Camillus MC-1 Paratrooper: Storied Past But Obsolete Present

It seems amazing that this Camillus MC-1 was to be depended upon to possibly save your life if you were (are) a paratrooper or pilot. But indeed that is what the old MC-1 was designed to do. Using a manually deployed hook blade and torsion spring powered clip blade, it was designed to primarily cut entangled parachute shroud lines by the user. But the design is fraught with several key problems. the hook is an ineffective line cutter requiring a lot of force for effect, it is extremely slow and near impossible to deploy under stress or frigid hands, the main blade rebounds out of lock during deployment, the steel rusts easily, the knife lacks a clip or quick attach device, and the main blade lockup is atrocious. Today there are many more viable line cutting options including the well-designed SOG Bi-Polar which features both an assisted opening line cutter and main blade. Even better for cold hands would be the Benchmade Rescue 5 hook (shown, see Nutnfancy video on it) which requires no special deployment, is easily manipulated, and very lightweight. But the Camillus MC-1 remains a historical part of military airborne operations and will hold keen interest for some in that respect. //////////////////Nutnfancy Likeability Scale: 0 out of 10

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• leatherman
• sog
• multi-tool
• charge
• juice
• s2
• swiss
• army
• knife
• review
• multi-plier
• bluntnose
• det
• crimper
• wire
• cutter
• file
• fuse
• Camillus
• parachute
• pilot
• rescue
• heat
• spyderco
• benchmade
• us
• air
• force
• marines
• 550
• line
• tool
• pld
• entanglement
• bm
• bi-polar
• assisted
• opening
• automatic

[ransuru]

Hello Mate,

This particular blade is designed to be attached to the jump rig with the hook already deployed during jumps and than simply grabbed and used. I agree it is not a good quality knife but the design is very old as long as you jump with it open you will be able to work with it. I prefer my medic shears for those tasks and it is much more useful on many tasks. You might do a review on different medic shears and cutters and it will be interesting.

Thank you, Sharon

Systema Israel.

[misterchuckle]

Wow, that Camillus looks like quite a big p.o.s. for military issue. I sure wouldn't risk my life by taking that knife on a mission.

[az129589]

Where can I get this knife.

[heldgop]

i found exactly the same knive near a dumpster 15+-years ago here in germany. (there were no US bases is that town though)

back then i wondered why someone would throw a "cool" blade like that away, nice bright orange, knive deploys with a bush of a button....

well i was young and didnt knew anything about knives back then, only had a swiss army knive. when i stumbled over that piece of crap some weeks ago is realized why i found it neat a dumpster, cus that were it belongs :D

[LouieG7777]

A retired Navy pilot gave me one of these today except it's not a Camillus. It's a Logan/Smith Venice, FL USA. The person who gave it to me said he had it in one of his desk drawers for about 40 years. It's in super shape considering it's age!

[SuperRip7]

Looks like a fishing blade.

[ojrbdoh]

When I was issued my knife I also got a card that gaveme permission to have a switchblade knife. When I left the military I was allowed to keep my knife. The video is totally right as the hook should have been on the swichblade mode and not the knife as they are dull as heck and you cannot swipe at a line and cut it like you can with the hook. They have now gone to the hook only knife. Any 2 year old could design a better knife, but designed in the late 50's and now the prices are 250 and up

[phoenix120000]

the airforce issues us defenders the benchmade seat-belt cutters when we deploy. its nice, attaches to the molly and is super easy to use with gloves on.

[CGD08]

Hey Nutn, unfortunately the bi polar is discontinued, and it has no clip. Sheath only. I'm still trying to get the BP-3 which has a serrated blade instead of the v-cutter.