Why so little love for TOPS?

Bushcraft is mix of camp, trail and survival. Advanced skills such as to cut a stake with minimal effort. Many brands, tops is a heavy advertiser, many people stay away from mass produced "custom" or semi custom knives. Bottom line there is a lot of brands, vs makers. 1095 is prone to rust, so make sure it is treated or coated, easy to sharpen. High carbon is very tough, good for batoning, Bush craft? Long knives are less expensive to make from auto spring steel, hold up well to abuse, I mean Bushcraft.
 
Street Samurai1978 said:
And what exactly do we have against the criminally Oscar-denied film masterpiece that is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?:p
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I watched "47 Ronin" the other day. Couldn't help saying, "Whoa!" in that special way whenever dramatic things happened around Keanu.

/sigh
 
A little time out with the Tex Creek XL
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Heeeyyy!

I can post these here, too!







It's the one in the middle. TOPS Lil' Roughneck.

I wanted a sharpened prybar, in a pocket-carry size.

It seemed to fit the bill....
 
I LOVE my TOPS Tracker. I use that and my ESEE 3 as my go two knives all the time. I trust the TOPS to tackle any hard project and don't fear breaking it. I also have a ton of respect for Tom Brown Jr and believe that he knows what he is doing in designing it. When you leant just how many different things it is capable of get some practice in, it really shines!
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Here is my ESEE 3 after carving a large Mule buck.
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My first TOPS knives were a pair of Tahoma Field Knives. Love the knives. But, for the money, they should come with a decent kydex sheath, at least as an option. I mean, this is 2014 and all, and kydex rules.

Bought a UTE, and the blade is too thick for the length, IMO.

Next on my list is a Wilderness Guide 4.0.

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I only have the Prather War Bowie

Its already pictured in this thread. I only bought it because I thought it looked cool. When I got it i was pleasantly surprised about its fits and finish and even more surprised by how it felt in hand. Its designed as a fighter, but it easily fits the "big ass survival knife" category. It is .25 inches thick, but due to its tall blade and high grind, it cuts pretty well. I did thin the shoulder a smidge and convex and polish it so it performs admirably. I have heard of people using it for hunting hogs with a knife and its design fully prevents a hand from slipping up onto the blade during powerful thrusts. I will try to get a pic or two of the new edge.
 
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Zidfeldts said:
I have only had 1 TOPS knife. It felt really good in the hand. The edge when I got it was the worst that I have ever seen on a knife. I had to do a regrind on it so that it would cut at all. I may try another one to see if my last one was a fluke since the prices on their smaller knives are not too bad.
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My Tops was the same way.
 
Have a Tops Power Eagle which is a pretty good chopper. Recently bought a TOPS Mini Scandi 2.5 which has turned out to be the neck knife i have always wanted. It has displaced my ESEE Izula and Becker Neckers. The only thing slight thing i did to improve the TOPS mini-scandi was reprofile the grind from the slight scandi-vex to a true scandi grind.
 
