Owners of the Battle Mistress.

tknife

tknife

Joined
Mar 18, 1999
Messages
9,966
Just wanted to see who all owns one, and how you like it. I've taken mine on several backpacking and camping trips. I've used it for chopping, whitteling, cutting some wire, and as a hammer. And I have not sharpened it yet, and it still shaves! I know it's a bit large, but has anyone cleaned a fish or other animal with it? Just curious as to all of it's survival knife applications.
 
Got one! It really does perform as advertised. I wouldn't part with my BM for anything. Anyone else out there own one?

-Greg
 
Is the handle confortable during extended heavy chopping? From the pictures I have seen it looks like the hook at the end would do a nice job at digging into your palm.

img14.jpg


-Cliff
 
I have one on order and it should be here within a couple of weeks. Man, I can hardly wait... I'll post my impressions on it when I get it.
 
Hi Cliff,
The hook portion can dig into the edge of your hand by your pinky when chopping heavily. I've found that if you reposition your grip to the meatier part of your hand, move your grip up the handle a bit, or wear a glove altogether, then that would alleviate the discomfort. One thing's for sure, the Battle Mistress won't fly off your hand when chopping because of that hook section. I even soaped up the handle and started swinging all over the place (ensuring that no one else was around, of course ;-). The knife didn't slip off my hand and it didn't even feel like it was going to.

-Greg
 
Thanks for the info Greg. I ordered one awhile ago so hopefully I'll get it this summer. The handle was the only thing that made me delay in getting one.

I figured that to get around the hook on the end I could maybe even position my grip up onto the finger cutout in the blade. Have you tried any heavy cutting like that. Is it possible or would it be too uncomfortable?

-Cliff
 
Cliff,
I tried some heavy whacking on maple, pine, and other woods, this while the outside temperature was about 12 degrees Farenheit. Just don't have the hook portion sitting right on your pinky finger. That could cause some discomfort. One thing that impresses me about the BM is the fact that it came out still shaving sharp, albeit not as sharp as before the chopping, even when I went all out. My chopping mindset would be such that I wanted to get the BM to fail. I'd hit it on the spine with a large piece of wood to aid in chopping through logs for firewood and I'd do this several times over. No damage to the blade, save a few scratches. It's definitely not a fighting knife, but I betcha it would do pretty good sentry removal duty if needed.

-Greg

P.S. On my last camping trip, my three other friends took turns with the BM, foraging for firewood. None of them could be classified as knifenuts. They did, however, also put the knife through it's paces. One of them affectionately call the knife the "Battle B**ch". Each time I handed the BM to one of them, I would chant my standard disclaimer:
"Careful! That knife's shaving sharp." It would come back in much the same condition.

[This message has been edited by grnamin (edited 14 April 1999).]
 
I do most of my smaller chopping with the index finger in the finger hold above the handle. The handle really works well as designed and I can always choke up for better control and finer choping. Both grips are comfortable and very functional. The Steel Heart works the same way.

Don't let the looks of the handle prevent you from getting one. Both "Big Bertha" and the Steel Heart are excellent knives.

Steve
 
I agree with Greg on the chopping. Position your hand so a meatier part comes in contact with that butt hook, and it won't hurt at all. I cannot get mine dull either! I am impressed with that INFI steel, whatever it is!
 
I am a bit concerned about the edge holding. Based on some of the reports I have seen it has very high abrasion resistance but that usually means low charpy values. A lot of the work I do is chopping on wood that forces the occasional impact on a nail, a rock or something similar. If the blade edge is that hard that is takes a very long time to dull I would wonder about it being so hard that it would notch very badly on tougher material. Is this a concern?

-Cliff
 
Cliff,

There is a good discussion on this point at:

http://www.knifeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000442.html

It would seem that the steel has a very good edge holding ability and is able to withstand impacts with hard objects (nails, rocks, etc.) without breaking the edge. Also, on Jerry's site, you can see the tests done on INFI steel and see how it handles some pretty tough tests. Of course, you've probably forgotten more about knives than I've learned, but I thought I'd share the info
smile.gif


Chris Canis

I don't remember waiting for Christmas when I was a kid being as tough as waiting for my Battle Mistress to show up!!! Only a few more weeks!
 
Chris, thanks for the link. While I usually don't place much faith in anything that a dealer or maker says about their products, Busse does make a lot of sense there. I am really looking forward to my BM.

-Cliff
 
Just for fun, I chopped through a pine 4X4 with my Mistress. About ten whacks on each side was all it took. Then, I pounded it through vertically with another piece of wood. Yes, It's still sharp. It just begs to be chopped with! And no sore pinky.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top