Camping Knives
Image via Wikipedia
Don’t Go Camping Without One
Camping and Knives go together, period. I mean, you never really know when you’re going to need a knife on your hike (until it gets to supper time), but how many times have you been merrily hiking the trail when you’ve stopped and thought to yourself “I should have worked harder at school” . . . only joking, but you might have thought ”I could really do with a knife right now”. Hikers, back packers, trekkers, adventurers, boy scouts, girl scouts – they all have a love affair with knives. Just take Bear Grylls for example, he can build a waterproof shelter, start a fire, make a cooking pot, snare and skin a rabbit with nothing more than a sharp knife and a lifetime of experience, in the same time as it takes the rest of us to decide on a suitable camping site. Who’s that other survival dude from the UK, Ray Mears, that’s him. He goes out surviving in the wilderness and living on nothing but nettle soup and berries, but have you seen the size of him? We have a standing joke in our house that to get that size he must call in for a MacDonalds Drive Thru’ on the way home . . . only joking Ray . . . you’re the man!
Thanks for that Ray, but actually we couldn’t help but notice that you’re not actually in a field, you’re in a forest!
Types of Hiking Knives
- Scout Knife – some of these are actually designed by Bear Grylls, the “Super Scout” himself. They have a sharp blade (some of it serrated) that’s really tough. Thumb studs on both sides so that you can open it up with either hand, a well textured grip so that it doesn’t slip out of your hand, and an efficient locking method so that you don’t cut yourself whilst it’s fastened to your belt or in its holster (actually, I think a gun lives in a holster, a knife lives in a sheath doesn’t it . . . sorry, my mistake).
- Swiss Army Knife – with lots of gadgets and a fantastic bit of hiking equipment. I can’t ever think about Swiss army knives without thinking of this . . .
- That’s got to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, and also gives a good description of the Swiss Army Knife, with lots of different gadgets for different operations. Taking the stones out of horses hooves, taking splinters from your fingers after you’ve gathered the wood for your hiking camp fire, opening a can of soup and taking the cork out of a bottle of wine (or chopping the corner off one of those cartons with your scissors). You’re even covered for if you break a nail . . . although us hikers are not generally concerned with such trivial things, not while we’re hiking anyway. Oh, and if you get your hiking boots in a knot you can cut through it without a problem, just so long as you’ve brought a couple of spares it’ll be fine!
- Fixed Blade Knives are often very serious jobbies, some are small and light (which all hikers and back packers prefer) and some are big and scary (which are the choice of many hunters).
Yep, that’s definitely a knife!
