You mean besides the one that he leaves in his wall locker lolOriginally Posted by 5pins
You mean besides the one that he leaves in his wall locker lol
More than likely he’ll take it to the field a couple times then it will sit in his wall locker so get him a keepsake….every grunt should have a Randall Model 1 or 14
Unless he is a knife guy and wants to carry a fixed blade I would also advise a good multi-tool in black oxide finish. Every grunt I have ever worked with loves those. Also carried by every Infantryman is a sturdy folder. Not necessarily a tank like ZT but more importantly a durable pivot and lock and a not fragile tip. Because every grunt ends up using it as a prybar. A durable folder from a company with a great warranty will last him a career. If he’s definitely into fixed blades a small lightweight fixed blade, again, from a hard use maker will make him happy.
I love fixed blades and, after one week long field exercise with my K-bar, never carried one again. In over 20 years of the Marines, the only thing I ever used a fixed blade for was opening MREs. I was never without a folder and often used a multi tool.
An Emerson. CQC 7, he will use a folder more than anything. Got to open MREs and stuff. Fixed blades are cool, but will rarely get used. He won't be knife fighting Tommy Lee Jones trying to retake a ship.
https://emersonknives.com/
I carried a version of this https://www.kabar.com/products/2225 through Desert Storm/Shield. It was a handy mre opener and not much else, it spent more time riding in my ruck than on my LBE. I would have been better served with a quality folder and a multitool. An issued bayonet will do all the stabbing and slashing one needs.
Winkler, Spartan or CRK.
I'll add Carothers to that list. (Though not necessarily easy to get a hold of.)
There's nothing civil about this war.
A way to and knowledge of how to sharpen?
I have an Emerson and don’t recommend them for anyone who is not L handed. The grind is on the wrong side for righties and my personal experience with customer service didn’t leave me feeling taken care of.
Last one I gifted was a Loveless-pattern Chute Knife made by John April to a freshly qualified Airborne Infantryman. That went along with a Leatherman multi-tool.
The latter of which gets used regularly, the former looks good mounted to his LBE and was the envy of his comrades at the time.
I chose the Loveless pattern for its classic good looks, balance, and overall size to weight ratio. That said, if I were sending someone out tomorrow, I'd grab a spare ESEE 3 from my pile and send it along. There are lighter/better options probably, but for the price it's tough to beat. An ESEE 3 and multi-tool combo would serve most any soldier well.
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