SARK

The SARK (lit. 'Search and Rescue Knife') or NSAR (lit. 'Navy Search and Rescue') is a folding knife designed by knifemaker Ernest Emerson for use as a search and rescue knife by the US military.

After a helicopter crash in 1999, which resulted in the deaths of six marines and one sailor, the United States Navy performed an assessment of its equipment and decided, among other things, that it needed a new search and rescue knife.

The KA-BAR knives issued to the Special Boat Units (SBUs) had catastrophically failed to cut the marines free from their webbing.

The Navy went to Emerson Knives, Inc., whose owner, Ernest Emerson, designed and fabricated a working prototype within 24 hours.

The Navy found that the knife met its needs, and the model was dubbed the "SARK" (Search and Rescue Knife).

The SARK is a folding knife with a wharncliffe-style hawkbill blade and blunt tip designed so that a rescuer could cut trapped victims free without stabbing them.

The SARK, PSARK, and NSAR, like all of Emerson's knives, are made in the US.

All three models have a wharncliffe shaped chisel-ground blade that is 3.5 inches (89 mm) long and hardened to a Rockwell hardness of 57-59 RC.