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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 1999
- Messages
- 9,966
I used to get caught up in the "if a SEAL uses it, it must be the greatest" hype too. But I don't anymore. I do however take advice from people who go and do, and use the hell out of their knives. Namely, Ron Hood. He uses a knife alot more than the average person, and expects them to work hard, not break, not dull quickly, keep him fed in the woods etc. He gives an honest evaluation of blades, and gives the highest marks to Busse, Rob Simonich, and TOPS. I own blades from all of these, and couldn't agree more! But finally, I say to each his own. It's just a bit too jumpy to look at a knife on a website and say "wow, those just suck". Look at one, hold one, use one or ask someone who owns it. Your opinion may change!
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
Collin, different woods can offer a significant range of performace. You can easily get wood that is that hard that it will not flex significantly before it snaps and that it can impact heavily on rocks and such and not suffer significant deformation. Wood like this is very hard to chop and just tends to break off under strong impacts. It tends to be very hard on knives because if the wood diameter is small you can get significant pressure perpendicular to the blade face.
To get an idea for just how much stress I am talking about out. I can easily dig a hole, chop up sheet metal (cars) etc. with a blade that will literally come apart with an extended period of chopping on small diameter hard wood. Wood cutting is commonly though of as being very low impact simply because most of it is done on 2x4" and such which is a very soft wood. The next write-up I do, I'll do a comparasion between a normal soft wood like pine and a very hard seasoned wood so you can get a feel for how different they can be.
-Cliff
To get an idea for just how much stress I am talking about out. I can easily dig a hole, chop up sheet metal (cars) etc. with a blade that will literally come apart with an extended period of chopping on small diameter hard wood. Wood cutting is commonly though of as being very low impact simply because most of it is done on 2x4" and such which is a very soft wood. The next write-up I do, I'll do a comparasion between a normal soft wood like pine and a very hard seasoned wood so you can get a feel for how different they can be.
-Cliff
This is one of the best threads I have found so far! Complicated, passionate, lots of fun!
There is a difference between a fighting knife and a combat knife, clearly. I think the combat knife is the more complex of the two because it is multi function, by definition a compromise.
As far as Navy SEALS go. . . I think of the old saying "It isn't the gun you need to be afraid of it is the guy behind it." a .22 in the hands of someone who knows how to use it and is willing to use it is functionally a better weapon than a .45 in the hands of someone who doesn't and/or isn't.
My exposure to SEALS is pretty limited. I see the same movies but I am not sure most of them are intended to be documentaries. I did however grow up with a guy who became a SEAL and I can tell you this about that. I certainly cannot speak for him (nor would I like to get caught trying to.) He would be more dangerous with the top of a tuna fish can in his hand than I would be with a model 1860 light cavalry saber in mine. "It isn't the knife, it's the guy behind it."
As for the knives, I love them. Some of them I just like to look at some to play with, sometimes it is fun to just sit and wonder what the guy who designed it was thinking about.
There is a difference between a fighting knife and a combat knife, clearly. I think the combat knife is the more complex of the two because it is multi function, by definition a compromise.
As far as Navy SEALS go. . . I think of the old saying "It isn't the gun you need to be afraid of it is the guy behind it." a .22 in the hands of someone who knows how to use it and is willing to use it is functionally a better weapon than a .45 in the hands of someone who doesn't and/or isn't.
My exposure to SEALS is pretty limited. I see the same movies but I am not sure most of them are intended to be documentaries. I did however grow up with a guy who became a SEAL and I can tell you this about that. I certainly cannot speak for him (nor would I like to get caught trying to.) He would be more dangerous with the top of a tuna fish can in his hand than I would be with a model 1860 light cavalry saber in mine. "It isn't the knife, it's the guy behind it."
As for the knives, I love them. Some of them I just like to look at some to play with, sometimes it is fun to just sit and wonder what the guy who designed it was thinking about.
I would appreciate it very much if you would perform such a test Mr. Stamp--not to mention how interesting it would be.
My experience with chopping isn't very much so this test would be very valuable to me.
I would ask that you include one of the AK's to (the 20 incher preferably as I own that one) just to see if there repuation holds which I think it will becuase I recall you saying it held up to cutting that rake handle which are usually pretty hard.
thanks and take care
collin
My experience with chopping isn't very much so this test would be very valuable to me.
I would ask that you include one of the AK's to (the 20 incher preferably as I own that one) just to see if there repuation holds which I think it will becuase I recall you saying it held up to cutting that rake handle which are usually pretty hard.
thanks and take care
collin
- Joined
- Jun 23, 1999
- Messages
- 1,209
Look, examine, and think about what you are going to do with the knife! The difference between a "combat knife" and a more mundane, but high end back-woods (bushcraft) do-it-all utility blade, is that the former must *sometimes* be pressed into action to either fight (rarely), or kill by suprise (something different from fighting) as in sentry elimination.
Ron Hood is fantastic, but he does have some sort of relationship to Jerry Busse. While Busse "combat knives" are great knives, they don't impress me as having been designed with any of the "killing" requirements that might be called upon from the likes of a "combat knife". First, the blade is slightly offset in angle (about 5deg) from the handle, a great feature for chopping, but not so hot for fighting. Second they are real thick, third, heavy, etc.
Have a look (just for example) at the Livesay HKR (http://members.tripod.com/~Newt_Livesay/index2.html). Now I'm not recommending this as the best over-all "combat knife" in the world, but it does illustrate what I'm saying above... The knife is long, makes it a decent chopper, digger, bushcraft utility blade. At the same time, it is a tad thinner than the Busse's (lighter for rapid handling), point is in line with the handle (fighting/self-defense), and the point is drawn out and needle sharp (sentry elimination). Thus you see in this knife, the elements of design that make it a true "combat knife" as distinct from the two alternate catagories of "fighting knife" and heavy "utility knife"...
Ron Hood is fantastic, but he does have some sort of relationship to Jerry Busse. While Busse "combat knives" are great knives, they don't impress me as having been designed with any of the "killing" requirements that might be called upon from the likes of a "combat knife". First, the blade is slightly offset in angle (about 5deg) from the handle, a great feature for chopping, but not so hot for fighting. Second they are real thick, third, heavy, etc.
Have a look (just for example) at the Livesay HKR (http://members.tripod.com/~Newt_Livesay/index2.html). Now I'm not recommending this as the best over-all "combat knife" in the world, but it does illustrate what I'm saying above... The knife is long, makes it a decent chopper, digger, bushcraft utility blade. At the same time, it is a tad thinner than the Busse's (lighter for rapid handling), point is in line with the handle (fighting/self-defense), and the point is drawn out and needle sharp (sentry elimination). Thus you see in this knife, the elements of design that make it a true "combat knife" as distinct from the two alternate catagories of "fighting knife" and heavy "utility knife"...