The idea of the SAR5 is great, its similar to the cabs in concept, but not in quality of finished design. There are elements that stand out as starkly 'unfinished'. Specifically the placement of the palm swell so far back on the knife, thickness of the scales, length of handle and shallow curvature in the handle to edge transition.
Jerry tends to have a pretty tight control over balance on his knives, sometimes doing extreme things like the pommel swell on the SAR4/6/8 in order to keep the balance in check and where he wants it. At least it seems that way to me. The sar5 does not display this skill in design, it is very handle heavy. I experienced a similar design flaw when I tried to redesign the sar5 when I sent it to garth to have the mod done, but I realized that I had not removed several of the problematic factors in my requested modification - specifically that the handle was too long, and that the scales started to far back. Both of these elements force the hand to be an inch farther back from the edge in order to get the knife to put the center of balance at your midle finger. If you chocke up into a controlled grip, the center of balance is at your pinky and you are barely holding onto the scales.
For some people that might not be a porblem, for me it's a design flaw. I want to have my hand close to the edge on my knife at all times, I want my gaurd to be minimal but substantial enough to be effective, and I want the knife balanced in a way that makes it feel either blade heavy or neutral - never handle heavy unless it's a carving knife. With a gaurdless knife even moreso. The sar5 felt like it was constantly trying to slip back into your hand, bringing the edge dangerously close to slipping through your fingers, especially when you hand was weak or shaking from exhaustion or over use from chopping/batoning.
As a search and rescue knife, it seems like a bad idea to me to a) force the hand to be far away from the edge to be comfortable, b) place the balance in a way that the knife is likely to slip into the hand when it is tired and week and trying to get a position of best control and c) create such a shallow curvature in the handle to edge transition that the slipping of the edge into exhausted hand is more likely.
I don't discount the fact that the sar5 is one of the only choiless busse knives out there (one of only 3 general use models besides the khukuries) - It is just not a perfect knife, as jerry said. He had very specific and very valid reasons for saying it - He heavily modified the design for production and did not get to have those modifications show in the final product.
...It is a 100% Custom Shop creation and a heckuva sweet knife. :thumbup::thumbup: I believe that it's the only CS 'Squatch variant released so far...that I know about, anyway! 
that Squatch is awesome Jaxx!!!!
