The SNAP – a Survival Tool from Norseman-TOPS

‘Norseman', the designer-craftsman behind Survival Hardware, never seems to stop thinking and designing. Over the Summer he finished his latest blade for TOPS Knives, a survival tool called the SNAP Card (which will actually fit in an iPhone case with a credit card slot). It's an interesting little knife-hypbrid that fits the niche survival/emergency billet very nicely. I can see many outdoor lovers, hikers, backpackers and primitive campers, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts and others of a similar prepared mindset wanting to keep one handy, in a pack, a bailout bag, vehicle, etc.

The SNAP Card (Survival Needs And Preparedness) comes as part of small kit in a container the size of an Altoids kit. Norseman (retired Marine David Williams) used his experience as a Mountain Survival and SERE Instructor and both Winter and Summer Mountain Leader to develop the tool.

Says Norseman,

“…for all the millions of designs out there I could not find a single one that fits snugly in an altoids tin and could also be used for more than skinning a sparrow…It is 1095 HC Steel with a coating of Ceracoat in canyon red. It is 1/8″ think and it has sort of a modified chisel grind on the two cutting edges…”

The tool can be used in a number of ways – as a field expedient hatchet, to truncate a small tree for shelter or tool-haft, bark or hide scraping, camp chores, fighting/defense – you can see a whole series of pictures of the SNAP card in use in this article. Unfortunately they're not available via the TOPS website – you'll have to locate a dealer with one in stock. You can do that here. I haven't located one in stock yet, but I've only spent a little time doing so. You may have better luck. Find further details of the SNAP Kit on the TOPS Knives website here.

If you're interested in more of Williams' work, check out Survival Hardware. You can see many of his knives here on a previous edition of “Saturday Night Blade Porn”. Norseman has a remarkable background and his work reflects that – over the course of his career he deployed on combat tours to Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, worked as a Scout Sniper and Combat Tracking Instructor, all the survival-related billets described above and most of all is a consummate, passionate outdoorsman. He's a staff editor for Survival Quarterly Magazine a superb metal-worker. Although it's updated very infrequently, his blog Survivology 101 is worth checking out as well.

Survival Hardware is on Facebook here.