A decision to make....

Kampfjaeger said:
FBUSMC
What model knife is that with the blue handle?
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that is a Heavy Ordinance Fusion steel heart .320 thick with handsmoothed black/blue G10. I have three of these, one I use, one I had Doublecut and the other is new.. as you can tell, the design impressed me.. what a chopper! I had a green/black one but the grips didn't feel right and were just too big.
 
Well I like my tank buster very robust and fits my hands well
And I don't ever have to worry about it breaking




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Nice collection of ergo grips there... How do they differ performance-wise to the straight grips?
 
Go Classic ...NO-e.!!

Although the NMSFNO is nice too and prob easier to get your hands on :)
 
Go with the NMSFNO. Then your second knife can be a NMFBM:thumbup:
 
Battle mistress is too big for my needs. Great knife though. I'm curious as to how the ergo handle affects functionality. Why should I go one way or the other. It's frustrating not to be able to hold one before buying.
 
I've found out the hard way that pointy pommels with an awesome aesthetic factor usually wind up hurting you worse via accidental contact to arms/ribs when highly mobile than the potential skull they are meant to break.

In the 6-9" range this is my order of preference, and yes I have used and spent the dough on each of them firsthand. :confused: :eek: :o

1. SAR 6 with no points to catch/poke you or your gear will do it all, and do it VERY well. I have a pair and spare.

2. Skinny ASH-1 or .22 ASH-1 not the best chopper, but great at everything else and decent chopping if you rock the back part of the handle on your middle finger. I have a few of these too.

3. SAR 8 is a SAR 6 with more weight, less balance and better chopping.

4. Fusion Steel Heart in an early .25 convex grind more chopping power proportional to increased weight. I kept one .25 convex, I sold the .27 saber grind HHFSH and the .27 flat grind.

5. Mr Mojo is a great but hard to find performer. Kept mine.

6. Tank Buster with round butt. Good all around, but a bit heavy for it's size. Still have one.

7. NMSFNO looks awesome... always wanted one until I got one. I sold mine.

8. SFNO same as NMSFNO for me in a shorter, lighter less polished package had two, sold both of them.

I haven't used a basic 7 or 9, but with the 11 I can imagine that either would be a great blade for this range. I would trust Peter's recommendation on the Basic 9. A SARsquatch feels great in hand, but I haven't had the pleasure of using one yet. I hear it is a great piece of INFI though.

The beauty of it is, you are free to find out what works best for you regardless of our advice and you probably won't lose much money buying & trying if you shop carefully. The ones you choose to keep over the ones you let go will tell you everything you need to know. Good luck! ;)

Several of the blades mentioned are in this pic.
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But these are #1.
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Kampfjaeger said:
Battle mistress is too big for my needs. Great knife though. I'm curious as to how the ergo handle affects functionality. Why should I go one way or the other. It's frustrating not to be able to hold one before buying.
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The only way to know that is to buy one or more than one and try it yourself!
However if you're 6 feet then go for NMSFNO, you can be wrong.
Or a SARSQUATCH, these two are extremely well balanced:)
Good luck to finding one!


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IMHO the ERGO's are way underrated!!! Given the sweep of the hilt it allows for the hand to hold the blade more natural and at the same time releaving some of the undo stresses on the hand and wrist that can effect the cut on impact. I find this hilt design the most comfortable in swing and follow through. GRANTED it's not as massive as say the FUSION hilted blades BUT pound for pound I think the ERGO's are a better cutter. I will say in defence of the FUSION if you are after a BEAST then go with the heavy weights ie., NMFBM, FFFBM or the FFBM...
 
PeterPHWS said:
I have used my helmet to bash the pommel of a Basic 9 to push it through an adobe wall for a firing hole and had no problems at all .... can't even see any marks on the handle to show it was done .... check out the Noss destruction test on the Basic 9 to see how tough the handle is .... they are "immensely tough" :thumbup:

I usually prefer "the pick" option on my entrenching shovel for this though ... but that time I was working with just my belt kit and did'nt have my Bergan with me.
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Sounds pretty tough Peter i had no idea those handles were that tough. I'm sure you would know having tested and chopped with the best of them.
So when is your next review you do them so well you know. :thumbup:
 
I will do a few reviews soon .... I want to change the grips on my KZII to the same style as the TTKZ and the guy who has the right gear to do this who lives near me comes back from Africa around Jan 12th .... and I am awaiting delivery of a nice 5 inch blade from Phil Wilson in a new steel which should be a very good "cutter" and I want to test that out with some of my other knives in that range .... and compare my Khukri's again once I have the new grips on the KZII.

I also want to try an ASM edge on a khukri and am thinking I might re-profile my CS Khukri to this as it is flat ground and not convex ground so it could be done .... and that would be interesting to compare with the Zilla's.

One thing I would love to do if I could when we look at re-handling the KZII is to consider whether we could trim the handle down to a Basic style and see if a one piece grip would fit over it akin to a stick tang .... make it a lot lighter and more blade heavy for better performance .... but that might be a bit too much to do with what we have to hand.

So there is plenty of projects in the pipeline ... :thumbup:
 
The only way to know is to try out some different styles. It does come down to preference. I am a minority in that I can't stand most of the older models such as Straights, Ergos and most of the new retro models. I love the Fusions and TACs and find them very comfortable and versatile. The HHFSH is incredible and while I had mine it did much work for me. I suspect that if someone is going to notice the extra weight as a burden, then physically they may be limited in using it to the extent I think you are suggesting.
I prefer the BATAC for all arounder, but the SFNO and ASH are fantastic as well. I back mine up with a CGFBM, but it typically remains at camp while scouting or hiking.
 
+1

Hard to beat a NMSFNO for a do it all blade. Of course no one blade will excell at every job. You need a BM for real chopping, a SFNOe for trail carry, an AD for sheeple carry in an urban area, and a Culti for a goin' to church knife. Of course an AK47 and Gladi for the zombiw slaying!

Good luck on keping your Busse buying under control. Jerry mixes a baaad kool-aid;)

wolfdad said:
I'd go with the SFNO-a good balance between size and function. From there, other choices for me would go smaller and thinner for deployment. You don't absolutely need a big knife like an NMSFNO or larger unless you are Rambo and you plan on using the knife to kill every enemy that you encounter no matter how far away they are with perfectly timed hand to hand combat. As far as chopping function-I would put more priority on chopping if you were going to the jungles of vietnam- but the desert? The SFNO isn't so big or fat that it's bulky to carry on a long hike for a 6 foot guy(I'm just under 6ft) and it will chop and do most things that a smaller knife will. It can also serve as a self defense backup weapon if it ever came down to that.
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Kurodrago... What are the top 2 knives in your picture you posted? I often can't tell one model from another!
 
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