Cold Steel & Survival (10 Reward Points)

I'd have to default to the trailmaster..i have had one since they were THE coldsteel fixed blade other than the tanto. I have lived in the woods with it before, and can again.

I DO like the looks of the laredo and Natchez, but want to see more woodwork out of the Natchez before i spring for one ( in my mind, a bowie must work as well as fight, ot its not pulling its weight)

The Gurka Kukri would allow me to build a small cabin easier.

Two Blades? this is more likely for me, i'd go with the TM/laredo and one of the pedleton hunters, or a master hunter. Could do it all with style with those.

I reserve the right to make my own sheaths, however.

i would use the riflemans hawk, so i can cut down limbs  and then hammer them in the ground to make a shelter.

I would go with the Recon Tanto, its got a good point for penetration, and a long blade for batoning

For a serious long-term wilderness survival situation, I would choose my San Mai III Trailmaster with kydex sheath and pouch with diamond rod sharpener and "Light My Fire" fire-steel. I still have to make the sheath and pouch for this knife. I've already made one for my SMIII Recon Scout, but I'd choose the Trailmaster because the extra heft is really great for larger survival chores. I'd choose the Recon Scout for short-term survival, especially in warmer months. It's basically a draw between these two knives for me.

"Verily, thou art not paid for thy methods, but for thy results, by which meaneth thou shalt kill thine enemy by any means available before he killeth you."  ~Richard Marcinko

Barong Machete, Bush Ranger, FGX Tai Pan, K4 Neck Knife, K5 Kitchen Knife, K7 Kitchen Knife, Katana Machete, Kukri Machete, LTC Kukri, Mini Tanto SMIII, Norse Hawk, Para Edge Tanto, Recon Scout SMIII, Recon Tanto, SRK, Trailmaster SMIII, Trench Hawk, True Flight Thrower, Voyager Large Tanto, Voyager Large Clip, Voyager X2

PM me for custom services: Duracoating, professional SpecWar ghillie suits, and specialized pouches and cases (including MOLLE).

i would opt for the kukri machete and a spear...hehehe

CS Knives

Safekeeper 3
Spartan
Rajah 2
and more to come....

planning to get the AK47 with tri-ad lock

then i'll maybe start with the fix blade knives....

Trail Master. End of story. I don't even care if it's Carbon V, SK-5, or San Mai III. Within reason all will get the job done and i'd need to be quibbling over other matters (i.e. 'where can i find some water around here').

I appreciate what the previous poster who went through SERE School mentioned (all Phases? Cool! i've likely chewed the same mud) and for me, would feel better equipped with the extra blade length mass/inertia potential of the Trail Master. With the TM i can make most of the other tools i'd need - depending on how the "survival situation" came about.

Not that my knife choice is affected by this, but as a side-note... Much of what makes survival actually happen is in the persons mind and their overall attitude toward surviving - not what's on their knife belt. Short-term "survival" is more about getting out of a bad situation safely whereas a prolonged situation requires making/acquiring more tools to live not simply survive.

".... silence is greater than the absence of noise."

Why only one?
I guess my first choice would be  the Bushman.
I would prefer to carry my trail hawk with it.

THE KUDU! No I kid though it would be extremely useful.
I'd have to go with either My Riflemans Hawk or Kukri machete since they'd be so good at making other things I needed.

    Any Kukri!

any kukri and a blowgun

gurkha kukri san mai III

I would take a SRK.  You don't get a better all around knife than that.  I am wondering how the new version San Mai is working out. 

The black epoxy coated Trail Master from yesteryear.

Why.... well epoxy don't shine in the moon light.

Now why the Trail Master over any other CS blade, or any other blade I've ever handled for that matter. Good question.

Well because its a versitile blade. Darwin says some crap about specialisation betters jack of all trades yadda yadda blah blah Darwin was an inbreed so of course he luvs specilisation. Darwin never actually had to do any survivin himself. He just lived off of daddies money and his trust found. They still live off the trust fund and marry only cousins to this day they are so specialised.

Now it does one no good to be a jack of all trades and do none of them well. This is where the Trail Master excels as a survival tool. Being built in a time honored American tradition invented by and perfected by survivors, warriors, and outdoorsmen. In the days of the old west when a man had need of a knife that could do alot of hairy things well the Bowie was the knife of choice. From fighting Indians to doing farm chores, with a bowie you could do it all, and still can. Alot of the Bowie style knives of the era would look more akin to the CS Butterfly Swords.

The Trail Master is more or less in the range of what I feel is practical in a knife. Anything bigger and imma just use a machete or a sword.

It can chop wood. Seems to be a popular theme round these parts...

It can cleave off arms of smaller framed folk with one good whach, always a plus in the elephants graveyard...

It's one hell of a can opener and a mighty fine utensil at that....

Not to mention the fainter hearted of folk, or ones who just have smaller knives (which happens to be most folk), usually find there to be a bit of an intimidation factor involved with it.

Being epoxied its harder to see at night....

Properly lashed to the end of a good stick it's not even a spear, it's a pole arm.... you can take a man off a horse with a tool like this :)

Did I mention it is just a sweet peice of American engineering with a pedigree dating back to the very hay day of American liberty and freedom....

It is the weapon of choice of Brach Sampson the greatest agent the Office of Secret Intelligence has ever fielded...

semper liberatus tyranus or was that semper fidelis tyranus it's getting hard to tell nowadays...

I alrerady own an SRK, and I plan on picking up an Assegai spear head (no shaft) and the sheath for it with the intention of using it as a combination trowel/emergency hunting and defense tool.

"We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect."
— Mervyn Peake

The Gurkha Kukri, large enough blade to get just about any field work done, also brings over it's chopping capabilities as a weapon not to mention it's thrusting force. =)

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"
 
"Cursed is the ground for your sake; 

In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:17-19

"Come and Take it."

Just one?  Well it would be a cold day somewhere the day Me  and I would guess any of you would be caught with just one knife.

But for the sake of picking one..Recon Scout...not to big, not to small..does all I could ask and slits wood almost as good as my Trail Master...as you see I have a few recon scouts =)

Hate to sing the same song but the Bushman is the way for me. After that would be one of the 12" machetes. Like my 'hawks but for what I know these will work. 

Recon scout.

large enuff to do the job, small enuff to fit inside a backpack
or something and not too heavy.

nothing smaller though.
disaster in my area means either a flood or zombies.
either way i'd want something that can do all the fire/shelter 
stuff, be used as a breach tool and of course decapitate zombies.

I would choose an SK-5 Gurkha Kukri for it's defensive and chopping capabilities, but because a smaller blade would be needed for gutting and skinning I would choose a smaller knife to companion, like the Master Hunter or Pedelton Hunter. though not the best knife for this you could also transform the Pedelton or Master Hunter into a spear, for either fish or small game.

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"
 
"Cursed is the ground for your sake; 

In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:17-19

"Come and Take it."

my vietnam hawk or my bushman.

Have made some camp with these too, and i feel confident with them...

Of all of the CS stuff that I own, I'd have to go with my San Mai III Trailmaster Bowie. Big enough to do just about any job around camp and be used in a defensive role as well but also small enough to be carried and hidden if needed.

The Trail Hawk for me. It has too many uses to list. Would like to over a knife because cutting larger pieces of wood would be alot easier and cause less damage to the edge than on a EDC or machete.

I like to travel light! rajah ii and big bore blowgun! perfect for catching small animals... most people here choosing only knifes but i think blowgun will come handy in survival situation!!!

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!

EVERYTHING!!!

I'd take the cold steel special forces shovel, just because I've put it through hell a few times, and it's great. Its a shovel/ax.