The Great Muk-Off of 2024

AntDog

AntDog

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2001
Messages
26,710
I recently acquired a Busse Hog Muk LE. By complete coincidence, my buddy Alone Alone was shipping an Esse JG5 and Joker Nessmuk for me to try out. As luck would have it, they all arrived the same day. I figured why not have a Muk-Off?



My first impression observations: the JG5 is a very handsome knife. The blade is relatively thin and full flat ground, which I love. It has a stout, relatively pointy tip. The handle is extremely ergonomic - really locks on to your hand. The problem with that is the grip has zero versatility. It’s Sharp!

The Joker looks and feels like it will not be my cup of tea at all. The point is not pokey. It’s got a high saber grind. The handle doesn’t have a palm swell, so the middle part of the bottom of the handle doesn’t feel like it even touches my fingers - like I’m only getting any grip at the front and the rear of the handle. I LOVE the blade steel on this one - 14c28n. Sharp!

The Busse on initial handling squeezes alllll my dopamine dispensers. The point is pointy, but still beefy. The handle is very ergonomic to my particular hand, and somewhat neutral - you can choke way up, you can choke back, hammer, reverse, lots of leverage. The blade is full flat ground, but came dull as a damn butter knife. A session on the ruixin pro solved that. Now it’s sharp.

My wife loves the look and feel of the Joker, loves the look of the JG5 but doesn’t like how it feels, says the Busse feels far too large for her hand but digs the looks.

My son had the exact same first impressions of each that I did. I raised the boy right. When it comes to knives, he’s my carbon copy.

My daughter (13) hated the look and feel of the joker, loved the look and feel of the JG5, and loved the look and feel of the Busse. She said that one’s her favorite.

One thing all of these knives have in common that I absolutely love is that they have NO CHOIL.

Ok, first impressions out of the way…. How do they WORK?
 
Last edited:
Kitchen Duty:

The JG5 was “meh” for kitchen duty. It got the job done, but behaved like the blade wasn’t really meant for it. The handle sure was comfy for this, but the blade seemed to get “hung up” and have real problems cutting both vegetables and meat.



The Joker shined in every aspect of this except for the feel of the handle. It zipped right through everything with ease. This would make a passable camp kitchen blade, no doubt.



The Busse, frankly, sucks in the kitchen. It cut/smashed through vegetables but it did cut chicken and beef ok-ish. My boy and I got the feeling this one really wasn’t meant for this job.



Shot of all 3 together after “KP”:

 
“Bushcrafty” stuff with the JG5:

Since these are not kitchen knives, this is where we get down to brass tacks. This will probably be the main use of these three amigos.

The JG5 actually chops surprisingly well for its size. 1”-2” saplings were cleaved easily with a couple of good snap cuts. It batons, but you really have to pound on it to get it through. It will whittle and make fuzz sticks, but it takes a shocking amount of force to get that done. I fully expected this blade to work better than it did.









Love the size, the look, the steel, but the performance on this one was lacking in me and my son’s opinion. It performed “alright” and that shocked me.

The handle is very “one note”. There’s not a lot of options there other than putting your thumb on the spine for extra leverage, or not.

Here it is with an ergo mean street:

 
Last edited:
“Bushcrafty” stuff with the Joker:

We were stupefied by how well this thing worked. Point blank. The handle still didn’t feel great due to the lack of a palm swell, and it fatigues the f@ck out of your hand when working with it for longer periods, but it works.

It will chop when choked back, but doesn’t excel at it. No surprises there. We didn’t bother putting it through anything larger than 1” diameter, but it did a passable job.

It batons great! Couple good whacks and it’s in, goes the rest of the way silky smooth. No complaints. Here’s my boy pounding it through:





It makes fuzz sticks with aplomb, whittles like an angry beaver, and will even bore holes with the tip despite its blunt appearance. BUT, it does fatigue the shit out of your hand due to that handle.



Overall, we were both very pleased with the performance of this knife.
 
“Bushcrafty” stuff with the Busse:

The Hog Muk will chop choked way back. I chopped up to 2” branches with it and it bites right in. It was the best at batonning but 🤷‍♂️. A few good clomps and it was splitting the wood all the way down.

Considering the piss poor performance of this knife in the kitchen, me and my boy expected this thing to totally suck at whittling, but it did not. It chews right in and smoooothly. We both were impressed by how smooth the cuts were. The handle is excellent as well, so no fatigue.



Tip is plenty pokey. Stabs stuff well.



This thing slashes through cardboard like a razor. It did everything we put it to except cut food.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top