- Joined
- Jul 9, 1999
- Messages
- 3,316
This is one of those knives that is aptly named. The Brute!
My first impressions are of the sheath. Very well made, thick Kydex that is held together by twelve large eyelets. The knife is secured into the sheath by an integral snap-lock lip of Kydex at the top of the sheath and is further secured by a Cordura snap.
A REALLY cool feature on this sheath is the fact that it is ambidextrous. The knife will snap into the sheath either way. And it snaps in tight with no annoying rattle or excess movement. It has a Cordura belt loop that is attatched to Kydex with four connectors that are backed with washers to prevent the Cordura from ripping free. The sheath has four slots milled into it to provide for a leg tie down and a length of Cordura with a fanny pack type snap is also provided as a leg tie-down.
The belt loop is my only concern about the sheathing system. Being Cordura, I'm concerned about wear and tear. I've trashed Cordura sheaths in the past just by wearing them. Wearing them out apparently.
Nonetheless, I like the overall sheathing system for this knife.
On to the blade:
The knife is quite chunky. The grip is very hand filling and may be too large for a person with smaller hands. The blade balances right where the blade grind plunge begins, about 1/2" in front of the handle. This means it's blade heavy. Good for a chopping type knife and this is most definately a chopping knife.
Just for fun when I got the knife home I took a piece of paper towel and attempted to slice it. I've found this is a good way to check the sharpness of the blade and easily snags on any deformation that may be in the edge. You know, tiny knicks and such. I really didn't think it would slice the towel as huge knives like this generally don't do well for me in this test, but, the Brute sliced the towel with relative ease nearly the entire length of the blade.
You could've bowled me over with a feather when I did this. This tells me that they did a really good job at the factory in putting the edge on this knife. Well done, Will!
I took the Brute out to give it a test spin on about twenty Oak and Camphor tree saplings that are trying to choke out my Azaleas and Camelias. They were all about 1" in diameter and the Brute powered thru these saplings in one to two strokes every time.
Please keep in mind that I am still recovering from Cervical Fusion surgery that was performed last month and I am unable to generate a full power swing when executing a chopping stroke at this time. I really didn't have to as this knife's momentum and edge geometry, when put into motion, are awe inspiring in their power. The sweet spot on the Brute is right on it's belly. The saplings were cleaved in one stroke when they were caught by the belly. I like it...I like it a lot!
The thickness at the edge is fairly thick but not too thick. (Yeah, I know, "hey misque, could you be a little more vague, please!")
Like many, if not most knives, it gets thicker out toward the tip of the blade.
The spine of the blade has an interesting grind. It, the spine, starts out full thickness at the base of the blade, then has a distal like taper out to 6", then it goes to full thickness again(!) for about 1 1/2" then tapers again the rest of the way out to the tip. I'm assuming that this is for pounding purposes, as it looks like a good spot ot pound on. Go figure...
All in all, I like this knife so far. I haven't done any edge retention tests yet, but, I have a good feeling about it.
This knife has all the makings of a good chopping type work knife and I have a feeling that as I use it more, it will become my favorite heavy duty "go to" knife.
I highly advise that the buyer immediately place a lanyard on the knife as if it gets away, it could really hurt ya. Theres a whole lotta knife here and you don't wanna take any chances with this much sharpened steel flying around and possibly going on an unscheduled flight. I say this because I got careless and the knife took a little trip as I was happily whacking away. I loosened my grip, that's how it happened. No harm, no foul though. Whew!
Mikey likes it!
------------------
The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu
My first impressions are of the sheath. Very well made, thick Kydex that is held together by twelve large eyelets. The knife is secured into the sheath by an integral snap-lock lip of Kydex at the top of the sheath and is further secured by a Cordura snap.
A REALLY cool feature on this sheath is the fact that it is ambidextrous. The knife will snap into the sheath either way. And it snaps in tight with no annoying rattle or excess movement. It has a Cordura belt loop that is attatched to Kydex with four connectors that are backed with washers to prevent the Cordura from ripping free. The sheath has four slots milled into it to provide for a leg tie down and a length of Cordura with a fanny pack type snap is also provided as a leg tie-down.
The belt loop is my only concern about the sheathing system. Being Cordura, I'm concerned about wear and tear. I've trashed Cordura sheaths in the past just by wearing them. Wearing them out apparently.
Nonetheless, I like the overall sheathing system for this knife.
On to the blade:
The knife is quite chunky. The grip is very hand filling and may be too large for a person with smaller hands. The blade balances right where the blade grind plunge begins, about 1/2" in front of the handle. This means it's blade heavy. Good for a chopping type knife and this is most definately a chopping knife.
Just for fun when I got the knife home I took a piece of paper towel and attempted to slice it. I've found this is a good way to check the sharpness of the blade and easily snags on any deformation that may be in the edge. You know, tiny knicks and such. I really didn't think it would slice the towel as huge knives like this generally don't do well for me in this test, but, the Brute sliced the towel with relative ease nearly the entire length of the blade.
I took the Brute out to give it a test spin on about twenty Oak and Camphor tree saplings that are trying to choke out my Azaleas and Camelias. They were all about 1" in diameter and the Brute powered thru these saplings in one to two strokes every time.
Please keep in mind that I am still recovering from Cervical Fusion surgery that was performed last month and I am unable to generate a full power swing when executing a chopping stroke at this time. I really didn't have to as this knife's momentum and edge geometry, when put into motion, are awe inspiring in their power. The sweet spot on the Brute is right on it's belly. The saplings were cleaved in one stroke when they were caught by the belly. I like it...I like it a lot!
The thickness at the edge is fairly thick but not too thick. (Yeah, I know, "hey misque, could you be a little more vague, please!")
Like many, if not most knives, it gets thicker out toward the tip of the blade.
The spine of the blade has an interesting grind. It, the spine, starts out full thickness at the base of the blade, then has a distal like taper out to 6", then it goes to full thickness again(!) for about 1 1/2" then tapers again the rest of the way out to the tip. I'm assuming that this is for pounding purposes, as it looks like a good spot ot pound on. Go figure...
All in all, I like this knife so far. I haven't done any edge retention tests yet, but, I have a good feeling about it.
This knife has all the makings of a good chopping type work knife and I have a feeling that as I use it more, it will become my favorite heavy duty "go to" knife.
I highly advise that the buyer immediately place a lanyard on the knife as if it gets away, it could really hurt ya. Theres a whole lotta knife here and you don't wanna take any chances with this much sharpened steel flying around and possibly going on an unscheduled flight. I say this because I got careless and the knife took a little trip as I was happily whacking away. I loosened my grip, that's how it happened. No harm, no foul though. Whew!
Mikey likes it!
------------------
The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu
