Following a link from Reader Jabrwok’s comment on this post, I ended up here (video), where this Scando-lass(?) opens up a coconut. Good grief, what a schlep.
Which makes me think: if you’re doing serious bush work, ignore that lil’ knife she’s using. Use a serious blade like this one (pictured next to a 1911, for scale):
If I knew I was heading anywhere that even looked like I’d end up in the boonies, you’d better believe that this puppy would be on my hip.
The Fallkniven S1 wielded by that young lady in the video is a superb knife, but totally unsuited for the job she was attempting.
Machetes and big bolo knives are as common as dirt in the Pacific islands, and there is a very good reason for that.
I have always been a fan of carrying a pukko and a British surplus Martindale No. 2 “Treebanger” golok. I have yet to meet any brush that is resistant to the good ole British Treebanger.
Yeah, I don’t think she’s trying to show the optimal approach to opening coconuts, and there are definitely better tools. Her videos are kind of hit or miss, but I think she’d be a better survival companion than most of your TV personalities, even if not quite as decorative:-).
That’s a gorgeous knife in the photo – any idea of who makes it and what model it is?
She has a video review of that knife she is using. She doesn’t like it either. After six weeks of testing, including hard use like that coconut, the knife was in pretty bad shape. It might have been fine for light cutting, but chopping and prying were more than it could handle.
It became a thing back in the 1980’s among a lot of people that “You don’t need a big knife!” Even in situations where it would be damned handy.
If you knew you were going to be in the boonies, why not have two(at least), a small, handy and a big, heavy chopper for heavy work?
Of course, that’s not neglecting that, if you could, you’d have a good-quality light axe as well.