in an urban survival situation or assembling how would you get a knife for a survival kit? Razors buying cheapo knives and doing it your self are all i could think of? like wise what would you do in a wilderness survival situation? <br>Thanx

Ken, In a wilderness situation a knife would be fabricated from the same materials people used before metallurgy; lithic, bone,shell and even bamboo. It takes a little more skill than just haphasardly bashing two rocks together to flake a lithic blade. A large bone smashed with a cobble however will produce very keen edges. A librarian of classic antiquity was slashed to death by a mob wielding shells. Fabricating these items can be learned via the various "primitive movement" advocates. See Doug's link to Wilderness Way magazine. Some archaeological texts will demonstrate knapping.

I would start browsing through cutlery shops looking for a folding knife which:<br><br>*Has a blade length of just under 3 inches, thickness of .12 inches or better, of drop point or a strong clip point design, made from high carbon stainless steel such as ATS-34, SV30 or BG42. <br><br>*Has alloy slab handles with a framelock, a spring tension cam lock like the Axis lock, or a linerlock with particularly strong liners. <br><br>*Is of quality construction with a fair guarantee or warranty<br><br>*Is user serviceable with minimal or no tools <br><br>If you can afford to buy two of them.<br><br>A number of types fit this description, but if you've got the $, think "Sebenza."<br><br>With regard to an improvised knife, I would ask a correctional officer. <br>

I'm not sure I'm reading you post correctly, but I will give it a shot. It appears to me that you are talking about a situation in which you cannot go the the store and buy one. I am an amateur blacksmith. Its sort of an extension of what I do professionally. At about 1400 degrees F (when it goes red) steel will become workable with a hammer. At 2850 F. it melts. That seems like a lot, but I have a small homeade forge that will hit 2850 F. with nothing but charcoal and a cheap hair dryer. Steel can be shaped, cut and sharpened with nothing but a hammer and a working surface. A piece of railroad track works wonders. <br>If you are interested in such things then the best book I have run across is called "Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking" by Percy W. Blanford. It does not deal with history or artwork. Its a real hands on, "this is how you do it" type book.

Have you checked out Alex W. Bealer's "The Art of Blacksmithing"? The first edition of that got me started, and guided me through my first projects many years ago.<br><br>I set up a forge once with an old vacuum cleaner as a blower. It's counter-intuitive, but when I graduated to a rivet forge with a crank blower, and later to bellows, I found that I much preferred having more control over the draft than just on/off, and it saved fuel as well.<br><br>As much fun as this is, even if civilization gave up the fight tomorrow I imagine there would be plenty of factory-made knives around for many generations. Not sure I understand the question in the original post.

Yes, I have that book. <br> I have never learned to like a bellows. I have a small squirrel cage fan controlled by a rheostat/foot pedal.

Ah, then you've established fine control.<br><br>My experience is that bellows get much better as they get larger... but much of my forging was done in recreated colonial sites. Nobody else is likely to devote a few cowhides to a bellows of that size.

As for "The Art of Blacksmithing", Im intrigued by the caltrops in the weapons chapter. <br>:)

kf4ebp, if you are interested in caltrops and the like, check out the poor mans james bond 2. it was an excellent addition to my library.

Here in Arizona you find lots of Quartz, everywhere. i was visiting my grandma, and i forgot my knife and she has 40 acres of nice desert property. so i took 2 large pieces of quartz and "bashed them together" and was rewarded with a fairly large arrow head shaped chunk of quartz. i chipped it down some more to get the "blade" thinner and i carved my self a walking stick. Would of been much easier to use a saw or something but hey why not.

I got a great book which is called "SURVIVAL". Its a compelation of the magazine Combat and Survival. In this book their is a great chapter all about making spears, knifes, etc with either stone or bone. Its all inlustrated and very well explained. Worth looking at and I managed to buy it in a second hand book shop in perfect condition for only £3!<br>