Once saw a knife test from different folk. All the knives were destroyed. except the one made out of titanium. Which was bent back and forth past ninety degrees but worked as well as it ever did once straightened. Down side to titanium is it never gets very hard so it never gets shaving sharp or holds much of an edge.

which makes it seems to be the perfect knife, except for being perpetually dull. But then again who does that to a knife. Where is that a job requiremnt.

Reminds me of the PB Blaster advertisement. They squirt it into Styrofoam cup and rejoice when the cup dissolves. The implies message is that this test proves its superiority. Well ... it does ... in a way. It proves it is superior if the job your trying to do is dissolve Styrofoam cups.

Pays to keep your eye on the ball. If your job requirements are such that you abuse your knifes in a similar way then this sort of abusive testing is going to tell you a lot and will provide you with useful information. If your requirements don't ... then that sort of abusive testing is an easily discounted curiosity.

But if you want nearly indestructible, even at the ability to hold an edge, you might want to look at one of the titanium knives.

Titanium is a great choice for corrosion resistance...Titanium simply doesn't rust.

There are more than a few knives out there which are tempered for that and can hold up to the same treatment. The Cold Steel Bushman can be bent well past 90 degrees and still comes back straight. And that's a knife that can be had for less than $30 retail.

OK - just remember guys - Pick a steel, ANY steel - the harder you make that steel, the more likely it is to snap, the harder to sharpen, but the longer it holds an edge - make your trade as YOU see fit

Change steel - you can get tougher (less likely to snap), harder, etc - sometimes at the cost of things like rust resistance - why do you think D-2 is well loved - good tough blades, holds an edge - but it rusts if you ignore it

Now - do some research into various steels - then decide what features YOU want - and realize that steel A hardened to say Rc-58 might be a LOT tougher than steel B at RC-58, but a LOT more prone to rust or taking a permenant bend, etc

Why yes, I would say after a man beat it to death, it would be junk. ((( )))

Same thing for the CR.... take a $400 knife, subject it punishment it was never designed for and, when you're done, it'll be....junk. I'd hate to see what that "knife tester" would be doing to knives if he had access to nuclear explosives......

A very interesting statement. Since you seem to draw a distinction between two classes of "outdoors" knives, how would you define your terms, or at least how the two differ. Particularly since you use a tanto, a blade pattern that a no small number of outdoormen would consider to be lacking in versatility.

I'm not that stubborn not to admit that all the arguments for treating a knive decent and appropriate are very valid. While there is no clear distinction between a hunting and a survival knife the use of it makes the destinction. I see a hunting scenario as a situation where you decide to go out in the woods for a limited time and carry the things you think you will need. A survival situation is sudden and you just don't know what you are going to encounter and so it is almost impossible to plan perfectly. You might not have everything you need with you. So a hunting knife is used for specific tasks and a survival knife for as much tasks as possible. You can not deny that the Project I is very different from a knife for example from Bark River or so. So I do expect a survival knife to be able to be treated not that carefully. About the GI Tanto: I got interested after seeing the test and I wanted to feel it myself. I do admit the Tanto point is far from perfect for a survival scenerio but so is a military oriented knive that breaks on metal to metal contact.

Unfortunately the test for me is useless and shows nothing more than how to break a knife. There is very little in that test that broke the knife which actually simulates anything that could happen in a survival situation, especially a wilderness situation.

First, if you were to be battoning a piece of wood I doubt you would have it clamped in a vise. Strike one

Second, I very much doubt you would have a 5# hammer to smash the spine of the knife with. Strike two.

Third, LEARN HOW TO BATTON WOOD PROPERLY. Since the technique used was as poor as it gets, the breaking of the knife in my view was intentional. Strike three.

What was proven to me was the user has no skills in handling a knife.

Adam

PS I looked at the bushman test and looks like he’s capable of breaking a $30 knife too.

This is a stretch but bear with me. Last night I recieved training on how to lever and crib debris off of a trapped person using the scenario of a tornado. In that case we had a big bar to use as a fulcrum.

A lot of emphasis was put on the fact that in a disaster, you're lucky to have any equipment at all sometimes as there could be thousands of casualties which need levers, volunteers, tools ,etc...who's to say there's enough to go around? We had to improvise and make cribbing out of the debris we were removing as we removed it...it was a real problem solving experience and made all the more critical as there were bodies in the pile we couldn't neccessarily see at first.

After I got home I thought of scenarios where I might be by myself and need to do this. I don't carry a pry bar in my car and the one which comes with the jack is not suitable for prying. The only other thing I would have handy which one could pry with is a knife (assuming I had a fixed blade to use). Obviously not the best option but I could see rare situations where a knife could be your only available lever. You might not be able to lift anything very high with one but with enough suitable cribbing that's only a matter of patience.

Adam, we should stop thinking that we will be in a rural area whan disaster strikes - where we can batton wood properly. As a citizen of Long Island you should realise the first things you are going to encouter after a storm or an earthquake etc. is steel, concrete, brick. Maybe you get trapped indoor. You nore I have enough imagination to anticipate what exactly can happen. But as Ironraven points out you will find yourself in rubble of every kind. Offcourse you should use proper technique but what if your not able to? The tests on knifetest.com seem random but they are an exemple of order, technique and tidiness compared to a real situation.

Folks,

Don't argue the extremes of the usefulness of the knife tests. If there is really a need for standardized testing of knives, then we should seek to set up a body of personnel to perform these tasks. All the arguments in this forum (more specifically - this thread) point to the need for proper equipment reviews.

Now in the area of survival, there is more to the subject than just carrying the "ultimate super ultra deluxe most bestest" knife. My thoughts are outlined below:

Being prepared:
-Carry the best equipment (yes - including the knife(s)) possible (within your limitations of budget, weight, situation, etc.)
-Practice your skills frequently and regularly
-Test your equipment and perform frequent and regular maintenance.

In an emergency, you might not have the best knife possible. What does this mean? Is it that without your fancy knife you will just roll over and die? How about trying to conserve on your resources as much as possible? How about treating your equipment with care? Is it possible to split wood by hitting it against a rock rather then battoning it?

A situation called an "emergency" usually does not have much that is regular or normal about it. The ability to make do with what is at hand is sometimes the difference between survival and failure.

Hmmm... Am having difficulty wading through my own thoughts here. Time to get some lunch - now where did I put my katana? I need to battle some calories...