Advice about a blade

[jaime]

HI!. I am a new member, from Spain, and I need your help about choosing a knife.
The thing is that I am looking for a new knife for survival purposes, specially intrested in the Anaconda. Unfortunately nobody imports such a knife to Spain unless it is already sold, so I have had no oportunity to have it in my hands.
My questions are:
1.-Is the tanto blade strong enough, or is it better a hunter point?
2.-Anaconda or Busse Zero Tolerance BM?

I would also appreciate very much any other impression/comment/whatever you may do. Please remember that I have not had it in my hands, so even I have read a few reviews of these knives every little tiny detail is useful to me.
By the way, is it sharp enough or should I send it to Razor Edge Sys. before having it?.
Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

jaime :

[Anaconda]

1.-Is the tanto blade strong enough, or is it better a hunter point?

The American tanto point is one of the more robust tips. Its disadvantage is generally a reduction in slicing ability because of the lack of curvature to the edge. However for the exact same reasons it is very easy to sharpen as you are working on two straight lines. There might be however a problem simply because of the low strength of 1095. For example I broke the tip off a Steel Eagle (also from TOPS with a similar point profile), twice, doing things that a Basic #7 from Busse Combat handled easily.

2.-Anaconda or Busse Zero Tolerance BM?

The Busse Zero Tolerance BM is sold out :

http://www.bussecombat.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000146

Anyway in regards to those knives, the Busse has a thinner stock, a more acute primary grind, and a higher performance edge geometry. It should readily outcut the Anaconda and work with a lower rate of fatigue. However, the Anaconda is heavier which could give it a power advantage during chopping, depending on your method, but the much thicker profile will seriously hinder penetration. I would lean towards the Busse getting better depth during chopping.

Ref:


I also found the ridges that TOPS uses on their handles, such as found on the Anaconda to be very abrasive, the most I have seen. In regards to the steels, there is really no comparison there. 1095 is pretty much the cheapest steel for a maker to work with.

By the way, is it sharp enough or should I send it to Razor Edge Sys. before having it?.

I would assume the initial sharpness is high, the Steel Eagle I used was very sharp from TOPS. However this makes little difference in the long run, it is like making sure the new car you buy comes with a full tank of gas.

Something else to consider is that for the price of an Anaconda you can get a knife from many custom makers. For example look at the Combat Patrol Bowie line from Allen Blade (allendotc0m@aol.com), last time I checked it was cheaper than the Anaconda and it offers a serious steel upgrade (differentially tempered 5160), a much higher performance blade grind, a more ergonomic handle which fully encloses the tang, and a higher grade of Kydex sheath (as compared to what came with the Steel Eagle, I assume the Anaconda has a similar sheath as they are both made by TOPS). You might also want to look at Running Dog knives and see if they would be interested in making a large blade out of 15n20 :

http://www.runningdogknife.bigstep.com/

-Cliff

 

[jaime]

Thank you much for the response, Cliff.
I have taken a quick look already to the Allen Blade knives and they look very good.
The question about the tip was not so much for personal experience (as the only tanto at home is my girlfriend´s Buck, and she´d kill me if I tested it) as for the review on TAC-11 knife at www.survivalknives.com
Anyway, I don´t think manteining a professional sharpen, done with professional tools and experience, is the same as doing the whole job by yourself (unless you have more experience and better stones than the professional itself). I guess I don´t sharpen that good.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Jamie, concerning the damage Dan saw on the TAC-11, it needs to be considered just how hard that is on a knife. I have a TAC-11 and considering the tip profile, it is decently thin, I would think I would break it the same way if I repeated what Dan did. However you must consider that a one inch deep stab into a piece of oak and a pull hard enough to break that size of a piece of wood out is a very demanding task. There are many drop and spear point knives that will fail this and suffer worse damage than a loss of 1/8" of a tip and only a few that I know would do it without damage as they have much thicker tips (WB from Strider for example). For a complete picture you would want to look at things like point penetration and tip cutting ability as well, as stronger tips tend to do much worse in those areas.

I don´t think manteining a professional sharpen, done with professional tools and experience, is the same as doing the whole job by yourself

This is true, the better the quality of the initial edge the easier it is to keep it. Most high cost knives will come with well formed edges though, which is the main thing. It is not really as important what degree of polish and/or alignment they achieve, but are the bevels ground at a consistent angle or not. The Steel Eagle from TOPS I used did have some problems in this regard, which would tend to leave dull spots on the edge after minor sharpening. However the first time you grind enough metal away to remove some incidental edge damage you remove all influence of the new in box edge profile. In that regards, until you get the hang of freehand work just use some kind of system which controls the angle. Be warned though that many heavy tactical knives have their edges ground at very high angles 25+ and a lot of sharpeners are not designed to handle such profiles, the Sharpmaker for example. Outline the edge of the knife with a marker before sharpening and thus you can see exactly what you are grinding. This will reveal most sharpening problems.

