Tom Brown Tracker knife

H

Hix

Joined
Jan 7, 2006
Messages
50
How many of you folks have one of those knives ? With that sweep of wide blade must be a decent skinning knife .
 
I don't own this knife, but to me it doesn't look practical. There are simply too many things it tries to incorporate. If you want a skinning knife there are many vastly superior designs. Take a look at old hickory if you're on a budget or Bark River if you're not (Wolf River is nice) . Many people think they need an enormous blade to skin an animal when in fact it is the opposite, the Inuit like to use swiss army knives for this task and others use scalpels. Of course most who bring small knives on a big game hunt also bring an axe or hatchet for butchery. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, there are many people on this forum that love the design.
 
Hi Hix,
a lot has been written about the Tracker design here on the forum. I own a Tracker (Schanz WSK), and I would not recommend it anymore. I guess, I will sell it. My main criticism is, that it is clumsy. For most of the tasks it is simply not very handy.
 
ive handled one and agree it is rather clumsy. other will boast it is the best thing out there because of its versatility. My issues with it include the weird grind it has. once you rebevel it is decent. second the thing is rather heavy. Third there are much better skinning knives out there.
 
Uh oh, here we go again. :rolleyes:

This knife is one of those things that people tend to really like or really dislike. . . There's not much, if any middle ground.

I haven't handled one, and there is nothing about it that gives me any desire to do so. I think it can probably do a lot, but I doubt that it does anything particularly well.

I won't elaborate any further because plenty has been written about it already. The Bladeforums search engine is a little sketchy, but if you go to the advanced search options on Google you can choose to get results only from a particular domain, such as "bladeforums.com" and effectively search the forums with Google instead of the forum search engine.
 
I own one. I like it, but I've found the edge is just way too thick on the curved portion if the blade.
When you're chopping wood, it just doesn't "bite" into what you're chopping, so it takes a lot more effort to chop through anything.
I haven't tried skinning with it, but I could tell you it wouldn't work too well, just too thick and heavy.

Regards,
Eric
 
I own one also, and like mrskillz I don't enjoy cutting wood with it it seems not to do the job. But in a Survival situation where durablity is the issue I would believe it would hold up extremely well.
 
mrskillz said:
I own one. I like it, but I've found the edge is just way too thick on the curved portion if the blade.
When you're chopping wood, it just doesn't "bite" into what you're chopping, so it takes a lot more effort to chop through anything.
I haven't tried skinning with it, but I could tell you it wouldn't work too well, just too thick and heavy.

Regards,
Eric
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. For something that small to really chop well it needs a finer edge but the whole knife just has this fairly steep V grind. Even whittling and cutting the edge is too steep.
 
yeah I got sucked into tracker vortex, I think the concept is sound. however for a design like it to work it must have a convex edge and a offset saw back.
 
Too many things in one package, I've said this many, many times and Im a firm believer in the right tools for the job, this is totally impractical to me.
 
a tapered bolo type knife with a convex grind , and if it was essential , a saw back , would be my personal answer to this knife

this is being thunk without having tried a TB tracker tho ,
 
Interesting . Thanks for the comments . I have several good skinners , one of which is an old Buck Akanua . I was just curious what you guys thought of the Tracker .
 
The tracker is just not useful. i bought one and i literally loathed it. its not balanced and is god awful heavy. buy a good kukri and a basic sak and you will be ten times happier. just my opinion.
Thomas
 
I do not own a TOPS Tracker. I thought about getting a TOPS TB Tracker knife for a long time. Instead, I purchased a Red Scorpion Six Blades Predator WSK. The predator is more true to Dave Beck's original WSK design than the TOPS Tracker. I like my Predator a lot. I has performed admirably for me. It carves, notches, chops, and takes a baton just fine for me. I haven't skinned anything with it, and I don't intend to. I would imagine it could work, but I agree that there are a million other tools out there better suited for skinning.

I've said it beofre, and I'll say it again. I like the WSK concept. I see the WSK as a single blade multitool. The WSK design is capable of performing a variety of tasks, but it will not be the absolute best tool for those tasks. It works for me. I'm glad I have one. It is my front line piece for camping/packing trips this year.
 
They are very good knives, made of high quality, if not the "buzzword" materials.
I read a review for the steel eagle a few days ago, and they actually didn't say very good things about it. What really shocked me was the sawing test with the serrated edge on breaking report.
But I found strange that on the tracker knife made of same steel and saw teeth no SUCH REPORT!!??
 
Fonly said:
Too many things in one package, I've said this many, many times and Im a firm believer in the right tools for the job, this is totally impractical to me.
Click to expand...

+ the appropriate number

I don't much like the super-combo gear. Axe for chopping, knife for slicing, saw for sawing. Not really all that much extra weight, and you are miles ahead performance wise.
 
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