USAF Pilot Survival Knife

Travis Autry · **on:** December 27, 2010, 10:23:55 PM

I had occasion a few days ago to stumble across an old USAF Pilots Survival Knife that I had put away some years ago and forgotten. I actually bought two sometime back in the 90's from a guy at a gun and knife show. One was given as a gift and the other was supposed to stay in my tool bag in the truck. Somehow it migrated to the box where I found it.

I had never sharpened this one so I dug out my Razor Edge sharpening kit and went to work on it. I wore all the phosphate coating off both sides of the blade but got the little rascal shaving sharp. The more I handled it while sharpening, the better I liked it.

I had in mind giving it to a young friend who had asked me about a decent fixed blade for camping. Now that I've sharpened the USAF knife I'm having second thoughts. I went through my other stuff and found one I think will serve him equally as well with a sheath that I like better.

I'm not a huge fan of double sided guards and am thinking about trimming the back branch off and rounding the front branch a little. I'm also thinking about making a sheath that would suit me a little better. I think with a little work, this little knife could be a very nice woods knife.

Anyone have any experience or suggestions to share?

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #1 on:** December 27, 2010, 10:46:40 PM

I've always wanted one of those

I'd love to see some before and after pictures if you do modify it

J-sews · **Reply #2 on:** December 28, 2010, 01:38:31 AM

Is that the one with the hollow handle for carrying fish hooks and matches and stuff?

Travis Autry · **Reply #3 on:** December 28, 2010, 02:41:52 AM

I'm generally weak on the picture front, but will try to do better on this one!

This particular knife is the 5.5 inch blade with a rough leather washer handle and solid hex nut style pommel. The spine has saw teeth that don't appear very "sawy", but look like they could notch wood enough so you could break it easier.

I'm not much on saw tooth spines since I normally carry a knife and/or multitool that has a saw. I guess the spine side of the guard is supposed to protect the hand when sawing.

MultiMat · **Reply #4 on:** December 28, 2010, 02:48:15 AM

One of those is on my 'to get list' + I have a REAL soft spot for Camillus knives

.

Cool find Travis

, you are right to hang on to it mate

Pacu · **Reply #5 on:** December 28, 2010, 02:48:52 AM

jerseydevil · **Reply #6 on:** December 28, 2010, 03:13:09 AM

Nice Knife! If I remember what my uncle once told me correctly, the saw was not intended for cutting wood as much as ripping through the aluminum of a fuselage after a crash.

Pacu · **Reply #7 on:** December 28, 2010, 03:19:22 AM

Got mine when i was in at the BX.

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #8 on:** December 28, 2010, 09:20:01 AM

Quote from: jerseydevil on December 28, 2010, 03:13:09 AM

Nice Knife! If I remember what my uncle once told me correctly, the saw was not intended for cutting wood as much as ripping through the aluminum of a fuselage after a crash.

That and Plexiglas

Threeme2189 · **Reply #9 on:** December 28, 2010, 11:37:03 AM

I like it!
Very manly

AHB · **Reply #10 on:** December 28, 2010, 07:51:45 PM

That's a nice knife..

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #11 on:** January 05, 2011, 09:29:37 AM

I've modified one with an oval-shaped guard which is much trimmer and better looking than just cutting it off square. I also straightened the clip...eliminating the rudimentary sharpening and any possible issues with it being "double-edged". The leather handle was treated with hot wax to seal it.

Had a factory second sheath which I rebuilt with a firesteel loop and wet-molded the stone pouch for a slightly thicker and better Norton stone. The sheath was also hot-waxed with a paraffin and beeswax mix.

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #12 on:** January 05, 2011, 06:12:12 PM

Damn fine work there Dave

Sea Monster · **Reply #13 on:** April 21, 2019, 11:42:35 AM

Old Thread Batman - but for better or worse, it's the exact topic I'm thinking on, so it seems the best course of action is to reopen it...

I've been tidying up, and between replacing torch batteries, sorting out tool bags, and relegating the holier sorts of shirts to the rag bag, I've been pondering my USAF pilots knife....

I've already done the fairly common mods of shortening the guard (is it still called a quillion on a knife?) and slightly reprofiling/sharpening the blade, and an apparently less common one of rounding off the "Hex" pommel (I found the corners dug into my hand a little) I'm now pondering further bubba-ing of it.

The two ideas that are worrying at me is knocking off the pommel altogether, and peening the tang just onto the final steel "spacer" in the grip - shortening the handle by about 3/4" and probably a fair chunk of mass, and also grinding down the "saw" on the back - might try grinding the pommel into a dome shape and see how I like that before losing it entirely....

Hopefully leaving me with a lighter more nimble, every day knife - (Like a small Buck 119, or a large 105, depending on how you look at it.) (my current favourite everyday knife weights 136g and has a 90mm blade and 100mm handle , the pilots knife currently weights 240g and has a 125mm blade and 112mm handle

Losing the pommel will shorten the handle by 20mm, and lose about 50g (give or take - rough volume and density of iron calc there), grinding off the saw (and some fore and aft to keep it neat) will lose another 10-15g

final knife should be somewhere around 185-190g. Doesn't seem like much, but my fav knife at 136g (5mm thick tang 4mmish for most of the blade) feels like nothing in the hand...

