Axe or Knife....choose your weapon

[Couger]

 
ADDED:
 
yeah, yeah this started about ka-nives and chopping stuff .....
 
I listed a bunch of tools earlier
(that I'd want in a rig) for whatever puposes or emergencies!  (like getting stuck)
 
I failed to mention that a three, four, or five D-Cell Maglite makes for one heluva CLUB!
 
Thats also perfectly "legal," since its a flashlight!
 
 
Plus the C-Cell size Maglites also make great CLUBS for those who need "smaller,"  too.

[mannyrock]

    OK, since I am the self-appointed King of the World, I am now ready to pronounce the winner of this contest.
 
    Go to the website of American Knife and Sword Co.   Locate the Gurkha Kukri San Mai, made by Cold Steel Co., and then watch the product video.   Absolutely unbelievable.
 
   Watch as  man pierces through the entire ribe cage, and out the back, of a pig carcass, with a single thrust.
 
   Watch, as a man cuts the entire heads off a pig carcass with a single swipe.
 
   Watch as a man cuts through 15 one-inch twisted hemp ropes, bound together, with a single swipe.
 
   And my favorite, watch as a man cuts an entire deck of playing cards, sitting on their edge, in half, with a single blow.
 
    After you watch this, you won't be thinking about a hatchet!
 
Mannyrock
 
   
 
 
   

[Ranger99]

if you contact cold steel,
they'll send you the free cd
movie with all of that stuff on it,
all the pig head chopping, and
carcass mauling, and knife bending
etc.

[Oldshooter]

Gurkha Kukri San Mai III is listed at $600.00     I'll make do with the 40 dollar machete Thanks

[Victor3]

 I've got a few Cold Steel items and I'm generally happy with them. Nice to know that my SRK can kill a car with one thrust, according to their video. 


 Most useful item (and free since I got it as a gift) has been this thing...

[mannyrock]

 
  Now Oldshooter, don't go getting cheap on me.  You should be willing to pay as much or more for your survival knife as for your survival rifle.  You would use it several times a day,  and it would be your absolute last line of self defense.
 
   For those folks who shell out $1,200 or more for an M1A Scout,  $600 for the knife sounds like a heck of a deal!  :-)  (I probably paid out more than that for my Star Trek Collector's Plates.)
 
Mannyrock

[Oldshooter]

  

(I probably paid out more than that for my Star Trek Collector's Plates.)

   Yea but thats different! Star treck collector's plates is worth it! 
 
Since this is a " what if scenario" I'm thinking of having money left over to buy a moonpie and a grapette soda!    if i should run across some somewhere!
 
Just call me oldshooterstein!

[cwlongshot]

I am a big fan of Cold Steel!

 Like many I am never without a knife and in a survival situation I would NEVER be without it but would also have a small axe, large hatchet or a tomahawk.

I would like to say I will not be in the situation to need to decide... of coarse things like this are not always with in our control. But I will tell you this, I am never with out a knife outside my home, RARELY without a firearm for just that reason, I will not be caught unprepaired.

CW

[SHOOTALL]

  Now Oldshooter, don't go getting cheap on me.  You should be willing to pay as much or more for your survival knife as for your survival rifle.  You would use it several times a day,  and it would be your absolute last line of self defense.
 
   For those folks who shell out $1,200 or more for an M1A Scout That would be a deal here they go from $1700.00 to $2200.00,  $600 for the knife sounds like a heck of a deal! It does and I wonder if it's needed ? Those who survived in this country long before it was fashionable to be a preper or survivalist really did survive with little more than a butcher knife made often times by Green River . I also wonder in a true survival situation , one with little hope of fast recovery would one of the knives with some of the new super steels really be a wise choice ? sharpening alone would be a hassle with out one of the power sharpeners and sending back to the factory would not be an option. :-)  (I probably paid out more than that for my Star Trek Collector's Plates.) Never got into ST but a good "Big Knife" from Ontario Knife co. or a good machete , both easy to sharpen , both will bend before breaking , both seem a good choice.   
 
Mannyrock

[Couger]

..... most useful item (and free since I got it as a gift) has been this thing...

Besides being from Cold Steel, 
Who remembers what this shovel is alledgedly modelled after?
 
Supposedly, after the shovel the Soviet (Rooskie) SOG-troops are supposed to use!
 
Seem to recall that at one time this shovel was also supposed to have a saw "built into" one of its side edges, too.  I like the concept of this tool overall, but wondered if it would be too small for my needs (as a camp shovel, or for carrying in the truck box for sometimes bigger chores?).

[mcwoodduck]

  Now Oldshooter, don't go getting cheap on me.  You should be willing to pay as much or more for your survival knife as for your survival rifle.  You would use it several times a day,  and it would be your absolute last line of self defense.
 
   For those folks who shell out $1,200 or more for an M1A Scout,  $600 for the knife sounds like a heck of a deal!  :-)  (I probably paid out more than that for my Star Trek Collector's Plates.)
 
Mannyrock

I disagree.  Persanlly I have about $800 worth of knives.  OK hunting knives cause my kitchen knives are about the same $800. 
But I would rather have 4 good $100 knives and 5 good $40 folders than a single $600 knife. 
In a survival situation I cna use one of the fixed blade knives as a spear, one as a back up and one to keep sharp in case or as a trade item and  the same with the folders. 
And in a survival siutuation I may have ot leave it.  I would not be willing to leave a single knife, but would be willing to do so if I had a spare. 
Look at he Mountain men, they carried a number of knives with them.  Large survival, small patch knife, and a  caping / skinning knife at min.  That large Bowie style kinfe was not a universal tool. 

[blind ear]

If it comes down to "have to" we will be making knives and axes from scraps of the tons and tons steel lying around even on the side of the road. Walk the sholders of a highway for a mile from a truck stop and you will probably find a screw driver, hammer or pair of gloves. ear

[SHOOTALL]

If it comes down to "have to" we will be making knives and axes from scraps of the tons and tons steel lying around even on the side of the road. Walk the sholders of a highway for a mile from a truck stop and you will probably find a screw driver, hammer or pair of gloves. ear

funny you should say that about "road tools" I worked out of town for years driving 2-4 hours a day and picked up so many tools along the road it got to be a joke. People on the job would say hey keep an eye out for a ------- tool. Hammers were a big thing as were wrenches. Then there are chains for dogging loads, one truck hauling 2X4X8 lumber had a hack start slipping out from the middle. all but the outer ones fell out . Tool boxes full came along .

[45-70.gov]

I've got a few Cold Steel items and I'm generally happy with them. Nice to know that my SRK can kill a car with one thrust, according to their video. 


 Most useful item (and free since I got it as a gift) has been this thing...

i have one of these..
.i can use it to dig up my stashed
 AXE AND KNIFE AND GUNS AND AMMO


IT   would also come in handi to burry  toilet paper

[Oldshooter]

IT   would also come in handi to burry  toilet paper

      Wont that make it damp? 

[Ranger99]

just a swag, but i think he meant
toilet paper that had fulfilled it's
originally designed purpose

[Oldshooter]

just a swag, but i think he meant
toilet paper that had fulfilled it's
originally designed purpose

One would think that but in a survival................never mind it was a joke!

[blind ear]

just a swag, but i think he meant
toilet paper that had fulfilled it's
originally designed purpose

One would think that but in a survival................never mind it was a joke!

-
Be carefull or we will be into recycleing before we know it!       ear

[MTNRGR]

No kidding ear.....I just wanted to know AXE OR KNIFE, and why......not Roofers hatchet or machete or fork or spoon or shovel....lol

[45-70.gov]

OK then.....KNIFE

[AtlLaw]

Ax or knife huh... 
 
I like an Ulu...    But is that a knife or an ax?     It's shaped like an ax and is used for slicing like a knife...  Kind of like a third sex; male, female and switch hitter... you know, goes both ways! 
 
Maybe instead of Ax or Knife the description should be more general...    Sumpin like "steel bladed cutting instrument."     No, lotsa folk using ceramic knives nowadays... 
 
Okayokayokay... It's your thread, we play by your rules!   
 
But, is this a knife?   
 
 

[45-70.gov]

Ax or knife huh... 
 
I like an Ulu...    But is that a knife or an ax?     It's shaped like an ax and is used for slicing like a knife...  Kind of like a third sex; male, female and switch hitter... you know, goes both ways! 
 
