Blade – July 2021
English | 89 pages | pdf | 74.06 MB
I would like to thank Ed Fowler for his most excellent series of articles, “Square Houses” (page 64). I have just recently become a BLADE® reader and unfortunately missed a lot of his other how-to stories, but this one is pure genius!
I always seem to get a late start on things, so I was in my mid-40s before I realized I really needed to be better prepared in life. I found Ontario Knife Co. and bought several of its knives. I bought the KA-BAR cousin as it is a paternal twin of it, the 1943 M3, and then the M7 bayonet. Mr. Fowler’s article in the February issue (page 24) reminded me of the encounter
I had at the store with a middle-aged lady behind the counter. We were talking knives and she casually mentioned how well the M7 fi t in the hand. I was completely shocked as it never occurred to me that a woman would make such a statement about a knife. I expect a man to, but a woman? So with her recommendation,
I shelled out the money and bought the M7. Sure enough, it does feel nice in the hand. I have since bought three KA-BARs, a regular USMC blade, a Dog’s Head model, and a D2 Survival model based on the Dog’s Head design with a rubber handle. I prefer leather but it rotted pretty quick in the South Pacifi c—not that I would ever be there, but I didn’t want to have to worry about continual wet/ damp conditions. I just recently sent the USMC KA-BAR to a friend of mine and he was blown away when he opened the box. It’s a good thing I mailed it to him because if I had been there in person, he probably would have kissed me.
He re-
VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.BLADEMAG.COM TO:
• Sign up for our free newsletter.
• Renew your magazine subscription.
There’s a subscription link in the nav bar.
• Comment on our site stories written by
BLADE® staff members and others.
LOOK FOR BLADE MAGAZINE ON:
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES: Visit us on the web
And this brings me to my second thought about the February BLADE. In the “Readers Respond,” one letter writer seemed to have a problem with KABAR. Th ere’s no other way of putting it! To quote, “Do you charge diff erent rates depending on whether a knife is truly new and interesting, or just a painted up recycle of a knife more than 75 years old?” Here are my thoughts on his comment.
As was pointed out in Mr. Fowler’s article, to each his own! Th ere are dozens of “new” knife models I could acquire for a bug-out bag/survival situation, but I chose the KA-BAR over them all.
I prefer a plain edge instead of partially serrated for ease of sharpening. Aft er all, you may easily lose your handy-dandy serrated sharpener in the wilds. I also chose the KA-BAR for its simplicity. The simpler something is, the less there is to break down or go wrong. And probably the most important, this knife, of all the designs used in World War II, is battle tested. Yes,there were other knives used in battle, such as the Fairbairn- Sykes and Marine Raider bowie, but the KA-BAR was issued by the hundreds of thousands, used in every way imaginable, and proved the worth of its design in some of the most brutal combat. Let’s see if some of these “truly new and interesting” knives that turn the letter writer on will still be produced and used 75 years down the line. I will lay money that the KA-BAR will still be around another 75 years!
I would like to add just one more thing: If all you had on you is just a knife, the American Eskimos have proved you could survive. Without a knife, you need
miracles to survive, but most of us won’t get those. So be prepared! And I don’t mean with a cheap $2 imported knife with a hollow plastic handle. A broken cheap knife in a survival situation will kill you. Buy the best knife you can afford, even if you have to save up a while to have enough money to get it. There is a place for cheap, but in situations where
your life depends on it, you better get the best you can afford.
At any rate, Mr. Fowler had a fantastic article, the letter writer had some asinine comments, and BLADE had another fine issue!
Download from: