The Replacement
A couple of weeks ago I replaced a knife that was lost/stolen nearly 40 years ago. I did not really need another knife any more than Carter needs any more little liver pills, but as I age I seem to have a much stronger draw to the nostalgic.
"Back in the day" I was called/sent/ordered to the Infantry School at Ft Benning GA for a series of schools that would lead to me being sent to some very nasty places. I had my ideas about what knives I needed from growing up outdoors, and as happens to most folk in that situation I realized I was sadly mistaken about the second day in and sidelined my prior selections at the end of week 2.
On that Saturday afternoon I found myself standing in an emporium in Columbus, GA called Ranger Joe's. At that time in history Ranger Joe was the unofficial supplier of nonstandard gear that made life bearable in the field but the U.S. Government did not see fit to issue to the troops.
Ranger Joe's was also one of the only places in the United States where one could walk into the firm, show orders to a combat arena, and walk out with a Randal Knife. Ranger Joe had a deal with Randal. Randal slipped them knives off the production shop and Ranger Joe sold them only to soldiers with orders to combat.
Now back then, unlike today, there were only a limited number of knife makers in the U.S. Randal was about it for well known custom builders. Most troops went into combat with assorted hunting knives, an issued bayonet (always last choice), the K-bar, or what I wound up with.
I laid down my $19.95 and walked out with a U.S. AF Jet pilot survival knife. They also had the K-bar, but at $50 it was too rich for my paycheck.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jet+...AQIKg&dpr=1.45
Now keep in mind that a 2nd Lt of that day earned $400 monthly, and $20 would put 80 gallons of gasoline in your tank! Even at the current low prices that is equal to paying $160 for the knife.
That knife was on my belt every day I was in the field for the next two years. It was backed up by a 4 blade "camp knife" in my pocket for general utility and a "combat knife" on my pistol belt which is not impressive by todays standards but was about as good as any, short of the Randal, in that day. But the JPSK was on my pants belt, so it would be there even if I dumped my web gear. I was pretty sure I would retain my pants no matter what the crisis, and I would always have a fixed blade knife on me.
You develop a bond with some items, even if they are simple utility tools, and I felt as naked without that knife as I would have without my rifle.
I did not realize that what I bought would be the most popular knife carried in Viet Namn, or that it would have a history that stretched for 60 years across time, remaining basically unchanged for over 50 of those years.
The JPSK was developed by the Marbles Company for the U.S. government back in 1954 at the request of the Air Force. They needed a knife for placement in the ejector seat survival kits being put in use at that time.
Marbles took an existing blade from their Ideal woodsman's knife (the knife chosen by Linburg when he crossed the Atlantic) , equipped it with the requested serrations on the back edge, replaced the normal pommel with a huge hex nut (to meet the nail pounding requirement of the AF), and a steel guard with holes drilled for a lanyard. The 5 inch blade of the Ideal already had the wide blood grove and the saber ground blade that is carried over today.
Marbles design was immediately approved and the contract to produce the knife immediately given to Camulius!
Marbles Canceled their current contracts after completion and never again produced any item for the U.S. government.
The blade of the knife was changed to a 6" length for a time, but in 1958 it was returned to the origional 5 inch length it is today at the request of the instructors at the AF survival school.
Which brings up another consideration. Each aircrew member in the AF is required to attend the AF survival school. The basic school is several weeks long with a week in the field. The AF cycles 6,000 crewmen through the school each year and each and every one of them is issued an Air Force survival knife for use during the course.
If you multiply the numbers and extend them back to the 1958 date, when the present knife was selected, that means that somewhere around 350,000 people have been survival trained using the JPSK.
Add in the JPSK in each of the ejection seats on every fighter and bomber in the AF and Navy fleets and some of the helicopters in the inventory and you have a massive number of knives in service. Probably more knives labeled with the pure purpose of survival than any other ever produced.
Now take into consideration that air force people are not generally "outdoorsmen" and very few of them are "knife guys". They are technicians, specialists and pilots and many of them have joined the AF specifically because it allows them to sleep inside, eat food from the mess hall, stay out of the rain and never touch a rifle. Dare say the JPSK might be the first knife some of them ever held in their hands that was not covered with peanut butter and jelly!
Not bad for a knife completely dismissed as a POS by the "experts" of today. Leather grip, heavy hilt, stubby 5" blade, saw teeth, leather sheath. In fact, with the saw teeth and the sharpened back of the clip it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE TO BATTON with this knife. How could a person live if they can not smack their knife with a stick?
Well thousands do each year and will continue to do so.
Anyway, I carried the JPSK I bought over hill and dale, through swamps and forest for the next several years, returned home to life as a school teacher and one day I realized, after a home move, it was nowhere to be found. Don't know where it went and don't expect to ever find out, but I knew I had lost a piece of my own history.
I replaced it with a new one, and I must say the new one is not quite as good. My old one had a better stacked leather grip, much like that on a K-bar. My old one also had a better finish on the blade. The new one is rough leather and the blade heavily parkerized.
The steel is the same as I remember. It is 1095, same as the K-bar, and all the Ontario survival knives, as well as the Old Hickory and Old Forge butcher knives.
When I removed it from the package the blade had a rolled edge from the grinder. Using nothing but the included sharpening stone on the sheath I was able to put an "average guy" working edge on the new blade in about 5 minutes.
You have to remember that these knives are intended to spend decades sealed in plastic and packed away in the survival kit of a fighter or bomber. They will be untouched until taken from the package, in a life or death situation, sharpened and immediately put into use by the people we previously spotted as not being knife guys.
They changed the specs a few years ago, and now the JPSK has a plastic handle and the pommel has a nail puller or some such feature on the pommel. Same blade though, unchanged since 1958 and still not approved for batoning!
And they have still not replaced all the old style knives still packed in their plastic wrappers and packed with the life raft and other goodies in the thousands of survival kits scattered through the fleet.
I feel like I have an old friend back and I intend to get some major use out of this knife now that spring has sprung.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Faiaoga
I saw one at Sportsmans Warehouse the other day.
I have never owned or used one , but I note that several people who write and make videos about survival topics think that this knife is a good one for general outdoor use - they think that the saw teeth can be used to make square cuts for animal traps. 
Bookmarks