Mistress vs Cold Steel Trailmaster

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Cobalt,

Thanks for those videos.

You're exactly right: He'd say "that costs 4x more, so of course it'll do better, etc."

Which is why we buy Busse in the first place: PERFORMANCE.

Yeah, it costs, but it DOES perform.

This is why I'm puzzled by all the Mora fanatics........sure, it's a great knife for $10..........but there ARE better knives available. And _I_ am worth more than $10

Economy ain't the only thing to consider when buying a tool that can make the difference between coming back or not.
 
Yes, the only way to convince people like your friend is to go buy a battlerat or Dogfather or Basic9(which isn't so cheap anymore) and spank them at their level. Then they have no ground to speak of.

If you look at those videos that I put up, you will notice me torqueing the edge of my SHBM out sideways from the wood. The edge was stuck easily 3/4 inch into the wood every time. Most knifemakers/collectors users will tell you not to do this stuff as it usually ends up with broken blades.

The other videos show me prying the blade out by the tip. I have done this wih many other knives, including some that members of this forum own and have broken the tips on those very knives. Yet, my SHBM has dones this countless tmes with no failure. I figured someday it wold let go, but it never has.

Tyrkon, I like your video:thumbup:
 
There was a time when a basic 9 was at a price point where most people could afford one. Now, you can hardly find them for sale. I know that mine is staying in the tool-kit but will be with me on my road ventures and hunting trips. I still think it is one of the best balanced knives that Busse ever made.
 
I have owned two trailmasters. They are pretty good bowies and camp knives, but I prefer the Ontario Bowie Survival for most real world tasks, even if it isn't quite as tough. At $50, its a bargain. As far as pure chopping, I'll take my Dog Father over all of them. The Res C handle is even better than Kraton. I suspect that my nearly two pound Fatty will out chop even the Dog Father, but it is sort of heavy to carry around, and I prefer a Respirine C handle for comfort. There is nothing wrong with a Trailmaster. In its day, it was the best you could get short of some customs. Nowadays all Cold Steels are imported. The famous Carbon V steel is no longer available since Camillus folded. As far as "destruction" type testing, I am quite sure from tests I've seen that any of the Busse Knife Group choppers are more than up to the "Cold Steel Challenge".
 
Horn Dog: I have to admit that the DF is about the perfect weight for most chopping, and I agree with you that the fatty is on the heavy side to carry all day. I still favor the basic 9 for all round work. Res C handle is a pure winner in my book. Hard handles tire me out! The basic 9 just feels right in the weight dept, but each to his own.

Trailmasters were and are decent blades. I won't sell mine off.
 
Stubai said:
Trailmasters were and are decent blades. I won't sell mine off.
Click to expand...

they were descent blades until the Swamp Rat BattleRat came out at the same price with differentially heat treated modified 52100 which makes it so much tougher than carbon V it's not even fair.

Now comes the Dogfather which is even tougher than the swamp rat at the same price point.
I think the DF is going to go down as the best deal in a hard use knife ever. SR77 might go down as being the best steel for the money.
 
Cobalt said:
your welcome, it is my pleasure. I might even save this thread myself.:thumbup:
Click to expand...

I think this is a great idea! At times, I have across certain threads that provide rare and valuable information in a condensed form. I believe this particular one is definitely one of them!
 
for those bored like me here is some good reading in links I added some time ago
 
Very Interesting reading, seems like I researched and read a couple of them 5 or 6 years ago when I was discovering Infi-Hard to believe these original posting were made in 2007-Thanks for the INFO!!!
 
Says a lot, if not quite all:

https://youtu.be/3Y1VGhxQ0-s

https://youtu.be/H6OOaMckMOw

https://youtu.be/GEsd7YdlgVw

https://youtu.be/KTZ-tk_qvJY

Somehow I wonder why those did not come up in thread of this title...

Of course this is all with the factory edge, and basic physics would dictate that with more closed angles a knife that weights 28 ounces will somewhat work ahead of a knife that weights 17 ounces...

Working ahead though might still not be salvation, given that some other 17 ounces knives are nearly twice as effective chopping wood as the San Mai III Trailmaster tested above, which I consider as a very low efficiency chopper, in large part due to the very inefficient design of its handle...:

P9076463_zpssywvejni.jpg


Of course I can swing a knife 3 times harder just to prove a point, and I can't prove to you that in the above photo I didn't... However in a Youtube video, that kind of thing becomes harder to conceal... Interestingly I have found Youtube videos to be fairly consistent: The Becker BK-9 for instance, is typically 1/3 to 1/4 ahead of the Trailmaster (and this roughly matches the difference in individual hit bite depth), but unseen is that its handle vibrations are even more tiresome than the loose moving around of the Trailmaster's too thin rubber handle, which merely robs power, but can convey a good impression of efficiency with lower energy swings compared to hard chops. I found the San Mai III edge to be very thick however, and the knife would perform way better with a true flat grind that is much thinner. (As would all knives for heaven's sake, especially since thin edges are better pinched by the wood and tend to stand up better in wood than thick edges through less yawing... But don't buy any of this: It must all be my imagination that I see thick edges crumble or do micro-folds in wood where much thinner edges emerge unscathed...)

Gaston
 
When it comes to chopping there is no doubt that edge grind and weight as well as balance are what dominate. The steel itself is not important until it becomes an endurance event. So yes, a poor edge geometry will loose to a good edge geometry. However, when you start going into a distance event and not just some 10 minute test, things begin to change. For example, if you and I were to have a chopoff and I brought my INFI blade or Survive 3V blade and you brought your 440b Randall or your lile, there is no doubt in my mind that your blades would sustain more damage in the long term test. It won't be 3V or INFI or even S7. It will be yours.

Oh there is no way you looked up all the links I posted which means you came in here to troll. Go read those links and if after that you still want to have a chopoff, lets rock n roll.
 
Gaston this is what I mean. So here is a pic of Nathan the machinist 3v blade(in the middle) and a busse INFI blade. Both where hammered into cement nails that were 3/8" thick and hard and tough. I batoned both blades into these nails for about 7 minutes. This is the damage. But they survived. The 3V blade was 18 dps and the INFI blade was 14-15 dps.

20160103_122024_zps2j7ojbsc.jpg



In contrast here is a becker blade of 1095 crovan. I did the exact same thing with this blade. I left the thicker edge on this blade which looked about 22 dps. Thickness behind the edge was very close to the smaller blades though. So very comparable test. I hammered on this blade for less than 2 minutes before this result:

20160105_123508_zpsedgcocc5.jpg


Now edge geometry sure plays a role in cutting and chopping efficiency. But the steel and HT play a bigger role in the long term hard use of a knife. Both the 3V and INFI blades showed no sign of fracturing and I just gave up because there was no point in continuing.

Oh I forgot to mention that the baton was a hammer

There are steels that no matter how hard you try, you can never improve them to exceed a steel that was designed to be more resilient. INFI and 3V are not the toughest steels, but they exceed any stainless by a giant margin and exceed all simple carbon steels as well. There are tougher steels for sure, S7 and S5. I believe that both of those steels may indeed be a lot tougher, but they sacrifice edge holding.

Just remember gaston that this is what the tang of your 18 looks like.

DSCN0032_zps46e4b386.jpg
 
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