Automatic knife for the Military The Airforce's MC-1 Survival Knife gets an upgrade to the M724, a new blade produced by Colonial Knife.  by Chuck Karwan, editor for Tacitcal knives magazine

 

 

   Back in WWII the Army began to issue the George Schrade designed, automatic M2 Paratrooper Knife to its airborne personnel. The ideal was that a paratrooper might need to cut himself free of his parachute harness in the event of a tree, water, or other abnormal landing. Because of injury or circumstance he might only have had one hand available to deploy the knife, so it was decided to have the knife be an automatic opener.

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    The U.S. Air Force eventually realized that its pilots and air crew needed a similiar knife for the same reasons should they have to parachute from their aircraft. In 1958, the Air Force adopted a knife called the "MC 1 Survival Knife". The most noticeable thing about this new jump knife was the bright orange plastic handle scales. The other significant change from the M2 was that a manually opened blade was added in addition to the automatic blade. This is universally called a "Shroud line cutter." It is hook-shaped with the inside of the hook sharpened. The final difference is that the bail on the MC-1 was on the same end as the normal knife blade instead of on the opposite end.

    The MC-1 is still in wide use in the USAF, Recently, Colonial received a contract to supply a new version of th MC-1 that is intended to be a major improvement over the original design. Designated the "M724" by Colonial, this knife has an Official IAW General Service Description of "5110-00-526-8740 knife, Pocket "  and curenlty carried by special units of the British SAS (Special Air Service)

    The M724 is functionally the equivalent of the old MC-1 with regard to it's capabilities, but it is constructed completely dfferenly. Instead of using metal liners with plastic handle scales (orange fo military use or black for law enforcement) all riveted together, the M724 has a handle constructed of two high strength injection molded polymer pieces that are screwed together without liners. This is hugh improvement with regard to maintenance and repair compared to the MC-1

     While the M-724 uses what appears to the be old push button opening system with sliding lock, the mechanism is actually a much stronger type using a coil spring like that of the Florida Black knife. Instead of using a flat kicker spring like the MC-1, the M724 has a constant force torsion type, spring. The biggest flaw of the old Schrade type button system of the MC-1 was that it was prone to blade rebound. If you push the button and don't release it almost immediately, the blade can snap open and then bounce partially closed before the button can lock it in to place. With the M724ansd its constant force spring, this is not a problem. This too is a significant improvment over the MC-1.

   The 3-inch-long blade is stainless, as have been all MC-1 folders. This is a knife that is intended to be carried constantly, and hopefully never used. Stainless steel makes excellent logic under those conditions. The master blade has a useful shape, a sharp point, and good edge geometry. Just a slight tocuh-up with fine diamond hone would make it truly sharp.

  With regard to the "Shroud line Cutter", I am an experienced military qualified Jump Master, and I have no idea why a parachutist would ever need to cut his parachute shroud line until he was already on the ground and migth need them survival purposes. In that case, any sharp knife would be just fine. I have even asked experienced combat pilots who have had AIr Force survival training what the hooked blade was for and have  got the universal response that is was  for cutting shroud lines. When I asked themwhy they would need a special blade for the purpose, or what situation would call for cutting thier shroud lines other than for survivaluse, not one could give me a satisfactory answer.

   it is my contention that the"Shroud line cutter" is actually intended to cut web straps in case the normal harness releases are jammed. My tests indicate that is does just that quite nicely.Thus, if the jumper lands in water and cannot manipulate the quick releases on his parachute harness, he can cut himself free quickly with this blade without risk of cutting himself. The same would hold true for a tree landing. Pilots were originally instructed to carry this knife in the special pocket of the their flight suit with the hookblade open and the lanyard attached.That way the hook blade is instantly available for emergency strap cutting. Once on the ground the hook blade can be folded out of the way.

  The Colonial M724 is an improvement over the original MC-1 desgin and I beleive it should serve our military pilots and aircrews nicely.