SURVIVAL KNIVES PART 2

What is this survival knife thing? Why is everyone (well almost everyone)  in YouTube land etc so hung up about it? 
Why have the words "survival knife" become the: biggest key search words; manufacturers marketing weapon of choice;
Other than the knife you happen to have on you at the time and that's important of course.When i think "survival knife", I simply think of a sturdy well made knife with about a 7 inch blade but under 8 inches (exceptions are machetes; parangs; Panabas; Kukris etc)

For example but of course not limited to a knife such as this seen below.

The FKMD Parus, pictured here after just chopping open a green coconut on a piece of drift wood washed up on a coastline

One piece (in this case Forprene) handle resistant to impact; and extremes of cold and heat. Ok basically that means it isn't going to break and if it did it would mean your hand is going to break too, if your knife sustains such a great force!
All this about knife handles breaking and having to cord wrap or otherwise your full tang knife, are fantasies of armchair survivalists.

Strong tang (not necessarily a full width tang-see my other related blog); with first fixing bolt back from the fulcrum of the knife, ie no weak point at the fulcrum, where the force could be very large in some instances. eg levering.

BTW  I've "survived" on an island (with one other) with nothing but a fishing rod, one lure (which had to be retrieved once  when I got it stuck on the coral reef, which meant putting on our only mask and snorkel and fins, swimming out into the fierce current, diving down to unhook the lure and making sure I didn't get hooked up myself and swimming safely back to to beach. Why, because as a "survival tool" that lure was very precious to our comfortable existence there.) Anyway I get distracted, what I was going to say was we only had one carbon steel, secondhand machete (actually a coconut parang bought at a coconut processing plant for 5 USD!) and a Leatherman wave multitool, plus a Swiss army knife (which, the latter BTW was left on the mainland so not with us. In other words, no fancy pants survival knives were with us, just the knives we had on us at the time!
Stainless steel; You don't want it to rust, a rusty knife can harbour bacteria and protozoa like giardia, these organisms can make you sick. Stainless is simply easier to keep clean and hygienic.

Blade Coatings? such as:Cerakote (polymer/ceramic composite) but not limited to. Coating plays almost no practical role in knife functionality (with exception of an anti-glare surface). Not a survival requirement except for stealth in "urban civil unrest survival ie war".
Sturdy synthetic sheath Molle compatible. Adaptable to carry by several means.
HRC 58-60; under 60 will be easier to sharpen than  greater than 60 HRC, that's physics!

Lanyard hole, I won't loose it down a hole, if I use a cord in it.


Good point for penetration for gutting fish piercing hides.
Large recurve section excellent for cutting ropes and vines and other fibrous materials.
A large belly with weighted front end for chopping and skinning.
5mm sheet construction, strong enough to take a beating.
good finger ramps/gimping is present.


A good many knives will fall into this survival category based upon those above points. They do not need to have multiple grinds, and a good solid drop point works just fine in capable hands.

And that brings me to the point of knowing how to get the best out of your chosen knife. Know how to handle it, what is easy to cut, what is hard to cut, how to gut fish with it and skin and butcher game with it. Learn how to hunt. A "survival  knife" is no good if you don't know the first thing about fishing or hunting; it (Survival knife) just becomes a name for armchair survivalists. 
Remember, short term survival has nothing to do with knives, it has all to do with: safety, shelter, water and food and getting rescued.

There are many out there advocating a great many blades styles and shapes for survival knives but let me tell you this. First learn about hunting and fishing and camping (inclusive) through this you will learn what knives work and what knives don't and when and where to take certain knife designs, dependent on the environment you venture into and what you plan to do.

An Excellent knife for camping.

Beginners or Experienced alike.

The Kizlyar Supreme STURM, quite possibly my favourite fixed blade knife right now and current go to knife.

Here's why:

The first thing is the size. It's a very convenient 10" from butt to the bottom end of the scabbard. The knife blade itself is only 120mm, that's just 4.7"!

AUS8 is a great steel and very serviceable in the field and at home. AUS8 has good corrosion resistance, here I cut up salted meat, i've got about 4 litres of water with me that's all, so that means a only a little water to clean the knife can be spared. No problems.

The Sturm has a 4.23mm/0.166" thick spine with a proper full tang, this knife is ready for action and more than capable for ALL camp duties in my opinion. Kraton slabs over lying ABS inserts are bolted to the tang. The edge bevel is steep and some may not like this but this makes a strong edge and very easy to keep sharp if you happen to blunt it on a week long trip, which I seriously doubt if you look after your gear properly. There are NO hot spots on this knife design, even the gimping has a nice rounded profile and lots of thumb pressure can be applied without discomfort.

If one has to split wet wood then whacking the spine with a lump of hardwood isn't going to damage anything except that lump of wood.

The carry system is safe and secure in this polyamide sheath. The knife can be carried strapped to a pack, vertically or horizontally.

All in all I recommend this knife for camping and hiking where you will be away for several days BUT not totally isolated. What I mean by this is that there would be a good chance of encountering other campers/hikers during you visit. 

If you decide to go further into the wilds, where it is extremely unlikely to meet others and for a duration of say 10 days or more, then I might suggest a different style of knife. But this depends still on the type of terrain and what you intend to do whilst out there.

More on this later........

Tropical Equipment test!

FKMD Parus, passes the green coconut hacking test.

That is, easy to swing, little chopping to get reward (coconut water), can cut as well the fibrous nature of the coconut.
Ergonomics as such demonstrates that the FKMD PARUS doesn't want to "leave my hand" whilst chopping, in other words it provides a good comfortable grip.
In fact the FKMD Parus, dare I say is like a bit of a small light weight hatchet. Ok, it's not a hatchet but then a hatchet would be useless trying to hack open coconuts as it's just too wide.
So my point being is that can this knife be a good substitute for a machete or parang if you don't have one or can you go tropical camping with just this knife, the FKMD PARUS, and will it see you through?
My answer is a definite YES. I've done the extensive tropical camping, cooking only with coconut water from coconuts hacked/twisted straight off those coast hugging palms. We had a machete which was a bit thinner, had a longer handle and was actually a specific coconut parang but only an inch longer than the FKMD PARUS. So I reckon the PARUS would work fine, plus not being quite as big would be easier to transport, in my experience.

"These types of Survival whistles" are CRAP and could get you killed!

They contain small parts (which are not safely anchored in anyway) which could be a choking hazard.

Let's take a look inside.

At first these types of whistles which come inside of those cheapo "survival kits' often marketed with actually good knives, look great, and even produce a super ear piercing  blast  with little effort;  are just terrible.  WHY???

Well, on close examination, just inside of the mouth piece resides a small bit of hard plastic, which is required  for the whistle to work. Without this very small piece of plastic, the whistle, no matter how hard you blow it, until blood starts coming out of your ears, you will never make it work. Better off just learning how to whistle with your fingers in your mouth- which BTW can also produce a deafening blast.

See that opaque piece of plastic???

Looking into the mouth piece, you can clearly see this tiny piece of plastic, in this case a hard piece of HDPE by the looks of it.

Well here lies the problems. Firstly, this piece of plastic is easily dislodged from the whistle by vibration. This can occurs from one of thousands of ways for example: when the whistle is either dropped, knocked, gotten wet, thrown somewhere, bounced around in a pack or in one of those cheapo Aluminium can survival kits etc.

No plastic insert, no sound from this device.

Secondly, if one was to inhale with the whistle in their mouth, there is a good chance that they will end up choking on this small piece of plastic, and if luck is on their side, they might be saved and end up shitting it out at some other time if they manage to get it out of their windpipe.


These kinds of whistles are a hazard to children and adults alike and I would like to suggest that if you want to carry a whistle make sure there are NO parts which you could accidentally ingest or worst still choke on. Otherwise you might become a victim of your own survival kits contents!

Mass produced in CHINA, and my guess is that they would never pass safety standards.

Why the Extrema Ratio TASK makes a good outdoor knife.

Or why I'm still very keen on my Extrema Ratio TASK

In Extrema Ratio's blurb about the TASK, they say:

Good "for all everyday cutting jobs".

Usually I never pay too much attention to what manufacturers say about their products, i don't care if it's a car or a food processor anymore than some knife manufacturer's blurb.

