tom brown tracker knife

[SIRGALANT]

is this a serious survival knife , or just a gimmick?

 

[Codger_64]

I expect that you will get a wide spectrum of answers on this question. Some owners drool and fawn over their attributes. I supose I might if I had shelled out the bucks they sell for. They are supposed to combine the utility of several tools, and I suppose they might to some extent. I find them to be a bit gimmicky, and to loose many of the important attributes of the tools they seek to replace. Keep in mind though, I feel the same about most SAKs. The U.S. Milspec Utility Knife is about as far as I go in that particular direction. I never found the need to "baton" a knife, or needed saws, pliers, scissors, etc. I am more fond of traditional hunter designs for my hunting and general woodsrunning. This may be just a generational thing, as every successive generation tries to improve on what the preceeding one used or did. Human nature I suppose.

My gut instinct is that as people isolate themselves more and more from the environment, they try to make up for lack of skill, knowledge and experience with purchased gimmicks. Hunters and fishermen, backpackers are high on this list, IMHO.

Red Scorpion makes a quality version of this knife. A search will turn up a review by owners/enthusiasts of the genre and some explanations by the designer for the utility of his design. I'll not say they/he is wrong, because I don't own one.

Codger

 

[Vivi]

Codger, out of curiosity how do you get your fires going in the heavy rain?

 

[Codger_64]

Good question, but rather than take the TB Tracker thread off-topic, let's move the question to it's own post, Vivi. OK?

Codger :thumbup:

 

[darkestthicket]

It works, i have a review of it on the knife review part of this forum, its not that "gimmicky" in usage, only in the way the knife is promoted is gimmicky. I havent found a knife that will do as many tasks as proportionately well, but there are several knives that excell at single tasks. Im waiting to get a "wilderness survival Kukri" from Dan Koster to do some comparison, you might want to check his design out, looks more usefull in my opinion.

 

[Bumppo]

I ordered the Tom Brown Tracker the day before "The Hunted" Came out, thinking the price would jump after opening day. I had handled a "Beck" version while attending one of Tom Browns courses. I thought the knife would be the same, and it turned out drastically different. I was dissapointed in it, and found it clunky and innefficient. Especially while chopping. On the other hand, most people I talk to think a little higher of it. Shortly afterward I bought a Swamp Rat Camp Tramp and found it met my needs better, and tossed the Tracker into a bag and stuffed it into a closet. Maybe one day I will have it modified, but for now it is in knife limbo.

 

[SIRGALANT]

ok thanks guys .

 

[Gossman Knives]

I just redid the edge on one.

Even though I was able to get it cutting much better, IMO, these are just too thick for the type of grind on them. I would much prefer it with a straight edge, either full flat or convex grind. I don't care for the double grind.

This pic, I was able to shave wood pieces off seasoned black walnut better after thinning the edge and suprisingly, I cut a free standing water bottle in two.

Scott

 

[dante]

Can you detail the angles of the reprofiling. I have one and will be reprofiling it soon to reduce the thick factory edge.

 

[Kevin the grey]

Was that freestanding water bottle empty ? Even full it would be a neat trick .

 

[westllen]

real nice work on the tracker, great pic's thanks for sharing Scott:thumbup:

 

[Gossman Knives]

Can you detail the angles of the reprofiling. I have one and will be reprofiling it soon to reduce the thick factory edge.

I started at a high angle as if resharpening and worked it down to where the grind stops. Once the secondary bevel disappeared, I went back and resharpened as normal on the slack belt.
Kevin, the bottle was full. It's like they do in the ABS cutting comps.
Thanks westllen.
Scott

 

[hikeeba]

is this a serious survival knife , or just a gimmick?

As Codger stated, posing this questions will bring out a vast variety of different answers. Mostly what I've seen, It's a love it or hate it deal.

The 'gimmicky' aspect, and opposite functional aspect, of the TB Tracker ( and any other WSK design) is in the eye of the beholder. There are different strokes for different folks. I think what gets overlooked a lot in this forum is that we don't gravitate so much towards what we need, but what we want. We exist in a time with a vast array of choices. 100 years ago, there were no SAKs, WSKs, Bic lighters, mag blocks, Camelbaks, decent backpacks, etc. now, we can pick and choose from a multitude of different tools to take into the woods.. Or not. It all depends on what type of experience the end user wants. Me, I like to have fun. Sometimes I like to work hard to have fun, other times I like to go easy.

I have a RED Scorpion Six Predator WSK, and I love it. I haven't had much opportunity to really use it much, but what using I did easily fulfilled my expectations of the knife. Sure, I could have easily used my little Mora knife to whittle tarp stakes, make notches, make fuzz sticks, and what have you. The saw on the Predator made speedy-clean work of notching, the draw knife made carving easy. Actually, I didn't use my Mora at all on the trip just to exercise the Predator. It worked great for me and what I was doing.

But that's me. I wasn't in a life-or-death survival situation. And honestly, I hope I never am. My RS6 Predator WSK did everything I expected of it, and I would imagine most owners of the TB Tracker would say the same thing. So for me, the WSK design is not gimmicky. I see it as a multitool, because it can do a variety of tasks. Again, that's my 2 cents, and I don't expect folks to jump on the bandwagon.

Edit: By the way Scott, I like what you did with your Tracker. I have been considering reprofililing the draw knife portion of my RS6 Predator, but I think I want to use it more before I make changes to it.

 

[Thomas Linton]

Hikeeba, where do you grasp the knife with your left hand to use it as a draw knife?

 

[hikeeba]

You can use a piece of cloth, boonie hat, pliable bark, etc to place over the saw portion when using the draw knife. I've seen one example where a person used the baton method to drive the blade the tip of an unknown WSK into a chunk of wood, and then used the wood as a handle during draw knife use. It seemed to work fine for that person, but I'll pass on that method.