Thanks for posting Rob! Happy New Year! If you had to rank order them, beginning with the most capable, what would be your assessment? They are all clearly capable of chopping, but I'm curious where you would place that Fusion BM. Thanks--
I sometimes think about this and there's so many variables that crop up that determine what makes a good chopper/hard use outdoors knife. The MOAB is just a pure wrecking machine, plain and simple, and the MOABOLO isn't far behind it. I've found over the years of doing this sort of thing that what I am actually chopping plays a huge role in the performance on the knife. I've found that green hardwood really grabs and binds knives, especially full flat ground blades, but once the wood is opened up a bit, they just destroy it. The MOAB got stuck a little in this video as you probably saw, purely because it bites so deep and it's hard to pull out (I am a bit of a wuss). That wood is dry flooded gum. Hard as iron and a very dense grain. The knife was biting into it an inch at a time and my puny lady arms struggled to pull it out
The FBM is probably not far behind the MOABOLO in performance, from what I've experienced anyway. I have found it to be an awesome all rounder and like all Busse knives, pretty much indestructible. I have beat on that thing like no tomorrow and it just laughs at me
So to answer you question, I would place it 3rd behind the MOABOLO -
1. MOAB
2. MOABLOLO
3. FBM
4. DF & 1111
5. NMFSH
The performance gap between 3 & 5 is so small and subjective it really comes down to personal preference. I LOVE the ResC handles, so comfy I can chop for ages with them. But then there's the full exposed tangs of the others that just screams bomb proof. The Fusion handles are incredibly comfortable, the most comfy out of all the full tang knives I've ever used.
All these knives are awesome in their own way and excel at what they are designed to do. And them some.
