Knives

No experienced adventurer leaves home without their knife. A knife is often considered to be the number one survival tool due to its ability to perform many different tasks in a variety of situations. Although there are plenty of 'all purpose' knives available it only takes a small amount of research to find that there is an amazing variety of knives on the market today in consideration to blade shape, blade size, knife length, thickness, weight and purpose. I was recently lucky enough to photograph a modest collection of some of the more common knife styles on the market today.

A few of the knives I was lucky enough to photograph for this page

To ease classification I will divide the knives into three groups, large knives, small knives and multitools.

LARGE KNIVES

The Bowie knife

Possibly one of the most well known knife design in the world, the Bowie knife is named after James Bowie, an American pioneer and Soldier. Although the knife was originally produced by a man named James Black the design became famous after James Bowie used it to defend himself during an incident commonly referred to as 'The Sandbar fight', a duel between two men that ended up in a full fledged melee. After being shot and stabbed in the chest with a sword cane Bowie still managed to kill one of his attackers with his knife and went on to make a full recovery.

Example of a modern day Bowie knife by Smith and Wesson

In the modern age a Bowie knife is described as any knife featuring a large blade, guard and a clip point. The blade itself is often heavy and thick, designed to inflict maximum damage to soft tissue and internal organs. The weight of the blade allows it to be used as a cleaver, while the sharp point and large curved blade are excellent for inflicting wounds or delivering a killing blow. Although the Bowie knife was mainly used as a fighting weapon in skilled hands it may be used for many of the tasks typical to smaller blades such as skinning and cleaning game.

The Pig Knife

As the name implies, this style of knife was often used for hunting wild boar. Boars have been hunted around the world for thousands of years and methods are varied. Before modern firearms it was common in Europe to use a combination of men on horseback and trained dogs to find and corner wild pigs before delivering a killing blow with bow, boar sword or spear. In instances when a sword or spear was unavailable, or the boar had not been killed by its initial injuries a large knife would be used to deliver the final blow.

Pig knives designed and manufactured by Muela

Besides having a set of massive tusks that are sharpened against tree trunks boars are also gifted with extremely tough bones, a thick skull and a very tough hide. There have been reports of large caliber rifle rounds bouncing off the skulls of charging boars, and so one can imagine it takes a certain kind of knife to put such an animal down permanently. To do this many pig knives are shaped similar to a rifle bayonet, a long thick blade is favored due to its ability to pierce the thick hide and cause considerable damage to internal organs deep within the boar. The knives pictured here are made by the Spanish manufacturers Muela and feature blades constructed from a mix of steel and vanadium.

The Hunting knife

Hunting knives come in many shapes and sizes, but are mainly used for dressing and preparing a kill. To suit this purpose the knife must be good for skinning and cutting through both meat and bone. Some adventurers prefer to use larger traditional hunting knives in the manner similar to that of a survival knife or camp knife, using the sturdy blade to clear trails, cut wood and prepare tinder.

A beautiful hunting knife constructed out of pattern welded steel

Hunting knives can also come in sets, where a small curved blade is provided for skinning, a gut hook blade is provided for cleaning out the organs and a heavier blade is provided for chopping and cleaving meat.

SMALL KNIVES

Small knives might not seem so impressive after taking a look at some of the larger knives on the market, but they are just as important and in the right hands considerably more useful. Alot of smaller knives are made of stainless steel. Stainless is much easier to maintain than carbon steel and does a decent job at holding an edge. Unfortunately stainless steel can become quite brittle when used in large knives and lacks the flexibility of the other alloys available. Don't let that put you off though, small blades are great for a multitude of reasons. They are easy to carry and conceal, require less time to clean and sharpen, and are much easier to wield than their larger brethren making them ideal for fine work such as wood carving and preparing game.

Two Excalibur folding knives forged from surgical grade stainless steel

One of the best things about small knives is price. The knives pictured here were produced by Excalibur and costs $20.00 for the bottom piece and $30.00 for the top piece. Both are made of surgical grade stainless steel and have been used daily for over 9 months. As seen in the photo, both still look great even after continuous abuse.

MULTITOOLS

Multitools are amongst my favorite things in the world and i do my best to never leave home without one. At the time of writing I own two, both produced by the manufacturer Leatherman.

The Leatherman Skeletool CX and Leatherman Surge

Pictured above is the ultra lightweight Skeletool CX, featuring carbon fiber inserts, bottle opener, bit driver, pliers, wire cutters, crimping tool and a high quality 154 CM steel blade. I originally bought this tool for use during trade work as a painter. Although it never let me down, a change of occupation saw me taking apart large machines and repairing all manner of equipment regularly, thus I decided to invest in the Leatherman Surge. Featuring over 20 locking tools this thing is an absolute beast and one of the few heavy duty tools produced by Leatherman. Unfortunately retailers will charge an arm and a leg for one of these in Australia (nearly $280.00). The best place I have found to pick up Leatherman products is Amazon.com where the same item can be bought for under $75.00.