Over the past years, I have went through a lot of knives. KaBar's, Schrades, and even all the cheap crap you find at the gun and knife shows for $10-15. When I first got into knives, I bought those silly hollow handle survival knives. No they didn't last very long! Then I bought my first real knife, my Tops Intercepter which was about 10 years ago now. Everybody gave me crap and said I was scammed for paying over a $100 for knife. Funny how I still have mine yet all these other people never have their $20 knife for more than a year before it broke. I even broke the tip off my Tops knife, and though they dont have their warranty advertised like Esee does, I contacted them about a year after I broke the tip. They offered to fix and re-grind the knife for free, didn't ask if I bought it or about the warranty card either. As for the warranty, Tops takes it seriously, fast, and made sure I was happy. So you dont need an Esee if your worried about a warranty. Did I mention that I broke the tip prying on my tailgate on my truck to get it to open? I even told them that and it didn't even matter. I also recently acquired a Tops Condor Alert, which is my favorite knife! I have put that thing through many logs, chopped more than I should have, and does fine work great. The edge on Tops last longer than any other knife I have owned by far, and now I dont even need a sharpening tool, a piece of tooling leather and stropping the blade a few times after each time I go out, it remains hair shaving sharp. The prices aren't bad either, you just have to research and usually you'll find the one your looking for at a good price. As far as using for survival, bushcraft, the spines on most if not all Tops knives are slightly rounded and will not work to strike a ferro rod. After using a stone on the spine for about ten to fifteen minutes, I got a good, sharp edge on the spine on my Condor Alert, which works great for striking a ferro rod and shaving dry wood for tinder. Tops knives are not for everyone, but for me, I love their knives. Their big bulky grips actually fits my hands rather well, they do good heat treatment, especially when batoning through some twisted wood and you can clearly see the blade flexing, and return straight as an arrow once its through. Their warranty is great and their customer service is awesome! As far as the sheath goes, I dont care, I dont care even if they sold them with out a sheath, any knife your willing to use and depend on, even if it is a true survival situation, you would want a custom made sheath set up the way you want it and you know its durable and functional. I know their names can be a little crazy, bit I dont really care what they name their knife, as long as the design looks promising, good fit and finish, and is comfortable in my hand. Name the knife fromunda cheese, I dont care its a Tops, it will perform to do the task I need it for and then some.Though the KaBar's and Schrades I had were good knives, the ones I had were not for me, but everybody has that one knife that fits them to the T, love to use, and swear by it. Enough rambling, :)
 
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jill jackson said:
Tops needs to start sharpening their knives. The edge on mine new wouldn't even begin to cut.
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Thats not the first time I've heard of that. Believe it or not, it happens often with a lot of knife companies. I prefer to redo the edge on my knives anyway, especially when they have a secondary bevel. I just use a stone you can get at you local retail outlets, with a little time and precision, you can easily get a good, sharp edge. Then all you need is some quality leather to strop your blade and it'll be shaving sharp. As with all Tops, once you get that shaving sharp edge on there, it will retain that edge for a while, and it even easier to maintain that edge if you strop after a days use.
 
Tops loses me with the saw tooth backs. I know they don't all have it but that just screams mall ninja. Why would you want a survival knife with rearward facing teeth? Down here we hunt hogs with dogs. We finish them with a stab through the neck. Try that with a saw tooth backed knife? Your blade ain't coming out. And if your cut was a little off? Now you have 200 pounds of pissed of pork. With your knife hanging out of his neck.
 
Just checked out the Wild Pig Hunter. Does look like a well thought out design. It has everything you need in a good hog blade. And you know there's no such thing as too many knives!
 
bdmicarta said:
I own one of the larger TOPS knives (don't have any real use for it, just bought it for grins years ago). It is well made, sharp, and feels good in my hand. I have found several small knives in their lineup that I like and would want for utility uses.

Sounds like lots of people have not tried them and just want to complain about their names. Funny that I don't read people complaining about a popular maker that names his knives using African words. Maybe if we translate those names we would find that they mean "person pays too much for knife".
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Hahaha ! Awesome post. You have a way with words 😊

I decided to reserect this old thread since I just got into TOPS. For some reason , the Tom Brown Tracker really caught my attention. I'm not even a fixed blade guy but after staring at the Tracker online for days , I chose to buy one (T-3 , ATS-34). The look of this knife alone had me hooked. Then I read good reviews and I was sold.

Some of the TOPS names are a bit different but I like that. Nice to have a change of both names and designs. The same old thing can get boring no matter what you're talking about. That's my take on it anyway but to each his own.

My brand new T-3 got delivered yesterday but I'm away from home until tomorrow. Can't wait to check it out. I also ordered a new leather sheath for it from Patriot Leather. Awesome ! I look forward to checking out more TOPS knives in the future since there are a few other designs that caught my eye.
 
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