Ancient art of knife making started by strike stones that fracture into sharp edges used as primitive cleavers to render meat from hunted animals, later to make arrow tips for bow & arrow. Known by many names over time & available in many different forms & types, today the knife industry worth hundreds of billions as knives are used in kitchens all around the world, for sport, hunting & in many other applications.
The wikipedia page on Knife a good example of quality encyclopedia content or factual historical information that is accurate, precise, fact based on historical evidence & extensively cross referenced from many kinds of works, websites & sources, and for all intents and purposes a perfectly valid academic resource.
To cut sounds simple, & cutting can be simple, but when you consider surgical scalpels, hand forged Japanese samurai swords, wet stone sharpening blades by hand, feel & eye, or grinding blades on stone wheels to cut an edge into the steel alloy blade material, these arts of blade making can take a lifetime to master & anything but simple or easy.
One the sharpest blades available are utility knife replaceable blades, with precision honed edges valued in construction for their ability to rapidly cut many kinds of materials, they are cheap, fast & east to replace.
Blades have different profiles and edge angles, thickness, coatings, hardness, corrosion resistance, stiffness, edge holding, & many other tunable properties. Sometimes a thick blade with a wide blade angle like 25 degrees & 2 to 3mm thick makes an excellent cleaver, while a very thin blade thats sharpened to 14 deg that can flex better for precision cutting sushi fish, but the very narrow blade requires sharpening more often & easier to damage.
The word knife derived from the old Norse word "knifr" or "dirk"
Many knifes are used as improvised tools to pick at, pry open, cut apart, turn screws, hold something, brace something, and in many other ways they are not specifically designed to work, because the cutting edge or blade of the knife attached to the spine of the blade which supports the cutting edge as the thickest strongest part, which is often or usually attached to a hilt or handle as a full tang fixed blade or articulated locking mechanism folding blade like the 5 in SOG auto clip EDC knife that I keep clipped to my pants for fast access, with its lock back blade retention system, polymer texture drab flat green handle and spring loaded clip used to attach it to my jeans between the pocket and the zipper.
Knife materials varied over time along with generalized metallurgical technologies with blade being made of of copper, bronze, iron, steel, ceramic & titanium. Knife handles are often made of wood, polymers like ABS or Nylon, or fiberglass reinforced plastic or even metals, while hard resinous woods are traditional because of how they are able to be cut & sanded into ergonomic handle shapes, then polished to a beautiful finish showing the unique wood grain patterns in something as exotic as siamese rosewood, afzelifa burl, amboyna, arctic curly masur birch, asian satin wood burl, Australian Blackwood, Australian Mulga, Australian Red Gum, Australian River Oak, Beefwood, Black & White Ebony, Black Palm, Bacote, Bog Oak, Brown Mallee Burl, Bubinga, Buddy, Curly Mango, Gempol Burl, Gidgee, Ipe, London Plane, Makore, Mango, Needlewood, Mallee Burl, Red Mallee Burl, Spalted Tamarind, Tamarind Hartwood, Tasmanian Blackwood, Tasmanian Silver Wattle, Turkish Olivewood, Turkish Walnut, Vietnamese Rosewood, and Yarran, though wood knife handles can be made of pine, birch, oak, maple, eucalyptus, bamboo, or other less dense less expensive types of wood, which are often waxed or repaired and filled in with colored superglue or sawdust filled tinted wood glue or epoxy or waxed to seal against water damaged or covered in polyurethane or polymers coatings. Some of the oldest or earliest knife handles were made of animals bones or stones like obsidian & even animal antlers.
Hunters, soldiers, scouts, campers, hikes, chefs, many people of different kinds use knives for domestic flatware like a butter knife or to cut and prepared foods in kitchen or a steak knife, while weapons like daggers or switchblades are used in combat along with swords & battle or combat knives, sometimes bayonet knives are added to a mount on the front of the barrel of a battle rifle, while yet other kinds of knives are used for throwing or in religious ceremonies.
Survival Knives have to be good at serving a wide range of purposes, for building shelter, dressing game to render meat or edible organs & fat, or cleaning up fish, or other food prepping, to open cans, cut up firewood into smaller useable kindling to get the fire started, or to make a spear by lashing it with twin or plant fibers or vines or rope or string to the ends of a pole for hunting, or to build a snare to trap animals for food, or even as a hammer by pummeling something with the blunt edge of the handle, or for cutting up splints & bandaged in first aid.
There is no one sized fits all knife thats perfect for every person or every situation, so consider the following when choosing what kind of knife to acquire.Blade Material Consideration
While a folding knife great for everyday carry or EDC, a fixed blade ideal in a survival knife with full tank for maximum strength. Stainless steel blades are great for EDC knives because they resist corroding from sweat or chloride ions from your body moisture, rain or water, and tends of be very corrosion resistant. But you want a survival knife blade made from stronger thicker carbon steel or high carbon steel like 1095, though AUS-8, 440C & 420HC SS hold a decent edge while still being easy to sharpen, but S30 will hold an edge even better.
Blade Size Consideration
If you're going to be carrying a fully tang fixed blade survival knife, it has to be big enough to use for banging on wood for building, but also small enough to dress small game or fish, but you want a stiff blade that will not bend if you need to use it as a pry tool or to swing & chop with it, or use it as a hammer by blunt striking something with the base, hilt or butt of the handle. The sweet spot for blade thickness between 0.17 & 0.25 inches or 3.5 to 6.4 millimeters. Blade lengths of 4 to 7 inches are good, while up to 10 inches ok for bigger people, anything over 12 inches becomes like a machete, especially when you add the handle length. So total survival knife length between 9 and 12 inches including the handle & blade are ideal.
Considering overall size & mass, the 10 inch or 254mm length oval contains a 5 inch or 127 mm blade & has a total mass of 11.2 ounces or 318 grams. This a great balance between blade size, handling & mass, at a value price point that was impossible to beat given all the features.
The curved sharp blade comes to a nice point which is great because having a sharp point on a survival knife a really good idea. Sawback edge on the back of the blade makes cutting branches and vines easier.
8Cr13MoV high carbon stainless steel fixed blade runs full length though the handle to the strong texture handle base pummel great for hammering things.
The textured rubberized polymer handles provides a secure grip, the blade guard protects your hand. The included synthetic sheath makes mounting it to your belt or backpack easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment