Having them die laughing takes the sport out of it.

They all died laughing.

I’ll admit, it’s a trick.

I’ve talked to people who chased small bears and taken their packs back. And people who yelled and chased them. Those were bears which were just wandering through campgrounds.

I think the best chance a person has with a mad bear is to play dead until the bear gets bored playing with you. I’ve always had a dog with me, and bears don’t like dogs. They have always either avoided or run from the dog.

It is kinda like something I read recently about martial arts vs a bad-ass with a knife. The best technique is to run.

The hollow handle compass knives are not trustworthy they are not full tang and the blade could easily break off. The compass and fishing line would be handy and perhaps if you crashed in the jungle with nothing but a knife it would be worth having over a better knife. If you do have to kill that bear, I want the KBAR.

I have a couple of nice knives that include a flint fire starter in a sheath pocket. I have never started a fire with the tool but based on the spark it provides I have no doubt that with some steel wool or any good tender I could make fire.

I guess the cotton balls that Bowser mentioned are for tender. I would never have figured that suntan lotion is a good accelerant, good to know.

The bear will topple to the side and slam his head against the rock you have stood just in front of and off to one side. One dead bear.

If he’s just unconscious, lay along side him and use an arm choke hold. After a few minutes he’ll be dead.

Now, reach inside to where the stomach empties into the intestines and pull the stomach out through his mouth. The entrails will start to come and just pull them out too. What’s left is all organs, meat and fur. The real work starts, and you’ll start regretting ever taking on the bear.

Find a sharp rock and start skinning him, from his guggle to his zatch. Pull out the organs, and start roasting the liver. Throw away the rest. Take a bath in a nearby lake, and come back.

Build a circular fire, and keep you and the bear inside it. Spread the entrails around for the other animals to get, but keep the fire going.

Roll the bear over on his back, and build a fire inside the body cavity. Keep it going all night. In the morning the meat will all be cooked and simply fall off the skin. There will be more than you can ever eat.

Have some liver and wash it down with the brandy from the cask around his neck.

Oh. Wait. That might have been a St. Bernard. I thought it was too easy.

If you have a bear on your hands, get a red shirt and a stick and fight it like a Spanish bull until it gets bored and goes home. Your only chance.

But what if you have to kill a bear, carve the flesh for food and skin him for the fur to keep warm?

Ah hah! Got ya there, didn’t I?

Now, I specifically excluded survival situations. There are times when a knife is invaluable.

If one is thru-hiking, travelling as light as possible, what is there for a knife to do? No one is carrying marshmallows, and if they were they could break off a limb. No one is building a fire, everyone has stoves. You could slice cheese or salami, but that’s not really necessary. You aren’t eating any steaks. Your tent is free-standing, and if you need to guy something you have the proper length of string. (Actually, I carried 80# test Dacron fishing line. Smash it between two rocks or rub it against something.)

The only legitimate reason I found was to cut moleskin to size, so I cut it to various sizes before I left. Or if I were going to fish and eat the catch I’d carry a knife.

I have a machete with a saw blade back side and one of those big K-Bar things in the RV. I have 4 or 5 Leathermen, a couple of Swiss Army knives and those are just the bigger ones. I just don’t take them thru-hiking. I would take a Leatherman or Swiss Army knife on a day hike.

I do carry a small, folding pair of pliers and some tweezers. I carry several ways to start fires, and a couple of cotton balls which I would grease up with suntan lotion or insect repellent. I carry Super Glue for cuts, I carry a lot of odd things like a small tube of benzocaine for bug bites. Just not a knife (anymore).

A day-hiker who might get lost or stuck should have a knife. But for a well prepared thru-hiker, one who is equipped to stay a week on the trail, there isn’t really anything for a knife to do that is worth it’s weight.

I have to repeat. This is not for survival, or some minimalist who is living off the land, or a day hiker, or car camper.

The only real excuse for posting this is that it’s sort of odd. And it’s true. Most thru-hikers I’ve met don’t carry knives.

If I were going to be parachuted into a remote wilderness and were allowed to take only one item, it would be a a good survival knife like a USMC KBAR, or my Air Force Pilot’s Survival Knife. If I were allowed to take 2 items I’d add a BIC cigarette lighter.

I never learned to build a fire from scratch.

No, it doesn’t come with matches, fishing line, or a compass, but the sheath does have a whetstone in the little pouch.

I am surprised that most of the hikers don’t carry a knife. I am no expert on camping but most of what I have read and seen on the subject suggests that a good full tang knife is indispensable when you are more than a half hour or an hour from civilization, or roughing it for roughing it’s sake. The reasoning seems to be flawless.

If you are walking and camping on a trail a few hundred yards from an Interstate Highway or campground I could see a knife being less useful. After all, if you are in it for the nature walk and/or the exorcise, vs hunting and pitting oneself against nature. weight becomes the main thing I guess.

If you read about knives they always refer to EDC knives (every day carry). They are knives that you don’t leave home without. I know my Granddaddy never left home without one and it always seemed like a manly thing to me. If he didn’t need it for anything else he needed it to trade for another knife.

I hate things in my pocket and I have never cared to carry an EDC. I do have a small knife on my key chain and it often annoys the hell out of me.