If you need a deep edge for better slicing, the Ontario copy is challenged. The metal reinforced sheath that comes with the Ontario copy is better, safer, than the all leather sheath issued by Camillus. Setting its abrupt, angled edge to one side, the Ontario version seems tightly built, and comparable in strength to the former Camillus. Nonetheless, it functioned well enough for shaving wood off a Black Walnut (hard wood) bow staff. I had to sharpen it for a long while to achieve an adequate sharpness, but it does not make deep cuts.

The Ontario copy has an abruptly beveled edge. While I had it, over the decades, that knife served well. The Camillus knife was good for many tasks, which included among other uses, cleaning fish, wood processing for campfire, digging, and opening coconuts. I took that knife on many backpack excursions in Mexico. In 1969, A friend gave me a Camillus Pilot Survival Knife that had a thick blade with a blue like finish, and a concave edge, which could be sharpened to a deep cutting edge. Ontario Knife Company 499 Air Force Survival Knife 5 Sawback Blade with False Top Edge and. My hats off to all that did go there, being a military history buff, I am very well aware of what many went through, especially the 'tunnel rats' & the 'LRRP 's' talk about balls of steel, they could not have done what they did without balls of steel !!! Thank you for the finest of USA made products, no Chinese knock off here!!! WWI German Trench Boot Fighting Knife and Carry Scabbard. It's a beauty I will treasure, as I am a vet that served at the end of that war but luckily was never sent there. Colored & burnished the edgework all around the sheath, coated sheath with neats foot oil to darken it up, then burnished rough spots out of handle, then dyed the handle a nice rich burgundy leather dye, & burnished that out, put on a coat of neutral shoe polish & buffed that baby to a high gloss shine. Now that's my kind of knife!!! I am very,very satisfied with my purchase & did some special cosmetic work to my new knife. A veteran once described the toughness of this knife as follows.You could use this knife to dig your way through a brick wall & then attack a tank with it. For those who don't know, this is the knife issued to Marine Corp & Army pilots during the Viet Nam War, it was designed to cut/ smash their way out of a downed aircraft to escape capture by the enemy.

Air force survival knife modifications