One knife with your gear. Which one?

[A_Longo88]

Fellow Aviators,

This topic may have a different answer for many of you depending on your profession, platform, etc.

What kind of knife did you/do you carry with your flight gear. I know us TACAMO folks have one primary use for a blade and it’s to open up codebooks. We have many crash axes throughout the aircraft that we could use for a survival situation. Regardless, I always carry a solid fixed blade in my pack which is a Microtech Socom Alpha. What about you pointy nose folks? Or you helo guys? Do you have an issued blade? Is there a knife you prefer?

Reason I’m asking is because I’ve become friends with a well known custom knife maker who has offered to collaborate with me to make a new aviator’s combat/survival knife to put into production. I’m looking for inputs on what has been used around the fleet, what is preferred, and what would be most useful.

There are so many options from large folders, fixed blades, different types of steel, ergonomics, handle materials.

I’m willing to listen to any type of feedback that you guys are willing to provide.

Bonus points if you can post any photo of the knife you currently carry or carried during your time in the aircraft.

I apologize ahead of time if I picked the wrong sub-forum or if my formatting is jacked up as I’m using my iPhone to write this post.

looking forward to your feedback!

V/R,
Shipmate

 

[nittany03]

People who wear custom knives on their flight gear get made fun of by everyone else who realizes that wearing a custom knife on your flight gear is a waste of both money and part of your five pounds of gear.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Never heard of someone in a VMA carrying a custom knife. In CONUS, my cell phone and maybe some water (in Yuma) were the most important survival tools. In Afghanistan, the radio, a GPS, water, blood chit (yeah right) and I guess the pistol if it came to getting your head chopped off. Not going to hack my way through the jungle/neutralize bad guys silently/build some kind of log cabin.

 

[nittany03]

There's always that one person in a squadron who goes overboard with survival gear, and in Prowler VAQ, the standing joke was "OK, that just means the rest of us are going to kill you and take your shit."

 

[MIDNJAC]

what is a VFA dude who is the first to get shot down in nearly 20 years going to do with a fancy knife? Scare the terries who have actual weapons? I bet it would take me at least 3 guesses to find the issued knife in my vest. Is there even one in there? Unknowable.

 

[sickboy]

I know a guy who used his five pounds for a bottle of hot sauce because his boat was cool enough to make burritos for hot plates. I’m still made I didn’t think of it

 

[Hair Warrior]

I know a guy who used his five pounds for a bottle of hot sauce because his boat was cool enough to make burritos for hot plates. I’m still made I didn’t think of it

Be funny if someone tried to use part of the five pounds for a helium balloon that negates two pounds.

 

[RobLyman]

Gerber Suspension. I've had the same one for years and years. Yeah, I know...not really a 'KNIFE', but I use it all of the time. Most often I use it to reset a fastener, usually on the tail gear box cover, or to wedge underneath the edge of the fuel cap to break the seal and let the air escape so I can open it.

 

[hlg6016]

Gerber Suspension. I've had the same one for years and years. Yeah, I know...not really a 'KNIFE', but I use it all of the time. Most often I use it to reset a fastener, usually on the tail gear box cover, or to wedge underneath the edge of the fuel cap to break the seal and let the air escape so I can open it.

I've carried a Leatherman on my duty belt for years. Its a lot more practical tool than carrying a hack 'em slash 'em knife. When I was flight crew all that was really available was the good old GI pocket knife.

 

[Pags]

Multi tool FTW generically and a leatherman specifically. Big ole stabbing knife sucks at resetting fasteners and doing all the stuff you really end up using a knife for (opening cans, bottles, boxes, slicing apples and cheese, cutting IPs, etc).

I own many knives and my favorites are my leatherman and a benchmade griptilian. I have a few fixed blade knives but i don't do enough bushcraft (read: none) to get any use out of them.

 

[wink]

What's with the five lbs? I know that is the limit, but are they really weighing your shit. I had the AME/PR shop once. My guys never weighed a thing in our personal gear. Are they really doing that now? In any case, if it is in a flight suit pocket I know they aren't weighing it. I always carried a 3 inch locking blade folder in a flight suit pocket. Dont recall the brand but the bottom third had serrations which I liked. And of course a retention clip. As was mentioned, no multi tools in my early fleet days. But years later when I flew LE, I added a multitool to a pocket of my vest.

 

[Pags]

What's with the five lbs? I know that is the limit, but are they really weighing your shit. I had the AME/PR shop once. My guys never weighed a thing in our personal gear. Are they really doing that now? In any case, if it is in a flight suit pocket I know they aren't weighing it. I always carried a 3 inch locking blade folder in a flight suit pocket. Dont recall the brand but the bottom third had serrations which I liked. And of course a retention clip. As was mentioned, no multi tools in my early fleet days. But years later when I flew LE, I added a multitool to a pocket of my vest.

Just be a Helo guy and you have the room to bring your tacticool backpack crammed with whatever you want. Toilet paper, toothbrush, extra pair of undies, throwing stars, book, coat, etc.

 

[Pags]

what is a VFA dude who is the first to get shot down in nearly 20 years going to do with a fancy knife? Scare the terries who have actual weapons? I bet it would take me at least 3 guesses to find the issued knife in my vest. Is there even one in there? Unknowable.

Fun fact: there is a knife in there and the PRs didn't take it out of my vest when I got out. So my kids found it one day when I let them dig through my vest for entertainment. Nothing like a 6 and 3yr old finding a KaBar that looks like it's left over from Korea.

 

[Jim123]

Nothing like a 6 and 3yr old finding a KaBar that looks like it's left over from Korea.

That's a heaven-sent parenting opportunity for you to teach each one how to hold it in his or her teeth... and take a pic of course.

Include me in the gerber/leatherman/cheap chycap ripoff multitool camp. I used to carry a very small one in the inseam pocket of my flight suits. I figured out a way to quickly attach it to the lanyard in there. Most of the time I used it to slice a piece of fruit I'd brought with my lunch but one of the blades/pliers/screwdriver would come in handy probably once or twice a year. The bottle opener came in handy a lot... everybody should have a churchkey in their kit.

I never carried a parachute line cutter in that inseam pocket during my choppering days and when I moved over to the T-6 the shroud cutter was included in the vest.


(Occasionally some safety Karen/Kyle wants to spew some drivel about tool control and unauthorized multitools ermahgerd, but usually the moment passes quickly and the person attends to their TPS reports or some other, more pressing issue.)

 

[A_Longo88]

Wow! Tough bunch here! I guess I’m the only one who really likes knives?? Do any of you actually carry a pocket knife in your day to day lives? In your vehicle?