Dr barnes... I go camping and hunting. So it would be for outdoor uses. Definitely not a EDC, a little large for my EDC needs. Last visible canary... Very interesting point on the fasteners going before the handle material. Liu kang... I was leaning towards the basic because of such limited production, the handle, and there's something about the satin that I really like. Everyone makes good points and I enjoy reading what people with busse experience think about different models. Thanks again for everyone's thoughts on the subject. I might be leaning towards the basic but we will see. I might just have to get them both. I was just trying to get one blade in each size. It would have been a lot easier to decide if they released the basic 10 first. Only time will tell.
Allowing for what you want to use the knife for ... " camping and hunting ... and outdoor purposes" there are a number of practical "user" points which have'nt really been covered and which might help you make a clear decision.
If you consider your "camp knife" use and regard fire preperation as a main task then both are 6 inch knives or there abouts so "chopping" is going to be a bit limited. In the rain this means that getting to dry wood would involve scavaging off the ground or snapping dead wood with your body weight. Then you would need to split the wood to get to some inner dry wood and this is likely to involve batoning. Batoning with a 6 inch blade is fraught with difficulties as you don't have much blade length to enable you to hit the knife on the spine of the blade both infront and behind the wood you want to split if the limbs you are going for are going to be of wrist thickness and above ... which they often are when looking for sensible sized wood to make a fire with which will burn a while ... smaller than this they will burn quick ... and smaller than this and the inner wood may well still be wet. So what often happens then is guys start batonning with enough blade by the tip to hit the baton with but not much left behind the wood towards the handle.
If the knife tips at an angle and is caught towards the handle part of the blade they then have to look at the prospect of hitting the handle. If you delay doing this and keep bashing the tip end you can torque the grip up against the limb you are splitting and some people have then with Res C grips had the guard area "tear" ... Mustard Man had this happen and I remember a post on the scrapyard forum where Dan Busse basically had to say "you're doing it wrong" if this is how you are batoning ... and IMO Dan is right. So to avoid tearing the guard area the only means of knocking the knife through the limb is to hit the handle. Now again IMO once you do this it does'nt matter whether it is G10 or Res C ... if your baton has eyelets or old branch nubs protruding from the sides and they contact the top of a G10 grip and not the metal spine or they hit the Res C grip you are likely to crush a tube fastner on the G10 knife and have the grip move out of alignment with the spine ( 260 grains did this with a FBM ) or you are going to have a dink or a tear in the Res C ...
But if you use the right techniques ... such as whittling the baton at the strike area before starting the job ... and wraping some clothing around the handle before hitting it ( a wool hat, a wool sock or even just pull up some weeds and wrap the handle ... your going to avoid damaging the grips.
I bet there are many on here who have damaged a set of grips by just bashing the handle thinking that the full spine will take the brunt of the blow and it will be OK ...
So my point here is that with the right technique Res C is just as good as G10 ... because you won't split the Res C by the force of the blow squashing it against the tang ... in the destruction tests it took huge blows with a heavy hammer to do any damage like this and you won't be replicating those sort of forces with a wood baton ... not unless again you are using the wrong techniques ...
Therefore if you have to have a 6 inch blade for camping and are considering "fire-prep" the batoning aspect should mean each is as capable as the other ...
If you need to baton the spine into a limb of a tree to cut the limb off the trunk ... again there should be enough spine to hit without catching the handle. Once you have sunk it into the limb don't knock it in flat to the spine. Leave a bit of the spine showing so you can hit the side to loosen the blade and take it out and then go for a "V" cut to go deeper into the limb ... ensuring you don't therefore get the knife stuck ... and this avoids hitting the handle again to have to remove it.
I have worked with 6 inch (and smaller) blades a lot ... both Res C handled such as my Basic 5 and my S5LE and full tang's such as my Ratmandu's, Skinny Ash, Satin Jack and a host of other blades and the need to use technique rather than rely on a "bomb proof" build is just the same. The harder handle materials are only as good as the tube fastners and these will crimp and come loose if the handle material gets hit with a hard blow ... maybe they won't come off ... but the handle grip will drop down on one side and it will be an uncomfortable handle there after unless you sand the corresponding lower edge which is now "slipped over" the tang away ... and that then gives you a damaged set of grips.
So for other camp uses such as knocking in wooden tent pegs ... some may say that the rear pommel on a full tang knife enables you to get a good hammer action going ... personally IMO it is again a bad technique as if you miss the small pommel the base of your hand takes the blow and at best it is a bruise and usually it is a nasty cut too ... IMO it is far better to use a wooden baton ... or if the blade is thick enough ... use the flat side of the edge ... you won't break an Infi blade doing this ... but bear in mind that would be in rare extreme circumstances where this techique should be used ... and again it is the same for both knives ... they are each up to that task.
Hunting wise at 6 inches plus they would be a little bit long IMO for easy work inside a carcass ... but fine for opening up the animal and you can always choke up on the blade ...
Again I don't see any difference between them for hunting.
The only real difference I see is "weight" ... and that is why I am fond of the Basic's ... they are more than tough enough as knives if you use them well ... and if you don't then the real life problems of full tang v Res C are likely to affect both ...
The main difference for me in the two you have asked about is whether you prefer a large choil or would prefer to order a no choil knife ... I can say that working with a blade which has an edge right up to the handle is more comfortable than using a choked grip ... again though it depends on things like how cold would be your outdoor temperatures in use ? The handle grip and close edge start to come into their own safety wise when using gloves and having seriously low temperatures.
Personally though the main issue for a belt knife for me is "weight" ... walk all day and you start to notice the PITA it is to constantly "hitch" your pants ... you also notice how much time it takes to use a 6 inch blade for camp compared to a larger blade when it comes time to chop or baton. If you allow for the light weight of a knife like a Basic 9 which is lighter than many of the thicker full tang 6 inch blades ... but chops better and has much more blade length for batonning ... then you can make your own mind up whether it is worth waiting for the Basic 8 or Basic 10 ... rather than going for a 6 inch blade which certainly can be used and will do the job ... but it won't work as quick and there will be more risks of damaging it if you get fed up and just give the handle a "whack" hoping for the best without protecting the knife.
