# General > General Knives & Blades >  The Replacement

## kyratshooter

A couple of weeks ago I replaced a knife that was lost/stolen nearly 40 years ago.  I did not really need another knife any more than Carter needs any more little liver pills, but as I age I seem to have a much stronger draw to the nostalgic.

"Back in the day" I was called/sent/ordered to the Infantry School at Ft Benning GA for a series of schools that would lead to me being sent to some very nasty places.  I had my ideas about what knives I needed from growing up outdoors, and as happens to most folk in that situation I realized I was sadly mistaken about the second day in and sidelined my prior selections at the end of week 2.

On that Saturday afternoon I found myself standing in an emporium in Columbus, GA called Ranger Joe's.  At that time in history Ranger Joe was the unofficial supplier of nonstandard gear that made life bearable in the field but the U.S. Government did not see fit to issue to the troops.

Ranger Joe's was also one of the only places in the United States where one could walk into the firm, show orders to a combat arena, and walk out with a Randal Knife.  Ranger Joe had a deal with Randal.  Randal slipped them knives off the production shop and Ranger Joe sold them only to soldiers with orders to combat.

Now back then, unlike today,  there were only a limited number of knife makers in the U.S.  Randal was about it for well known custom builders.  Most troops went into combat with assorted hunting knives, an issued bayonet (always last choice), the K-bar, or what I wound up with.

I laid down my $19.95 and walked out with a U.S. AF Jet pilot survival knife.  They also had the K-bar, but at $50 it was too rich for my paycheck.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jet+...AQIKg&dpr=1.45

Now keep in mind that a 2nd Lt of that day earned $400 monthly, and $20 would put 80 gallons of gasoline in your tank!  Even at the current low prices that is equal to paying $160 for the knife.

That knife was on my belt every day I was in the field for the next two years.  It was backed up by a 4 blade "camp knife" in my pocket for general utility and a "combat knife" on my pistol belt  which is not impressive by todays standards but was about as good as any, short of the Randal, in that day.  But the JPSK was on my pants belt, so it would be there even if I dumped my web gear.  I was pretty sure I would retain my pants no matter what the crisis, and I would always have a fixed blade knife on me.

You develop a bond with some items, even if they are simple utility tools, and I felt as naked without that knife as I would have without my rifle.

I did not realize that what I bought would be the most popular knife carried in Viet Namn, or that it would have a history that stretched for 60 years across time, remaining basically unchanged for over 50 of those years.

The JPSK was developed by the Marbles Company for the U.S. government back in 1954 at the request of the Air Force.  They needed a knife for placement in the ejector seat survival kits being put in use at that time.

Marbles took an existing blade from their Ideal woodsman's knife (the knife chosen by Linburg when he crossed the Atlantic) , equipped it with the requested serrations on the back edge, replaced the normal pommel with a huge hex nut (to meet the nail pounding requirement of the AF), and a steel guard with holes drilled for a lanyard.  The 5 inch blade of the Ideal already had the wide blood grove and the saber ground blade that is carried over today.  

Marbles design was immediately approved and the contract to produce the knife immediately given to Camulius!

Marbles Canceled their current contracts after completion and never again produced any item for the U.S. government.

The blade of the knife was changed to a 6" length for a time, but in 1958 it was returned to the origional 5 inch length it is today at the request of the instructors at the AF survival school.

Which brings up another consideration.  Each aircrew member in the AF is required to attend the AF survival school.  The basic school is several weeks long with a week in the field.  The AF cycles 6,000 crewmen through the school each year and each and every one of them is issued an Air Force survival knife for use during the course.  

If you multiply the numbers and extend them back to the 1958 date, when the present knife was selected, that means that somewhere around 350,000 people have been survival trained using the JPSK.  

Add in the JPSK in each of the ejection seats on every fighter and bomber in the AF and Navy fleets and some of the helicopters in the inventory and you have a massive number of knives in service.  Probably more knives labeled with the pure purpose of survival than any other ever produced.

Now take into consideration that air force people are not generally "outdoorsmen" and very few of them are "knife guys".  They are technicians, specialists and pilots and many of them have joined the AF specifically because it allows them to sleep inside, eat food from the mess hall, stay out of the rain and never touch a rifle.  Dare say the JPSK might be the first knife some of them ever held in their hands that was not covered with peanut butter and jelly!

Not bad for a knife completely dismissed as a POS by the "experts" of today.  Leather grip, heavy hilt, stubby 5" blade, saw teeth, leather sheath.  In fact, with the saw teeth and the sharpened back of the clip it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE TO BATTON with this knife.  How could a person live if they can not smack their knife with a stick?  

Well thousands do each year and will continue to do so.

Anyway, I carried the JPSK I bought over hill and dale, through swamps and forest for the next several years, returned home to life as a school teacher and one day I realized, after a home move, it was nowhere to be found.  Don't know where it went and don't expect to ever find out, but I knew I had lost a piece of my own history.

