Stright blades

M

Mark Smith

Joined
Sep 22, 2001
Messages
8
I would a little help in picking out a good survival stright blade Iam thinking of the Anaconda by Tactical-Opps-USA..? But it might be to big at 9.5 inch blade. An ideas??:confused: THANKS
 
Eeek!!!!! :eek: A 9 1/2" blade!!! Will you be surviving in a bear and crocodile filled area? :) I'd say that something smaller might be more practical in most situations.

I must be a wimp, having seriously looked into a TOPS Overlander. This knife is a toothpick compared to what you've looking at. ;)
 
Mark,

Welcome to the forums.

Why don't you begin by telling us a little about how a survival knife would fit into your kit? Survival means very different things to different folks. Your knife is just one of the tools that you would want to have on hand - and your kit should be geared to a specific scenario.

n2s
 
Hi Mark,

I'm assuming you want an all-around outdoors/combat survival blade.

With that in mind, for a survival blade a bit smaller than 9", check out the Busse Steel Heart (7.5" blade, $297), Busse Basic 7 (7" blade, about $160-200), or Busse Natural Outlaw (6" blade, $257). Do you see a Busse pattern here? ;) Webpage for Busse knives is http://www.bussecombat.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi These are IMHO the best survival blades you can buy today. The warranty on Busses is one of the strongest going. Jerry Busse expects his knives to be used in extreme high-duress jobs and builds them to take the beating & come back laughing for more.

For info on Busse's INFI steel & rather unique edge geometry, see Cliff Stamp's review here: http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/busse_bm.html Note that the picture in that review is of the discontinued straight handled Battle Mistress. The Busse webpage above shows the newer ergonomic handles. INFI steel is a very tough, somewhat ductile matrix with hard carbides yielding overall RC hardness around 60.

Here is Cliff's review of a Busse Basic 7: http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/busse_basic.html
And here is a thread with pictures of the knife after he finally managed to kill it with two years of hard abuse: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138921

While there are lots of good makers making very nice blades in this field whose work I own, Busse is pretty much the only name on my short list of blades to grab when my equipment absolutely, positively cannot fail.

My quick $.02,
Greg
 
Enviroment plays a large part specifically the type of vegetation. If you are living in a tropical area then a light machete will be very valuable, say 1/16" thick with an edge grind, or 1/8" with a full grind. However if the vegetation is more dense and hard then you will want something akin to a parang/bolo/khukuri. In regards to size, a 10" blade is about the least I would want for handling woody vegetation, not only does the chopping ability decrease rapidly with smaller blades but they are much harder to use for limbing and splitting.

Getting specific, the Anaconda has a sabre-hollow grind, not what I would want in a blade because of the combination of low penetration, high binding and low edge durability. I would prefer a convex ground blade or at least a full flat grind. Something like the Battle Mistress from Busse Combat. It basically functions like a small parang. It has enough length and heft to make short work of small wood (3-5" in diameter Pine say), and clear up much larger wood which can be cut to length by a small swede saw, quality folding ones are available. When you go with a smaller piece like the Battle Mistress instead of a full size parang (or axe again depending on the vegetation and what you want to do), you are basically going along the "one knife" route.

Something else to consider would be a heavy duty machete from Barteaux and a decent pruning saw or a folding swede saw. Complement this with a good small knife, like the Deerhunter from A.G. Russel, or even a Mora belt knife and you would be well set. The saw will easily fell 3-6" wood, the machete can easily limb it out and handle clearing of small brush and the belt knife will handle any other task. A quality hatchet can replace the saw, and will work with similar speed, but it requires much more effort and control and thus will not be nearly as effective as the saw when heavily fatigued or injured.


-Cliff
 
A little more history about my kit,I have Sven saw I bring along , a Benchmade AFCK ,a small swiss army knife a small 2# hatchet . I bushwack backpack.canoe ,wilderness camping with my family and I like knives so I want good allround combo knife.Plus I have several hunting knives but I dont bring them along except for hunting trips .THANKS for inputs its starting to help decide on a new knife for a Christmas pressent to my self... Ihope!! MJS
 
For more info on the Anaconda, check out Ron Hood's site

Ron Hood is the designer of that blade, and he uses it in some of his survival videos. The Anaconda seems to work for him. You can e-mail Ron and get mroe info from him as well on your choice. He has used customs, Anaconda, khukuris, and more.
 
Hi Mark,
maybe you want to take a look at a Fjällkniven A1. I think, it would fullfill your needs. I am just thinking about buying one for myself.
Regards ,
Markus
 
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