Tom Brown's orignial knives

woah....I don't like that scout one. I wonder why he deviated from the design so much

wow D2 steel. That would be one hell of a tracker
 
Hmmmm. Doesn't seem to resemble the new one does it? I wonder how that original Tracker knife would perform if it had become a reality?
 
That seems like a very strange place to put a gut hook on the little skinner. Especially on a knife with a 3 inch handle.
 
Paul Davidson said:
That seems like a very strange place to put a gut hook on the little skinner. Especially on a knife with a 3 inch handle.
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I'm with you. Looks like an invitation to cut your first finger open -- even if you only use draw cuts.

Also too pointed to be used as a guthook.
 
looks to me like someone who has never skinned anything. remember Tom Brown is a nature worshiper or something like that. i do not think he actually hunts. but i could be mistaken(i usually am).
 
Not a PETA member. He teaches snares and traps.

One can have mountains of expertise on primitive living or survival and still know virtually little about knives. Look at Cody Lunden ("98.6 The Art of Keeping Your Ass Aline"). He imagines that SS knives are ALWAYS harder than carbon steel knives and illustrates the $10 Mora as the model of the rugged, full-tang knife. We are all limited by our experience, if we think we "know" are also limited by what we already know.
 
Is the front edge dual ground, he mentioned two different tasks?

That hook is supposed to be sharpened like a buck zipper?

On a knife with no guard?

commandojoe said:
D2 steel. That would be one hell of a tracker
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Yeah, especially when used as a spear head.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
On a knife with no guard?

-Cliff
Click to expand...

no guard is just fine to me.
the guard will help slightly in combat knife
but I don't see any reason why survival knife
should have a guard!!!???
cliff Please open my mind.


plan no useless move, take no step in vain.

ishiyumisan
 
ishiyumisan said:
no guard is just fine to me.
the guard will help slightly in combat knife
but I don't see any reason why survival knife
should have a guard!!!???
cliff Please open my mind.


plan no useless move, take no step in vain.

ishiyumisan
Click to expand...

Look at the drawing. Suppose the knife is gripped in your hand. That curved area infront of your first finger is sharpened. There is no guard to prevent the hand from sliding forward when this knife is used to process game (blood). You would almost inevitably slash your finger to the bone - not good in a survival situation.

In a survival situation, you may not be in the best of physical condition due to cold/heat/hunger/thirst/injury/fear. This means degraded fine motor skills -- you get clumsy. Most authorities suggest a guard on at least the blade edge side of a "survival" knife.
 
GUys,

These are some cool pics...

But I don't really take them to heart...

Here's why...

In the years when I was unable to actually make a knife...because I had no shop...no tools and no money...I sketched designs on everything...

I have an entire portfolio of designs I htought would work...and ones I tought were "do-able"...

But as I actually started to make knives...I realized a lot of them were highly impractical ...and just plain silly...

A lot of those sketches had small ideas that were worth developing...but as a whole...they were just ideas that would never be made...

MAybe this sketch is an idea...and then a maker got a hold of it...and so they changed a bit....

Just a thought....

Shane
 
I often wondered how long it would take someone to find this drawing & I'm happy to see someone finally brought it up.
For those who are curious about this design I certainly can bring some light to the matter as I know more about the "Tracker" knife than anyone.
I can't speak for the smaller knife pictured below as I've only ever seen a drawing myself but the Tom Brown Tracker survival knife shown was actually produced except that it never went by the name "Tracker" back then.
The drawing you see is the pattern Tom Brown drew. This was his origonal design & went by the name the "Medicine Blade" which was etched into the side of the knife. This was the origonal pattern that took Tom Brown seven years (as he claimed back then) to have designed. It was produced for him by a fellow named Ed Lombi, a machinist who stopped making this pattern in the early '90's after the demand for my knives skyrocketed & Ed went on to other interests.
His knife was made from 01 tool steel (1/4" thick from point to butt). It had a flat ground hatchet edge & a hollow ground draw knife. The top edge of the blade was tapered like the hatchet & had a single row of saw teeth which would only cut a "V" as deep as the teeth.
I handled one of these knives during my standard survival class while at Tom Browns' school back in 1987. Although very crude, I saw potential in the design which gave me the inspiration to take it to the drawing board & re-design the knife with my own improvements. From that point on, all of the changes & modifications made from this "Medicine Blade" pattern to the TRACKER knife as we know it from the "The Hunted" film were developed by myself & not Tom Brown. This new pattern was such am improvement that I was asked by Tom Brown himself to produce them for his students. His students began calling my knife the "Tracker" knife once it became associated with Tom Browns' TRACKER School & I became the first to trademark the name.
Of course there's more to the story but I'll leave it at that, now that I filled everyones' curiosity with some interesting historical facts about the knife that most folks never new.


David R. Beck
 
Wow! very cool information. Thank you for sharing this with us Dave. :thumbup:
 
Beck knives said:
I
I handled one of these knives during my standard survival class while at Tom Browns' school back in 1987. Although very crude, I saw potential in the design which gave me the inspiration to take it to the drawing board & re-design the knife with my own improvements.
David R. Beck
Click to expand...

why you stop to make the knife tracker?????????????
lot of people make better version than tops??????????
why not you again?????????
lot people wait for that answer!!!!!!!!!!!!
the knife you made before
unteachable price
for sam reason!!!!!!!!



plan no useless move, take no step in vain.

ishiyumisan
 
Wow...what an unexpected surprise! Dave, thank you very much for shedding some light on Tracker's History. I've handled the current production model and found it rather dull, figuratively of course. Perhaps I'd be able to purchase one of the ones you made if I strike it rich one day:)
 
The current production model of the TRACKER was re-designed by Tom Brown and produced for him by the TOPS knife company. This was their version that varied a bit from the knife I made for "The Hunted". I have never handled one but I am told it's a decent knife. Any shortcommings could probably be corrected by some fine tuning (OK, maybe alot of) but any knife of that complexity would be difficult to manufacture properly I'm sure on a production level while trying to keep it within a reasonable price range for the market their targeting.
Sometimes corners need to be cut to keep manufacturing profitable. On the other hand, the hand-crafted TRACKER knives are a different animal. More attention can be directed into its detail & construction so feel & performance is noticably enhanced, unfortunately that also means more labor time is involved to do the job right which often puts the pricing of custom knives higher than what we would like them to be. This is true of any knife so one must weigh the factors of necessity to get what's right for them. There is nothing bad about lesser quality & cost for one who uses their knives only on occassional outings but for those who are professionals or use their knives on a daily basis, higher quality & the prices that go with it can be justified. Of course collectables are another matter.

I began producing my TRACKER (also known as the WSK) again after the release of "The Hunted" and was running pretty well but I had some health issues which had caught up to me & I had to stop until things could be corrected. I know there are many who are wondering what's up? Well I had a neck fusion done last year for two herniated disks. Probably caused from my insane workouts & lunatic wilderness escapades in my younger years. That healed up just fine but now I need to have corrective surgery for a bad case of carpel tunnel in both wrists from years of knifemaking. It's gotten to the point where I can only make simpler knives as a hobby but I hope to raise the finances needed for surgery after the new years. Depending how that goes, we'll take it from there.
So there you go. I know there have been alot of rumors running around out there. Where did I go? I have even heard I had caught illness & died.
Na! Still here and ornery as ever & going nuts not making many knives but hopefully that'll change soon. Thanks for inquiring.

David R. Beck
 
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