nick681
Gold Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 1999
- Messages
- 1,931
I thought I should post something instead of always asking questions of my fellow forumites so here is my first review.
As an Infantry Squad Leader in the First Infantry Division, I need a knife that I can depend on. My choice, after a lot of deliberation and lurking in the forums, was the Busse Natural Outlaw.
I have taken my Natural Outlaw to the field three times now and I can only say that it lives up to the "Nuclear Tough" standard.
The first trip to the field was running a station for "Individual Readiness Training", while the knife did not see much hard use I did chop some good size branches and a frozen tree stump between tests. This caused much damage to the surrounding foliage and only minimal damage to the edge. After some work with a ceramic rod from my sharpmaker I was able to get rid of the nicks in the edge.
The next test came during two rotations to the Combat Manuever Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany. This is one of the muddiest and wettest places in the world. My knigfe was wet and muddy for two weeks at time both times and showed no signs of corrosion on the exposed edge.
I used my knife to chop branches to build a hooch, pry open ammo crates, pound stakes with the butt end, chop through recovered commo wire and trip wire, and also opening the ocasional MRE. My Natrural Outlaw did all these tasks easily with no damage to the knife.
The crinkle coating also held up well, in fact better than any other coating I have ever had on a knife. Even after repeated use the worst damage to the coating is a "smoothing out" effect.
The Quilted Micarta Handle provides a secure yet comfortable grip even when muddy, cold and wet, the three prevailing conditions at CMTC. The quilted handle is a vast improvement over the handle on my old Steel Heart II. The only improvement I would make to the handle is subdued handle fasteners. I colored in mine bith a black marker.
In addition to field use I have pried open a locked file cabinet drawer and destroyed various items in the scrap metal and wood bins in the motor pool. The comment I hear the most is "I wouldn't do that with my knife!" to which I reply "You CAN'T do this with your knife"
The only drawback to the Natural Outlaw was the Cordura/Kydex Sheath. Mine is deteriorating rapidly. Somehow while mounted on my LBV a spot rubbed through the black trim aroung the edge and the metal gromets on the bottom of the sheath are getting corroded.
In addition to the durability of the sheath I think there are two design flaws in the sheath (at least for military carry on an LBV). First the whole sheath comes up when you draw the knife if you don't have it tied to your leg. While tying the sheat to your leg at the bottom may work for some people it hinders you if you need to remove your equipment in a hurry. This could be fixed by adding a piece of kydex to the belt loop as a stiffener. The second flaw is the outside pocket/pouch. I like the pocket and use it to carry all manner of things, however it need some improvement. The velcro is noisy and therefor untactical, in addition once it becomes muddy velcro does not work. A simple fastex buckle would fix this (I have always been taught not to bring up a problem unless you have a solution
).
Overall I would give the Natural Outlaw and A+ and the Sheath a C-.
In my opinion the Natural Outlaw is the perfect Infantry Field Knife (possible future model name?
). Performance, size, quality, and price put it light years ahead of the competition. Mine is now scratched, beat up, starting to look ugly,and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Now all I need is the Folder.
Yours in Nuclear Toughness,
Nick
------------------
Arguing with a GRUNT is like wrestling with a pig. Everyone gets dirty and the little pig loves it.
The reason the U.S. Army is so successful in combat is that war is chaos; and the Army practices chaos on a daily basis
[This message has been edited by nick681 (edited 06-18-2001).]
As an Infantry Squad Leader in the First Infantry Division, I need a knife that I can depend on. My choice, after a lot of deliberation and lurking in the forums, was the Busse Natural Outlaw.
I have taken my Natural Outlaw to the field three times now and I can only say that it lives up to the "Nuclear Tough" standard.
The first trip to the field was running a station for "Individual Readiness Training", while the knife did not see much hard use I did chop some good size branches and a frozen tree stump between tests. This caused much damage to the surrounding foliage and only minimal damage to the edge. After some work with a ceramic rod from my sharpmaker I was able to get rid of the nicks in the edge.
The next test came during two rotations to the Combat Manuever Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany. This is one of the muddiest and wettest places in the world. My knigfe was wet and muddy for two weeks at time both times and showed no signs of corrosion on the exposed edge.
I used my knife to chop branches to build a hooch, pry open ammo crates, pound stakes with the butt end, chop through recovered commo wire and trip wire, and also opening the ocasional MRE. My Natrural Outlaw did all these tasks easily with no damage to the knife.
The crinkle coating also held up well, in fact better than any other coating I have ever had on a knife. Even after repeated use the worst damage to the coating is a "smoothing out" effect.
The Quilted Micarta Handle provides a secure yet comfortable grip even when muddy, cold and wet, the three prevailing conditions at CMTC. The quilted handle is a vast improvement over the handle on my old Steel Heart II. The only improvement I would make to the handle is subdued handle fasteners. I colored in mine bith a black marker.
In addition to field use I have pried open a locked file cabinet drawer and destroyed various items in the scrap metal and wood bins in the motor pool. The comment I hear the most is "I wouldn't do that with my knife!" to which I reply "You CAN'T do this with your knife"
The only drawback to the Natural Outlaw was the Cordura/Kydex Sheath. Mine is deteriorating rapidly. Somehow while mounted on my LBV a spot rubbed through the black trim aroung the edge and the metal gromets on the bottom of the sheath are getting corroded.
In addition to the durability of the sheath I think there are two design flaws in the sheath (at least for military carry on an LBV). First the whole sheath comes up when you draw the knife if you don't have it tied to your leg. While tying the sheat to your leg at the bottom may work for some people it hinders you if you need to remove your equipment in a hurry. This could be fixed by adding a piece of kydex to the belt loop as a stiffener. The second flaw is the outside pocket/pouch. I like the pocket and use it to carry all manner of things, however it need some improvement. The velcro is noisy and therefor untactical, in addition once it becomes muddy velcro does not work. A simple fastex buckle would fix this (I have always been taught not to bring up a problem unless you have a solution
Overall I would give the Natural Outlaw and A+ and the Sheath a C-.
In my opinion the Natural Outlaw is the perfect Infantry Field Knife (possible future model name?
Now all I need is the Folder.
Yours in Nuclear Toughness,
Nick
------------------
Arguing with a GRUNT is like wrestling with a pig. Everyone gets dirty and the little pig loves it.
The reason the U.S. Army is so successful in combat is that war is chaos; and the Army practices chaos on a daily basis
[This message has been edited by nick681 (edited 06-18-2001).]
