# Survival > General Survival Discussion >  Your knife, does it have a saw spine, or no?

## Big Jon

Currently I carry 3 knives with me out hiking and camping. 2 have saw backings, they're typical el cheapo knives, then a small folder knife I disassembled and attached to my ferro rod hanging on my neck. I was curious to what you use your knife for; hacking, slicing, etc,. And if you do not have a saw spine on your knife how do you go about tasks?

I live in a region where 3 different deserts come together, and use my knife mostly for splitting/sawing and skinning. I'm thinking about purchasing the SOG SE-38 N-Force knives, but curious as to how your knife is used according to your climate and conditions.

I want to remove the handle of the knife and paracord wrap it, and incorporate a Tablespoon into it as a bearing for a bow-drill, any ideas?

----------


## Rick

Any tool that does multiple tasks generally doesn't do any of them very well. If you want to saw purchase a saw. 
If you find yourself in a bad situation do you want to rely on an "el cheapo" knife? There are excellent high quality inexpensive knives on the market. Mora being one.

----------


## Old Professor

I  dislike saw back knives. In my experience they are too short to be an efficient saw and mess up the clean lines of the back of the blade, catching on things.  I agree with Rick, If you want to saw something, buy a saw! There are good folding saws out there at reasonable prices, Check out archery/tree stand equipment.

----------


## Wise Old Owl

Perfectly fine with my Leatherman Wave with saw and separate locking blade. The Sog you mention is huge and far too big for my needs as I did carry something similar years ago.  Depends on what you need it for.

----------


## finallyME

You bring 3 knives with you.... That means you aren't looking for the "1 tool option".  
I carry 3 knives with me, a large knife (to me anyways, CS SRK), a medium knife (Helle, think Mora size), and a multitool (which has a real saw).  
I also carry a folding saw.  I have never seen a saw on the back of a knife that was that great of a saw.

----------


## hunter63

I have a saw back on my home made knife......because I made it out of a industrial saw blade....
Ugly as sin, use it for digging dandelions and weed out of the garden.

I don't "hack" anything but may slice and dice potatoes, onions or a steak  .... Green river, Buck or Mora do just fine.

Don't consider the el-cheapo Harbor Freight Knife for anything.....they stay on the display at Harbor Freight. ....but is available if needed for $7.95 on sale and is a total POS.

My carry knives are 3-4" belt fixed blade "hunting knife", small clip folder, and a SAK.
If cutting wood, a small belt ax is on my hunting fanny pack......but breaking it over my knee or crotch of a tree works as well.

For a saw I have several 18" Stihl chainsaws.....

SAK and a Mora is all you are gonna need.

----------


## kyratshooter

My knife slices, dices, chunks, shreds, saws through bone, opens car bodies, mows down forests with a singe swipe and never heeds sharpening.

And you can have one too!  Only 3 payments of $13.33!

But wait, if you act now you can get two, and they wil include a sharpener you will never need and a set of steak knives! 

Here ya go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ZZ42Irxng

----------


## Seniorman

No sawbacks for me.

A small folding saw will take care of any sawing needs I might encounter.

S.M.

----------


## jdbushcraft

I believe the saw spine originated on the ARMY/Air force survival knife.  It was to be used to "saw" through the thin aluminum aircraft body to escape a downed aircraft.  It really wasn't meant to saw wood.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

----------


## Wildthang

No saw backs or serrated blades for me!!!

----------


## Batch

I don't have knives I use that have saw backs. I have a saw on my Leatherman Supertool 300 and I carry a Silky folding saw in my pack.

If you baton a saw back blade you will make a wreck of the baton in short order. If you ever want to bear down or choke up on a sawback it will not be comfortable. 

You can do more way in the way of bushcraft with a plain edge and where your serrations are on the knife you linked to is where your going to want a plain edge in certain bushcraft.

----------


## hunter63

DW said, "No more helo's or airplanes, you have enough stuff parked all over"....so I don't need the sawback.....

----------


## pete lynch

I have a Gerber Jr machete that has a saw back. It's long enough that you can actually get a good sawing motion with it. I sawed some bamboo lengths the other day using it. I only take it out in the field when I know I need it.

----------


## natertot

> I believe the saw spine originated on the ARMY/Air force survival knife.  It was to be used to "saw" through the thin aluminum aircraft body to escape a downed aircraft.  It really wasn't meant to saw wood.
> 
> Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


No sir. "Sawbacks" were originally on European bayonets in the 1860's in response to trench warfare. The sawback allowed for the pulling of barbed wire and other engineering tasks associated with trench warfare. These bayonets didn't gain too much popularity until Germany made a lot of them in WWI. Since then, saw backs have been incorporated in many bayonets and knives.

----------


## chiggersngrits

I have never seen a saw backed knife that had any kerf to the saw teeth. Making it inefficient.

----------


## tundrabadger

I tried out somebodies saw backed knife once.  Elements of knives and saws combining to make something not quite as good as either.