ANYWAY - Has anyone done similar mods? or have pictures of similar mods? or words of wisdom and guidance to share?

Edit: my mass estimates may be generous, and the more I think about it the more I think some kind of pommel, even if smaller and smoother is appropriate, but if I can shoot for around 200g I still think it'll make a world of difference.

clown · **Reply #14 on:** April 22, 2019, 01:18:30 AM

I have never seen one l like that and therefore say DO IT! Lol! I'd love to see some pics of how it turns out.

Sea Monster · **Reply #15 on:** April 22, 2019, 02:23:28 AM

Well there's four or five steps to this...

1) Grinding down the bits.
2?) fixing the pommel if I destroy it with the grinding and need to replace or fix the peening or something.
2/3)Filing the bits smoothish
3/4) sanding the bits smootherish
4/5)finding my charger for camera
5/6) finding my SD card for camera
6/7) trying to take pictures that are not blurry and useless
7/8) uploading.

Now, being me, this could take up to 24 months....so don't get excited.

clown · **Reply #16 on:** April 22, 2019, 03:51:00 AM

sak60 · **Reply #17 on:** April 22, 2019, 05:07:09 AM

Once you take the pommel off you will need some way of applying a lot of pressure on the washers again to make it successful.

Sea Monster · **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2019, 05:38:21 AM

Quote

Once you take the pommel off you will need some way of applying a lot of pressure on the washers again to make it successful.

Oh? Are they going to spring up quite a bit?

I might be able to rig up some of G-clamp jig thing.

So far I've just done a rough effort, and I'm already down to 220g!

The pommel is still full length, but I took the Hex part down to the diameter of the rest of the pommel, and then put a bit of a chamfer on it.

It feels pretty good, but I think I would still like to shorten it by half, partly for looks, and partly because it really dominates the balance of the thing.

Question - for the top/back of the blade (where the saw was) - Right-angle-Flat - or slight radius?

sak60 · **Reply #19 on:** April 22, 2019, 06:05:38 AM

Yes just need to be able to clamp the pommel back towards the guard and the blade. I think I've seen videos on it.

Sea Monster · **Reply #20 on:** April 22, 2019, 06:26:39 AM

Here is where we are so far...

(I hope you enjoy the picture - in the time it took me to get windows 10 to recognise the SD card and gimme my dang files I ruined a perfectly good steak)

On an unrelated note, I promised someone else a photo of something else in another thread, but I can't remember what it was? Since I've gone to all the effort of finding the camera, battery, and card, and have them all in the same place for now, I figure I should take a picture of whatever it is that I said I would....does anyone know what it was?

Sea Monster · **Reply #21 on:** April 22, 2019, 08:42:40 AM

It would seem I should have quit while I was ahead..

for some damned reason, there is a hole in the middle of the tang...nothing goes in it, it's just...there....to make it go faster....

or...to make it really easy to snap when you've got the blade in a vice and are carefully hacksawing at the pommel to remove it...

and looking at the break, there may have been a bit of impurity as well, which is unlikely to have made it stronger

fekkin 'ell....

(it's not the end of the world - a bit of welding, a bit of grinding, and we'll carry on, but lets say this project is "mothballed" for now....)

Nix · **Reply #22 on:** April 22, 2019, 03:21:56 PM

It was looking pretty cool there.......

Sea Monster · **Reply #23 on:** March 22, 2022, 06:27:32 AM

Oi oi, look what floated to the top of the to-do list!

It's a little worse for wear, but it is whole, and I'll be glad to put it back into the camping box and toss out that bloody stupid bear grylls thing.

kkokkolis · **Reply #24 on:** March 22, 2022, 09:29:33 AM

I was tempted to buy one because they are incredibly cheap, 20-25 euros. But I have little use for a fixed blade and I'll take a Puuko or a Morakniv.
Still, I'm not used to such cheap quality knives in my country.
Assuming that it is indeed a quality knife.

Sea Monster · **Reply #25 on:** March 22, 2022, 10:56:42 AM

It could be argued than in 99/100 use cases, a Mora companion is a better choice

but where's the fun in always making the obvious/logical choice?

If you have any other fixed blade, there really is no compelling reason to get one of these

kkokkolis · **Reply #26 on:** March 22, 2022, 11:24:50 AM

Quote from: Sea Monster on March 22, 2022, 10:56:42 AM

It could be argued than in 99/100 use cases, a Mora companion is a better choice

but where's the fun in always making the obvious/logical choice?

If you have any other fixed blade, there really is no compelling reason to get one of these

That's sensible.

Alan K. · **Reply #27 on:** March 22, 2022, 12:42:45 PM

When in the history of MTO has being sensible made any sense?

charlie fox · **Reply #28 on:** March 22, 2022, 01:11:09 PM

As a firefighter I carried one in my bunker coat pocket for many years. I was tough, easy to sharpen and cut everything I needed it to cut (even things I shouldn't have been cutting with it $:-\$ ). When I retired I handed it off to one of my team who always liked it. I should get another - it was just the right size for most functions!