When we finally got around to talking knives, Jeff said a couple of things that still stick in my mind. First, this sound advice:
"The biggest fallacy is that gear is necessary to survive. You can't get by on gear -- you need skills. You need to prepare in every aspect of life. And if you don't have the proper mindset, you're going to die."Translation: Singer, not song. Later, he said this:
"I never carry a RAT into the jungle -- I always carry someone else's knife. Really, just give me a three-blade Old Timer and a ten-dollar machete."I wouldn't presume to stack my skills against a guy who's spent years training military types, cops and civvies in the art of jungle survival. With respect, however, I present two of my favorite tools.
That grimy, taped-up handle belongs to a 22" Collins machete bought new in 1983 to clear two acres of brush around the first house I owned. It was up to that task and hundreds of others since. Now endearingly scarred from hard use, the "Legitimus" mark barely visible, it continues to serve me well.
My own "three-blade Old Timer," a made-in-USA #34OT, is 25 years old. My dad often carried a Middleman just like this one, which remains in my regular EDC rotation.