-Cliff

 

[Cougar Allen]

Allen Blade has posted he's not taking new orders until he gets caught up with his backlog.

 

[Junglejim308]

You can look at my tanto styles at:

http://www.ICCKnives.com


If you can break one, I'd like to know how you did it. I'll replace it if you send it back saying what happened, Within reason.

I won't if you put it in a press or something, you know, " I'm going to break this thing if it's the last thing I do!"

 

[LJU]

I give my vote to Icc knives tanto as well the point is just right,its thick yet it penetrates excellently. I own one and have stabbed it into plenty of things at full force (including oak) and yanked it out to the side, again at full force with zero damage I was truly amazed. I would have never expected a stainless steel knife to hold up like that. In fact I liked the first one so much I have another on order.Any one looking for tough as nails stainless blades should check out Icc.

 

[Bugs3x]

Welcome to the forums, Jaime. Am always particularly happy to see a new member from another country. I think we benefit from the different perspectives.

Not too long ago, Steven Dick, editor of Tactical Knives Magazine, did a review of a large Muela knife. I can't recall if it was officially listed as a survival knife, but recall he thought it to be a very good knife, especially for the price. You may not need to look outside Spain. I know Aitor also makes large knives which could well fill the bill for survival knives.

If you haven't already, I would suggest you spend some time on, and do some searches of the survival forum in the Practical Tactical group. Such well-known and experienced outdoorsmen as Ron Hood and Jeff Randell frequently post there.

I must admit that I am not a fan of tanto points. Yes, if one needs to stab through a car hood or roof, that is the blade design to use. But, Sergiusz Mitin, from Poland, recently posted a review of the Fallkniven A-1 knife -- a well thought of survival knife -- on KnifeForums.com. In his review, he told of a full blast stab into telephone books. He reached a depth of 800 pages, quite a few more than achieved in any other test I recall.

While they are considerably more expensive than the A-1, one reads very few criticisms of Busse knives. They really perform. (Frankly, I don't know how much the Anaconda costs.)

Also, for maintaining good edges on knives, a great many forumites are in agreement that it is hard to beat the Spyderco Model 204 Shaprmaker sharpener. It soon will have diamond cutting rods added to it -- right now it has ceramic rods only. The diamond rods should make the Sharpmaker capable of reprofiling blades pretty easy. The Sharpmaker comes with a manual, as well as a video instructing people in it's use. Usually one of the lowest possible prices on the Sharpmaker is from Bayou LaFourche. If I can remember, I will go copy the URL to that knife company and insert it here. If I don't please e-mail me. I have a truly lousy memory.

Again, welcome to the forums. I hope you can find much here to educate and entertain you as I have. Oops, almost forgot. Knife Center recently mentioned that no more of the Schrade Extreme Survival knives would be forthcoming. They have been discontinued. Tho not a particularly popular knife, I nevertheless feel it isa very good one. I still entertain thoughts of buying one, simply because I like, not because I need it. I haven't checked Knife Center recently to see if they have any remaining in stock.

 

[LJU]

Another thing I love about Icc knives is that they are flat saber ground, which is my second favorite grind for hard use knives convex being my favorite and the best Imo. Saber hollow ground knives have always disappointed me unfortunately alot of knives marketed for hard use are ground this way.

 

[jaime]

Thank you very much for your help! You are really helping me a lot.
Bugs, thank you for such a warm welcome. I own many knives of Muela, Aitor, Andujar and many other spanish brands which I use since my father gave me my first knife when I was 6 and began to learn trapping by the hand of the foreman of our ranch, but that is the whole point: wanna change!. Anyway, of course I have broken many, and sometimes under no extreme stress, so I want a knife that will really cope with ,at least, anything I can cope with. The first quality I would apreciate is toughness.
After all the advice you people gave me I am seriously looking at the Busse Steel heart, or Combat Mistress.
For a machete I have the Wiseman knife, and for a small knife I have a SOG x-42 Recondo, but depending on how my new knife performs I may change them too!.
I´ll keep wondering, anyway.
Thanks again!!
By the way:
http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/esp/muela-cuchillos-lb.htm
Link to high quality spanish knives.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

jaime :

I am seriously looking at the Busse Steel heart, or Combat Mistress.

That is a fairly solid choice. The cost is rather high, but you are getting a knife that is guaranteed to last, and after a few years of service odds are high you will feel the cost was not that great at all.

In regards to Allen, yes he is not taking any new orders at this time. However that will not always be the case. I would suggest dropping him an email and discussing the situation if you are interested in his knives. Odds are that he should be able to put you on an email list and notifiy you when he is ready to take on your order.

-Cliff

 

[misque]

You might also want to see if you can get hold of a Busse Basic. In the 7 & 9 inch blade styles, these are really tank tough work knives.