- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 2,984
Thanks to a very generous Hog I managed to get a hold of a long time desired "Basic 5" .... it winged it's way here over from the States and was picked up by me on late Monday afternoon. This was one of those moments where you learn by tracking it on-line that it has arrived at your local delivery depot and think "to hell with paying the charges over the phone and waiting for delivery" ..... where are the car keys I am picking this one up! 
Now as many of you know on here I am a big fan of the Basic series .... the Res C handles and Asymetrical edges make these knives both comfortable and easily field sharpened .... which are great "plus" points in a knife you want as a "user". So when I arrived at the Depot and was handed the parcel I new as soon as I got into the car that I would be opening this parcel with "the greatest of expectations" .... and I was'nt disappointed :thumbup:
The handle fits my hand great .... I did worry a little as to whether it might feel small but that was from having a DMDC with the SYKCO new grips .... the older "Busse Combat" Res C grips are a slightly different shape and essentially a little larger and for me the knife "fits like a snug glove" in my hand. Just what you need in a knife this size .... good for delicate work and for cleaning game .... and the sheath is a real gem too. A cracking original kydex model it fits the blade perfectly and is ideal for my uses .... you can easily wash it out and when added with a fire steel it is the perfect outdoor "combo".
Off home I went and straight into my work shop to do a little edge honing and stripping and sanding .... I like all my smaller knives used for food prep to have a satin finish .... they have to be for Health & Safety reg's for me if used in a Deerlarder .... and if you are going to use a small blade for wood cutting and food prep when out in woods .... knowing it is truly clean saves you a lot of unwanted stomach cramps .... sap and resin need to be fully removed from the blade and the black smooth coat ....pretty as it was .... needed to go.
The good news is that the blade had no infi dimples and those present on the choil were easy to remove because of the design allowing me to get right up to the handle on my sander and with fresh leather backing on the platten the right angle edges and grind line were kept perfect .... no blending of the two as often happens .... anyway ... here is the knife stripped and tweaked on the edge and you can see for yourself how it turned out .....
The edge it came with was fine but you can improve on it if you want. I got a great tip from the Hog who sold me the knife and he has posted his thoughts on tweaking a Basic ASM edge on here before .... basically this involves taking the convexed side of the blade to a slightly higher angle using a coarse belt but not taking it to the edge and then using a fine belt blend in the higher grind to the edge and then strop the flat edge on the other side to remove the wire lip caused by the sander and you will have a "screaming sharp" edge .... and boy does it work ! :thumbup: The edge this gives is VERY impressive ....
The thing to remember is not to touch the flat edge to try to re-profile this to an even steeper grind .... this takes the knife to a chisel grind which can be a bit too thin at the edge apex and stops a really razor like edge from being achieved .... the angle Jerry has put on the flat side is very much an optimum for an ASM Grind and is very acute anyway .... so there is not much point altering this. It is improved though by polishing .... the factory edge is a little coarse from the grit of stone or belt used to create it .... polishing this to a smoother finish just seems to improve the edge and make it "silly sharp" This knife cuts "on contact" .... well able to trim one of my hairs ...
Size wise here is a pic with it's slightly bigger "brother in rubber" the S5LE ....
Comparing the two the first thing I liked was the thicker spine on the B5 .... the .25 thickness gives a lot of surface for your thumb and on controlled cutting this is a good thing but we are only talking a 1/16th difference and the S5LE is also a comfortable knife for this work with the spine ramp removed. The B5 is not as deep as the S5LE and this also helps on controlling the edge .... but again both work fine as the S5 is hardly too deep in this regard. However, all these little points do add up and how else can you "seperate" knives if not by taking them into account. In short I think both are great knives .... although I am giving the edge to the Basic 5 in terms of what works best for me ....
And I have given the knife a good work out .... I took the knife out with the BWM CG which I also stripped and convexed at the same time ....
Had them both chopping, batoning and cutting a lot of wood as you can tell by the scratch marks on their new satin finishes .... infact I took a few other Mistresses out as well .... as I was wanting to do a comparison of them all ....
but here is a pic of how the BWM looked after finishing her and before she got all "beat up" ....
They were both looking nice and pretty then .... although it is easy to restore them back ....
I will save the write up on the BWM job for another post but it too is an amazing knife for taking a wicked edge .... works like a Trojan too .... it prep'ed enough wood to have a fire burining most of the night .... you cannot beat sitting by a roaring fire on a full moon night with a good brandy on the table and whittling away at some wood with my new Basic 5 .... as I say .... basically it is brilliant!
Now as many of you know on here I am a big fan of the Basic series .... the Res C handles and Asymetrical edges make these knives both comfortable and easily field sharpened .... which are great "plus" points in a knife you want as a "user". So when I arrived at the Depot and was handed the parcel I new as soon as I got into the car that I would be opening this parcel with "the greatest of expectations" .... and I was'nt disappointed :thumbup:
The handle fits my hand great .... I did worry a little as to whether it might feel small but that was from having a DMDC with the SYKCO new grips .... the older "Busse Combat" Res C grips are a slightly different shape and essentially a little larger and for me the knife "fits like a snug glove" in my hand. Just what you need in a knife this size .... good for delicate work and for cleaning game .... and the sheath is a real gem too. A cracking original kydex model it fits the blade perfectly and is ideal for my uses .... you can easily wash it out and when added with a fire steel it is the perfect outdoor "combo".
Off home I went and straight into my work shop to do a little edge honing and stripping and sanding .... I like all my smaller knives used for food prep to have a satin finish .... they have to be for Health & Safety reg's for me if used in a Deerlarder .... and if you are going to use a small blade for wood cutting and food prep when out in woods .... knowing it is truly clean saves you a lot of unwanted stomach cramps .... sap and resin need to be fully removed from the blade and the black smooth coat ....pretty as it was .... needed to go.
The good news is that the blade had no infi dimples and those present on the choil were easy to remove because of the design allowing me to get right up to the handle on my sander and with fresh leather backing on the platten the right angle edges and grind line were kept perfect .... no blending of the two as often happens .... anyway ... here is the knife stripped and tweaked on the edge and you can see for yourself how it turned out .....
The edge it came with was fine but you can improve on it if you want. I got a great tip from the Hog who sold me the knife and he has posted his thoughts on tweaking a Basic ASM edge on here before .... basically this involves taking the convexed side of the blade to a slightly higher angle using a coarse belt but not taking it to the edge and then using a fine belt blend in the higher grind to the edge and then strop the flat edge on the other side to remove the wire lip caused by the sander and you will have a "screaming sharp" edge .... and boy does it work ! :thumbup: The edge this gives is VERY impressive ....
The thing to remember is not to touch the flat edge to try to re-profile this to an even steeper grind .... this takes the knife to a chisel grind which can be a bit too thin at the edge apex and stops a really razor like edge from being achieved .... the angle Jerry has put on the flat side is very much an optimum for an ASM Grind and is very acute anyway .... so there is not much point altering this. It is improved though by polishing .... the factory edge is a little coarse from the grit of stone or belt used to create it .... polishing this to a smoother finish just seems to improve the edge and make it "silly sharp"
This knife cuts "on contact" .... well able to trim one of my hairs ...Size wise here is a pic with it's slightly bigger "brother in rubber" the S5LE ....
Comparing the two the first thing I liked was the thicker spine on the B5 .... the .25 thickness gives a lot of surface for your thumb and on controlled cutting this is a good thing but we are only talking a 1/16th difference and the S5LE is also a comfortable knife for this work with the spine ramp removed. The B5 is not as deep as the S5LE and this also helps on controlling the edge .... but again both work fine as the S5 is hardly too deep in this regard. However, all these little points do add up and how else can you "seperate" knives if not by taking them into account. In short I think both are great knives .... although I am giving the edge to the Basic 5 in terms of what works best for me ....
And I have given the knife a good work out .... I took the knife out with the BWM CG which I also stripped and convexed at the same time ....
Had them both chopping, batoning and cutting a lot of wood as you can tell by the scratch marks on their new satin finishes .... infact I took a few other Mistresses out as well .... as I was wanting to do a comparison of them all ....
but here is a pic of how the BWM looked after finishing her and before she got all "beat up" ....
They were both looking nice and pretty then .... although it is easy to restore them back ....
I will save the write up on the BWM job for another post but it too is an amazing knife for taking a wicked edge .... works like a Trojan too .... it prep'ed enough wood to have a fire burining most of the night .... you cannot beat sitting by a roaring fire on a full moon night with a good brandy on the table and whittling away at some wood with my new Basic 5 .... as I say .... basically it is brilliant!
