There is a old saying that goes like this “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem is treated like a nail”. Today I am talking about knives and for a very good reason. I have been watching the developments of this murder investigation of four Idaho college students very closely.

In the morning of November 13, 2022 it was reported that four college students were murdered in there house. My first thought was gang or drugs but it turned out to be something much more sinister than that. On the surface, three coeds and a boyfriend were stabbed to death. Two remaining roommates were home and did not hear a thing. I think I will do a podcast so I am going to skip the further details on all of this for some other time.

The suspected murder weapon is a Ka-bar knife. I say suspected because the weapon has not yet been found. But evidence at the scene suggests that it was a Ka-bar knife. The Ka-bar is known as the military knife as versions are issued to the Army, Marines and Navy and have been used since World War II.

Knives are tools and going back to my first sentence, it is one of the few tools issued to soldiers in the field. Consequently, the soldier’s knife is subject to all kinds of abuse like digging in the ground and opening cans. While I have no doubt that it has been used in combat, 99% of the things it has been used for are much more mundane.

I have a knife in my office that I primarily use for things like cutting cheese, sausage apples and the like. I took it out of my vehicle kit where I originally purchased it for things like bushcrafting. That would be things like building temporary shelter or batoning wood (to make kindling) as well as digging and opening cans. So, I would say it is pretty inappropriate for the tasks that I currently use it for.

My knife is a Buck 119. I was looking at it the other morning and the thought occurred to me that it looks a lot like a Ka-bar. So, I did an internet search for comparisons between the Buck 119 and Ka-bar knives. What I got was some good information while a lot of it fell into the ‘Mall Ninja’ category. “The Ka-bar is a fighting knife, the Buck is a hunting knife.” That is the statement that struck me as a pure point of ignorance.

The eight inch kitchen knife is the standard for chefs and cooks alike. It is good for it’s chopping and dicing capabilities, but not for all things, particularly delicate work such as peeling. Now, I use my chef’s knife for most things including tasks that would be better suited to the smaller pairing knife because I don’t want to dirty another utensil or it is already dirty or I just think I can do it.

Getting back to my point here, people that say the Buck 119 is a hunting knife have never used a knife in their lives. A hunting knife is primarily used to eviscerate and skin an animal. Just like any job, having different tools can lead to an advantage for the efficacy of the task. But, sticking your hand into the body cavity of an animal to cut the esophagus and therefore remove all of the innards is not a job for a six inch blade, way too large.

I think the optimum blade length for a ‘hunting knife’ is about three inches long. It is too large for some tasks (inside the body cavity) and too small for others (like breaking meat into primal cuts). It performs perfectly for most of the field butchering activities. Here is a place that I definitely agree with Steven Rinella on the best qualities of a hunting knife.

I fortunately can’t speak to the best qualities of a fighting knife. I think that if it comes to testing that aspect, it is a bad, bad day. But, generally speaking it is my opinion that knives with long blades are only useful in the kitchen and wildcrafting. There are too many variables in combat to makes the data only anecdotal. Just like people have been killed after being shot with a BB gun, so have people been killed with a pocket knife.

End Your Programming Routine: In my wild, circuitous route to get here I guess that my point is that internet information can be wildly misleading. There is no doubt that the Buck is marketed as a hunting knife. This particular knife is carried at many stores in the sporting goods section that only sanction hunting not tactical (or fighting). Bushcraft is a very niche and expensive category of knives usually reserved to boutique makers. As with all tools, having the right one for the purpose is always better but having the knowledge of what the right tool would be is better yet.