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. As of 20/06/2025, this remains an unanswered question.

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