Nor have I. Not sure what your point is here, unless you're assuming I'm going around with a knife threatening poor unarmed defenseless muggers, or bullying neighbors intent on gentlemanly fisticuffs.

The only time in my life I can remember being the first to display a weapon, it was to a gentleman who was dragging a beaten, screaming woman across a common area by her hair. It seems that most pat rules have exceptions.


Which is apparently gospel these days, and is what I've been told again and again.

It's not that I haven't heard it, it's that I don't agree.

If we're discussing what scenarios are likely, it's very unlikely that I'm going to be crawling through the jungle with a knife in my teeth intent on sentry removal, which seems to be the main implied value of a dark blade. If that scenario looks likely in the future, I'll run out and buy one.

I agree that you're probably better off with the assailants not knowing what you have, IF violence is inevitable. But that's a big "if".

Very often, these people are bullying cowards looking for easy targets they can victimize at no risk to themselves. Depending on circumstances, it may be possible to dissuade them from initiating an attack. I find that solution preferable. As I said, twice I was able to do this, whereas if I had pretended to be unarmed, in effect I would have been choosing to let the attack happen, and probably would have ended up having to stab someone.

I'm grateful that didn't happen for a number of reasons, and I will continue to prefer a bright blade (or at least one that doesn't completely disappear in the dark), whatever the pundits are pontificating about it.

Bounty,
I couldn't agree more. I think that some knives are overpriced and overhyped, and the average user is sold on the dream and the imagery of "battle mistress" = 'cool and tough survival nut', opinel / mora = ' poor peasant'.
To each his own, is what I say. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
If people are happy with their moras, opinels, SAKs leave them be. No need to shove 'my knife is fancier/tougher/more expensive' than yours down other peoples' throats.

Personally, I love my moras and opinels and SAKs. I have yet to trash any of them cutting stuff. And yes, opinels cut cheese and cheesecake very nicely, thank you.... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Don't get me wrong I carry a SAK too but for the brutal beatings I give blades in the bush quality steel can't be beat.

For some I guess there is a look at me factor but for many it is mandatory to have good tools to do the job. No different than assembling an EDC kit with the best gear on the market because you know it will serve you well when it matters.

Of course cutting some cheeze at a picknick with an Opinel some may say is over kill you big tough cheeze slicer you <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

Its not about being tough and stupid for spending good money for a good product or is Doug's reccomendations for quality gear a mout point in this forum and on this site.

Flip

Presumed Lost:

My position on the dark knife issue is not a jungle scenerio, but an urban area scenerio.

Having and displaying a weapon of any type does not mean you will prevail even if the other guy is unarmed.

My knives will always stay sheathed until needed in a confrontation because flashing a knife is not that threatening to the kind of people that may also have one or know how to take your knife away.

Bountyhunter

Bounty is right but having a nice balde is a deterrrant in of itself as people who know also realize that everyone gets cut in a knife fight. Better to have a blade than not.

Flip

OK a few of you hate the cold steel products.

I have read some of the knife reviews on other websites and after filtering through the Internet conjecture, and hype i started to worry that my cold steel trail master was a hunk of crap. Well it has performed all the simple tasks i have asked of it and i hope it will be around as a camp knife for years to come. The reviews i have read comparing the busse, strider, and the swamp rat knives have all been through some very abusive comparisons. These tests take the knife to its failure point and then compare which failed first. I think this kind of testing is way beyond what the knife manufacture intended the knife to be used for.

I know the, what if the world is going to end guys will say its junk but i think it will perform good when needed.

Any opinions on the Bark river EVO?

I imagine Oetzi with his small flint dagger, a Hoplite with a bronze sword, the blacksmith in the finnish national poem Kalevala (and a good portion of us on severe budgets today) would find any decently tempered plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade a treasured item. I passed my Cold Steel SRK on when I acquired a Fallkniven. It is serving it's new owner well and the split billets of wood niether care, nor complain which contributes to their metamorphosis back to the energy of the sun.

Chris:

Why did you swallow your Cold Steel SRK in the first place? <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"I imagine Oetzi with his small flint dagger, a Hoplite with a bronze sword, the blacksmith in the finnish national poem Kalevala (and a good portion of us on severe budgets today) would find any decently tempered plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade a treasured item."

That's funny you mention that. I recently found out that the blade I carried hunting for the last 30 years was just that: a plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade. A Schrade Old Timer Woodsman to be exact. I honestly didn't know I was underequipped until I began making more money. Now I have the werewithal to buy a $400.00 knife. I wonder why I should...

Vince

Nothin wrong with Moras. I have a couple $200+ blades and still love my Frost Moras. I have a standard $9 model with the plastic sheath and a $14 model (i know I really splurged) with an unpainted birch handle and a wax-treated leather sheath. I still love my CRKs also. The Moras are great beaters and get a lot of use and I could be quite effective with them in a survival situations... however, given a choice of only one knife when betting my life, I would still go for the CRK fixed blade which is why it goes with me when I venture off in to wilderness alone.