its weight in gold.

So get a Classic and add it to your survival or prepping gear. As happened to me, you’ll go from wondering what good the dinky little knife could be: to wondering how you got along without it!

Recommended Reading:

Surviving a Wilderness Emergency

Recommended Products:

Swiss Army Knives

Leatherman multitools
Cold Steel Knives

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon Pantenburg
  
  .

By Leon Pantenburg

 The term “Survival knife” starts discussions! A while back, a question was asked about what to carry in the hollow handle of a survival knife. Specifically, what survival items are so important that they should be included as part of the knife?

 This leads to another question: What useful items can you actually put in that handle space? Is having that tiny bit of extra space worth weakening the entire knife? After all, the logical place for the knife to fail is where the blade meets the handle, and some hollow handle knives will break under the stress of hard use.

Then, suppose you do pack the handle with assorted items. Will you be able to get them out under the duress of a survival situation, or will the stuff have shifted and settled into a blob of useless junk? A knife handle is hardly the place to store something fragile!

What Is a Survival Knife?

Any survival knife question should start with yet another question: What do you consider a survival knife, and what do you anticipate using it for?

Rambo, according to the scriptwriters, could carry just about anything he needed in the hollow handle of his survival knife!

There seem to be some extreme views in this topic. The 1980s Rambo movies, starring a steroid-infused, testosterone-exuding Sylvester Stallone, started the whole hollow-handle Bowie-type survival knife cult.

Rambo, according to the “First Blood” scriptwriters, could apparently pack anything he needed for wilderness or urban survival in the hollow handle of his knife/sword. (Remember in the first movie,  when he pulled out that suture from the handle and sewed up his arm? And where’d he get all the stuff to make booby traps? And how about that spear he made with his knife to stab a wild pig?) As the Rambo movies progressed, the knives got bigger. First Blood [Blu-ray]

The Rambo movies spawned a slew of cheap, imitation copies, and some people bought them to include in their survival kit. Don’t mistake the junk for some of the high quality products on the market.

Some excellent hollow handle examples are made by knifemaker Chris Reeve in Boise, Idaho. My first exposure to Reeve’s products was when I stopped into Criner’s Cutlery, a little knife shop off the main drag in downtown Boise.

Reeve’s hollow handle knives are made of a single piece of steel, so there is small danger of breakage. The workmanship is superb and the blades maintain a sharp edge, and according the shop owner, are easy to sharpen. The shop had a Reeve-made skinner they loaned out to customers to try, and all reports were excellent.

Another excellent quality hollow handle survival knife is the Buck-184 Buckmaster. Resembling the Rambo knife, it is a hefty piece of steel and a quality piece of work.

I never bought a Buckmaster, but one of my elk hunting buddies, Phil Walker, did. An incredibly skilled hunter, outdoorsman and great friend, Phil harvested deer and elk every year with monotonous regularity. When Phil sauntered back into camp with that elaborately-casual grin on his face, it meant the rest of us had a meat-hauling job ahead.

Phil’s gear was all top quality, and had been refined over the years so it filled all his elk hunting needs.  Phil’s elk rifle was a Ruger Number 1 in .338 Winchester. The hunting cutlery he carried included an 8-inch Old Hickory butcher, a Wyoming knife Wyoming 5″ 3/4 Skinner Blade Knife With Black Polymer Handle/carrying case blade cover Md: WKSP.
and (Phil being a native Texan) an honest-to-God bowie knife.

Those wouldn’t have been my equipment choices, but it’s hard to argue with success.

My personal philosophy on survival knives is at the other extreme. I believe that survival knife design isn’t as important as proximity and ease of carrying. 

You can’t carry a Rambo knife everywhere, so when (fill in the apocalyptic acronym) happens, that tiny, keychain Swiss Army Classic on your keyring may be all you have to work with. Victorinox Swiss Army Tinker with Free Classic Knife

What design is best?

I was lukewarm, at best, about the hollow handle/storage concept until I was asked to design such a knife. My buddy, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell, of Bend, Or., took up metalworking upon retirement. Jim, a Korean War fighter/bomber pilot, with 43 combat missions, was a graduate of three military wilderness survival schools.

If he thought the idea had merit, I was willing to pay attention. Per my recommendations, the prototype blade ended up being a carbon steel, drop point design, five inches long; 3/16-inch thick, about 1-3/4 inches wide, with a straight taper edge. The handle was taken from a cheaper model and welded to the knife tang.

The completed knife works very well. I gave the prototype to my brother Mike for his 40^th birthday, and it has been used extensively for deer and elk hunting. Jim passed away before he could finish my knife, so I still don’t own a hollow handle survival knife!

Space matters Suppose you’re considering buying a quality hollow handle, Rambo First Blood Licensed Bowie Knife 25th Anniversary and you want to make the best use of the space. How much

The knife handle, left, has about as much space as the waterproof match container and Nalgene vial.

actual volume is there?  

A common-sized handle, if such a thing exists, appears to be about one inch in outside diameter. Interior diameter is 7/8-inch and the depth of the cavity is about 3-1/8 inches from the bottom to the start of the threads. The space is big enough to hold about two liquid ounces, or is a little bigger than a waterproof match container. Based on that formula, ask yourself: What items, along with the knife, would do me the most good? Here’s what I wouldn’t put in the handle:

• Waterproof Matches: I don’t trust matches as a reliable source of firemaking. (See related story.) You can only carry a finite number, and matches deteriorate with time. In addition, the movement and shock associated with being carried in a knife handle would eventually ruin them. Waterproof Match Storage Container Camping with Emergency Mirror & Flint
• Fish hooks and sinkers:  I tie flies and jigs and make most of my own lures. I probably have too much fishing-related stuff. Even with all that gear, and a genuine enthusiasm for fishing, there are days when a fisherman can’t buy a bite. Don’t waste the handle space on something like hooks or weights you probably won’t use.
• Water purification tablets: These are left out because you must have a container to put the water in before it can be purified. Put water purifiers in another kit. Besides, unless properly packed, pills will dissolve, deteriorate or be vibrated into powder.Potable Aqua Water Treatment Tablets
• A Swiss Army Classic:  Don’t put my beloved dinky, everyday carry, do-it-all knife in the handle! A Classic doesn’t need to be kept dry, and it would take up valuable space. Besides, don’t put all your eggs in the same basket.
• Survival Instructions: If you haven’t learned survival skills by the time you need them, a booklet won’t help. Knowledge is the most important part of your survival kit! 

 You could include these:

• Drugs, man: If you have special medical needs, this might be one place to properly store the pills. Also, pain or allergy meds or other prescription medications could be literally at hand. (More about storage later.)
• Firemaking tools: Include a Boy Scout Hot Spark or possibly a Spark-It. There should be room for some waxed firestarter, too. Include a few inches of jute twine to stop any rattling around and use that as a firestarter.
• A glover’s needle and dental floss: In an extreme emergency, you could suture a wound with these items. But more likely, the value would be to repair equipment or clothing. Glover’s Needles 10/Pkg – Size 01. The floss could also be used to clean your teeth, which is an often overlooked sanitation issue.

  So, How Do You Pack These Things?    Whatever items are in the handle must be accessible. In a survival situation you may be working with cold, numb fingers, or be shaking from fear, injury or shock. You don’t want to fumble with the contents and drop them in the snow or dirt.      

This works really well: Get some Nalgene vials. Nalgene Multi-Purpose Snap-Cap Vial Kit There is a set that chambers in the hollow handle like a shotgun shell into a shotgun. One of the vials is 3-3/8-inch high, so it is a little longer than the handle cavity. Trim the edge of the vial so it fits inside, and leave a small tab you can grab with your fingers. Put all your gear in the vial and carry it that way.

The vials also allow you to divide up the space. Pack your meds, individually in cellophane, in a smaller vial, and pack it tightly with cotton. This will keep the pills from being smashed or powdered. Stack another short vial on top in the space with other meds or necessary items.

The final decision in  the hollow handle debate will end up being if the tiny bit of extra space gained is useful and worth investing in.   In the end, like in most survival-related topics, the gear choice selection will be up to you.

Me, I’m sticking with my original premise: The only survival knife you have is the one on your person when it is needed.

Recommended Reading:  Surviving a Wilderness Emergency

More Info:Swiss Army Knives   Cold Steel Knives  Buck Knives Great knives  Chris Reeve Knives  

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
  

by Leon Pantenburg

Bring up a subject around the campfire, like the best caliber for a deer rifle, most reliable four-wheel drive pickup or the best all-around survival knife and you will get opinions!

The Cold Steel SRK (top) and the J. Martinni Mora-style knives are good choices for all around use.

But the survival knife topic begs to be explored. Of all the tools needed to ensure your survival in an emergency wilderness situation, a good knife would have to be ranked number one. Then the debate begins!

First, you have to know what you need. Your survival knife must be lightweight, convenient and easy to carry, do the job for which it is intended and be adaptable to the situation. Probably most importantly, it needs to be tough, durable and easy to sharpen.

Over the years, my preference in such knives has changed.

On my 1980 Mississippi River canoe trip, a Buck folder rode on my hip from the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to Venice, Louisiana. The folder, with two, 3-1/2 inch blades, worked well for cleaning fish, sharpening wiener sticks, whittling kindling for the fire and spreading peanut butter. The knife went on backpacking trips on the John Muir Trail, through Yellowstone National Park, and on many canoe trips.

Folding hunting knives were the rage at the deer camp I belonged to in Mississippi in the early 1980s, and a Buck or Schrade was standard. We killed a lot of deer and the folders worked well for gutting, skinning and cutting meat. But we were hardly in a wilderness situation, and seldom far from a vehicle. In retrospect, our folders were great, effective hunting knives, but as survival choices, they had a built-in design problem. Buck 110 Folding Hunter, Lockback Folding Knife

Any folding knife’s weak spot is the hinge. When that breaks, you end up with two pieces. So, as well as my Buck had performed, it was retired two decades ago when I moved to Idaho. I was hunting elk and deer in the mountains, deep in the wilderness, and needed a sturdy hunting knife, in addition to a survival tool. That was when I chose my current hunting/survival knife: a Cold Steel SRK.

