Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Swamp rat Rodent 3

this is a departure from my traditional reviewing style
tell me what you think-good or bad

overview: a excellent EDC/small camp knife knife that can take some punishment

Uses that i have had good results with: cleaning fish and cutting bait,EDC,fire making,bushcraft,camp chores
ease of use: for me (i have med. sized hands) i am able to get a 3.5-4 finger grip. the micarta handles are grippy even when wet and don't look bad in the aesthetics department either

steel: SR-101 steel is a very good tough steel that can take a fine edge and hold it for a good amount of time. think the ease of sharpening of rowen/esee or kabar's 1095 but with more edge retention if that makes sense

company/warranty: swamp rat knife works is part of the bussekin family which includes busse knife co. scrapyard knife co. and swamp rat knife co. swamp rats have a unconditional lifetime warranty or directly from the website; "lifetime guarantee. All Swamp Rat Knives are covered against any and all unintentional major damage for life. Period." the consumer service department is also very polite and easy to deal with.

Sheath: the sheath is not included but you can get a good quality custom sheath from any of the excellent sheath makers out there Example-godspeed tactical,Buybrown,Azwelke,Pawpaw kydex, Glockcrazz ect.
if you buy from them tell them about this blog.

added note: the knives are made to order and take 2-4 weeks to ship but you could go on one of the many forums see if they are on sale

Monday, June 9, 2014

CGFBM review

CGFBM review
1- very bad 5-average 10-perfect
Categories:
portability-3
ease of use-10
cutting-7
chopping-9.5
batoning-9
price to performance-2



average-7

this blade is a good all arounder.  It chops like a beast and batons like a champ.  if you can get past its price and can deal its size this blade may be for you… that is if u can find one.
happy hunting



-Portability-3
This is a big and heavy blade.  at .25in thick the thing is a beast to have on your belt.  it does alot better in a pack but is still not a light tool.  if you dont want to lug around a big knife look elsewhere



ease of use(ergos)-10
The handle is SUPER comfy.  no hotspots were developed when i was chopping,cutting or batoning



Cutting-7
cutting performance was not really great.  i could not really get a good feather stick with it.  and the heavy blade made notching and other similar tasks difficult.  that being said the blade was not as sharp as it could be.



Chopping-9.5
as far as choppers go this is darn close to as good as it gets.
the blade is very well balanced for chopping and its not so heavy that you get tired quickly



Batoning-9
with the length of the blade and the thickness makes this a very effective splitter able to split some very big logs.  could not ask for something better as far as  knifes go.



price to performance-2
this is where this blade and most other busse blades suck at(and this is also why there is a thing call scrapyard knives :p)   You can get 98% of the performance for a fraction of the cost with something like a bk9,SYKC 911,R9 ect.  for me the performance does not constitute the cost but others mileage may vary.

Tasks:
camp tool-9
backpacking tool in a 2 blade system-7
Survival blade-8

average-8


camp tool-9
as a camp tool this blade is amazing.  you can do just about anything with it and a folder.  making kindling: no problem.  making tent stakes: no problem.  cutting massive amounts of bacon: no problem. Making a shelter: no problem.

Backpacking tool-7
this makes a great tool to keep in your pack because most go out with a 3 blade system- a large knife like this one, a medium sized knife(esee 6,RMD) and a small belt knife/folder(esee 3,izula, PM2 ect).  this lowers your weight by cutting out(lol punny) some weight

Survival blade- 8
 While this blade is not the best for small delicate tasks this blade would do you fine in a survival situation because it can do it and it can accomplish much harder tasks that a smaller/less robust blade could not with ease.  and in a wet environment you don't have to worry about rust as much.  as well as being able to be sharpened easier