Maybe instead of Ax or Knife the description should be more general...    Sumpin like "steel bladed cutting instrument."     No, lotsa folk using ceramic knives nowadays... 
 
Okayokayokay... It's your thread, we play by your rules!   
 
But, is this a knife?   
 
 

that is a very versitile knife

[blind ear]

Catpenter's hatchet. Small enough to carry but heavy enough to do real wood cutting. Can drive dowels or nails and be used to shape scrap metal into a knife. Either the bit or the hammer head can be used as a weapon. ear

[mcwoodduck]

No kidding ear.....I just wanted to know AXE OR KNIFE, and why......not Roofers hatchet or machete or fork or spoon or shovel....lol

But the Shovel at least the entrenching tools often have a hatchet blade on one side of the blade for hacking out roots and the like.
If you watch "all Quiet on the Western Front"  With Ernest Bourgnine he gives a little speach of how the spade is better than the bayonette.  You have more mass, more leverage and more versitile as a weapon than the WWI short sword style Bayonettes.  Of course the movie had the blade type bayonettes when the early 98's were issued with a long cross needle style like the French that poked and X into you. 
So if I have to pick Knife or Axe, I pick Knife and my East German E-tool that lives in my car from back when I had it under the seat of my Jeep on one side and a take down shotgun on the other side under the rear seat. 
The E-tool can be used to dig for water in a damp stream bed, cover waiste, make a forge style stove to cook with and not to mention make a shelter.   And with how thick the E-tool is I could use it as a griddle if needed. 

[Victor3]

So if I have to pick Knife or Axe, I pick Knife and my East German E-tool...

 I have one too, but after a few times when the fancy push-button mechanism got jammed up with mud, I stopped using it. Heck of a sturdy tool with it's forged steel parts and all but I don't care for how the locking feature is designed. Here's mine, right after I bought it (new old stock, for $19)...





 For an axe, I suppose my aircraft escape axe might do...





 But I'd probably opt for this "boy's axe" I put together a couple years back. It's been very handy...





 If it was good enough for Buster Brown and his dog Tige, it's good enough for me. 

[mcwoodduck]

My East German E- tool is different than that.  Mine is just a short handle, about 18 inches and a thick almost square blade that does not fold about 5 X 7 inches and a little less than a 1/4" thick.

[mannyrock]

 
  It would be interesting to see you try to clean and skin a deer with that aircraft escape axe!
 
   Oh well, at least you've got the gut-hook part solved.  :-)
 
Mannyrock

[schoolmaster]

Avalon forge makes a 4 lb axe and supplies handles as well for a really affordable price. Nice looking axe that I am going to have to own.  The handle is slip fit like a tomahawk and the head can be taken off and replaced easily.  Makes it handy for fine work like skinning etc.  Oh yeah this is my choice if there can be only one.

[pastorp]

Did somebody mention collector plates. My wife loves them. Half my trailer was full of them on the move down. I had to leave my axe & knives in Alaska because of it. 

I'm looking for another knife or maybe a axe. Let see here I can't decide.

[mcwoodduck]

Did somebody mention collector plates. My wife loves them. Half my trailer was full of them on the move down. I had to leave my axe & knives in Alaska because of it. 

I'm looking for another knife or maybe a axe. Let see here I can't decide.

As a General Purpose it is hard to beat the Fiscars Axes and hatchets.  Gerber took the same ones and put tacticool black handles on them and added a few bucks to the price.  I hacked down a tree with the Axe while my buddy was monkeying with his chain saw.  When his wife came back she could not tell that I had done it with an AXE and not with a saw.  the Trunk was smooth and flat. 
I think I picked up both the full size axe and the 17" hatchet for under $100 from OSH along with a file and handle to keep them keen.  All I need now is a Square of heavy leather to protect my fingers.  But so far Have used the hatchet on a number of things and have not needed to hone the edge and the same goes for the axe.
With that said they are a little big to carry in a back pack.  I have a number of light weight compact hatchets and really am not happy with any of them and headed to a hawk for the day pack. 
As far as a knife.  Good luck.  Too many personal preferences as to what you look for.  Folder, fixed, big, short, combo blade, and then blade design,...  May be whay I have a storage box full of them from Pen knives to bayonetts.