Now, after several decades of on-the-job testing, I have narrowed my survival knife choices down to three:
Swiss Army Knife Classic. I was given a Classic in 1994. Immediately, I went from wondering what good the dinky little knife could be, to wondering how I ever got along without it!

Measuring 2-1/4 inches long, and weighing one ounce, the Classic contains all the classic Swiss Army tools, including a

My wife's Victorinox Classic model Swiss Army knife is a good choice to accompany any large sheath knife as a survival combo.

small blade for cutting, a pair of mini scissors, a nail file with a screwdriver tip, a toothpick, tweezers, and a key ring. I ran into a through hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail last summer,  near Elk Lake, Oregon, and the only knife she’d carried since Mexico was a Classic.

The Classic goes everywhere with me, including hunting camps, but it is definately not the only knife I carry. Along with a bigger sheath knife, the two knives can handle everything. Of the tools in the Classic, you’ll find yourself using the tweezers and scissors the most. Victorinox Swiss Army Tinker with Free Classic Knife

Fixed blade Mora: The current favorite among survival schools seems to be the four-inch, fixed-blade Scandinavian Mora style knives. I love the design. It looks like a paring knife with a sheath, and works well for peeling potatoes, cutting rope, and other camp chores. The Mora style is a superb choice for cleaning fish, upland and small game, and it rides in my hunting vest when I’m after birds. Frosts Master Craftsmen Triflex Knife

I ordered six different models several years ago to test the steel for fire-making potential and their use with the Boy Scouts.
My favorite Mora ended up being a knife recommended by wilderness expert Peter Kummerfeldt: a Kellam model M571 fixed blade.  The knife weighs 2.5 ounces, and the sheath, wrapped with about six feet of bright duct tape, adds another 2.5 ounces. The forged blade holds an edge and is easily sharpened. It’s another of those knives I wouldn’t want to get along without.

Cold Steel SRK: I bought my SRK in 1991 to use as an all-around general hunting/survival knife. The blade is 3/16″ thick and 6″ long; the Kraton handle is 4-3/4 inches long; overall length is 10-3/4 inches. My SRK, without sheath, weighs eight ounces, and 10.5 with sheath wrapped in duct tape. Cold Steel 38CK SRK Survival Knife

For what I need, the SRK is perfect. The knife has field dressed about 50 deer and been used on several elk. In one instance, I field dressed and quartered three deer without it needing sharpening. The handle never gets too slick to hold safely, no matter how messy the field dressing job gets. The knife’s performance is so impressive that two of my elk-hunter friends also bought SRKs.

Another good choice is the Cold Steel Master Hunter. For folks who want a little less blade, but the same none-slip handle and good design, the Master Hunter might be the best choice. The blade design works particularly well for skinning.Master Hunter, Kraton Hndl, Stainless, Plain, Concealex

My SRK still gets a lot of hard use, since most of camping I do these days is with scout troops. The SRK is pounded with a wooden baton to split kindling, and that allows us to leave the hatchets and axes at home.

A multi-tool frequently goes along on my outings, because a set of tools can prove to be invaluable. I hike and hunt the desert frequently, and find my multi-tool works well to pull rusty barbed wire off abandoned fences.

My favorite multi-tool is the Leatherman Wave. I got the Wave for Christmas several years ago, and so far, it has done everything I ever needed it for. In addition to pulling barbed wire, the Leatherman has also been used to remove hooks from a toothy fish, repair a radiator hose, saw wood etc.Leatherman 830040 New Wave Multi-Tool with Nylon Sheath

The most appreciated use occurred one morning on the Umpqua River in western Oregon. A buddy and I were fly fishing for steelhead trout when his glasses came apart in his hand. Luckily, the Leatherman has a screwdriver that fit the hinge, and we were able to keep fishing.

Like survival knives, your multi-tool should be chosen carefully, based on your individual needs. They come in all shapes and sizes, with a variety of blades and tools. Most knife manufacturers also make multi-tools, so find a reputable company you like and start looking there.

I am a knife accumulator. In my cutlery accumulation, I have the Hitler Youth knife, and Nazi SS dagger my dad brought home from Europe in World War II, and two Samuri swords he got in the Pacific. I designed and had made a custom, hollow handle survival knife that was given to my brother Mike. I still look for knife deals at gun shows.

Maybe I have way too many knives… 20 years ago I never needed to buy another. So based on experience, and enthusiasm for the topic, here’s my take: the best survival knife is the one you have when it’s needed.

Don’t be concerned about the current fad, or how pretty or cool a knife may look. The knife you have along is the only survival knife you have!

For more info: Cold Steel Knives
Moro style knives
Leatherman multitools
Swiss Army Knives  J. Martinni knife

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter
  
  .          

Are you prepared?