Why are bushcraft and survival knives so different?

[okcmco]

If you are bushcrafting, you went there by choice. You know pretty much what chores your knife will need to perform. These include processing game and fish, making feathersticks, working wood for pot cranes, shelters etc. Cutting cordage, and digging splinters. And possibly batoning wood if you believe the hype or have absent-midedly left your hatchet and there are absolutely not twigs in the woods.
I guess in a survival situation, if you have only one tool, you just don’t know what demands you will place on it. I cannot imagine all of the demands these would be. But splitting wood might be one. Hammering your way out of something like a car. prying something so you can get your foot free of some trap. I dont know. These are all theoretical situations. It seems to me that you might want a tool that is over engineered and stronger than it might need to be. The Becker BK2 and the Dozier WIlderness knife comes to mind. These are broadswords, not scalpels. Neither would be my first choice for field dressing game or fish, carving, making a hand drill, or digging porcupine quills out of your leg, but it could do these jobs and a bunch of much more demanding jobs. It is difficult to break a BK2 and you could baton all you want with it. But using it for fine work feels a bit like taking a Unimog out of a race track.
Or I could be completely off base. It happens a lot.....

[okcmco]

As a newcomer to Bushcraft/Survival I would like to ask, Where in Britain are you likely to be in a Survival situation for more than 48 hrs before noticed missing and in need of Rescue ?

Maybe the West end?

[MJ.]

i would liken the small tool kit carried under the seat of my motorcycle to a "survival knife" and my toolbox to a "bush craft" knife....

[fish]

my view is that a survival knife is also has the use as a defensive/offensive weapon whereas a bushcraft knife is a tool.

[OakAshandThorn]

As a newcomer to Bushcraft/Survival I would like to ask, Where in Britain are you likely to be in a Survival situation for more than 48 hrs before noticed missing and in need of Rescue ?

I can give you one:
In 1999, Steven Green of Dumfries, Scotland, spent four nights in a remote part of the northwest Highlands after slipping on wet grass and falling down a waterfall. I believe he had a broken jaw and a fractured skull from the tumble. In this case, he told his girlfriend before he left of his intended trek and long he would be, but she forgot to write it down and forgot his exact location. SAR found him after locating his vehicle and discovering a map detailing his route.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/472367.stm

[Dreward]

Thanks OAT....reinforces the age old advice to tell someone of your journey and whereabouts, plus, try to record intended route waypoints.

[biker-bri]

[QUOTE=JonnyP;119582]A survival knife is any old blade you happen to have on you or near you in a survival situation..
A bushcraft knife is any old blade you fancy while doing your hobby, but mostly in the shape of a Ray Mears Woodlore knife, cos we is sheeple..[/QUOTE

+1

[Paul De Fitter]

I always carry my survival knife on me...it's a Swiss Army Knife

[Dreward]

my view is that a survival knife is also has the use as a defensive/offensive weapon whereas a bushcraft knife is a tool.

The first book I ever read on survival was by John 'Lofty' Wiseman who trains the special forces and in it he states..." in a survival situation a knife must never be brandished in anger as a weapon ".

[okcmco]

I agree. A knife is a puny wapon compared to a stick or baseball bat.