BUT.

I can't disagree here. Several years experience now with the ER TASK more than demonstrates to me the usefulness of this blade in the bush. At first the thin looking tip put me off a bit but this didn't last. You simply don't need a knife which is super thick and it is a total crock that a thick bladed knife is the best bet. I'll take on anyone based on my real life experiences in the wilds against those of armchair survivalist/weekend warriors regarding this statement. 

I mean how many times have you broken the tip of a well made (brand name) kitchen knife which also sports a thin tip? Total abuse not accepted.

I did indeed post a short video in response to viewers doubts about the tip strength of this knife by twisting it into seasoned Hawthorn (a really hard hardwood). Mmmm, the tip didn't break. Even this surprised me as it was clearly abuse of this knife and the functions it was intended for.

The Extrema Ratio TASK in experienced hands is very capable of many "bushcraft" activities, ranging from but not limited to:

Carving and green or dry timber.

feathering any timber I could find.

blade scraping giant bamboo.

cutting through very thick and fibrous materials such as palm fronds and fern fronds.

Cutting through very hard vegetables, such as tubers of: yams; cassava; Taro; pumpkins; etc

Cutting up all kinds of meat and deboning.

Gutting fish and filleting them.

Slicing through the middle of lawyer cane vines (a type of tropical spiky palm-used for all sorts of things).

Cutting green vines via the serrations.

Or Making wooden tools to dig with or prise rotten logs apart. 

You can see that using a baton on this blade is not mentioned. Well most of the time I have never batoned my blades except for demo purposes. When I'm out camping, even if it has been raining and I need to start a fire, I'll carve off the wet wood. If it's so wet then you won't get a fire going whether batoning or not- especially if it's really pissing down.

 In fact I believe this to be one of Extrema Ratio's most useful blades and the TASK totally lacks all the BS and mall ninja hype as can be seen in it's simple design. 

Now that brings me to the carry system. This is a very good and safe system. My understanding is that it was designed around the requirements of paratroopers, where the last thing you want is to land on your sheath, the knife penetrates the sheath and stabs you! OR your equipment gets caught up in parts of the sheath. Very little chance of these scenarios taking place with this well designed sheath, incorporating a very rigid shell that surrounds the blade.

There is an absence of an upper guard, so often associated with military style designs. The absence of this guard makes the TASK a practical blade for maximum positioning of ones hands in order to accomplish a range of operations, not possible (not easily anyway) from a knife with guards.

No upper guard, which for bushcraft activities, is great.

 The Sheath is well thought out. See pictures below.

Maybe the TASK is right for you once you get over the thick blade knife is the be all end all syndrome. Simply not true.

BCT over and out.

Is Cerakote food safe???

Cerakote is the trade name of https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/. 

This is a popular ceramic based polymer composite used to coat the surfaces of many metallic objects such as: guns, knives and car exhaust systems (high temperature applications).

The base unpolymerized compounds, (some of which as trade secrets and names and data are unavailable), are toxic if handled incorrectly and I will provide the links to the SDS data at the end of this blog for all to see. 

I wrote to Cerakote ceramic coatings 

(https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/) asking them to comment on whether the polymerized compound(s), ie the final product(s), has any health and safety information. That was some time ago and they never replied.

The question is whether knives using this coating should be considered unsafe for food applications. Many outdoor knife manufacturers are using this type of coating, which is NOT to be confused with: PVD processes, powder coating and "blackening" via a Military specification which deposits an Oxide onto a metal surface.

As is commonly known knives used in the food industry are uncoated and generally of stainless steel for obvious reasons, the same being for surgical instruments and metallic implants.

PDF references to MSDS data on Cerakote products

or here in plain text.

https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/resource/downloads/

I couldn't find any long term use regarding ingestion of polymerized Cerakote particles and effects on animal physiology. This however, does not mean that there isn't, it just means I didn't find any such data at this point in time.

The product does contain leachable hexavalent chromium at very low levels (see SDS reference to "C Series" coatings. Hexa valent chromium products: 

Quote:

NOTE: NTP, IARC and ACGIH found that "there is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of chromium and certain chromium compounds both in humans and experimental animals." 

