Reviews/Experience w/Al Mar Pathfinder Knife?

[95Bravo]

I saw the Brigade Quartermaster catalog with this knife. It looks like a cool design. The cost seems very reasonable but I am curious if anyone else has used one or how the edge holds up. I am basically looking for a beater camp knife in the 10" version.

Thanks in advance for all your input.

 

[tknife]

There was a review of it by Jeff Randall in TK a few issues back. He gave it a good review overall, but if I remember correctly, the brass guard came loose as soon as he chopped with it. I also don't think the steel is really well suited for a big chopping knife. It held up well in Jeff's testing though, so that says something. For the price it seems like a good big blade though.

 

[Greg Covington]

I had an AMK Pathfinder once but I found the handle to be horribly uncomfortable...you couldnt get a grip on it.

Overall better to go with a Becker Machax, Brute, etc.

 

[longbow]

Well I've never owned the Pathfinder but I did pick up another BQ knife to use as a heavy duty chopper. Now if I can remember the name of it without getting the box. It is the UC 934, designed by George Lainhart. Went and retrieved the box. It is really an excellant chopper and digger. It is a full tang ATS 34 blade with a really nice kraton rubber handle with full tang construction. The handle is a nice and soft so it readily conforms to your hand. Has a birds beak hook at the end of the handle and a single guard at the front with a ss thong hole. It is ATS 34 with a hardnes of Rc 56-57. Kind of soft but pliable as no edge deformation as of yet. Gets damn sharp too! It is nice and heavy and the blade is 3/16" thick. There is no distill tape to the blade and as stated earlier it is a heavy knife. It is coated in Birdsongs proprietary coating. It is I believe sabre ground half way up to the spine and the spine is full thickness throughout. The balance point is about 1.5" if front of the guard. It has the typical machete style blade but only alot shorter and I believe thicker. Truth is I have only used it once while stump shooting. Felt kind of foolish carrying this thing with my back quiver. I am kind of a minimilist when it comes to stump shooting. It does work as a heavy chopper though. If I was going to bush whack I think I could do a lot worse than this knife if that is what was all that was available. Actually when I used it I used it alot and there is absolutely no wear on the coating what so ever. The stuff is tough. I am thinking of having my .45acp done with this finish. But I am stuck on the stock two tone look of my CCO. Anyways for all of you looking for a heavy "camp knife" maybe you should look into something like this. I think it would work fine. Keep'em sharp

 

[not2sharp]

IIRC the AMK version has a 1/4" blade while the BQ version is only 1/8" stock. I would probably rather just go with a straight machete.

This is one of the AMK versions.

n2s

 

[Tazz10m]

I have the AMK double edge version... very well made, very useful, so i always carry it hunting and such. The thing works great when you need to cut a trail where there is none, especially in the Pacific North West when you're soaked, almost hypothermic, and it's dark, and your glasses are fogging up and way out has just evaporated. (Saved my life in a few times like that). Puts a machete to shame, although there was this sweet lobed machete with a sightly rounded tip i used while in Venezuela that was absolutely amazing, (and i'm still trying to find one), but that's another story... I agree about the shape of the handle needing to be more like a birds head. I'm tempted to round mine on a belt sander, but i'm worried Al Mar might start haunting me in the night. I've got Agrip on the handle, so other than that shape thing, it's really comfortable. I'd have to classify that knife as more of a short sword than a machete or camp knife or whatever. The thing would probably be faster on a bear than a .44 Mag! Btw, i've done a heck of alot of hard chopping with mine, including chopping down a several 8+ inch thick trees to make a bridge type "trail" over the top of a huge nasty blackberry patch. The whole assembly is still very tight. Also, the sharp edges are fairly thin, so it's best to avoid hacking on hard dry branches that might cause you to twist the blade and snap a moon out of the edge. (yep, did that too... but i sent it back to AMK and they fixed it PERFECT...).

 

[DocJD]

My review here is only for the record , as I realize that this thread is quite dead .

I purchased an early model Al Mar Pathfinder in the early 1980's from Mathews Knife Co . Very expensive for a machete -but the hype was that you could absolutely rely on it to chop your way thru the Amazon jungle , if necessary .

~15 minutes of hacking thru KY hardwood saplings was all it took to send the whole blade foreword of the guard flying away into the bush - clean broken off at the hilt !

I guess their tempering and QC had gone to shite . Al Mar did send me a new one , which I've not broken but did develop a wobble to the grip . Not surprising because there seems to be only one central pin just under the cute gilded logo .

For the cost of that piece of crap I could have bought quite a few less pretty but far more trustworthy . Never even considered another product from Al Mar !