Thanks for the review of the Bear Grylls knife. What I find quite interesting from the responses and from the review is that the knife produced by Gerber and with the BG moniker makes for a poor survival knife. There doesn't appear to be any mention of in the review two of the most important aspects of the knife i.e. the edge taking and edge holding qualities, only that the knife handle failed when being struck during batoning.

A question I would like to ask is 'what constitutes the properties of a knife to be placed in the so called 'Survival' category. Folks like Nutnfancy on Youtube certainly have their opinions, which I suspect have been slowly changing since he picked up and started using a packable saw.

After visiting the local history museum and seeing what survival tools were available to folks such as Nanook of the North dating back 100 years who were some real experts at survival in some of the harshest of conditions, then I suspect no one would be complaining about the BG 'survival' knife durability.

The reality is that any of the knifes shown here



would be welcome in a real world survival situation. Chances are that none of these would be to hand unless you rigidly carry a fixed blade, which is certain areas and countries, could get you 12 months in Sing Sing without the assistance of Knife Rights (even then a fixed blade might still be tough call not to get a conviction)

The reality is that the majority of the owners of any of the knifes shown above might be used occasionally to slice of the top of a mountain house freeze dried meal packet or an MRE after the notch failed out in the woods just as much as any TV dinner whilst sitting comfortably in a motel.

But as always if money is the issue then I would suggest the following combination for 'survival' tools, to replace the BG 'surival' knife.

i.e. A pruning saw such as a Bacho Laplander (£13), a Mora 780 (£9), and one of those cheap DX firesteels (£2). You may even have enough money to get a Bahco - Standard Axe 1.1/4LB (£13) as well for the sum of £36 or $54.