----------


## Lamewolf

> Any tool that does multiple tasks generally doesn't do any of them very well. If you want to saw purchase a saw. 
> If you find yourself in a bad situation do you want to rely on an "el cheapo" knife? There are excellent high quality inexpensive knives on the market. Mora being one.


You took the words right out of my mouth Rick !

Get quality tools - your life will depend on them !

----------


## Lamewolf

> No sawbacks for me.
> 
> A small folding saw will take care of any sawing needs I might encounter.
> 
> S.M.


I picked up a folding saw used at a flea market several years ago for 2 bucks and love the thing.  I don't even know what brand it is but it cuts like a laser !

----------


## hunter63

> You took the words right out of my mouth Rick !
> 
> Get quality tools - your life will depend on them !





> I picked up a folding saw used at a flea market several years ago for 2 bucks and love the thing.  I don't even know what brand it is but it cuts like a laser !



Sooo, Which is it.....Quality tools?....or flea market no-name?...LOL

----------


## natertot

> Sooo, Which is it.....Quality tools?....or flea market no-name?...LOL


Just because it is no name doesn't mean it lacks quality. Same is true that because it is a name brand doesn't mean it is good quality either.

My favorite machete is a no name,  made in Brazil,  that I got at a garage sale for $5. Likewise, I spent $35 on a Gerber machete that I could really care less about.

----------


## hunter63

> You took the words right out of my mouth Rick !
> 
> Get quality tools - your life will depend on them !





> I picked up a folding saw used at a flea market several years ago for 2 bucks and love the thing.  I don't even know what brand it is but it cuts like a laser !





> Just because it is no name doesn't mean it lacks quality. Same is true that because it is a name brand doesn't mean it is good quality either.
> 
> My favorite machete is a no name,  made in Brazil,  that I got at a garage sale for $5. Likewise, I spent $35 on a Gerber machete that I could really care less about.


Psssst, Nate... I was giving him a bad time, two consecutive posts, two different points of view

LOL...Trick is to find the good tools at yard sales and flea markets.

----------


## nell67

No saw backs or serrated blades except for a bread knife serrations (blade side or spine side) are in my opinion a useless addition to a knife.

----------


## letslearntogether47

I have a Becker BK2.
No saw back just one big hunking 1/4 inch carbon blade knife.
I plan to do some mods to it in the very near future.
Time to remove the rest of that crappy black coating.

----------


## RutisBikos

That's true, a name brand doesn't mean it is good quality either.

----------


## simonhard

I prefer to use my old Makita tools they are really good enough

----------


## Rick

Did you honestly think we wouldn't know you created two accounts? Dumb.

----------


## Alan R McDaniel Jr

Whassup with diversity?  Are you discriminating against those with multiple personalities?  What if all the different personalities identify as one person?  Imma have to report this!

Alan

----------


## crashdive123

At least he had somebody to talk to.

----------


## Rick

We will be happy to hear your complaint. You will need to talk to our complaint mgr. He..no wait...she...no...they...them...oh, crap...just show up and start yelling. Someone will take care of you.

----------


## WolfVanZandt

Heh, that's one of me favorite office jokes on-the-wall.

----------


## helgiritp0

Wow Nice one The drawback allowed for the pulling of barbed wire and other engineering tasks associated with trench warfare. These bayonets didn't gain too much popularity until Germany made a lot of them in WWI. Since then, saw-backs have been incorporated in many bayonets and knives.

----------


## Michael aka Mac

Well I have owned a hell of a lot of knives in my lifetime, and I indeed had knives with serrated blades, well technically I still have some of them,  I just rarely ever use them. I find that the serrated/saw portion of the knife is not only too short to be of any real use, but that it also gets in the way doing Bushcraft tasks, not to mention they can be a real !@#$% to sharpen. The only real time I use that kind of knife blade is when I am kayaking or sailing.

I agree with someone that posted that gear /tools with multipurpose  tend to have many features but none of them as good as the real McCoy. There are some exceptions.

I bring with me 3 knives, a neck knife, my main Bushcraft/survival knife, and my Swiss Army Swiss Champ. The saw on the Swiss Champ is long enough and definitely sharp enough to do the job at hand. As a fall back I use a lightweight Hand chainsaw or a workable Commando wire saw.(workable~ meaning a majority of them suck)

Someone mentioned they had no need for pliers or screwdrivers in the wilderness. I would agree that for most people and most situations they are not needed or not going to help I should say. I personally am an electronic and computer technician which I learned after going to college for Engineering, and I also fix camping gear, so I end up using practically all of the multiple tools of the Swiss Army knife, whether it's to fix my headlamp or flashlight, or stove or lantern, or my radio. But if you don't have the know how to fix something  then there is no point carrying the tools for it.

1860 uh that's when they started making serrated knives did not know.  SO when did they start having the army knives where you have a hole in the knife that fits into the sheath and used like shears to cut barbed wire?

----------

