I don't recall reading any discussion on this tool and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this or similar tools.

The Breacher Bar at Countycomm.com (http://countycomm.com/eodrtool.htm) is the only tool like this that I have found and I find the concept quite intriguing. Not for EDC, hunting, pack camping or hiking but for emergency / natural disaster, maybe car camping, type situations.

If one were wearing this tool in a sheath, along with a fixed blade knife, it could be drawn and put into service as quickly as a knife. It could take away the temptation of using your knife in ways it surely should not be used. You could also hand it to a co-worker for tasks such as splitting firewood withour fear of damage to your precious knife.

I like the chisel tip for obvious chisel tasks, the V edge for spliting and flat opposite edges for hammering on. About the same weight as a large fixed blade knife so it would be like carrying two knives.

The Countycomm Breacher Bar has two holes located between the handle and tool regions that would significantly weaken it under prying loads. Other than that it looks like a well made tool.

It is possible that an off the shelf pry bar could be modified to do this task, maybe even better, but the curved end makes it more difficult to carry in a sheath.

There are some titanium pry bars (light weight) on the market but I have not seen any with a shape that would lend itself to the chisel & splitting type tasks.

Any experience and thoughts are most encouraged.

That's reminiscent (or perhaps vice versa) of the CRKT MAK-1. I carry one in my car.

http://www.agrussell.com/product.asp?pn=CL-2050&bhcd2=1266870715

The MAK-1 is a rescue knife designed to meet the needs of a firefighter, made of tough 3Cr13 stainless steel at 54-56 Rc. It is truly a multiple-use tool. The chisel pry-bar tip is designed for opening doors, windows, and prying open locks and hasps. The 4-7/8" Razor-Sharp knife edge is a useful cutting tool. The handle features a deep finger choil and textured black G10 scales to give an excellent grip in wet conditions and when wearing gloves. The end of the handle has a stepped groove, which can be used as a window glass twist breaker and battery wrench. At the butt is a carbide tip breaker for instant shattering of windowpanes. An orange reflector lanyard is designed to keep the MAK-1 easily in sight. Overall length is 10". Weighs 10.0 oz. It comes complete with a Cordura® sheath which will hold a shove knife and an Extrik-8-R tool.

You may want to check out this thread:

Breacher

Pete

It looks too short to get any real leverage. I don't get the concept, although let me hasten to assure one and all that I frequently don't get things first time around. I have a sheath knife that I think would do better in most situations and is more versatile. If things are too rough for a knife, I'm not sure why this little tool would do better. I admit I'd never hammer my knife or use it as a pry bar, but that's because it would either break or not have sufficient leverage - and I'm seeing the same problem here.

If I need a pry bar, I want one a few feet long and sturdier than the little Breacher Bar.

I'm sure I'm missing something.

I have one. I took it to the local fixit shop and had them sharpen the long edge into a V, semi sharp. The shorter edge was chisel ground, also semi-sharp. I made a handle by wrapping a portion of it with pipe tape. Not a bad tool, but a bit heavy for its size. Try looking at the Boker Cop Tool as an alternative. I also have one of those ~12in. titanium nail-puller/pry bars. A very nice tool.

It is not particularly expensive, so it might be worth a whirl. However, I am not sure that it will do anything that any of several pry bars obtainable at the local home store will not accomplish just as well. Any of these gadgets would be a nice companion to a knife.

I use short (8 to 12 inch) pry bars when excavating paleontological specimens, usually from compact gravel deposits, and I beat them up pretty hard. I have yet to damage one to any significant extent. Basically I resort to the pry bar when I might overstress some of my more delicate tools, like pointing trowels.

When not in use, I keep them stashed when they might be handy in the event of the next earthquake. I stash a pry bar and a 3 foot crowbar just under the bed. Others are in the vehicles, in the workshop, etc.

I prefer something more like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-B215-15-Inch-Original-SuperBar/dp/B00002N5VN/ref=pd_cp_hi_1

That is a 15" model but 12" and 8" models are available.

Amazon is asking less than $10 for the 15" model. If the 90 degree bend on the end gets in the way it would be simple enough remove it with a hacksaw or cut-off wheel. These units are generally pretty tough. I have pounded a couple into odd shapes using them, with a two pound sledge and earplugs, to take the top off 50 gallon steel drums. Noisy.

Takes a lot of force to even flex these units, I have had them take on a permanent bend with extended abuse, but I have never had one snap suddenly. The flat form is great for digging through gravel, broken concrete, and the sort of mixed debris common after a major disaster.

Point being that if you need a pry bar; buy a pry bar.

