RAF MK3 aircrew knife patch
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Bedford
Age: 48
Posts: 27
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NutLoose was just trying to be helpful but two of the links he posted were for the patch for the J Cutter that replaced the curved blade knife the O.P. was asking about. The Americans used a J Cutter at the time and I guess that’s why it was copied by the R.A.F.
The curved knife was for cutting shroud lines and puncturing dinghies not for survival in a hostile environment!
Try looking for a pre-90’s flying coverall from one of the many second hand sellers (including eBay) and cutting off the patch.
The curved knife was for cutting shroud lines and puncturing dinghies not for survival in a hostile environment!
Try looking for a pre-90’s flying coverall from one of the many second hand sellers (including eBay) and cutting off the patch.
Ex82.
those knives were primarily designed for sharpening china graph pencils. The shape changed because JPs were always stabbing themselves when attending Friday happy hours in the bar.
those knives were primarily designed for sharpening china graph pencils. The shape changed because JPs were always stabbing themselves when attending Friday happy hours in the bar.
Delays in flying clothing were legendary: as the Junior Joe on 826NAS I was the boss’s copilot and he declared the squadron unavailable when my two piece goon suit had a fault which couldn’t be fixed nor replaced. Heads rolled and the first of the new one piece green goon suits magically appeared out of stores to restore the squadron to full OR
Has anybody ever used this knife for something?
Curved blade? yes, I dropped a hint in post #27...
You only get the full horror story over beers, so short version for here is..splashdown in a pretty feisty sea, 15-25 knots of wind....had done all the good Sea survival stuff on the descent(including pulling pins out of Koch fasteners
..yes it's that long ago...) but even though I detached the chute PDQ and despite the theory about the 'chute being blown well clear in such conditions I ended up wrapped in the ******lines, lots of them, pinned down in the water, unable to get into the by now inflated dingy ....
Knife deployed and used as advertised to cut enough lines cut to allow me to get aboard...care of course being taken to try not to cut the PSP/dingy line. Have to say it was a fairly healthy, breaking sea and I swallowed a bit of water before getting untangled and into dingy..I'm not sure quite how things would have ended up without the knife...
Sadly at some point in the subsequent proceedings I lost the darn thing, shame, would have made a good souvenir.
The one thing I learnt from my episode was that on a really bad day getting out of the aircraft may only be the start of your problems......
You only get the full horror story over beers, so short version for here is..splashdown in a pretty feisty sea, 15-25 knots of wind....had done all the good Sea survival stuff on the descent(including pulling pins out of Koch fasteners
..yes it's that long ago...) but even though I detached the chute PDQ and despite the theory about the 'chute being blown well clear in such conditions I ended up wrapped in the ******lines, lots of them, pinned down in the water, unable to get into the by now inflated dingy ....Knife deployed and used as advertised to cut enough lines cut to allow me to get aboard...care of course being taken to try not to cut the PSP/dingy line. Have to say it was a fairly healthy, breaking sea and I swallowed a bit of water before getting untangled and into dingy..I'm not sure quite how things would have ended up without the knife...
Sadly at some point in the subsequent proceedings I lost the darn thing, shame, would have made a good souvenir.
The one thing I learnt from my episode was that on a really bad day getting out of the aircraft may only be the start of your problems......
Last edited by wiggy; 14th Apr 2021 at 20:01.