I replaced it with a new one, and I must say the new one is not quite as good.  My old one had a better stacked leather grip, much like that on a K-bar.  My old one also had a better finish on the blade.  The new one is rough leather and the blade heavily parkerized.

The steel is the same as I remember.  It is 1095, same as the K-bar, and all the Ontario survival knives, as well as the Old Hickory and Old Forge butcher knives.

When I removed it from the package the blade had a rolled edge from the grinder.  Using nothing but the included sharpening stone on the sheath I was able to put an "average guy" working edge on the new blade in about 5 minutes.  

You have to remember that these knives are intended to spend decades sealed in plastic and packed away in the survival kit of a fighter or bomber.  They will be untouched until taken from the package, in a life or death situation, sharpened and immediately put into use by the people we previously spotted as not being knife guys.

They changed the specs a few years ago, and now the JPSK has a plastic handle and the pommel has a nail puller or some such feature on the pommel.  Same blade though, unchanged since 1958 and still not approved for batoning!  

And they have still not replaced all the old style knives still packed in their plastic wrappers and packed with the life raft and other goodies in the thousands of survival kits scattered through the fleet.

I feel like I have an old friend back and I intend to get some major use out of this knife now that spring has sprung.

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## hunter63

Sooo, Seems that what you are saying is "I like this knife"?

BTW Outstanding history on an old war horse.....
Rep sent.

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## crashdive123



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## kyratshooter

Would you believe I bought that first JPSK 8 years before that song was released?

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## Faiaoga

You are probably paying three times what the knife cost approximately sixty years ago.  That is a pretty good rate of inflation.

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## WalkingTree

I like the fact that this thing has a leather handle, and even in texture-creating strips instead of a single surface.

Too bad you don't still have the original. Unless I'm misunderstanding your story, the ones made more recently are a bit different in a way that isn't preferable. Aren't 100% the same.

Funny how we can be 'connected' to material objects sometimes. Women may think that we're wacko. I'd be surprised if you don't have names for some of your things, or call them 'her' or 'him'. My last pickup was a 'him'. He was awesome. A real trooper. We been on great journeys together. He was so special that he's one that did have a name, but the name was 'unspoken'...I didn't know what it was. In speakable words, that is. And that's the way it was supposed to be.

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## kyratshooter

> You are probably paying three times what the knife cost approximately sixty years ago.  That is a pretty good rate of inflation.


Nope!

The new one, made by Ontario, the government supplier, is $40 at Walmart.

In 45 years the price has only doubled.  It is a remarkably good value for the price. 

Sometimes the government gets something right and keeps it in the inventory forever.  And sometimes an item is so good it outlives its service life into infinity to be used by generations, like the JPSK, canteen and cup, ponchos, mess kit, entrenching tool, 550 cord, 30-06 cartridge, M1 carbines...

Makes me want to sit down on the wet ground and eat a can of cold ham and lima beans.

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## finallyME

Unfortunately, I couldn't find your knife here. http://www.rangerjoes.com/KA-BAR-Kni...ing-P1218.aspx

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## kyratshooter

Ranger Joe carries the new one, just approved a couple of years ago.

http://www.rangerjoes.com/ASEK-Survi...tem-P8951.aspx

Walmart has both.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ontario-Kn...Knife/22339681

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ontario-Kn...-1410/51614483

To be honest I can not see $100-$150 worth of improvement between the old and the new.  But it may be possible I do not value plastic handles as much as the next guy.

Also the new version is only adopted by the Army with the other branches viewing it as approved optional use.  In Armed Forces terms that means the trooper has to buy it himself.

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## Wildthang

Darnit Kyrat stop it! I already have enough knives for 2 life times!

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## crashdive123

I think I may have a couple of them (rather old) laying around someplace.

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## finallyME

> Ranger Joe carries the new one, just approved a couple of years ago.
> 
> http://www.rangerjoes.com/ASEK-Survi...tem-P8951.aspx
> 
> Walmart has both.
> 
> http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ontario-Kn...Knife/22339681
> 
> http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ontario-Kn...-1410/51614483
> ...


I saw the new one... didn't think it was what you were looking for.   :Smile:   I saw one at Sportsmans Warehouse the other day.

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## kyratshooter

> Darnit Kyrat stop it! I already have enough knives for 2 life times!


And who among this crew does not?

This is one of those items that not everyone will want or be happy with.  It is not big, it is not flashy, it is not suited to many of the survival philosophies of today.  It is simply a good utility knife that works if you are trained the way most of us old geezers were trained.

It is not widely realized but the Air Force Survival School uses a two knife approach, teaming the JPSK with the Cumulus 4 blade pocket knife for most detail and chore work.  So the big knife is not intended to be the only knife you have.  The ejection seat contains either a 4 blade camp knife or a folding razor knife for small cutting chores.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mili...AQIRA&dpr=1.25

https://www.smkw.com/marble-s-safety-razors

They work based on the items you will have in that survival pack and do not include the "big chopper" you left at the house because there is not enough room in the plane to carry it.

