Thread: Knife Belt or no knife belt?

Read Lew Sutherlands book about the Xmas end of season sessions at the local pub.Unintentionally that happened to my first walk thru the Ruahines ending up at the Mangaweka pub. The cullers were there. We had black woollen vest, undies, bullers. We put our packs with our rifles in the corner of the pub. Borrowed money off the barman till we got picked upon and repaid our bill. The cullers had their knife belts on not as show but pure working gear.We hitched from Mokai station. Yes carrying rifles and smelling like the proverbial. Dave Ratcliffe has a classic comment in his book about this issue. Old enough to own a rifle but not legal for drinking.

I've always gone with a knife belt with a couple of pouches on it for FAK, spare ammo and other odds and ends. Growing up in the country and wearing a knife on your belt were just facts of life. I hear people complain they lost a knife wearing it on their belt, I lost one once too so I learned to buy sheaths with a flap and a tight fit. I never evn thought about putting my knife in a pack. The only time I do is when I'm wearing my big pack walking in.

One thing that hasn't been bought up is body shape . . . I can still climb hills OK but for some reason my bloody belts (on both pants and knife) don't stay up anymore. (and before anyone gets smart . . . I was 75 Kgs right thorough my 20's and am still only 79 kgs at 56).

So after 45 years or so of a knifebelt I've started carrying everything in a day pack lately - bloody hips!

Got one of these of by bro in law when he retired from British Army, Osprey Load Carrying Vest, more pouches than I need, but detachable.

Holds PLB, knife, binos, internal 9mm mag pouches which each hold two .303 stripper clips. Still looking for a use for the 40mm grenade pouches seen on the shoulders in this image.

Absorbs recoil kick too, could literally shoot all day long with no shoulder probs.

And won't come off in a fall.

Pig hunting-on the hip.
Deer hunting-in the day pack.

Always carry two. One on the belt and have always had one in the day pack. Normally something like a sword pheasant or a gerber in the day pack.Forgot my main knife once, only discovered it when i got to my hunting block. Lucky always had a spare in the pack, was the sword pheasant and just happened to shoot a massive 9 pointer stag that day. Wasnt easy, but managed to still bone out the stag and all was well

What a great thread.

I started off in my teens and early twenties carrying a classic Green River on my belt, because "that's what hunters do"! After that for a while I put everything in a back pack, but following an event that involving a wounded fallow doe, I now always want my knife close and in hand a quick as possible.

These days I carry a Svord Farmer knife (although looking to change that) on a belt along with a couple of pouches for other handy stuff like a compass, some para-cord, spare rounds and emergency kit. Lunch, pillow cases, spare knife (a folder of some sort), beanie etc go into a pikau.

I like the comments about having a sheath knife as a kid. I got mine as soon as my family move to the farm when I was 8 years old, and yes, trees, eels, possums and dog tucker sheep were all dealt with by that thing, in fact I still own it (its really a piece of shit but I can't part with it). I loved pocket knives as a kid too, and still do. In fact a wee spyderco is in my pocket right now