Steve, `haven't had the opportunity to try killing a pig with a Black Cloud yet, but having played the game for a few years I can say two things about them;
1. The actual blade shape on some models would be perfectly servicable.
2. Those type of thin gaurds are real uncomfortable when dispatching boar `cause you really have to ram the point home, and the techniques are different for pouncing on a boar's back and stick'n him in the armpit than they are for fighting a human while standing on both feet.
Retention is a neccessity on a pigsticker, but I think I could make some of those Black Cloud's work, the main thing is just the gaurd. I've been cut by both types of gaurds I listed in my above post doing this and related activities.
On a pure fighting knife they probably work fine because you're talking more finness than brute force, but even then I'd prefer a different treatment.
On either type of those gaurds you can improve them substantialy by radiousing the corners, and I mean to a semicircle, not just taking the edge off'em.
If you do that, they're not so bad. They still can concentrate the force on a small area and so aren't as comfortable as they could be, but they won't cut you if you do that fix.
Black Cloud is close, a Hell's Belle is close, and the Project is close; if we could just somehow make a hybrid...
Oh yeah, I'd thought about doing the "gaurdscales" too, the only thing is, on a knife that's that expensive I don't think I should have to. And, depending on material used, it will alter the point of balance to one degree or another if it's really as fine tuned as reported.
Still, I'd rather buy the Black Cloud and have something worth while than waste 900 frig'n dollars on a Mad Dog. No knife, hell, no sword, is worth 900 dollars unless it's an antique or something. If you really think about it, your $900 doesn't get you much in a Mad Dog, just something that looks like a kitchen knife that's reputed to have a comfy handle.
I have never seen a knife that was so uncomfortable as to make me want to spend that kind of money to correct that flaw.
By the way, being singularly unimpressed with Mad Dog's, I don't follow their pricing, so I'm just going by what I heard on that price. If they don't cost $900, and in fact are significantly lower, like a fourth of that or something, then I withdraw my statement.
Except the part about no knife, no matter what tactical boy wonder made it, is worth $900. I had a bloody hard time shucking out $300 for my Project, and it actualy offers something that's substantialy different that you get with a mass produced knife.
Oh yeah, that Spec Plus Marine Raider is a good bang for buck knife. I'd buy one, especialy at their msrp. I'd want the gaurd done different though...