Has your knife ever helped you out of a dire situation?

I'm really suprised there aren't a lot more posts about how a knife saved someone's bacon.

Me:

Shaving firestater tender in weather that simply would have never permitted me to make a fire in life critical applications (half the group was very hypothermic and we were in wet whiteout conditions).

Spearing / cleaning frogs, fish, other wild game

Cutting away clothing on a trauma victim (while hiking found a motorcyclist who slid off a cliff).

Preping bandages / moleskin

Cutting tree limbs to custom fit replacements for broken pack stays

Keeping safe in a rather threatening human element situation.

Tightening slotted head screws that held together an external pack frame that fell apart.

Cutting a trash bag open as an improptu shelter fix when our rain fly seperated from the tent and blew away during a major storm (cheap tent, go figure).

Lancing blisters & splinter removal

I'm sure I'm forgetting far more than are listed here.

Nothing dire. I try to avoid that sort of thing and I guess I've been lucky. I do carry a basic folding knife and a small selection of survival gear.

Mostly I have used my knife to create more drama on my mostly uneventful wilderness outtings. On two occasions my little swiss key chain knife managed to jack on me cutting a couple of fingers to the bone. I liked the little bugger but wished it had a locking blade. Finally , fearing more carnage I modified the knife and now have a locking blade along with the scissors , toothpick and tweezers. Hopefully , I'll be safe in the wilds from now on.

I carry a knife with me…but not with the intention for emergencies….the main reason I use it for it cleaning fish. But I also use it for cutting cheese or salami, cutting cord and moleskin…and I think thats about it. I have never had any other reason for a knife. I have a small folding knife that weighs 1.8oz.

All right, this is an absolutely true but somewhat disgusting survival knife story.

Three of us on a small island (roughly house sized) off remote northern new caledonia twenty miles from main island, dropped off for two weeks with no phone. Three days in rats invaded our food stash and rendered our salami, cheese, bread and cereal virtually inedible. Our milk boxes had been crushed by the anchor on the overloaded boat ride. By day five pretty much nothing left to eat.

Now, as two of us were former commercial fishermen and avid spear fishermen you would think someone brought some fishing or diving gear. Not so much.

I had a little swiss army knife. Effing useless. But, I did find an old machete by the islands water catchment tank. After a day spent in a futile effort at making fish traps with sticks and rotting cheese things were looking pretty bleak.

That was when one of my friends noticed that if he took a crap in the channel leading to the open sea a school of 1-2 pound snappers came around him to feed on it. Not going to get into the morality of waste disposal here but desperate times called for desperate measures.

I had sharpened to rusty machete on a rock and we found we could lure the fish in with excrement and then spin around and chop one or two with the machete. Thus were christened the "turd snappers".

A rather humorous fishing tournament ensued and since the three of us represented different countries the turd snapper olympics was born.

After that first decent into madness some guts from a caught fish sufficed as a lure and we eked out a living.

That is until we got ciguatera poisoning.

But that is another story, and not such a pleasant one.

Moral of the story, "carry a big knife and cut the crap"

HAHA! awesome, that's the stories I'm lookin' for!!

I live in Japan, where cheese is either utter crap or so expensive (try 6.00 for a slice as thin as a wafer) and most bread is the white stuff you use to clean bathroom walls. As a German, life without good cheese and splendid, hefty in the hand bread, is a penance for which I can't recall having done anything so heinous.

So when I traveled to the Alps in Switzerland and France in 2007 I was in cheese and bread heaven! I found that I could wake up at 4:00 in the morning and walk to a nearby village and buy both bread and all kinds of cheeses that surely must have woken the sentinels at Heaven's Gate.

Then I started on my two week walk of Mt. Blanc, carrying my trusty and lightweight Swiss Classic Knife, compact, lightweight, and, I thought, all I needed.

That first morning when I woke in my tent and shuffled down to the village nearby and came back to camp with a hump of bread the size of my head, a fat, spicy length of sausage, and a quarter wheel of tomme de Savoie cheese, sat down on a rock, prepared to slaver over my meal. Only to find that the Classic Swiss knife couldn't cut the bread or the cheese! It was too small! Arrrgh! Ever try to cut a big loaf of bread with a tiny knife?

Three days later in the next town that had a proper store I bought a bread-sized Opinel knife that literally saved my bacon for the rest of the trip. Small knives have their place, but not in the Alps in Europe!

"fearing more carnage I modified the knife and now have a locking blade along with the scissors , toothpick and tweezers."

You have locking tweezers? I'm impressed.

Let me take a stab at this….

Knives are overrated. I can recall about ten situations, back in my reckless youth (mostly) where I had to spend an unplanned night out. In all but one or two, lighting a fire was critical – probably lifesaving in at least one situation, but the knife played no particular role..

On the water, it is a different situation. I once had to cut away a fouled line from the propeller as we were drifting onto some nasty rocks. A good knife is vital for scuba diving.

A multitool is very useful if you have complicated gear (like a boat) such as bindings, etc. The big Rambo knives are just silly – anything longer than 4" is way overkill.

I dont get it. None of you people carry knives? So what are you supposed to do when you need to skin a buck or extract a hot slug from someone's back? By the way, the latter is also a very good reason to carry a flask of whiskey.

