I feel old.....aircrew knife

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kBob

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SO I am putting together a tool kit for the kids "new" 10 year old car and wanted to put a useable but cheap sheath knife in it.

I was reminded of the knife once attached to my flight vest when doing air observer duties and remembered what a deal they were for the cost back in the day. I even authorized them for my wire dogs and mechanics to wear and carry in my HHB DivArty duties ( and caused a stink with some of the REMF officers) Nice riveted last for ever sheath with crappy but easy to replace sharpening stone in it, leather washer handle, big machine screw nut for a pommel, rasp like teeth that really worked on aluminum aircraft skin, rectangular "blood grooved" little Bowie blade. You know the one.

Imagine my shock when I priced one Saturday at Bass Pro. $67 and change US!!!????!!!???

I had a buddy that misused one as a Scout Knife as a kid. He used it as a pry bar a lot and one day managed to bend the blade slightly at the guard. When he went into the USAF his leather handled big nut pommel mini bowie went with him. When ever someone would notice and comment on the slightly bent blade he would remind them of the early Gerber fighting knives and tell them his was a rare variant of the Aircrew Survival knife meant for belt carry rather than vest or ejection seat pack carry. They frequently believed him.

Anyhow the price really shocked me. Guess I and just getting old.

-kBob
 
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I had sticker shock this morning. Who would have ever guessed that 2 4x6, 4 4x4, 2 2x6, and 2 2x4 plus 7 eyebolts, and a box of screws would be 176 bucks. Still better than a grand for a swing set kit I guess. No matter what it is, prices are insane, or perhaps things were just cheaper in the good old days.
 
kBob

I gave one of those Air Force Survival knives to my brother when he was in the Army. Typically the older style, all leather sheath (no rivets or metal plate), didn't last very long but the knife always managed to "survive". He would give it back to me every so often to clean it, fix it up, sharpen it, and send it back to him for more abuse.

Years later I found an old Marbles hunting knife in my Dad's garage the he had bought shortly after the end of WWII. It was the model that the Air Force knife was patterned after. A once fine and noble blade, it was in a sorry, neglected state and had now been reduced to cutting string when my Dad bundled up a bunch of twigs and branches for trash collection. I asked him if I could have it and offered him one of my Air Force survival knives in exchange. He readily agreed to the swap and continued his string cutting ways with a new knife while I cleaned up the Marbles and have it in my collection to this day.

And yes, those Air Force knives used to be a lot cheaper back in the day. Nowadays I give my kids Swiss Army knives for their survival kit.

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kBob said:
Anyhow the price really shocked me. Guess I and just getting old.
Click to expand...

Hey, Rip Van Winkle, wake up and smell the cost of coffee in today's world! You will want to go back to sleep. I remember 25 cent gasoline. I remember seven transistor radios. Just looked at an inflation calculator. One dollar in 1960, in terms of today's debased currency, to equal the same buying power, it takes $8.55.

Just run the cost of these things, in terms of what you would have to pay, today for the same item:



bnAne1h.jpg

Adjusted for inflation, $1,467 dollars


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bannockburn said:
kBob

I gave one of those Air Force Survival knives to my brother when he was in the Army. Typically the older style, all leather sheath (no rivets or metal plate), didn't last very long but the knife always managed to "survive". He would give it back to me every so often to clean it, fix it up, sharpen it, and send it back to him for more abuse.

Years later I found an old Marbles hunting knife in my Dad's garage the he had bought shortly after the end of WWII. It was the model that the Air Force knife was patterned after. A once fine and noble blade, it was in a sorry, neglected state and had now been reduced to cutting string when my Dad bundled up a bunch of twigs and branches for trash collection. I asked him if I could have it and offered him one of my Air Force survival knives in exchange. He readily agreed to the swap and continued his string cutting ways with a new knife while I cleaned up the Marbles and have it in my collection to this day.

And yes, those Air Force knives used to be a lot cheaper back in the day. Nowadays I give my kids Swiss Army knives for their survival kit.

View attachment 791218

View attachment 791219
Click to expand...

My girlfriends family are all pig hunters, and ive seen a few of those Marbles, and similar on their belts...on dashboards, floorboards, tool boxes...just generally around
They also seem to have an attachment to the big Buck Knifes, like the 184 her dad uses to scale fish......