Quote:

The chromium oxide based pigments present in the NIC products listed above are all trivalent, refractory chromium

compounds [Cr(III)], each containing 1ppm or less of leachable hexavalent chromiujm (</-0.0001%). The toxicity information stated above

are for Cr(III) oxide-based C.I. Pigments as stated in SDS's provided by the pigment suppliers. 

 Although most manufacturers probably will not tell you which Cerakote coating they are using, as there are many.

Read the documents.

You be the judge.

Miguel Nieto Warfare 5

When I first looked at the Warfare 5 from Miguel Nieto SL in Spain about 6 months ago, my immediate impression was that it looked a bit like a butcher's knife but with that fancy guard region.
This is a budget knife selling for around an incredible 30 Euros on the net, that's about $34 USD!!!.

So does this mean this knife is shit? No WAY!!. For a start I have many knives using the AN58 steel and all of them hold an edge very well and have a Rockwell of approx 58-60 according to Nieto and they have actually undertaken independent University tests (The Science and Engineering in Materials College of Castilla-La Mancha University) on this steel, with the following elemental key composition based on this University analysis:

C 0.45
Si 0.34
Cr 13.5
Ni 0.12
Nieto heat treats at 1,060 C and tempers at 350 C for 3 hours to achieve a HRC of 58-60.

The warfare 5 is designed with a hollow grind for excellent cutting, with a sheet thickness of 4.3mm or 0.2" thickness at the spine. It's a full tang knife. The centre of gravity or the fulcrum sits behind the guard.

Full tang knife with aluminium inserts

This is my second Nieto knife with this funky kind of guard. So how does it work and does it work? It allows an up close (to the blade) grip on the knife. Make no mistake this area has aggressive gimping and those with woosy soft skin beware LOL!

This model is features the cheaper Forprene all weather handle. The nature of tis Forprene  formulation makes the surface a little slippery when used with wet hands but the deep ridges (2 per side) allow ones fingers to maintain a good grip if used with wet hands.
There are excellent positions for the thumbs (crescent shaped indents at the front of the scales X2) in order to manoeuvre the Warfare 5 with blade facing uppermost, a common position when skinning. 

Forprene scales

Undersurface of handle.

I could shave (dry) the hairs on my legs with this knife how it came out of the box. 
The butt end features a nice rounded pommel so as not to hurt the palm of your hand should you wish to apply pressure to this region.

The grip is very comfortable when bashing around with this knife and that's simply because these polymers like Forprene absorb a lot of vibration/shock. Pushing down hard without gloves on to do the above yielded no hot spots from this handle.

Anyway, I've just finished abusing a knife entitled "Warfare 5" as I figure if you give a knife a name like tis you had better have produced a product that can live up to that name and everything it conjures up. I'll let you in on a secrete, so far the abuse has had no effect on the functionality of this blade! 

Stay tuned!

BCT

Nieto Chaman Macro Review

Hi all, here is the field testing complete of the Nieto Chaman Macro.

Kept sharp with only one touch up after  one week of use. (which included opening one can with it). Despite it being a rather hefty fixed blade even at 6inches or so, I don't think it's a good chopper too (you can't have it all- or can you?). This is a solidly built drop point suitable for heavy tasks around the campsite and easy to maintain with excellent corrosion resistance as well. I used it on the coast- that's next to the salt water and sometimes in it LOL. Personally, I don't see a problem with the use of DIN 1.4116 in outdoor knives. Maybe I'd like to see some grooves in the handle scales as I tend to use all of my knives without gloves (except in the snow of course). But that's just me. Anyway see what you think.





HKTFWC

New from Miguel Nieto in Spain

The CHAMAN MACRO!

WOW What a knife!

The Nieto Chaman Macro, hot on the heels of the smaller Nieto Chaman. The MACRO version is much bigger, very slick lines and curves, now with a narrower handle for increased grip needed for a bigger knife. 

The Chaman Macro features: A curved top spine, tapering to a swedge; excellent thumb/finger gimping; 6mm/1/4" (5.68mm at the tang).

150mm/5.7" long blade (as measured from the guard).

