Ultimate Zombie Survival Knife

[Eta-Carinae]

If it's a true zombie uprising tool, while the ideal strike will be a decapitation, there will be unavoidable need to stab them in the head at times.

It should have a vacuum break and possibly even a gas injector like the scuba diving WASP knife.

Carbide striker for breaking tempered glass.

[newenglandjeff]

The knife/sheath combo should have a wire cutter to get through chain link fences.

[Rider]

It has to make Milla Jovovich appear on a GS1200 fully loaded and ready to kick ass.

[ShadeWPI]

Coastie and Bog,

Thank you both very much for taking this seriously and posting functions and tests and avoiding the "recommended features" like I asked people to do.

I know that in a ZA situation, a melee weapon is nearly useless - if you're close enough to use it, you're as good as dead, the goal here is to design a useful and effective tool.

jmj - if you're going to post completely useless comments to get your post count up, please do so else where.

Still looking for more thoughts / ideas for useful functions and tests. I've said it before, this is not a features request, that's later in the design cycle. Yes, there have been some useful feature recommendations, but without a target functions list, a features list is useless - and it's impossible to evaluate and compare features without a functional requirement to compare them by.

[P-14]

It should open a beer bottle to have a drink after living for another day.....

Having it open cans may be useful, too.

[Eta-Carinae]

Do stab/extract tests on a pig head, both with fist-strike and forward thrust motions.

Test grip performance when covered in blood simulator.

Usability as a spear with common plumbing supply pipe.

Usability as an improvised bayonet.

[coastie]

I don’t know if this helps but this is what I normally use for knives. I have 3 that I probably use 95% of the time.

First is a Swiss Army Tinker. I carry this everyday and use it all the time. I have filleted fish with it, cut kindling and tinder with it, dressed small game with it and even skinned a deer with it. I like having the tools as I am always using it to fix something. Downside is it is small and I would like one with a little heftier blade. Maybe with a partially serrated blade. The thing is I always have it.

Second is a 4” Mora I got from Sportsmans Guide for about 8 bucks. It is great. I use it for most of my butchering and cleaning fish and game. Everything from squirrel to moose. I didn’t butcher the moose with it as I had the processor do that but I have butchered deer with it. Have used it to split kindling and cut tinder. It is not rugged enough to do any real chopping with. The blade is easy to keep sharp and a good size. I particularly like the handle as it is rubber so the knife wont slip out of my hand when it is wet and bloody. One of these is always in my pack when I am hiking and hunting.

Last is an old Marbles knife. I got it when I was in high school at a yard sale. The blade is about 7-8” long. This is the heaviest knife that I normally use. I have used it to chop wood, build shelters and a number of tougher chores. It has the heft to chop and the balance to do finer stuff. I have used it on deer but nothing smaller. I could use it for small game but I haven’t had the need. It goes with me when I go up to camp to hunt. I usually leave it in the truck or the camp as I have no real need to carry it.

None of these knives are dedicated survival knives in the sense that they were designed as such and none of them have the capability to store other survival goodies. I usually have things like a lighter and a firestick in my pockets or pack and a small sharpener in my pack. They work well for me and what I use them for and I wouldn’t feel under knifed in a survival situation with any of them. If it was a true long term disaster and I were living off the land I would probably want something bigger that I could really chop with but if that were the case I would bring an ax or hatchet.

[SMS65]

Large: Chop, Saw, Pry, Crush, Defend, Not Rust, Full Tang
Small: Skin, Fillet, Gut, Not Rust, Can be used as a spear tip (i.e. as least 1 hole in handle) Full Tang

Nice-to-have/Interesting ideas: Grip can be removable braided para cord. Use sheath as storage, not the hollow handle; tackle, magnesium, whetstone, first aid, etc. are all relatively flat, and can be stored in the sheath between layers of leather/kydex. Or better yet...make the sheath out of reusable duct tape

Not: Zombie Green, Contain the word Zombie in the name, Hollow Handle

[Hiltonizer]

Float.

[jmjkd]

"jmj - if you're going to post completely useless comments to get your post count up, please do so else where.


Shade I'm not f**king with you, I'm serious. Get the most unbelievable knife design made and put it in your hand to fight zombie's or who ever, then put a shit box cub scout knife in the hands of Leo Gaji.
and that all American super blade design is irrelevant, grind, thickness, size, weight, sheath all meaningless. That's the combat side because you mentioned an opposition. So I posted.

Now if you are talking about the making of the knife alone for tasks, design matters. But the building of a knife has nothing to do with the ability to fend of an attack by zombies or anyone.
Just keeping it real.