Thoughts on the TOPS Tom Brown Tracker?

It's a cool outdoor knife for anyone who doesn't know a lot about outdoor knives.

Get it if you're a real fan of the movie. Don't get it if you want to use it.

 

It's been pretty thoroughly dissected here a few times. It's all sizzle, no steak.

 

The Tracker has a huge following - just not here.
Personally, I dont get it. At all.

 

I'll bet when you were a scout you probably had a Buck 110, Buck 112, or a some form of Swiss Army knife. Why not start your son off with one of those?

 

A friend had one. I tried it out in the woods. I was not impressed. I don't like the blade design.

I don't think it performs well enough to justify the cost.

For $200, I'd get a TOPs BOB in G10 $130 + Corona folding saw (Lowes $20) + Mora Kansbol Green $34 for the son. $ leftover to get a saw for the son too if you want. Bahco and Silky make a good saw too and they might be a little smaller too if the Corona is too big.

I purposely picked TOPs as the fixed blade choice since you said you were a fan. You could go Buck, Kabar, Terava Jaakaripukko, or Ontario and save some $.

Check out the Corona vids on utube, they give Silky and Bahco a run for the $.

I have a Corona, great saw for the $.

 

If you can deal with the blurry Photobucket photos, here's a review:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/the-tom-brown-tracker-is-okay.1285502/

It's an okay knife...not great, but it works fine.
I brought another one along in case the Tracker wouldn't perform, and didn't need to use it at all.

Don't believe the hype.
Don't believe the hate.
Both sides often base it on nothing at all, never having used the knife.

 

You may want to look at the Tops SXB. It’s looks like a Tracker on steroids but fixes some of the problems with the knife. It is still an acquired taste, just a little more functional.

n2s

 

If it wasn’t a Tom Brown branded knife it would probably be $75-$100 less. Ive seen people use them for fire wood processing, to make feather sticks and chop wood.
Ive contemplated getting the smallest version for the feather sticking aspect. But I dont need it. Its a cool looking design. If the price was more in line with other knives I would have it.

 

Plenty of other makers out there making iterations of these, should one want to try out a WSK/Tracker-like knife.

 

-Caleb Cox
-Dave Beck
-Ed Martin
Etc.

Plenty on the second hand market as well.

 

I had never seen one in the wild until I stopped in at SMKW. While I think the idea was cool in theory, it just seems like a hodgepodge of ideas glued together.

I would buy one if I had some extra money. I think I could press it into service on a camp site. However, I dont think i would tout it as a be-all-end-all survival tool.

 

Do a search here and on google/youtube to see the history of the Tom Brown Tracker. Seems like a bit of stolen valor going on.

 

Zero results.

Any chance you're talking about the guy who says that's he's the son of the guy that invented the knife and thinks he should get a piece of the action?

If his revamp of the design did one thing it made the TOPS version look reasonable. The top is is his and the bottom is something a forum member did to tone it down.