Downed AF fighter pilots and bomber crews are trying to stay alive, avoid capture and get the hell home or to an extraction point, they are not setting up elaborate shelters, splitting a store of firewood for the winter or building a homestead.

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## hayshaker

i have one of those AF,survival knives with the leather sheath&stone sharpener,
bought it in the late seventies, camillus brand i believe.

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## kyratshooter

Camillus made them until 1968.

Ontario got the contract from then until now.

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## hunter63

It's kinda funny you bring up this knife....
Good friend Vietnam vet Navy.....but on the river boats...had one of the K-Bars..used it on his web gear.....but didn't like it for a hunting knife.
Lost him here a couple of years ago, so I can't ask him why....but was always a Buck Hunting knife fan..... as I was.
FIL carried a Mora, and did MF for hunting.....but all wanted a Buck knife.

I did find the history interesting...but won't be adding a AFSK to my gear....LOL

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## Lamewolf

Had one for several years, not a knife I would choose as my go to knife - too gimmicky for me.  There are a lot better designs out there, especially these days and even before it was designed ! I know the teeth was supposedly designed to allow you to cut your way out of the fuselage of a downed aircraft, but the teeth are so dull on everyone I've seen, even new ones, I doubt that would be an option.   And the ones I've seen - even new ones. wouldn't cut wood out of the box.  On the one I had, it took a lot of work with a file to get the teeth sharp enough to cut anything.  The little 3 inch saw in my Swiss Army Camper model cuts much better and it required no work at all !  The AFSK would not be a knife I would choose first, but yes it could be used for rough work if need be.

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## Faiaoga

Very interesting information about this well known knife.   :Shifty:  I have never owned or used one , but I note that several people who write and make videos about survival topics think that this knife is a good one for general outdoor use - they think that the saw teeth can be used to make square cuts for animal traps.  

I am neither a pilot nor a military veteran, so I do not have a legitimate reason to own one, but a $40 price for a sturdy basic knife may give me an excuse to purchase one.

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## kyratshooter

The teeth were never intended to be used as a saw.  They were designed to rip and tear.  They were to be used to extricate the crewman from the plane, either from the inside or the outside.

That was also one reason why that big nut was on the hilt and the back of the clip was as sharp as the cutting edge.

You put that tip against the plane and popped it with your hand, or a handy rock, and it was going completely through the skin of the craft, then you rip big chunks of aluminum out and make a new door.  It also worked on oil drums and corrugated metal.

You have to remember who they were made for an why they were made, who set the specifications and how the aircrews were/are trained.  That means they are not something everyone will want.  

We also are swamped with knife designs and knife makers today.  Not so much back in 1954-1970 when this knife was number 1 blade attached to the web gear of the troops.  When I bought my first one it was the best of the reasonably priced options available.  Gerber was barely there, Buck knives were prone to breaking in half on parachute jumps, the RAT series did not exist, Becker did not exist nor did any of the other semi-specialty series knives that have sustained the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The host of custom makers we have now were all mostly kindergarten students.

It was one of the best choices for its time.  That time/situation may be gone, but the memory is not, and thousands of men relied on the JPSK daily for support, comfort and protection.

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## Seniorman

> Camillus made them until 1968.
> 
> Ontario got the contract from then until now.


Kyratshooter, my JPSK is marked on the cap, "Camillus, 11-80."  I've read that the numbers on the cap indicate the month and year it was manufactured by Camillus.  

I bought it sometime in early 1981 an it stayed in my car's trunk as my "Earthquake Emergency Kit" until I moved from Los Angeles to Idaho in 1997.   It still resides in that  pack in the trunk of my car except now I call it my "Winter Emergency Kit."  

If I find myself in an emergency and need a good knife, I know that Camillus JPSK will do just fine.   :Yes: 

S.M.

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## Lamewolf

> It was one of the best choices for its time.  That time/situation may be gone, but the memory is not, and thousands of men relied on the JPSK daily for support, comfort and protection.


My favorite "old" knife is the Pal RH36 - just seemed to be more of a useful, general purpose" design to me.

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## NightSG

> I bought it sometime in early 1981 an it stayed in my car's trunk as my "Earthquake Emergency Kit" until I moved from Los Angeles to Idaho in 1997.   It still resides in that  pack in the trunk of my car except now I call it my "Winter Emergency Kit.


Do you have a separate kit to handle earthquakes in winter?

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## kyratshooter

Lamewolf the Pal 36 is an old Remington design continued when Pal bought the Remington knife division back in 1930-something.

They were sold through the PX system starting in 1940 and most of what people think were "issue" Pals were actually private purchases. 

They pre-date the K-bar and were very popular and extremely good knives.

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## Seniorman

> Do you have a separate kit to handle earthquakes in winter?


Nope, no earthquakes where I live now .... but it can become pretty cold in the winter.    Therefore, my "Winter Emergency Kit."  Actually, I just added a second pair of wool socks, wool gloves, and an old wool jacket to the Earthquake Kit, which then made it my Emergency Winter Kit.    That kit will get me home.   :Thumbup1: 

S.M.

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