By KA-BAR, of course.
I've been wearing my KA-BARs a lot more since moving to North Carolina. Georgia law -- a law I helped draft -- allows a concealed weapons permit holder to carry either a gun or a knife as he prefers. I thought that was reasonable: why should you wish to ensure that the only option for concealing a weapon was a firearm? If someone can defend himself with a blade, it carries far less risk of ricochet or of striking someone on the other side of the target.
North Carolina law is fine with you carrying concealed firearms with a permit, but there is no legal way to conceal a knife. Thus, if you're carrying openly it's perfectly OK, but if it's ruled by a court to have been concealed you're in serious legal trouble. The KA-BAR depends from your belt, with the hilt entirely below the top of your belt. There's no way anyone could miss it.
Reception is mixed. Usually people out here are not the least bit surprised by knife-wearing, or gun-wearing as open carry of firearms is also legal. I did get a long look from a bouncer in Asheville when he noticed it, but he didn't say a word about it. He just filled me in on the current COVID-appropriate way to order a Guinness from the bar. An old man out toward Cashiers asked to see it the other day, and wanted to know if it was an old one. Well, the same way I'm getting to be old; I've been carrying that particular knife for thirty years. It was the one I took to Iraq, and wore strapped to my body armor when I went outside the wire.
He said a knife like that was probably worth some money. It's not. They're pretty good knives for the money, but inexpensive enough that every Joe (or Space Marine) can carry one if he'd like. For that reason there's so many of them from so many wars and decades that none of them are very valuable. Or rather, all of them are in their way: it's a proven design of many years' service. There are better designs for combat alone, but it is designed as a "fighting/utility knife" that is good for broad applications. I use it for tons of things; there's nothing handier than having a good knife on your belt.
My FIL, after fighting in Europe, got sent to fight in the Pacific. I found a very well worn Kabar in his effects, all the parkerizing gone off the blade, the old leather sheath patched with aluminum, grip worn and stained from sweat. He probably got it from some Marine, AFAIK, they were not issued to Army personal. Speaks of a time far away and desperate.
ReplyDeleteI love Texas. Sept. 1st is the official Texas Sword Day.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRSC2vaP5Do
For space, wouldn't titanium be a better material for the blade? Or, with the right alloy, aluminum?
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteI don't know the answer to your technical question as regards titanium. It is my understanding that titanium knives are alloyed with steel because titanium is less dense than steel. Whether that means the knife would bring along whatever weaknesses the steel adds to the alloy for outer space purposes, I couldn't say. 1095 steel is a high carbon steel, which is usually criticized for weakness to rust; obviously it's not likely to rust in space.
Aluminum seems like a poor choice for a blade because it is brittle. Perhaps there's a correct alloy, as you suggest, but I'm not aware of one.
In truth, a good multitool would probably be of more use in space. An onslaught of alien vampires is a lot less likely than some pesky screw coming loose in the turboencabulator.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but there’s decent odds of Space Marines needing to cut a gash in a People’s Liberation Army spacesuit.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking in terms of density, and how expensive it is to loft anything. The less mass, the better--so long as it can do the job.
ReplyDeleteAs to rust--nobody's likely to use that kind of knife outside in a space suit. It would be an interesting exercise to figure out what _would_ be a useful knife outside--something that fat-finger-gloves could get a purchase on. Inside there's no weather, but there's humidity, and droplets that didn't all get chased down--things could still corrode.
No need to close to knife range to ruin a PRC pressure suit. A packet of sand, that opens to free the sand, loosed from a suitable angle and relative altitude, will abrade a suit to uselessness. Ruin the transport that brought the guys up, too, although that might want gravel instead of sand. Or collected satellite debris.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
Similar arguments about rifles are why they quit issuing KA-BARs, so Joe has to buy one himself now. I still think it’s a good idea to have one handy.
ReplyDeleteA Ka-Bar is a weapon doing more frequent duty as a tool. There is a Willy and Joe (Bill Mauldin) comic about WWII era bayonets.
ReplyDeletehttps://amyatishkin.livejournal.com/223009.html
I'd be interested in what sort of tool-ish applications a spacer would have for a hefty blade; before I worried over much about ripping open an adversary. Assuming the tool/weapon became part of an "Every Day Carry" kit.
Yes, exactly! Bill Mauldin. In fairness I've used mine far more often for opening cans and bottles and packages than anything else, but like I said: there's nothing handier than a good knife on your belt. The fact that it can also serve as a fighting knife in a pinch is just one more good reason to have it handy.
ReplyDeleteLots of things that might want cutting besides pressure suits or hoses. Knives make adequate screwdrivers. The switchblade I keep in my workshop makes a handy tool when I have one hand already occupied. They make good spreaders and stirrers. The butt end--of the K-bar, not the switchblade--makes a light hammer. Blades pry. And on and on.
ReplyDeleteKnives will serve in space as well as on a planet surface. And in hand-to-hand; although that's a very last resort. It's generally foolish to close to knife range, because that puts you in the enemy's reach.
Eric Hines
"The switchblade I keep in my workshop makes a handy tool when I have one hand already occupied."
ReplyDeleteYes- a long time ago in another life, our crab boat was loaded with pots, stacked 3 deep on top of the pilot house, and I was tossing pots off in a wind,standing on the pilothouse roof- the other hand had a death-grip on the radio mast. Something must have been a problem, because I distinctly remember thinking, gee, a switchblade would be real handy about now".
(Dungeness crab pots, not King Crab, the pots are about 4' diameter , 14" tall and a hundred lbs.)
I too instantly thought "titanium would be ideal". There are not-brittle alloys of aluminum (or really, heat treatments- 1000 series is good for forming, as opposed to 6000 series which is much harder, but also therefore more brittle), but then it's too soft.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd want to use the pommel for a hammer while wearing a space suit- pointing a knife at my own suit seems like a bit too great a risk to take.
There's already been a knife designed for space crews- Case made the NASA M-1 astronaut knife. One was onboard every Gemini and Apollo mission. More like a small machete with a sawback. I'm thinking they were considering the possibility of cutting out of a spacecraft with it, as well as survival on Earth if you landed off target and had to wait for recovery.
The SEALs also used a Titanium blade knife at some point- the Mission Mpk knife. Seems like it would be good for EOD as well, being non magnetic.
ReplyDeleteDivers have this quandary as well. A lot of diving knives have sharp points (for fending off sharks? pirates?), but a lot of them have gone toward a flat point with the unromantic realization that using it to pry stuff apart is more likely than shark defense.
ReplyDeleteHere are some examples:
https://promateusa.com/product-category/knives/
So that NASA knife is stainless steel, but steel (and much bigger -- I thought James had a good point about lift weight, but apparently the early NASA was muscular enough to set that point aside and just build bigger rockets).
ReplyDeletePerhaps the non-metallic aspect is important, and the weight may be a worthy issue as well. Perhaps we should write KA-BAR and suggest titanium as an option at least for Space Force crew who are going up.
Space Force has chosen the term GUARDIAN to refer to their service members.
ReplyDeleteThis is like a Ymar written fiction story. Why does Space Force have Star Trek's emblem or rather vice a versa.
I got a kukri not a K bar. It fits in a hunting pack fully concealed and has a black blade body. Not sure how they got a black blade body that is shiny.
ReplyDeleteBut a lot of ancient stargates don't allow weapons, so try not to get too attached, Guardians
The pocket knife I use is a frame lock, flip style, with fiber glass handle. Very small, very light, and the handle is just all fiber whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe metal is one of the more popular high chromium sorts with tool steel like endurance and wear resist. I forgot the name sorry. I did more research on high carbon steel alloys for swords.