The old AF survival knife has been superceded by a essentially identical blade. The 'new features' are essentially material ; composite handles replace stacked leather, a cast guard instead of stamped with blade catching extensions and a grey phosphate like finish. The hammer finally boasts a proper lanyard hole, with a glorified shoestring attached. the sheath is a retrofit to the first , with a swinging loop attachment and sheet metal point guard. The sharpening stone is unchanged ( awfull) and is carried in a kydex pocket. If the soft metallurgy is unchanged ( they dulled rapidly once you did manage to get an edge), I imagine personel will continue to buy private substitutes.<br><br>

Chris,<br><br>Where did you find this info?<br><br>

There is a unit up for auction on EBAY under the survival category. Seller states the standard survival knife has been officially discontinued and this is supposedly the new model. It may be just another ' next generation' civilian variant. Serendipity, I located a mint old model at a garage sale for $10 and bought it with a pavlovian reaction to the gear of my misspent youth. looking over it again, theres a lot worse out there! <br><br>

Hi,<br><br>I also own a AF Survival knife since a few months made somewhere in the eighties and although I find the saw teeth on the back only usefull to produce sonme fine thinder the bowie blade actually has one of my sharpest edges of any blade I own including a Chris Reeve Sebenza, Spyderco Military etc.<br><br>It is scarry sharp and arm hair just topple over when I come near them.<br>OK it loses this performance faster then my Sebenza costing well over $300 but it is easilly restured using the small triangular ceramic Tri-Seps sharpener from Gatco.<br>Also the false edge (first 1.5" of blade) is sharpened and the point is so extreme that I reguarly use it to pick splinters from my fingers and hand.<br><br>In a survival situation I can live with the blade loosing it's bite sooner as I can always bring it back to scarry performance with just a few strokes.<br><br>Best thing, a used one can be found for $10-$20 and a new one can be had for less then $40.<br><br>Best scouting wishes from Holland,<br><br>Bagheera<br>(ssvnimrod)<br><br>

You can improve the AF Knife easily. A lanyard loop and improved grip may be had with paracord. This simple addition is displayed in the Ranger Rick books and website. You can also drill a dedicated lanyard hole in the hammer but. Just be sure to offset it and avoid the critical tang- but juncture. I amputated the upper guard on all of mine. It makes fine work easier. It's only there to lash a shaft to. I never warmed to the idea of putting a critical piece of gear on the end of a stick. I don't think Bart the Bear would be very impressed anyway.The sawback was of course for emergency egress through the mangled remains of plexiglass and aluminum aircraft. Thats why it is a pull design, for use by injured crewmen or wearing mittens.You can put the blade in a vise and with dedicated file work improve it for sawing wood . The hammer is a nice feature, but I will never pound on the knife blade itself. I snapped one doing this in Arctic Survival School. I suspect a defective blade and the extreme cold made for a brittle combination.The leather handle and scabbard are vulnurable to midnight packrat attacks, so securing them with your leather boots is a good idea. I suspect there will be another collecting frenzy if production does indeed cease. The fact that there must be a million out there wont stop the 'genuine U.S. jetpilot survival knife sellers'. Good used ones are selling for $10-$25<br><br>

While the flight surgeon for a USAR aviation brigade, I replaced the issued knife with a Gerber LMF. Thinking being that if I needed a knife, I would really need one and the issue knife required a significant amount of attention to keep the blade sharp. Never regretted the decision.<br><br>Jeffery S. Anderson, M.D.<br><br>

Mine was issued to me in the early '60s, before they added the metal tip to the sheath. While much better than a sharp stick, it isn't much as a blade. Broke the tip off just trying to husk a coconut one night. It would cut a nice hole in the skin of a 'chopper tho...<br><br>

Hi,<br>check out knifecenter.com under ontario knives for 3 versions of this knife(w&w/o serrations and linecutter)<br>JB<br><br>Expect poison with the standing water.<br> -William Blake

Hi,<br><br>You said that your USAF knife was one of the sharpest you own. Is that due to the knife itself or that sharpener you mentioned, the Tri-Seps sharpener?<br><br>I must admit I have bad luck sharpening knives. They always end up duller than when I started, let alone with a razor edge!<br><br>If it is due to the sharpener, is that one that you would recommend for all knives, not just the USAF?<br><br>Thanks<br><br><br>Peace and God Bless America<br><br>Chris

Chris, not that you asked me, but I can understand about "bad luck sharpening knives". Getting a really good edge is anything but intuitive. If my own sharpening troubles are any guide, I'd guess that you may be having trouble with the angle. It's really hard to begin sharpening at exactly the right angle and it's also really hard to maintain that angle throughout the sharpening process. In fact, outside of a survival situation, I wouldn't attempt to sharpen one of my good pocket knives unless I had a sharpener with some built-in way to control that angle (i.e. not a simple flat stone or single rod).<br><br>The simplest angle-control method is the one used on any common crock-stick sharpener. Crock-sticks normally have two rods that splay upward like the top of the letter "Y". You hold the knife blade perfectly straight up and down and carve down each rod alternately sharpening each side of the blade. It takes almost all of the guess work out of it and you can quickly get a great result, almost razor sharp, every time with any decent crock stick. <br><br>Once you get used to getting good edges with a crock-stick, It is a lot easier to use a flat-style sharpener (like many include with survival gear) because you would just be trying to duplicate what happens when you use the crock-stick.<br><br>I'm not familiar with the Tri-Seps sharpener. It may be a wonderful sharpener, and it may have an angle-control method, which would be great. But my point is that you don't need the world's best sharpener to get a razor-sharp edge. You just need to get the angle right.<br><br>Good luck!<br><br>