Recommendations for rescue knives? US and/or Canadian made?

[Carol]

Any recommendations for rescue knives that are made in the US and/or Canada?

This will be forestry volunteers in northern New England and southeastern Quebec. Quality steel/construction and and a glass breaker point is a must.

 

[drop bear]

The Swiss army rescue tool is nice. But I haven't cut open a car with it to test. And not american

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zApUSw0xsRY

 

[Carol]

Thank you!

We were thinking more along the lines of a fixed blade, but I'll pass that along. It's certainly an impressive demo.

The need for American or Canadian made is for a local grant qualification that will cover the purchase. We can buy them sooner if we don't have to raise the money separately

 

[jks9199]

Any recommendations for rescue knives that are made in the US and/or Canada?

This will be forestry volunteers in northern New England and southeastern Quebec. Quality steel/construction and and a glass breaker point is a must.

Define the use a bit more... Most so-called "rescue tools" I've seen haven't really impressed me because they try to hard to provide something for everything, which means little of it is really done right.

If you can find them -- spring loaded center punches (here are Sear's options) are actually great glass breakers, and the eliminate the need to have room or strength to swing them.

 

[Dirty Dog]

If you're in the forest, don't you already carry a hatchet? That'll open a window...
Otherwise, I'm with JKS9199. All-in-one tools are almost certainly not going to be as good as specialized tools.
The problem with spring loaded punches in wilderness rescue is that the wilderness environments tend to be dirty. That means a higher risk of jamming.
As an alternative, or when your punch jams, I'd stick with the hatchet. Or a dive knife. The ones I carry are titanium, so they're as environment-proof as possible. And they're made with a metal cap on the end. Diving, it's used to bang your tank to attract attention, but they'd work equally well for smacking a window.
I don't see the strength needed to break a window as really being an issue. If you're not strong enough to pop a window, you're not strong enough to rescue anybody.
And if you don't have room to swing, there's probably not enough room to allow escape.

 

[Carol]

Scenario to the best of my knowledge: A specific set of people are frequent SAR volunteers with their local state/provincial agency. They often cover ground in a private vehicle. A few of them are also employed by the same agency but most are not.

The volunteers have specific advantages to the mission, typically:

• Offroad experience and capability
• Proximity to rescue area
• Familiarity with rescue area

There are scenarios where someone from this subset of volunteers are most likely to be first on scene, whether or not they perform the rescue unaided.

Recently, one of the vollies proposed putting together a "go bag" of some emergency essentials (light, duct tape, etc) that can remain with their vehicle at all times. The idea was suggested to the appropriate audience, who largely thought it was a great idea......for next year's budget.

One of the people involved started digging around and found a private grant that could likely cover the supplies now, but one of the stipulations was the supplies needed to be made domestically. The person starts making "Who do you buy XXX from" calls to other parks around the region, and finds some good distribution channels. In the course of the discussion, some folks in VT and ME said "Maybe we could do this too," and the effort becomes a bit collaborative.

A couple of these offroaders volunteer with me at the park. I caught the discussion about the go bags and what should go in them when I went came off trail and went to warm up with a cup of tea. Someone brought out fixed blade knife with serrations on one side and a glass-breaker handle, and had mentioned that he had used that particular blade in a few rescue situations, but didn't think it was made in the USA. Naturally my interest was piqued when the guys started talking about blades and I interjected that I knew of a site online where I could ask. The offroaders basically said anything would help.

So...that's about what I know. Might be missing some details because I'm not an offroader myself.

 

[Takai]

Are looking in a certain price range?

 

[Carol]

Most likely, but they don't know what that will be. Under $100 was tossed about.

 

[jks9199]

Pricing for the knife or the kit entire? I can check a few sites when I am on a computer. Kabar comes to mind, as does Spyderco. Still think the center punch is a good idea though.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Tames D]

I'm a big fan of Kershaw, American made.