The Trail Dog was
used for everything
from chopping to fine
shaving.The Trail Dog split
frozen hardwood e
ort-
lessly with no damage
to the edge.The wide base of the
handle made tip-
splitting smaller pieces
of frozen wood more
comfortable when using
your palm to tap the tip
into the wood.of his said about knives for SERE,
“There is no such thing as a specific
knife built for it. What you need,
whether instructing or if you get in a
situation, is a knife versatile enough to
complete a variety of tasks, in a variety
of environments, and in a variety of
climates. Like the person, the knife
must be able to adapt to the situation
that it’s in at that particular time.”
Second to fire, cordage-making is one
of the most di ̈cult primitive skills to
acquire. Even when modern materials
are handy, braiding and plaiting may
be di ̈cult with cold hands. We used
the Trail Dog as a fixed cutting edge
and pulled fabric around the edge in
a spiral pattern. We then stretched
this fabric and twisted it until we had
cordage we could use for light binding.
We also created a V notch in a piece
of wood with the Trail Dog to create a
root stripper. The stripped roots were
then used for binding a cooking tripod.
Fine-cutting tasks were easily
accomplished with the edge Dave
Beck puts on his blades. A soldier may
never need to make natural cordage
in the field, but they may need to cut
the man-made variety. So, we used
the Trail Dog to push-cut through
climbing rope and Titancord featuring
an additional copper wire. Even the
widest webbing was cut easily with the
near-full-height convex grind.
We also used the swooping belly of
the blade to slice through trout we
prepared by the fire. The 6-inch blade’s
cutting surface cut eortlessly through
bone and skin with a single pass.
At some point in our testing, we could
feel the edge of the Trail Dog starting
to lose the shaving-sharp edge it came
with. The edge was still functional and
would work as a cutting tool, but after
working it on hardwood, digging in the
“WITH A 6-INCH BLADE, THE BECK
KNIVES TRAIL DOG FITS THE NICHE
BETWEEN EDC BELT KNIFE AND
THE KA-BAR-SIZED FIELD KNIFE.”
knivesillustrated.com JULY/AUGUST 2019 • KNIVES ILLUSTRATED 29