I always carry a small knife in my pocket and use it just about every day. Friends and co workers also use, my knife, almost as often. Since it's always in my pocket it comes backpacking too. It has never saved my life but it makes my everyday life easier.

I have carried a small knife for 40 years. I use it weekly if not daily. Fortunately I have not had to depend on it for safety or my life and I really don't what to experience that need. There may be of bit of "I have never needed it so I don't need it" reasoning going on here. For some basic items I believe that could get someone into trouble. Rope (light), Fire and cutting are important basic endeavors for me.

Wondering if the percentage of people who regularly carry a knife varies with age, a lot like wrist watches do. I read recently that young people often don't wear wrist watches, since their cell phones have clocks. With the expansion of cities, as well regulations and social norms regarding carrying knives, I wonder if young people carry them less than their middle-age and beyond counterparts. Ridiculous?

I got lost one below treeline in the Rockies. Dayhike gear only, I had to fix up a bit of a shelter and used my knife. Luckly I found my way out.

If you backpack on groomed trails where there is some hiker traffic then I can see not carrying a knife. Otherwise, carry one. If you shudder at the extra 4oz, then lose some body weight or do an extra 2 minutes on the treadmill.

To those of you who don't and make goofy comments, you are no Skurka……; )

There may be something to that. I actually have experienced many members of my generation (currently 18-25) reacting in shock and fear to the presence of a knife, even though it was simply a small knife being used as a practical tool by a trusted person.

However, when we get further down the scale to the demographic of 14-year-old-boys (as I once was), who tend to carry knives if they think they can get away with it. Not that they ever find any practical use for them, but that little lump in your pocket somehow just feels bad**s. Multiple knives, if possible. ;)

Dire? Hmmm. Mostly it cuts salami, cord, occasional tent stakes, & so forth. I've also used it to carve a rough spoon after mine broke, infrequently to clean fish. Note that a razor would not do any of those tasks other than cut cord. None of those situations were dire, but a decent knife made things easier.

Several years ago a friend and I were paddling deep in the BWCA in early spring, and spent most of a day paddling & portaging in 30-ish degree rain. By the time we got to camp we were cold to the bone. All of our critical insulation (ie sleeping bag & spare layers) was safely stashed in dry sacks, & our stoves immediately fired up to get some warm tea down the hatch, but we needed something a little more.

One might argue that need was largely psychological, and indeed that might have been the case. Perhaps we could have just donned our dry stuff & shivered into our sleeping bags. But we were miserably cold.

All potential firewood and tinder was pretty much soaked. A stout knife (4" fixed blade) worked fine for splitting into wet wood to the dry core, and we were able to get a decent fire going. The fire rigged under a tarp, the two of us got out of the freezing rain & warmed up externally, nursed feeling back into our fingers, and cheered up a bit. I was glad to have a few ounces worth of knife, & continue to carry one on all my trips. It's also a good complement to a wood-burning stove…

Some of it's age. I know my Dad would get angry if I didn't have one, because in his world, men carried a pocketknife. Our education system starts early with the indoctrination that knives are bad though.

There have been a couple of times when I was in dire need of a knife, because sometimes you get a tough steak.

Gabriel says,
"I wonder if young people carry them less than their middle-age and beyond counterparts. Ridiculous?"

No, I think you're probably right. I've often had a "Who are you going to kill with that?" response when I've opened my SAK to cut a chunk of broccoli from the salad bar down to size, or to open one of those clam-shell packages that are so common these days. Younger folks seem to see a knife primarily as a weapon, probably due to our tv and movie culture, and not primarily as a tool. Why carry a knife, unless you are an evil murderer?

FWIW, carrying a knife while backpacking won't do you much good unless you know what to do with it. If you don't use a knife at home, it has no inherent magic that will protect or save you in the woods.

What's really funny are these discussions about not needing to carry a knife in the backcountry yet some of you carry guns. Daily.

Uh oh – did I just say that?

bravo david, i completely agree with you sentiment and incitement to thread drift!

(I'm in hiding right now…)

>What's really funny are these discussions about not needing to carry a knife in the backcountry yet some of you carry guns. Daily.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Yes, you are correct.

Last month I was doing a 8-day trip in the Wind River Range which included a lot of fishing, both spin and fly. I am fairly new to fly fishing and while standing on a rock at the waters edge I was roll casting and managed to sink a fly deep into my cheek.

The hook was in deep past the barb (forgot to remove it) and would not pull out without taking a nice chunk of my cheek with it. I got out my survival signal mirror and a friends Leatherman, pushed the hook through the other side of my cheek and grabbed the tip of the hook with the Leatherman's pliers and bent the hook straigh until it snaped. It snapped right at the barb and I was able to pull it out. While not a huge safety issue, sleeping and life on the trail would have really sucked those last 3 days with a wolly fly stuck in my cheek!

I have a Leatherman multi that is fairly weighty, but I don't count it if it's on my belt or in my pocket. I worry about pack weight and foot weight, the rest fluctuates. I could lay off IPA and save some weight as well. After borrowing someone's swiss army for cutting moleskin due to a last second change of shoes on a 5 day, I regretted not having my leatherman.

Cleaning fish, cutting rope, moleskin, food, etc, unless my purpose is to go fast (think race), or I'm going on a local hike I do all the time, I carry a knife.