What is a Survival Knife?

What is a survival knife? I've done some thinking about that and how to better organize this blog. What I've come up with is six types of survival knives:

1. Bushcraft - This knife is used for wilderness survival tasks like skinning game and light woodcraft. Examples include mora, Bark River, and even class Buck knives.
   
2. Chopper - This knife is used for heavy wood work, essentially replacing an axe or machete.
3. Rescue - This knife is used for very hard use urban rescue tasks. Examples include the Cold Steel SRK and the Gerber LMF II ASEK.
   
4. Pocket - This knife is used for every day carry or in small kits but can perform some of the above tasks.
5. Hollow - This knife has a hollow handle of some sort to carry a survival kit.
6. Multitool - More than just a knife.

Gerber LMF II ASEK destructive test videos from Knifetests.com

I collected and reviewed the Knifetests.com destructive testing videos for the Gerber LMF II ASEK.

Since this knife is the Aircrew Survival Egress Knife, it has a couple somewhat unique design points. The butt cap / pommel is heavier than usual and angled to act as a glass/plexiglass breaker. The partial serrations are to saw through sheet metal aircraft skins. The handle design electrically insulates the blade from the hand.

One surprise from the videos is that I didn't realize the sheath has an integral sharpener. The partial serrations let it saw through sheet metal though slowly. The heavy angled butt cap did shatter plexiglass. Chopping wood went slow due to the short, sub-5-inch blade. The front of the handle was somewhat damaged while chopping. He ran out of gas chopping. He got not even halfway through a 2x6, even with some batoning.

The blade breaks 5 minutes into Part 6, cutting 1/8th inch mild steel strap. He mentioned that only 2 knives so far got past this: I believe the Falkniven A1 and a Cold Steel tanto.

The handle breaks around 8:20 into the 6th video. You can see inside the handle then. It's not clear on the video and he gets confused by this, but the butt cap is not part of the same piece of metal as the blade. It is electrically insulated from the blade with a plastic that also absorbs shock when hammering.

Some quotes: "never gonna break it with a piece of wood","chopping not it's strong suite", and overall "Heck it did pretty well". The tip was pretty strong and the blade edge never chipped during testing. He really liked handle and secure grip even with gloves.

Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 1 - the knife and sheath, peeling and slicing an apple
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 2 - breaking Plexiglass, sawing through sheet metal
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 3 - more sawing, cutting nylon webbing, resharpening, batoning to split wood,
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 4 - chopping wood, batoning to cut wood, chopping concrete, trying to break concrete with the pommel,
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 5 - more pommel vs. concrete, hammering spine (into wood then concrete), digging into wood with tip,
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 6 - hammering tip into concrete, cutting mild steel (breaks the blade), hammering on knife locked in vice (breaks the handle where the butt cap meets the tang, then breaks the blade from the tang), taking apart handle
Gerber LMF II ASEK Destruction Test Part 7 - recap and review

Review of a #612 Mora

Centerfinger.com has a nice review of a #612 Mora (courtesy of EDCDepot).

I love this part:

"I now label this knife the 'womens gateway knife', because my wife would not put it down. ... It didn’t take her but the first cut to realize that 80% of her current kitchen knives were garbage compared to this $15 all purpose Mora."

Mora Knives on Knifetests.com

Knifetests.com does some extreme testing of knifes. Some people disagree with the amount of abuse they put knives through but it is useful to see how much a sample knife can handle. It's interesting to see where they fail.

They did some of his tests on a Frost's Clipper Mora knife and the videos are on YouTube. The blade held up well considering it's probably the thinnest they've tested. The edge didn't chip out even on concrete block. In the destructive testing, the blade finally separated from the handle and you can see that this model only has a tang that goes a little more than an inch into the handle. A longer or even full tang would have held up longer. The blade was then broken in an extreme flex test but clearly took more stress than you'd ever expect it to handle. I almost hate to point out that he said it's a great knife for the $10 because it would still be a good knife at $50.

Mora Clipper Carbon Steel Model Field Test Part 1
Mora Clipper Carbon Steel Model Field Test Part 2

Mora Clipper Destruction Test Part 1
Mora Clipper Destruction Test Part 2
Mora Clipper Destruction Test Part 3

Swedish Mora Knives

The Swedish Mora knife is a well-respected survival knife. It is available in variety of materials, from wood to plastic handles and in stainless or carbon steel, and with or without a finger guard. It more closely resembles a fishing knife than anything that the U.S. military or a Hollywood filmmaker would issue. But they are sturdy, cut very well, and sell for $10 to $20.

The Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) says:

"Frosts knives of Mora, Sweden has made incredible blades for over 300 years, always placing function over form. We appreciate the quality a Mora blade provides at a very affordable price. Few knives can compare. "

Ragnar's Ragweed Forge has been the main place to order these knives for years now. I particularly like these models:

#1 Mora $10.50
#510 hard red plastic Mora - carbon $10
#740-MG mil green carbon $11
#760-MG mil green stainless $11

Ragnar also carries other traditional knives that are cheap and perform well like the Opinel and Old Hickory lines.


Photo courtesy Kjell Eson

Cold Steel Bushman

The Cold Steel Bushman is one of the best low-end survival knives. Made from one piece of steel, without any joint between blade and handle, it is many times stronger than the typical flea market hollow-handled survival knife. It's designed to easily transform into a spear.

There's a decent video on YouTube that shows it in action.

Gerber LMF

I found this excellent Squidoo lens all about different models of the Gerber LMF II, a very solid military-issue knife. It's a smaller, under four inch, blade, but it's full-tang and a good steel (12C27 stainless). Various different models come plain-edged or partially serrated, and with different sheath options.