NIGHTLORD40K said:
Walmarts around here have Ontario Aircrew Survival and Egress Knives for $39......

I have an older Camillus aircrew survival- great knife!
Click to expand...
Ive never looked that hard at them, as im not a fan of serrations on knives, but im pretty sure our walmarts have those as well.
 
LoonWulf said:
My girlfriends family are all pig hunters, and ive seen a few of those Marbles, and similar on their belts...on dashboards, floorboards, tool boxes...just generally around
They also seem to have an attachment to the big Buck Knifes, like the 184 her dad uses to scale fish......



Ive never looked that hard at them, as im not a fan of serrations on knives, but im pretty sure our walmarts have those as well.
Click to expand...
Tell you what, I've actually cut some pretty thick limbs with the teeth on the back of my Ontario machete. The serrations on the Aircrew knife are meant for cutting through the skin of the plane, if necessary, but in a pinch, I have no doubt they could be used to fashion some decent tent, fishing, or stretcher poles.
 
I happend to be at wallyworld this evening and they do carry the Ontario "survival knife", it isnt the one i was thinking of, the serrations on the back side are much smaller. 45 bucks out here.
I do like serrations on machetes, and other really large knives. Ive used them as saws more than once to cut some pretty big stuff, by just folding up my shirt and holding the blade and handle.
For my basic utility knives and day to day stuff I prefer plain blades, but thats just personal preference, theres certainly nothing wrong with a serrated blade, front or back.
 
As a kid I carried a machete on a pistol belt draped over my right shoulder and under my left arm while playing in "The Swamp". Out my back door was several miles of woods and wetlands and a machete was a handy thing. Hanging it from a belt seemed to let it be in the way all the time and always a pain to sit down with. Under the arm or pulled around to the chest it was handy and out of the way. One of my Buds carried a Swiss Engineer/pioneer bayonet from a Vettereli that had massive opposed and properly cut saw teeth on the back. That thing could do some sawing! It raked the saw dust right out and cut a coming or a going. Wasn't as good for machete chores but did ok ( lower case OK). Between the two of us we did cut some trees and a lot of brush to make a trial for his Dad's tractor.

That pioneer bayonet had the best saw on a blade I ever saw. I currently have a cheap Chinese saw back machete (Tractor Supply, it was a return I got for half price) that I have used a little bit, especially in tight places where I could not get a decent swing, but it is lower case ok as a saw.

I briefly carried one of the "Stoner Bayonets" for the Stoner designed and influenced rifles. It made a lousy bayonet or knife but its saw back worked pretty well for that sort of thing for small sawing chores. It did pretty good as a light duty wire cutter, but mine did not have a front sight adjustment tool (never actually seen one except in photos in articles about the darned things either)

As noted the saw on the back of the GI issue survival knife was not meant for sawing wood, but ripping through aircraft skin and has a completely different set of teeth than would be good for sawing wood.

-kBob
 
SharpDog,

I had him start a couple of fires with a sparker as a 12 to 14 year old Scout. He used the sparker on the side of my orange plastic match safe/compass/whistle that folks still make fun of yet still lives in my day pouch. He used his SAK "MacGiver" to scrape the fire stick with. Biggest issue I had with my match safe was Scouts whining about "why do we need to use the fire starter when the safe has 15 kitchen matches in it"

He also used his coast lock blade to prep my old magnesium bar/ fire steel with and then strike it. He likes the sparks the magnesium scraps make.

I had not planned to teach him to fight with a bowie knife, I was thinking more of its usefulness as a tool. On the other hand with his three years of karate and two years of fencing saber and a good bit of that with two blades he might be able to teach me a bit about say bowie in one hand and lug wrench or jack handle in the other fighting.

-kBob
 
I have an old one that did truck tool box duty for a couple decades, now its assigned to the greenhouse, Used it to cut a piece of paracord today. Good feel, I like the leather handle in cool weather, but my idea of a survival knife now is a small machete and a leatherman.
As a survival knife they are in the "ok" group, with moras being better for light duty and medium prices knives from Ontario for medium duty. When you are ready to splurge, get an Esee.
 
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