In all honesty, I had never really been much of a fan about a TB tracker and also admittedly, it's because of "that movie." The movie completely misrepresented the use of the blade. It was used as a combat knife, not as a survival blade [as was meant] and I was completely turned off by the hype and movie-marketing that is what sold it.
Scan forward a few years. I have a friend who bought the large version. Excited about it, he sends me pics in email and I was like, "dude...wtf did you waste your money on that for??" He got all kinds of PO'd at me, daring me to come over and look at it first-hand. So I did.
well...he hands me the knife and leads me out back and he said something that made me actually rethink my position on the blade...
"I know you don't like it because of the 'hype' thing and that's fine. The movie portrayed it as a combat knife but I'm asking you to think about it ONLY as it pertains to woods-craft and hunting/camping-type survival." I was like, "fine."....still looking at this thing with what I can only describe as "epic stink-face."
So there I am in his back yard for about 5 hours - sawing, feathering, hacking, batonning, chopping and skinning a [pretty fat] squirrel with it.
I actually tried to rethink a strategy on how to completely hate that blade....and he new it LOL.
Problem was I really couldn't....not in terms of what the knife was actually created for - versus what it's not intended to do [the movie thing].
Now my own impressions after having handled it for some time were that it was way too thick for processing small game...at least for my taste. Yes it processed it but the [factory-ish/only slightly retouched] edge just wasn't sharp [or thin] enough to do what I wanted. It did it though, just not like my skinner [which is honed to a straight razor's edge]. To make the TB better [for me], the forward arc/edge would [IMO] have to be re-profiled a lot thinner than it is.
Batonning was pretty easy to do but was exceedingly harsh on the baton because of the saw. I literally replaced the baton 3 times in those few hours....but it did do the job well.
The saw - really makes notches in wood but that's about it. The saw itself isn't long enough to get a good stroke on for felling even 3" saplings - BUT...it's great at making tie-down locations for guy lines, general notches and such.
Feathering and using it as a "draw knife" was easy and effortless. Gotta give it that...
Digging in and prying wood open was easy to do because I had no worries the thick blade would break. BUT....the pommel area of the handle isn't suited for hammering on.
Weight distribution was something I had to reason out. Unwieldy in the hand for things like skinning small game but it was great for swinging/chopping and feathering.
Even though it was very well made, I was not a fan of the stock sheath. I would have preferred it be seated into one of the "monster sheaths" that hold Altoids tins, etc.
So I asked myself, "Still hate it?" and had to answer "no." I then asked myself, "Could I live with it in the woods" and I had to answer "yes" - but I also have to counter that with "but I already have tools better suited for my specific jobs."
If you were to apply the "one-tool-option" suggestion then yes, I suppose this knife would fit that category - but I cannot personally justify spending the $300+ on something that only does part of what I want - I'd have to modify some of the things to make it work for me.
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