EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE - Doug's Knives

These Colors Don't Run - Remember 9.11.2001

Doug's Knives

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Only 3 LIMITED EDITION Equipped To Survive® Chris Reeve Sebenzas are still available.
Proceeds support Equipped To Survive Foundation and this Web site.

I use and carry, and pack in my survival kits, a variety of knives and multi-tools, depending upon the circumstances. These are the ones you'll most likely find me with, unless I am testing something new.

Not everyone can afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a knife. So, let me make a shameless plug. After years of not having the "perfect" knife to recommend that was anything close to affordable, I designed one that did. It's got everything you need and nothing you don't: My own design Doug Ritter RSK Mk1 by Benchmade, an exclusive collaboration based on their Griptilian. This is now my daily carry, which is therefor my true "survival knife," the one I'll be betting my life on. I also often also carry the Mini-RSK Mk1 and for dress-up carry I now carry my RSK Mk4 Gentleman's Folder.

For many years, the knife I almost always had with me was my custom Chris Reeve "Sebenza". This very sturdy folder is constructed with solid titanium sidepieces, one of which is milled and spring-bent to act as the integral "liner lock," making for a very strong lock. Overall length is 4 3/4 inches with an integral finger guard. I splurged, well, make that, I splurged even more than required, and had Chris decorate one sidepiece with the Equipped To Survive logo milled into the face, then colored. This requires that face to be polished, but the standard utilitarian finish is a matt natural finish, used on the rest of the knife, that is pretty grippable.

The robust 3 1/2 inch drop point blade is made from 1/8 inch thick BG-42 stainless steel. It has a hollow ground plain edge a with grooved thumb rest at the top rear of the blade, which top itself is nicely rounded off. A small thumb stud allows for quick one-handed opening and the stud is relatively close to the handle so it doesn't get in the way much. It is carried in my pocket using the titanium pocket clip in a blade up position for quickest availability. It has an integral lanyard hole.

Unless I'm "dressed up" for a special occasion in slacks and a dress shirt or a suit, I also usually have on my belt a Leatherman Charge Ti or the larger Leatherman Surge if I'm going flying or into the wilds. These tools incorporate both a plain edge blade and a serrated edge blade. The blades are less robust and lesser quality than my primary folders, but are still quite useful at times and adequate for back-up.

In my survival kits or if I am going hunting or into the backcountry I include a fixed blade knife, my RSK Mk3 with a 4.5 inch blade of S30V stainless steel.

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Publisher and Editor: Doug Ritter
Email: Doug Ritter
URL: http://www.equipped.org/devices12.htm
Revision: 012 April 22, 2004

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