Now I’m not talking about guns, and food. We all know that we will need to arm ourselves and be able to eat and drink. Nor am I referring to shelter and medical supplies. Again those are important, but I am talking about the true work horse that you will use hard and never say thank you too. Your knife.

As a can opener, a lock pick or whatever you use it for, it needs to be sturdy and well made. And yes in the event, and only as a last ditch effort, be able to take down a walker. Machetes are nice and do have a true propose, size and weight can be a huge draw back however.

I have a few favorites on this list. But today I present to you the Gerber Ultimate Survival Knife. The Bear Grylls designed edition. In the last 5 years this is one of the knives I can truly say that I think that they got it right from the start. Overall a sturdy abuse-ready tool, that with a little TLC will survive as long as you hope too.

I’ve had mine now for about a month. And believe me; I am not being nice to it. It has cut through several lengths of heavy nylon and natural fiber rope. Opened a can of dog food, which it did with ease, but I do not recommend doing it often. I used it to make kindling and yes even start the fire (more on that in a bit). I hammered the blade through some pretty green limbs as well. All that was required of me was to run the blade over a wet stone and wipe it off after the dog food incident. So far so good.

On to the technical stuff. The drop point, 4.8-inch blade is nearly a ¼ inch thick at the spine, hollow ground, and made from 440A steel with a Rockwell score of 55-59 (57+/-2), making for good strength and easy sharpening. Now one drawback for me was that it has a larger than normal serrated edge. I tend to like straight blades but it still cut very well. The handle has a great ergonomic shape that fits well in the hand with a double guard to prevent slippage and a textured rubber grip that is easy to maintain, even in wet conditions. The pommel of this knife has a nice solid stainless steel checkered pattern. I did not get a chance to pound the snot outta anything with it but it has the feeling that it could take quite a beating. It also gives the tool an overall weight of 11.2 Oz. Very well balanced.

When fully disassembled, the knife and sheath break down into four pieces: a Ferro cerium fire starter rod, the knife, the Zytel sheath with a diamond sharpening stone on the back side, and the heavy-duty nylon platform. It sits nicely on the hip and again has a great weight.

So when you have set up a safe haven and are now getting down to the basics. Make sure you have the best tools to work with. This knife isn’t gonna make living easy. But it will make surviving possible. Thanks for reading, and remember, “Keep your blades sharp, and your ammo dry.”

Unless you want to end up drinking your own piss…

A good multi-tool is a must for when the zombocalypse comes, you simply won’t be carrying a full tool set with screwdrivers, saws and pliers and yet each of these is incredibly useful in a variety of survival and everyday situations.

Leatherman tools are easily the number 1 multi-tool, with over 30 years of experience and a 25 year guarantee on their knives, these things are built to last.

Let’s look at the stats. The Charge TTi has 19 different tools:

1. Needlenose Pliers
2. Regular Pliers
3. Wire Cutters
4. Hard-wire Cutters
5. Wire Crimper
6. S30V® Stainless Steel Clip Point Knife
7. 420HC Serrated Knife
8. Cutting Hook
9. Saw
10. Wood/Metal file
11. Diamond-coated file
12. Scissors
13. Large Screwdriver
14. Large Bit Driver
15. Small Bit Driver
16. 8 in | 19 cm Ruler
17. Bottle/Can Opener
18. Wire Stripper
19. Lanyard/Ring

INCLUDED BITS: Phillips and Flat Tip Eyeglasses Screwdriver Bit, Hex 5/32″ and 9/64″ Bit, Hex 1/8″ and 7/64″ Bit, Hex 3/32″ and 5/64″ Bit, Hex 1/16″ and .050 Bit, Square Drive #2 and #3 Bit, Screwdriver 1/8″ and Torx #15 Bit, Phillips #1-2 and 3/16″ Screwdriver Bit.

Note, that you’ll have to carry most of these seperately to the knife.

it features:

• Stainless Steel with Premium Titanium Handle Scales
• Stainless Steel Body
• Outside-accessible Blades for One-handed Opening
• All Locking Blades and Tools
• Fixed Lanyard Ring
• Quick-release Lanyard Ring
• Removable Pocket Clip
• Leather or Nylon Sheath
• 25-year Warranty

and measures

• 4 in | 10 cm (closed)
• 8.2 oz | 232 g

It’s also pretty sexy.

The Ti of the TTi stands for Titanium but this is only for the exterior of the multi-tool as the blades themselves are stainless steel. Again though, the Leatherman goes that extra mile and is crafted from S30V steel, which is 4x tougher than ATS-34, although only half the toughness of D-2.

If you’re not a knife geek then what this means for you is that the blades are made to be and stay sharp, have the flexibility for precision cutting and be hard enough to stab zombies in the face without shattering.

Check out Crucible Sevices for some knife stat porn and the Rockwell scale for more information on hardness.

The XTi isn’t cheap, coming in at about £160/$160 new but for something that will get everyday use for possibly 25 years you can’t grumble at the price.

Aleady this week I used mine to strip wires for my sub-woofer, put together a chest of drawers, open a couple of bottles of beer to celebrate and there are loads of these examples on the Leatherman site, including this one from Rolf H from Sweden.

Last weekend my wife was in charge of the finger food for the VIP room during a musical event. She asked me to put a toothpick thru a black olive and into two pieces of Swedish hard cheese. When I opened the olive jar I realized she had bought the wrong kind of olives, the sort with the stones.I took my Leatherman Charge, pushed the needle nose pliers into the first olive and was able to remove the stone without ruining the rest of the olive.With this great tool I successfully completed my 50 cheesy snacks and saved the day.

There are of course more serious applications, the Charge TTi can be used for tightening rifle screws, nocking arrows, skinning and gutting animals or cutting through seatbelts in emergencies and all the general advantages having a knife confers in a ZPAW.

I wouldn’t be without my Leatherman and it’s a staple part of my emergency kits, the TTi comes with my full recommendation but if you can’t afford it make sure you have some sort of multi-tool knife.

[flickr]set:72157622094494692[/flickr]