Only Bark river passed knife tests !!!

I look at it this way (please no flames as I am not flaming at anyone else and I do not represent what I am saying/thinking as absolute fact...just my opinion).

Picture this for a minute. Take a whole bunch of guys that spend a pile of time in the field. Give them as a group $5000 (or whatever it was) worth of various knives that they thought were worth testing for whatever reason. Let them use them in everyday tasks for a year. Poll them for their opinion. I would think their consensus would count for something. One of my best friends is a former recon marine (not force recon, but fully trained and served in recon battalion for three years). He knows absolutely nothing about knife steels, handle materials, rake, bevel angle, convex vs hollow ground edge, or appropriate nomenclature for the parts of a knife. When I asked him how he chose his main carry knife, he said, "a bunch of guys had this Ka-Bar, and it worked so I got one too." He told me that if equipment stood up, it was used, and if it failed, they tried something else until they found something that didn't break as fast as the other stuff and they all started using that item. Seems like a pretty good criterion to me even though it isn't really scientific, or backed up with stringent qualitative analysis.

All that being said, I have several other brands of knives that I prefer over the Bark River product, and I don't have an axe to grind with any one or any maker. I did receive a Green Canvas Bravo-1 today, and it is one hell of a knife that I think would handle just about any job you threw at it.

One last thought. If the marines chose any other knife brand to build their knife as a modification of an existing model within that brand, don't you think that maker would have made at least as big a deal of it as Mike at BRKT did? I think so. Again all this is just my opinion, I respect other's opinions, please respect mine.
 
We had a nice thread going here 'till you came around and tried to inject some sanity into it.

Great post!

John
 
So the Marines have discovered an age old Loveless design. This knife is a knock off of the Loveless trailing point. Nothing wrong with copying it. It works, And very well. I doubt that the makers even know where the desigh came from. Loveless Profile blade. Loveless style guard. Loveless designed grip. To include the fawns foot butt, Lanyard hole placement, Loveless style bolts, and the palm swell. Everything Loveless except the Choil. Bob (and I) Hate them. Wound'nt you know it! They're one major complaint! Seem's the Marines don't care for them either. They ruin an otherwise clean design! The thumb ramp is a lousy Idea. Thats why we got away from them years ago. Mike
 
mlovett said:
So the Marines have discovered an age old Loveless design. This knife is a knock off of the Loveless trailing point. Nothing wrong with copying it. It works, And very well. I doubt that the makers even know where the desigh came from. Loveless Profile blade. Loveless style guard. Loveless designed grip. To include the fawns foot butt, Lanyard hole placement, Loveless style bolts, and the palm swell. Everything Loveless except the Choil. Bob (and I) Hate them. Wound'nt you know it! They're one major complaint! Seem's the Marines don't care for them either. They ruin an otherwise clean design! The thumb ramp is a lousy Idea. Thats why we got away from them years ago. Mike
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I would be surprised if Mike Stewart and the gang at Brak River weren't well versed in the legendary knives of Mr. Loveless. I would also be interested to hear why you believe the thumb ramp is a bad idea...considering it was specifically asked for by the people using the knife?:confused:
 
Actually I do not know Mike personally but I have read his stuff at the other place and at JD and I have been pretty darn impressed with some things.

ONE. He actually makes knives, LOTS of them, and fixes knives even other brands that people send in. He has been doing this for many many years,

TWO He is more than willing to talk about what works, what doesn't, why he does not use some steels and why some are always used. He makes knives. he tries them out, sees what works and what does not.

THREE. He does not try to argue, he just says what's his experience and lets you decide.

FOUR, in his shop, all knives are basically hand made. sure they cut the blanks with a laser, but that is just layout, the fit, finish, final polish, handle etc are all done by hand by skilled workers, some who have been there for several years.

Being a small shop, they have made several lots of knives for guys going overseas in units. They have developed a good reputation of putting Great knives in the hands of people who use them. I have no idea of the tests involved. It makes no difference to me. I do not care if they just cut cardboard or if they batoned the tips into a tree and used them as steps. Maybe the Marines just sat whittled with them. I do not care. What I do care about is that the Marines involved were able to deduce that there was a difference about the knives, and that the BRKT seemed to win the selection process.

If you want a coated blade, get one, it does not bother me, If you try a coated blade next to a plain blade and you find that the plain blade works better, admit it. If you like the concept of a dark blade for "stealth" then get some cold blue and make the blade dark.


Just my two cents.
 
Dincha know? Coated blades are fer fightin' off that scary patina effect!!!:cool:

I happen to think some guys doing survival instruction, among their other duties, didn't want to look forward to scraping off a crinkle coat in order to turn their blades into improvised signalling devices. That's a lot of wasted field expedient slurry and ill-affordable elbow grease there.
 
I have a lot of bark rivers, the gameskeeper was one of the first among them.
I don't have a bravo and I dont intend to buy one just because it's not quite my taste.
To tactical looking. I do have some other bark rivers on preorder because I know how good they are and I dont need the marines to tell me.
It's actually quite funny how this word (marine) boost the interest.
Mike actually doesn't really need this.
As others told before they are a relative small compagny with a lot of handwork involved.
They like to switch all kind of models to keep the work interesting and have barely the time to meet the backorders from the retailers.
Besides they also make knives for other compagnies.
 
mlovett said:
So the Marines have discovered an age old Loveless design. This knife is a knock off of the Loveless trailing point. Nothing wrong with copying it. It works, And very well. I doubt that the makers even know where the desigh came from. Loveless Profile blade. Loveless style guard. Loveless designed grip. To include the fawns foot butt, Lanyard hole placement, Loveless style bolts, and the palm swell. Everything Loveless except the Choil. Bob (and I) Hate them. Wound'nt you know it! They're one major complaint! Seem's the Marines don't care for them either. They ruin an otherwise clean design! The thumb ramp is a lousy Idea. Thats why we got away from them years ago. Mike
Click to expand...

Mike has actually made a Bob Loveless style knife which is called the River's Edge Camp Knife: http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/784563/tp/1/
 
Ok first off, there is no way any of you are going to destroy a Gameskeeper through abusive survival use and abuse without some degree of difficulty. Owning and having used both of these knives, let me tell you that they are heavy users. As Esav said, the Marines did this of their own accord, this wasn't something "contracted".
If you are too hung up on price, moveon. Plain and simple. Personally, I've had more expensive knives do a poorer job at camp/field/survival tasks and was extremely inpressed with the Gameskeepers performance. Admittedly, the Bravo 1 hasn't been beaten on since it's a 1st run but I have no doubts whatsoever.
Mike and the crew at BRKT are driven and have some really cool direction with the styles they are releasing.
Not to mention the whole convex vs beveled edge argument, they simply out cut anything I've used to date.
Take it from someone who was a non-believer.
 
JESUS, I made it through about 9 pages and had to skip to the end, can anyone tell me if we have an official winner to this pissing contest?
 
Broos said:
The thread title would be better titled "Bark River gets Gov't knife contract". Not emphasizing a test that no one knows anything about.

Isn't this the same gov't that did extensive testing to figure out that a Beretta 9mm pea shooter should replace the venerable 45cal 1911? I would no way rely on their testing results for my knife purchases w/o knowing a lot more. Even though BRKT does make a great blade.
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The Gov't picked the Beretta because it was the BEST gun. You should really look into the tests they did...brutal.
 
I got mine today, and my recommendation goes past theoretical. Anyone that wants a tough knife they can use hard, but that has fine control ability, and is nigh impossible to break can look to the Bravo-1. :thumbup:

David
 
barkies006.jpg

barkies001.jpg
 
Received my Bravo-1 from DLT Trading yesterday afternoon. I ordered it on Monday morning. It has the Ram Horn grips. Upon inspection, I felt a tear streaming down my cheek, as the knife is truly a work of art. I sure would like to have had this knife when I went to "Nam".
I'm going to see if I can order the Mikro Canadian in the same configuration.
I want to thank you guys for this thread making me aware of this knife.
 
if Bark River was awarded an NSN for their Bravo-1 knife? I see a lot of mention of "Marines" and "Force Recon," but have been unable to locate an NSN associated with the knife. Just curious.

Regards,
3G
 
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