I have always wondered

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knifed

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Oct 27, 2006
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I have always wondered why Busse MOAB looked like it did.

Undoubtedly it has all the elements of a Busse down to the middle of the blade, but after that it's just gerber utility bowie knife... the clip point style and geometry are almost identical.

After finally meeting one MOAB live i've been thinking a lot about this (well not a lot, only when i'm awake).

I am a big worshipper of the fusion battle mistress design and after dispatching several pigs with that knife and doing entire processing with only the mistress i've found it to be in fact the best knife i have ever used or seen in all aspects of usage (out of roughly 340 knives i used in my life out of those 200 + still reside in my trunks). So my question is, why couldn't have MOAB looked a little more like this one on the bottom drawing (top one is the original moab more or less):

moabp.jpg
 
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Gerber? Gerber? Oh no!!! :eek:
 

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Gerber !!!!

Go check out the Bowie with a bit of Google-Fu ... the MOAB Bowie design has it's roots way way back into the 19th Century ... George Wostenholm from Sheffield started doing less dramatic variations of the Sandbar design which had much less deep pronounced clips and removed the brass spine guard ... these guys and indigenous US makers of that era have their DNA in the MOAB but I don't think Gerber do ... Gerber are drinking from the same cup of history as Busse in terms of this knife design ... they are'nt influencing it:rolleyes:
 
Gerber utility bowie i have and i could compare the shape directly - I own none of the above mentioned knives that resemble the clip and tip of the moab as much as this one does according to my expensive vector tracing program. But i'm sorry, i'll try not to post again with such ideas because obviously i've missed the part of the forum description where it says "Busse worship forum" not "thoughts and discussion forum". My bad.
 
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Lol... chillax bro. If we didn't give you a hard time for comparing a Busse to a Gerber, we'd have nothing to do but spam refresh on our emails waiting for Lexi to get around to us with our Ganza confirmation...

The short answer to your question is that the bowie design is very different from the BM, and the MOAB is the "mother of all bowies"

ergo, BIG bowie = that blade shape
 
It's a Busse Combat Fusion handle shape with a classic bowie knife blade shape made in epic proportions as to justify the moniker Mother of all Bowies. What's not to get? I think that the Bowie design has influenced many multitudes of knife makers, not just Busse and Gerber.
 
Sooo, what we all really want to see isn't the MOAB, it's the MOABM... or, i think another thread called MOM?

1/2 inch think, 16" blade, and i'll take the corrugations just for looks, thank you.
 
Relax, mate. We're just giving you a hard time for comparing a Busse to Gerber. You have to admit, it is kind of funny after all. No hard feelings, really.
 
It is'nt Busse worship ... it is discussion ... the design goes back centuries ... the Natchez knife was a straight spine large butcher knife ... the Sandbar knife had a deep clip ... Rezin, his brother who either designed or was present when these knives were created ... later ordered presentation knives from Wostenholm's in Sheffield for numerous dignatories ... he was impressed with the Bowie variations on the design that they produced back around 1830 ... these took a much shallower clip point and became perhaps the most recognised of "Bowie" blades ...

The MOAB has a similar shallow clip ... it's DNA and the Gerber's will come from this era ...

The fact that Gerber have a knife with a similar profile to a MOAB is'nt going to be directly linked when you consider how many Bowie knives are presently being made and have been made since way back then ... I suspect this given design has been utilised hundreds of times ...
 
I'm new here but my opinion is this: if i'm getting a MOAB (be it the mother of all bowies or mother of all BUSSE), i'd rather go for a mother of all BUSSE... if one element is Busse i'd want all elements to be Busse. Be far from it that MOAB as it is now is a bad knife, not at all. I have no use for it and the WOW! efect isn't strong enough in my humble opinion.

I love how it handles and the weight is perfect for my weight and strenght (and i'm rather short and chubby, years grinding knives instead of excersize in one's spare time does that) so i could go for an extra pound no problem. I guess years of handling oversized knives have taken it's toll on my objectivity - i like mine to be thick and wide when they are long.

I don't feel attacked or anything but all the resources others "provided" for me via google aren't even funny. Jim bowie article on wikipedia is hillarious as the author placed a picture of 10 dollar pakistani bowie as a reference - that was a riot!

The historical truth is that nobody knows what a bowie knife actually looked like and that's the official historical fact - there's no proof that it was even clip point shape, the real truth is that what we call the bowie knife was defined by the iron mistress movie. It's a legend and as such shouldn't be taken too seriously. Bowies i've seen from that era are usually short swords with a clip or a spear point. I know my history very well, from history books that have been checked and double checked, not from google-hear-say. So sorry people, until someone unearths a knife with Jim Bowie's DNA i don't take anyone's word for what that knife was supposed to look like - or i'd even care. That's just the way I am... i don't care about a brand or a story behind a blade, i only care about what for and how i can use it. I love the clip point type blades in any type of clip be it straight, curved or whatever. The bigger the better. So i'm going with the Mother Of All Busse on this one.
 
The bottom one you mocked up looks cool. I would get one like that if I had the cash.

As for the Gerber comparison, I think that's getting too specific. Clip points are pretty common. Clips with swedges, not so much, but they're still around. The swag back (I think that's what Jerry calls it) is just what that knife needs to break up the monotony of the straight spine.

Not that the monotony is a bad thing... I wouldn't mind a regular MOAB either :D

ETA: Reading through the thread carefully (sorry I skimmed earlier!), it seems like the Gerber comparison and the originality of the bowie design are the topic. I think seeing your variation on the MOAB is awesome. I kind of wish more forum members here would show what they can come up with as variations on Busses. Sounds like a fun idea to me :)
 
It's hard to come up with anything original these days and i salute mr. Busse for the level of ingenuity he placed in his designs.

98.7% match of the forward part curvature of the blade, i ran the pattern matching again and i stand by what i wrote in my first post when comparing it to gerber bowie...

Do i resent that similarity - no. Best damn stabber for hunting i ever had... i'm only sorry i didn't get a chance to try out the MOAB in this role as it was here with me only for sharpening for 2 days and we're out of season here, both bacon making and hunting seasons...

And that was one heck of a touchy job to sharpen that baby without damaging it's beauty but it's 100% infi so it was way beyond razor sharp when i was done with it.
 
knifed said:
i have always wondered why busse moab looked like it did.

Undoubtedly it has all the elements of a busse down to the middle of the blade, but after that it's just gerber utility bowie knife... The clip point style and geometry are almost identical.

After finally meeting one moab live i've been thinking a lot about this (well not a lot, only when i'm awake).

I am a big worshipper of the fusion battle mistress design and after dispatching several pigs with that knife and doing entire processing with only the mistress i've found it to be in fact the best knife i have ever used or seen in all aspects of usage (out of roughly 340 knives i used in my life out of those 200 + still reside in my trunks). So my question is, why couldn't have moab looked a little more like this one on the bottom drawing (top one is the original moab more or less):

moabp.jpg
Click to expand...

where did you get this file?...can you share it with me please?.
Thanks.
 
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