If you make a "knife" to do more than stab, slash and hack, then it is a utility or camp knife and not a combat knife. The new Rambo knife looks like a machete, too large to do small utility chores, too big to wield as an effective close quarters knife. If it is a poor stabber, slasher and hacker, it ain't a combat ready blade. Put it in the kitchen drawer.
Most of us have a favorite, which is cool. We are all different, thank you very much. I hate the stigma with knives, the bullshit people talk about other specialists, the hollywood garbage, and mostly the claim that a particular knife is no good. If you learn to use it for what it was designed to do, then you might find it handy. I personally base my trust in a knife from field testing it, not someone's opinion.
Any knife edge is useful, just does it serve your needs. If you are into primitive tools such as I, you will find that you need a variety of tools: a hacker (axe or machete), saw edge, wood carving blade (2" flat edge, draw knife, etc), skinner and hide scraping blade (rounded for caping and fleshing). That is SIX TOOLS. You wanna carry these around wherever you go in the backcountry if you can. Add a shovel and your talking about 6lbs of tools, which I will gladly carry and have at all times at my camp. BUT, if you can only carry one tool that will do all that the six edged tools, plus provide a decent knife combat usage, then the smaller Tracker comes pretty close. That is the purpose of the Tracker, good or bad as it is reputed. BUT, it is overpriced and over-rated. Even Tom Brown has mentioned that the knife is just another survival tool, not the end all knife. (Tom would build other tools to replace the knife, that's just the way he does things, which I generally agree is the superior solution to add longevity to any survival tool).
I would not depend on one knife, ever. Your survival becomes more difficult if you lose it. So, the smaller Tracker may be a good backup blade, but never to serve as a primary blade! That should've been in the movie footnotes! But hollywood makes the knife the focus of The Hunted, pissing off all the other knife specialists of the world. And that is warranted, thanks hollywood. Instead, TOPS knives is raking in the cash, and people talk smack about the Tracker knife all the time. The knife shape is a bit too radical for the general public. I personally have owned the Beck Tracker (early 90s model) and the smaller TOPS Tracker. The smaller model is better handling and concealable. The smaller is lighter and faster in hand, hacks better than a Kabar, but average stabber. I give it a 7 for utility and a 5 for combat. Another knife that is "better" and much cheaper that is shaped like the Tracker is the Condor Kukri Hunter
http://www.condortk.com/productsdetail.php?prodid=53Put it this way, if you like a knife, then use it. I personally have never found one knife to do everything that I need done. My drop point folder does more than any other knife I own, including being a combat ready knife. Any other knife I own takes second place to my ever ready folder. So, find a very strong folder and field test the shit out of it, then sleep with it. Then learn how to use a knife to make all the other tools you might need to survive.
If you are combat knife guy, then a knife or machete might suit you.
If you are a survival knife guy, then a utility knife might suit you.
And so on. But if you claim that a knife just sucks and the guy who made it is a kook, then you should do your homework, understand the purpose of the tools, and decide whether you will need a tool for the purpose it was designed for. That is the amazing thing about opinions, everybody has one, but those who do their homework can make better decisions.
Me? Combat knife hall of famers are the SOG Dagger and Kabar next gen combat knife. 6 inches of pure raw penetraing power! True Killers among us.
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Topic: New Rambo Knife and Movie Knives (Read 5900 times)