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Is this a useful knife design?
- Thread starter Starquestman
- Start date
That's a "tactical" version of the Tracker? The first grind will work very good as drawknife if you need to do a handle for a hawk or ax in the woods, not only for small tasks like feather sticks. Put one hand on the "saw" side and one on the handle and go for it. I don't understand why the picture shows jimping on the curved area of the spine that was supposed to be used for scraping ...
Take a look at this to learn about the knife:
https://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/trackerknife/TrackerKnifeManual.pdf
Take a look at this to learn about the knife:
https://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/trackerknife/TrackerKnifeManual.pdf
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- Aug 24, 2006
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Good luck just getting by with an sak in the woods
I know right?!?! I mean how do all those campers and backpackers with nothing more than a SAK do it, they can't even baton wood or chop down a tree for shelter!
I think that tracker design was made to make sharpening more 'interesting'...
KingMC
The Pun-isher
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- Jul 25, 2014
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Good luck just getting by with an sak in the woods
It just takes having the necessary skills and you can get by in the woods with no blade at all. There are many folks who get by with a SAK when out in the woods, so just because you think it far-fetched doesn't mean it's worth dissing.
His point was simple: if form was meaningless and all you cared about was the utility of a knife, a SAK would be a perfect choice. As a knife goes a SAK is one of the best function-over-form designs in history (not saying it doesn't also look good), thus it is being used as an example of something that is not used because it looks good but because it functions well.
A SAK can do everything a Becker can do, minus the tasks that a normal knife was never designed to do in the first place (batoning, chopping).
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The reduction in width allows for tighter turns with cuts made using the base of the blade. Wide blades track better, but when you need to turn a cut to follow a curve that strength becomes an impediment instead. Most whittling work is done with the base of the blade, and so while in this (and many other examples) the base of the blade is still quite wide compared to dedicated carving knives it's a heck of a lot better than the width out near the tip (which shifts mass forward for a performance improvement in chopping applications.)
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Good luck just getting by with an sak in the woods
I'm honestly puzzled why you think someone couldn't get by just fine with a SAK as their only knife. Dead serious, here, what would you need to do that you couldn't?
Sonnydaze
Gold Member
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- Jul 6, 2009
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This sounds pretty decent to me, although I don't do this stuff. That design does not intrigue me at all. I'm pretty boring in knife-styles; quite happy with CRK Sebenza styling or something similar. Nice things about knives; there's something for everyone, and it's likely realistic to assume that the "weird" styling of this knife actually fulfills a purpose.
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Of course, the particular knife in question is more fantasy than pragmatic design choices, but there is a level-headed rationale for such width transitions on knives of this general "family".
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- May 18, 2011
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This blade design is mall ninja approved.OK - I've been seeing this design everywhere lately. It has that secondary grind in front of the finger guard - what's that for? Does anybody use it for a specific purpose? Besides aesthetics, I cannot think of any function that would not be better accommodated by a conventional single grind.
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- Aug 13, 2014
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I don't have a use for that but if I did, I would get the TOPS version. I would eventually find a use, or just get rid of it
+1. Much wisdom in this statement. Although I prefer a larger blade in the woods, I don't NEED one.
I don't find the tracker design particularly useful or compelling, especially that version.
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Nope. Not even close. You couldn't be more wrong. No pocket clip, no one-hand open/close. Don't get me wrong, a SAK is great for the other tools, but as a knife? Laughable.
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- Jan 30, 2010
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Good luck just getting by with an sak in the woods
A little knowledge goes a long way .
Yeah..."in the know" knife people have been continuously laughing at the SAK since they were first made in the late 1880s.
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- Feb 3, 2001
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There's some instances where it might be useful, the original idea is stolen from the Tom Brown designed Tracker Knife, it would be useful as a draw knife although the saw teeth would get tiring quickly but it has a use, also that notch with the way the knife is profiled and balanced, is the chopping sweet spot and will keep the work from rolling away from the chopper as many big camp choppers will push it away if you're not right on the sweet spot. It kinda accomplishes the chopping power of a Kukri in a smaller lighter knife without having to forge a curve into the blade.
Would I buy the M-Tech? Hell no, would I buy the Tracker made by TOPS and other custom makers? Sure If I had the spare cash I certainly would, I'd also own a 37 Knucklehead, a 37 Indian Chief along with a lot of other toys I've wanted but didn't need.
There are knives better suited to survival chores than the tracker, problem bein' as with most things when you try to make one device or tool that does it all, it does them just not as well as something dedicated and designed specifically for the task.
With all that bein' said, that knife is a poor rendition of another knife and made to look bad vs be functional, yes it "weeeel" cut but after an hour or so of hard use the shortcoming of their execution of a decent concept will become evident.
Would I buy the M-Tech? Hell no, would I buy the Tracker made by TOPS and other custom makers? Sure If I had the spare cash I certainly would, I'd also own a 37 Knucklehead, a 37 Indian Chief along with a lot of other toys I've wanted but didn't need.
There are knives better suited to survival chores than the tracker, problem bein' as with most things when you try to make one device or tool that does it all, it does them just not as well as something dedicated and designed specifically for the task.
With all that bein' said, that knife is a poor rendition of another knife and made to look bad vs be functional, yes it "weeeel" cut but after an hour or so of hard use the shortcoming of their execution of a decent concept will become evident.
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Next you are going to try to tell us all we need is an Opinel and a Squirt! What are you, anti-spending-money-on-lots-of-excess-stuff or something? I mean, what if somehow, I was plucked up from my urban home in the southern US and dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness unexpectedly. How do you think I am going to survive with just a SAK?
But with that big honking knife from the OP, I'd be sitting in a recliner watching TV in about 30 minutes in the 2-story home I made, eating bear stew and living high.
110% true. I've carved many a TV myself with my trusty M-Tech (hope that doesn't sound like a commercial).