Is this an RAF emergency knife/bottle opener?

This is what I have, it’s a variation on a theme, certainly I thought that this was standard Army issue, does yours have 2 blades?

That is the standard army issue one (only issued to certain trades since the early 90s due to cost) Its predecessor had black plastic grips and a splicing spike, but no bottle/can opener.

Right, as this has generated a couple of people who are frazzling their brains, here’s better photos (I hope) of the knife on my Flickr account.

Details are:

Length closed (from tip of opener bit to end of clasp): 9.5cm
Length open: 16.7cm
Width of ‘opener’ at tip: 0.3cm, flat as a pancake, as can be seen in one of the shots.

Oh, and the tiny writing on the very start of the knife is a patent number, but I need a better magnifying glass to make it out, which means a trip to mother tomorrow to borrow her mega-magnifying glass.

PaulR,

Your pilot friend is quite correct. That is a tin opener blade. Joseph Rodgers also produced a “dinghy” version of it, with the same shaped blade riveted to a bright orange wooden “floating” handle. I still have one somewhere, I’m not sure if it was ever on issue, mine didn’t have a 22C/ number on it, while my standard dinghy knife had.

IIRC the blade was shaped like that to prise open tins of emergency water. These were the same size as the standard soup/baked beans tins, but unlike them the whole lid was never cut off.

The water tin had a small -V- bar (that’s the best shape I can do on my keyboard to illustrate it’s shape!!) welded to the top of it. This would be prised off using this blade, revealing two holes below it. In a survival situation fresh water is liquid gold, and to be carefully rationed – the rationale was that once you had taken your ration the holes could then be re-sealed using matches/chewing gum/ tape etc. until it was needed again.

Not sure if these water tins are still issued, the last one I had was converted to become a mini cooker to burn hexi blocks in – it worked quite well!

Regards.

I have been following this thread from the start. It has been driving me mad as I am sure that I have seen something like it, but a long long time ago.

One theory in my mind is that it is for trimming the end of power cables. The hooked part could be hooked around a core and then by rotating the blade around the cable, the insulation could be trimmed off. I may be barking up the wrong tree totally but I offer this as one possible reason for the shape.

I do hope that somebody comes along who really knows what it is for before I go insane. :confused:

Rod

Look to me like a tin-opener, you know the old ones in which you pump the handle to get it to cut through the top

Don’t think so, it’s about 2cm across and flat edged, not blade-like. It would be next to impossible to penetrate a tin lid.

Now some expert will be able to tell us when the bog-standard RAF(?) 24-hr Ration Pack (of whatever delicacies!) first included the tiny (but very efficient) can-opener? (I had one on my key-ring, and another on my dog-tags – they came with a hole in the ‘handle’ for that very purpose!). Then the RAF issue knife would not have been needed as a can-opener?
I may, however, be like a voice crying in the wilderness – aircrew wouldn’t know about 24-hr Ration Packs!!! Nor would they be aware of the Exchange Rate – “I’ll swap you 2 ‘D’s’ for a ‘C’ – or whatever was the going rate at the time. Argy Officer’s Rat Packs were much sought after (they contained a whiskey miniature and 20 fags!!).
My Boss (who was OC MMU) was, years later, interviewing a prospective Scientific Assistant for a job in the civvy Met Office at RAF Brize Norton. This lad asked (quite brightly) “What do the letters OC MMU mean on your door?”. OC MMU explained and said “the MMU was in the Falklands War. You remember the Falklands War?” The lad said “I’m sorry, Sir, I don’t – I was only 7 at the time.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time catches up with you/us!!
Resmoroh

looks like a tin-opener

Look to me like a tin-opener, you know the old ones in which you pump the handle to get it to cut through the top

No Resmoroh, that type of knife came in after my time, I used to carry a kids small sheath knife. There was a Meteor pilot who had a fancy time when his dinghy inflated on take off. It pushed the stick forward and he couldn’t get airborne.
Then it became the fashion to wear a sheaf knife on the sleeve. I think the issue knife arose because of this and similar incidents.
As for Newmarket, that was nothing to do with me, Joe did it all off his own bat with a man from an Amercan paper in the back seat. Gave me a fright at the time as I spent an anxious 45 mins or so scouring local disused airfields, having persuaded ABC to authorise himself a special search.

Peter,
Was not the aircrew ‘knife’ a device that had a bright pink handle, several holes down the blade, and was carried in some slot/holster that was worn on the leg (in the Green Growbag) by immediatley post-WW2 aircrew? It could only be used for deflating dinghies, or cutting para shroud lines. It would have been of little use to those of us who had “accidentally” volunteered (as a civvy Met Man!) to do a V-Bomber E&E exercise on the N Yorks Moors in December!!
Aircrew had it easy – provided they remained in the air! Different kettle of fish when they joined the “Penguin Airforce” – i.e. all flap and no fly!
Do you ever go to Newmarket? (LOL, LOL)
Respects
Resmoroh

It is possible that the main use of the knife was for stabbing the dinghy if it was accidentally inflated. When you have a dinghy securely strapped between you and the parachute, and you are securely strapped to an aeroplane you desperately need to deflate said dinghy if it inflates when not required.
Was the cause of some panic for a few people when it happened during takeoff LOL.

Exactly, Res, the blade on mine is damn all use apart from cutting cords!

Woo! 300th post, and it’s only taken me 5 and a half years! :rolleyes:

Never ever needed an “Emergency Bottle Opener”. There’s a knack to opening ’em on any hard, sharp-edged, surface.
Knife (like that in Post #4) always handy. Sharpens pencils, can gut rabbits, also useful for cutting your way out of a tent fire (some pillock always knocks the paraffin stove over in the middle of a night-shift!!)
HTH
Resmoroh

That’s what I suspected, as the blade is damn all use for anything else I can think of.

Thanks chaps.

As said mine is one out of a seat from eons ago, yours is probably similar, they were used to open water cans in some of the bigger stuff, yours seems also designed to cut para cords.

Nope, just what you see, a single blade with a short cutting edge and a dirty great opener on the end.

This is what I have, it’s a variation on a theme, certainly I thought that this was standard Army issue, does yours have 2 blades?

Works for me, so he may have been stretching the truth a little bit to impress a young ‘un!

Although the RAF pilot’s wings with clasp he gave me when we were leaving for the last time were kosher, and lovely. Sadly, that disappeared years ago during one of my many house moves.

That looks to me like the good old fashioned British army pen knife! 😎