Knives

Survival Knives are intended for survival situations. Survival knives are carried by Military Troops, Hunters, Backpackers and Campers. Multitudes of participants in other outdoor activities carry and use survival knives. What should you consider when selecting a survival knife?

Survival knives have many designs and sizes. There are long and heavy survival knives with a design similar to a machete. Some are still built based on the design of the Bowie knife, with a long strong blade. Still other survival knives are of a folding design for compact carrying. We will cover some of the designs and features commonly found on survival knives.
Most survival knives have a multi-purpose blade. The blade can usually perform multiple tasks like chopping,cutting, spearing and prying. The handle often has a lanyard hole so the survival knife can be tied to a pole to make a spear.
One of the most common features is a section of saw like teeth on one side of the blade. These teeth are often marketed as being a saw that can be used to cut wood. Due to the design of the teeth and the limited length of most survival knives their usefulness as a saw is limited. These teeth on the survival knives were designed so crews could more easily cut through the relatively thin metal skin on a downed aircraft. These teeth can be used to scrap wood or bark to make tinder to help start a fire. Some survival knives do have actual saw type teeth on the blade. You are still limited in what you can cut by the length of the survival knife blade.
Some survival knives have a hollow handle feature. The movie "Rambo" popularized this style of survival knives. Survival Knives like these are sometimes called "Rambo" knives. One of the selling points to these survival knives is that gear can be stored in the handle. A drawback to many hollow handle survival knives is the handle is attached to and not actually part of the blade. This creates a weaker point that may fail when you need your survival knife the most. There are some hollow handle survival knives that are fashioned out of a single piece of steel. The handle on these survival knives is part of the blade so you do not have the weak point. There is another consideration with hollow handle survival knives. If you lose your survival knife you also lose all the gear stored in the handle.Knives
The blade on survival knives. As a rule of thumb you should avoid survival knives with a double cutting edged blade. This weakens the tip and also increases the risk of getting cut while performing tasks with survival knives. Some of these tasks may include cutting, slicing, prying, chopping or digging. Fixed blade survival knives should have a full length tang. This means the blade on survival knives should be a single piece of steel that runs all the way through the handle. The blade should be good quality steel that is strong and will also keep a sharp edge.

Knife sharpener

A kitchen won’t be a kitchen if without a knife in it.  Knives have an essential job in the kitchen.  It is the likely used material in preparing food.  Having it in good shape and functional would make your cooking quick and easy.  Imagine yourself working with a blunt old knife.  Can you picture yourself with that twisted face and sweat streaking on your forehead?  That would be an everyday scenario if you don’t have your knife sharp enough to do its job.Knife sharpener

Cutting almost all of your ingredients by knife would make its blade dull.  The usage of knife incorrectly could damage the blade too.  It will be serrated even though it is plain flat and sharp.  Serrated knives on the other hand can loose the edges if used in things that it is not intended for.  It will make your life in the kitchen miserable and you will end up buying a brand new knife.

Used knives can be sharpened provided it will be sharpen correctly.  Looking for the best knife sharpener is a challenge.  There a lot of knife sharpener out there in the market.  If you are going to use the one stone sharpener, it probably sharpened unevenly since you can’t sharpen them both sides at the same time. Your force might be harder that the other side that could give the blade unbalance angle. Two stoned knife sharpener will make the job well done.  You just have to put your knife in the middle of the stones and hold the handle.  The sharp edge should be turned down.  You have to smoothly run your knife constantly in it.  Make sure to hold it firmly and not let it slip.  It might hurt you or the other people that are with you.

Knife sharpener should be always present in any kitchen but maintaining your blades doesn’t require you to always sharpen you knives.  They might loose their thickness and durability.  Use chopping boards that would not damage your knives so that you will not need to sharpen often.  Plastic chopping boards doesn’t have a soft surface.  Lot of force is given to the knife and it will hit hard surface and that will greatly affect the edged of a knife.  Unlike using a wooden chopping board where in your knife would dig in the surface if you are going to hit it.