This is very similar to the bars I use. Both ends come in handy in popping out rocks when tryiing to delicately (?) excavate gravels. I also have acouple of longer pry bars for the potential occasion of extensive debris removal.

Irecently had occasion to field test those longer pry bars when the powers that be (Wife and daughter) decreed that some concrete slabs needed to go away. It was great exercise.

I think a good selection of pry bars, wrecking bars, etc. will be very handy in clearing debris.

The EOD tool is a specialized device- it is designed to be a long, slim pry bar where a lot of force isn't required. To put it bluntly, it is so guys don't go digging and prying with their knives. It is sharp enough that they can be used rather than a knife, and dirt cheap so they are almost disposible if you stick on into something really fun and scary with a long and complex chemical name.

I've thought about one of these to keep in the truck, but what would I really use it for? Batoning, rather than risking a proper knife. But for not a lot more, I could pick up a Bushman from Cold Steel, which is a real knife and it has a sheath. Now, if CS was to make a Bushman EOD bar, they might have something....

In WWII, the 225Q Quartermaster Knife was selected because it was robust enough to be used to pry open crates then hammer them shut again without breaking. This is similar in concept, although quite a bit different in execution.

Ontario Cutlery makes a lot of military and survival knives and also makes an excellent multi-use tool called the SP8 that functions along these lines. It is more highly refined than a breacher bar and has a sheath, so it is more expensive.

See it here: http://www.ontarioknife.com/specplus_pg1.html

I'm not a knife expert.

After looking at all the data I think the main advantage here is the low price. I think it would be somewhat useful in an urban search-and-rescue scenario, but as others have said there are tools I'd rather have.

I'm starting to become more interested in hatchets. This doesn't change my direction.

This could be a solution in search of a problem. There are a lot of those out there.

That's where I'm at, too. Hatchets, axes and mauls.

Multi-purpose and formidable tools.

Given a choice of just one blade on a hiking trek, I'd choose my Gransfors Bruks Mini-Belt Axe (12 oz). For an extended roadtrip, a bigger axe goes along. Of the Gransfors Bruks line, I currently have:

Mini-Belt Axe
Wildlife Hatchet
Scandinavian Forest Axe
Small and Large Splitting Axes
Splitting Maul
Splitting Wedge
American Felling Axe

back in the day, I ground what was basically a BUNCH of them at work. We were dismanteling a locker room, and the lockers were bolted together with 1/4" nuts/bolts, and the lockers were youing to be tossed

piece of O-1 steel, 18" or so long, ground to a chisel, hardeded and drawn WAY down, almost back to full soft. Slip it between the lockers to the bolt, and give it a whack with a hammer, and it would cut the bolt in 1-2 shots. Took about 2-3 minutes to shear off each locker, and then hand it to the guys carrying it to the dumpster

They are a brute force tool, where you don't want to beat on a good knife.

I used mine the other day - I forgot exactly what I was cutting/prying, but I pulled it out of the tool bag, and I know I was wailing on the back edge with a 30 Oz hammer

Thanks for all the input. I have not seen all those interesting tools before.

I think the concept of the "breacher bar" type tool is sound. For me the uses would be very limited and if needed, I would probably be able to scrounge other tools (pry bars, axes, hammers, etc) to do the job.

One of these tools however, just might find it's way into my possession at some point in the future.

I left it out previously but it has to be noted that flat-bar type pry bars are easy to modify. The material is typically a mild alloy tool/spring steel that can be worked with hand tools like files and hacksaw but has enough carbon and alloy to allow a considerable degree of hardening if heated and quenched.

I have often ground or filed an edge for various tasks and have used the basic bar as raw material for home made tools, in one case a froe, and other specialty tools. In a couple of cases I have case hardened an edge to get a more durable edge. Just make sure you case harden after you get it to the shape you want. Particularly if your using only hand tools.

The flat bar new is a fair bit of decent quality steel cheap. Buy them for a buck or less a pop at a flea market or garage sale and you have something to work with. The steel lacks enough alloy for extreme toughness and carbon to hold a fine edge but it can be, as mentioned, modified to some extent if you willing to go to the trouble and it is good for a lot of tools and fixtures.

Making and modifying your own tools means you can get exactly, or at least closer to, what you want and get it inexpensively.

Plenty of small pry bars available at your local big box store.

I suspect this particular tool is being sold to people who then make it into a hacking tool of sorts. Not sure why they don't just sell it that way. Probably they buy it OTS from someone else like most of their products and thats just the way it comes.

From memory the EOD breacher bar is less than $15 minus sheath, while the CRKT is around or greater than $60. I'd take the EOD. Cost v. use analysis.