Thanks everybody!
OK, so after several days of extended use - here are my thoughts:
First, I want to say that the Swamp Rat crew did an amazing job on my custom 7. It is exactly what I asked for, and the fit and finish is exceptional. If you have ever wondered about having one made, you owe it to yourself! Josh, Trissy, and Lora have all been extremely helpful in making my custom shop pieces a reality.
I am generally not a fan of coated knives. I take care of my equipment, and without the benefit of protection being a factor, I feel like the coating impairs cutting efficiency. However, of the different coatings that I have used I like the Tanker Grey the best. It could just be me, but I feel like it is finer, thinner, and slicker. I think it is aesthetically pleasing as well because it's at least steel colored...kind of. The coating resisted wear very well. I chopped and batoned to fuel a fire for three days straight. We are literally talking about thousands of chops and blows with a baton. The wood was very dry, very frozen, and very twisted West Texas Pecan and Mesquite. Here are the results:
The factory edge is not really a big deal for me as I always reprofile my knives. I do know that some people don't do their own sharpening, so out of the box sharpness is important. On this occasion, I did use the factory edge first. As an overall observation of all the Busse & Kin knives that have come through my shop, most of the edges are mediocre. Take that with a grain of salt - it's a factory edge after all! If they put hand honed edges on the knives the prices would have to increase dramatically. That being said, I have seen a drastic improvement in the factory edges I have seen in the last year. This model was an exceptional example, David did a great job sharpening my knife. At the end of my beating session, I have absolutely no edge rolls, dings, or damage of any kind to report. The blade is only a shade less sharp than when it arrived. This is VERY impressive after the amount of wood processed.
OK, what about the grips? The most frequent question about these knives. I love them! I wear a size large glove. Hear are some pics of the different grips that I found myself using, and how the "hump" falls into place.
Regular
Chopping
Choked up
Reverse
In all grips it was very comfortable, I really like the lightning bolt grips.
I requested the grips to be G10. A couple things to be aware of. I feel that the countersinks for the handle tubes are a little excessive, and they are uncomfortably sharp as well. I found this to be good and bad. In the severe cold weather, I found the g10 to be slippery in gloved hands, and welcomed the sharp and deep countersinks. However, the g10 was great in bare hands, and the sharpness was easily taken care of with a little sandpaper. If I was going to be using this in cold weather most of the time, I would rather have canvas micarta. But, I live in Texas and rarely face the bitter cold so I am happy with and confident in my choice of the bruiser G10.
More to come....
