My grandpa was a door gunner in Vietnam. He lost his life. But made it back alive. I think about the kinds of memories he had to live with. Everyday of my life.

TY FR UR SERVICE SIR !!!

You wish you had 7 inches grampa ! :P

The world is full of liars, I hope you aren’t one of them. 3 tours as a door gunner? Highly unlikely.

I also flew as a gunner with helos in Iraq. We carried a variety of knives, including the Ontario pilot survival knife and KaBar. I also had a couple folding knives like the CRKT-M16 and Gerber Applegate-Sykes combat folder. I still have all but the Ontario. One of the perks about flying in a helicopter crew is people leaving stuff on board. I found everything from grenades to NVGs to a CRKT desert cruiser knife I still have. As the old saying goes: gear adrift is a gift. Semper Fi🇺🇸

Devils Brigade! J

Just a note: My Asst. Mgr., @ my 2nd real job: A Sporting Goods Store;.where I made Fishing Dept Manager @ 15yrs. Old: getting my work permit... very laid back man/fishing partner: the last surviving rather tall meaty build of "Darbys Rangers!" Only because when the whole team was recalled to active duty to make their last misson... he had penomia & could not pass med. He lived! Never saw him angry, act out, would never know/nor imagine, his capabilities, nor what he had survived! Taught me a valuable lesson! Just a note! Great guy!

The V-42 is a copy of the F/S.

I am always looking for Military / Soliers / retired or on duty Special forces guys reporting real combat with knives or sentry removal ... Perhaps I became addicted to such REAL testimony because my both parents were Military and had to fight and kill with knives during the colonial wars ( I am French, and as you probably know soon after WW2, the French Army was the first involved in the so called " Colonial Wars ", it began in Indochina for the French ( Very deadly as the French Army got " Trapped " and surrounded by their enemies ... my mother got shot in the arm with a pistol caliber very close to the 7.65 ammo, but it was coming from a Chinese or Russian gun, so she never knew exactly the name of the ammo, but kept the bullet when extracted from her arm. When I was a child, I was Amased by this little piece of metal, it was an FMJ ( full metal jacket ) type of bullet, and as no bone was touched ( she was lucky ) the bullet traveled through her triceps to end not very deep inside her chest, so surgery was easy, no blood vessel to repair, and the muscles are recovering amazingly well ( depending of the caliber, of course ...). After Indochina the French were involved in a far more deadly war in Algeria ... French and Algerian people are still uncomfortable to talk about this very special war, and Terrorism in FRANCE began during this war, sometimes with the help of French citizens opposed to colonialism ... a very special topic, very close to a civil war in a certain way. But, sorry for this long story, I am so interested in History and especially true story related to battlefields etc ... I DO LOVE KNIVES, AND ESPECIALLY COMBAT KNIVES. But, nowadays, firearms are far more popular and used as primary weapon by military, even for sentry removal, they often prefer guns with silencers. So, I am often disappointed not to hear more bloody story 😂🤣

The knife isn’t called elmax. First edge made 2 large knife models focused on navy seals: the 5050 and 5150. Both made of elmax.

​@@DarkKnight369 Actually, the 5050 was made for the Seals, while the 5150 was for army SF winter training course. Also, although the 5050 and 5150 were the two basic large models they made, there were variants, like a serrated edge model, that had differing terminal numbers (i.e. 5155). Interestingly, the feedback from SF teams was that elmax was too difficult to sharpen in the field, so they also produced variants of the 5150 (again with a different numbering) that were made of 440C steel, rather than elmax. These are all excellent knives, with no skeletonizing of the steel in the handles, which I think is preferable for hard-use large knives (there are a couple of good video reviews on KZfaq). Unfortunately, the FirstEdge was poorly managed, and even with the government contracts, went out of business after only a couple of years. I discovered them just after they folded, and the knives were very difficult to find. I eventually got a 5050 from a previous owner, while a dealer in Germany had some new-old stock 5150s a couple of years ago. I also picked up a virtually unused 6050, which is a 4.5-inch version of the 5050, that is a great all-around knife. One other last detail on the FirstEdge knives: on the blade, there are sometimes little stars between the model number and the metal name (for example: 5150 ** Elmax). The stars denote production runs. No star = first run, one star = second run, two stars = third run, three stars = fourth run. I've only seen up to three stars on any of their knives, so that speaks to how short the company lasted.

when they disappeared, they went fast!

American/Canadian...

The soldiers with black faces and baggy trousers was also what the Germans called them.

Well that is all they are

Have you seen rebar cut with one or a similar model from them? I'm really curious how it would hold up now... Surely a video exists somewhere 🤷‍♂️

Actually, not all of them are Elmax, but model 5150 is.

@@berryreading4809 Here you go: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mLCprM59uK2WioE.html

@@litsci4690 yes.some FirstEdge5150 made by 440c.

Use to sale knives , always kept bandage on hand .

SRK….hard to go wrong. Priced right so if lost or broken, no tears. The compact version is nice too.

The Nimravus is so lite in the hand and fast as a result

The big difference between the 5150 and the Apocalypse is that the 5150 has no skeletonizing of the steel in the handle. I had two Apocalyses, including the rare DLC version, but sold both when I saw a video of them making the knives, which showed how much metal they removed. Other than that, I think TRC knives are among the best production knives out there. I still have one of their NSN knives.

Yep, and colt did make them for a time. That said, absolutely nobody besides one offs from custom makers has made them to spec since the original several thousand by case. They are supposed to be deeply hollow ground among other factors and even Case has ever since botched it.

I would be absolutely stunned if that was true. I would bet dollars the blade would break before doing more than a ding in the rebar. Especially Elmax which is tough but not the toughest steel.

I have an original Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie in Carbon V steel . I once worked at a metal recycling plant on the midnight shift . It got cold during the winter , so I used it to punch holes in a 55 gallon steel drum and hacked up old wooden pallets for a burn barrel . One night I had some trouble hacking apart a pallet . Turns out I had cut through several nails . A few minutes of resharpening took out the minor damage to the edge . I did this for two years until a Safety Sally made me stop . Thanks for your service from a US Navy veteran .