Anyone who buys a Strider knife because it has cult status has got his head screwed on backwards. I own five Striders, one Busse, 10 Spydercos, three Benchmades (well, now two, as I just sold a Nimravus), and two Emersons.
There are knives and there are combat knives. The most beautiful knivs are customs. But if you listen to custom collectors talk about their knives, the discussion centers on handle materials and designs. The blade of the knife is secondary, almost superfluous. As long as it's made of a good off-the-rack steel, that's the end of that.
With combat knives, it's exactly the reverse. Talk about handles is minimal. Most discussion centers on the blade--metallurgical compostion, edge grind, blade geometry. The top combat knife makers--Strider, Busse, Mad Dog--have their own special metallurgical recipes. This is a big part of what you pay for--customized blade metal. Log onto Swamp Rat Knives' website, where Jerry Busse discusses the pros ad cons of different metallurgical compostions for combat situations. It's a college education in blade metallurgy.
I think of Busses as the Rolls Royces of combat knives. Busses are tough and elegant. I think of Striders as the Hummers of combat knives (without the gas mileage problem). Busses are built like bullet-proof limos. Striders are built like tanks. Strider knives aren't pretty. Strider knivers are overbuilt. But hold a Strider knife in your hand--whether it has a 3 1/2 inch blade or a 7 1/2 inch blade--you feel like a) this knife isn't going to break, b) this knife will penetrate pretty much anything, including splitting bone; c) this knife is impervious to pretty much any of the elements.
Hold a Strider knife and you feel like you're holding what may be hte toughest, meanest, deadliest knife on the planet. It's stupid to elevate that into cult status, It is what it is. Strider knives aren't--or shouldn't be--objects of worship. Snipers require special weapons that deliver extraodinary precision. Striders are the sniper rifles among combat knives. But they are just tools, not objects of worship. If you want to worship something, worship Busses, which are the most beautiful and elegant combat knives.
But you don't see a whole lot of Rolls Royces on the battlefield. You do see a lot of Hummers. Hold a Strider, any Strider, and you immediately know that in a life or death sitiuation, this is the knife you want in your hand. That's pretty much the start and finish of it.
But to turn Striders into fetish objects is, in my opinion, dumb. May as well fetishzie the best hammer.On the oher hand, when you move into a dangerous situatiion, you want the most serious equipment. When it comes to combat knives, that eipejent s one of not two rriders.
