True story, particularly for someone with a picture of them carrying a child:
Some buddies and I were up in Colorado’s gold country, back in the forest. Kid runs up, frantic. His friend’s trapped and needs help. Where? In an old mine. Timber shifted while they were exploring, and it’s still slowly moving as the trapped kid tries to hold it. Plus, there’s a large bolt just above the kid’s chest. It has to come off NOW! You’re it.
You can lecture that kid all you want. You can discuss how knives shouldn’t be abused, take care of your knife so it’ll take care of you. You can ponder what you coulda, woulda, shoulda brought. But the only thing that matters is the toughness of the trail knives you’re carrying. Because you and your buddies are about to go down into an abandoned mine, bend away a thick bolt by hammering on it, and pry a heavy timber off a scared boy, all with your trail knives. Some of the knives failed, while others succeeded. Which are you carrying?
I guess your perspective depends on how much time you spend out deep. If going out deep means going to the county campground, no problem. But I’m often not only out of cell phone range, but out of range of the U.S. Central Nevada Radio Network. What you carry cannot fail. It must be hard tested.
First off all, I can find thousands of examples where people could have been rescued had they had a certain tool and didn’t. That’s life. I wasn’t there but can think of many more efficient items/tools to use to support timber pressing down on someone or to bend away a bolt about to pierce someone's body. In fact, using my knife that forcefully that close to someone’s body would probably be my last choice. Now, I'm sure you go "deep" often and constantly. But I doubt whether you've been "deeper" than George Washington Sears or some of the other great frontiersmen, and I can guarantee you they never tested a knife by chopping rock. They treated their knives with great care.
Lastly - these days I do go to the “county campground” and I don’t really know what “deep” means, but I haven’t always lived in New Jersey - I grew up in Africa and used to hunt and travel with my dad in places like the far north of Namibia, (Owamboland, the Caprivi strip) and many other places in Botswana, Lesotho etc. since I was 10, so it’s not as if I’ve never seen a tree or a bush.
Again, do what suits you but I will say once more that this is not what a knife was designed for and when people use things beyond there design capabilities accidents will happen.
Nuff said.