The blade steel is the same as for the Chaman. Nieto are using a common cutlery grade steel DIN 1.4116 standard Stainless alloy. The HRC is 54-55, easily sharpened in the field, with good toughness properties. To be honest there is absolutely nothing wrong with this alloy if correctly hardened.

DIN 1.4116 Stainless alloy. Holds a good edge and easily resharpened in the field.

The Micarta version also has a divert for a fire bow drill, which is great as making the drill, the base is easy but finding a good top block is much more difficult.

The Chaman Macro is a design by Manuel del la Torre.

Nieto Chaman Macro at home for the "outdoor" BBQ

Nieto Chaman Macro on the coast, no need to worry about corrosion with the DIN 1.4116 alloy.

The Chaman Macro is a great performer for food prep too.

How about food acids and prolonged cutting on wooden boards? No problem

Hacking into tough fibrous objects like sugarcane, no problems.

The Chaman Macro comes with a well made full leather scabbard and attachment-Molle-like for 

Nieto's small "survival kit" the latter I have to say is quite good as far as "ready made survival kits go". (see my video review on this kit in the Chaman review on BushCampingTools.

Stay tuned to BushCampingTools for an in depth tour of the Nieto Chaman Macro in the field.

BLACK FOX BF 710

MODEL:

VESUVIUS

AFREDO DORICCHI DESIGNED: BUSHCRAFT KNIFE IN 440C STAINLESS STEEL FROM BLACK FOX KNIVES

THE VESUVIUS

Black Fox knives is a division of Fox Knives in Maniago Italy.

Black Fox are premium quality knives produced in Asia for Fox Knives. The build quality of this Vesuvius is top notch, including the scabbard made from Kydex.

The Black Fox Vesuvius features a full tang blade made from 440C martensitic stainless steel.

Full tang 440C stainless steel

Some of you will no doubt be familiar with other designs of Alfredo Doricchi's such as the well-known FKMD Parang amongst others.

The Vesuvius or BF 710 is marketed as a Bushcraft knife and I'd say it's pretty handy as a camping knife. Let's face it, 440C was and still is a great choice of steel for knives. It can be hardened to a high Rockwell and still be very tough. It's resistance to corrosion is very good (it's used in dive knives by many manufacturers). In this case the listed HRC is:
57-59.
The blade thickness (max) is 4.72mm (I measured- which rounded to the nearest 10, equates to 5mm or 0.186".
I measured 104.56mm it's listed length as 105mm or 4.1" in length, with a total length of: 22cm or 8.6".
The handle is made from 2 slabs of black G10,  with a very fine surface texture which provides a sure grip even with wet hands. There is a palm swell and even better the handle tapers nicely towards the butt which makes it very easy to hold. There is a lanyard hole but no pommel, you don't really need one in reality. Because the butt end is smooth you can easily place your palm of your hand over it to drive the knife forward.
The scales are fixed to the tang by tubular rivets of stainless steel. The rivets are not seamless and you can see the weld marks within the rivets. Being a stickler for quality production, I checked at high magnification for the presence of any cracking of this seam when these tubes were peened over but there wasn't any, indicating the welds are quality welds.

Stainless tube rivets securing a slightly textured G10 handle.

The Vesuvius is typical of a "Bushcraft style" knife with a full flat grind, this model is a "stone wash" finish. The overall knife is well finished and has a nice weighty but not too heavy feel to it.
The scabbard is of Kydex and included is a fire steel. The attachment to a belt is achieved via a type of Tek lok, (Black Fox list it as Teak Lok) the actual brand on the lock says "by DOTS Pat. P" and is also made in China. It looks strong and well made. There is some kind of spring mechanism within this locking system that could see trouble should dirt or fine sand/dust enter and prevent or encumber the release/function of the lock but I guess if you don't intend on rolling in the mud with the knife attached then it should be absolutely fine.
All in all, the Black Fox Vesuvius or BF 710 so far for me appears to be AN EXCELLENT BUSHCRAFT/CAMPING KNIFE!

Overall, the Black Fox Vesuvius or BF 710 handles very nicely in field tests conducted by myself to date, soon a video to follow showing it's capacity in real situations.

The Black Fox Vesuvius also came with two short pieces of Para-type cord.

But you be the judge of the video field review soon to come on BushCampingTools.