I'd never heard of them before Flipper mentioned them yesterday in a thread about pocket knives. Their site is interesting, if very aggressive. Their product line looks solid and they boast the best warranty. Does anyone here have experience with them or their knives? What do you think?

The are a sub company of Busse combat. If you never heard of Busse knives you don't know knives.

Busse has long bragged about their toughest steel in the form of knives.
Whether its true or not is the question but one thing is for sure no other manufacturer will replace your knife if you break it for any reason your fault or not. That says something.

I own a Swamp Rat and it is without a doubt the toughest steel thats easy to sharpen and holds an edge better than any knife I have yet to come across.

Don;t take my word for it. Research it yourself or try one.

For what you get they are priced nice too.

For what its worth.

Flip

No experience whatsoever with their knives.

They do seem to have an almost cult-like following.

I've got to play with one and it was an extremely nice solid knife. I haven't heard anything but good stuff about them.

Drink the PURPLE cool-aid, not the red cool-aid. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

ohh look free koolaid...

ive been to the swamprat site, i like it but i havent bought a knife yet but im saving heh.

"Drink the PURPLE cool-aid, not the red cool-aid. "

That a fact.

15 years in the military never got served coolaid once.

Whats your drink of choice? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Flip

Actually, at Jonestown, it was grape Flavor-Aid . Kool-Aid has ben getting a bum rap about that for years.

They have a pretty nice survival forum also. I lurk there often. I've heard a lot of good things about their knives, but it was all on their own forum so I thought the opinions might be a little biased. It's good to hear good things about Swamp Rat knives here.

Also, Moine (David) posts both here and there. I'm sure he has some good things to say about Swamp Rat knives.


Robert

I've had a Camp Tramp for a couple of years (just after it came out.)

It's one tough bugger.

I've always been a smaller knife with a hatchet guy, and even though the 7" blade looked HUGE to start, I'm now addicted.

The resperine handled must be tried to be believed. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

How does the cold steel trail master compare to the above knifes listed, namely the SWAMP RAT.

The Swamp Rat makes just about anything cold steel makes look cheap. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Busse got abusseve with an independant knifesmith for 'copying' his choil in the blade. Somehow the fact knives going back to the rennaisance had this feature was overlooked. The handle was touted as sealing the tang against moisture and rust, a direct poke at Fallkniven's hammer butt feature. Fallkniven has formal test results from a metallurgical lab on breaking points. Peter has a keen interest in his products and field reports and failures. Rats are good. Cold Steel is good, Fallkniven is good. Sometimes my Opinel is even better. Healthy market rivalry is good. Needless hype and competitor bashing is not.

Name another production knife maker that has a BUMPER TO BUMPER LIFETIME WARRANTY".

Busse and SRKW knives are simply unmatched.

Nuff said.

Opinel LMAO <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Flip

If you insist, Strider. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Having lifetime warranty does one little good if one's knife is damaged beyond usability during an survival situation.

I don't own one, so there's little I can say about them, but I can say why I was never interested.

3. I don't like coated blades. Protecting everything but the edge never made sense to me, and I don't like dark blades at all. I've had a bright, shiny blade pre-empt violence in the dark twice. In a history that doesn't contain that many violent incidents, that's statistically pretty impressive. Not having to use a knife as a weapon is a huge upside, at least for me.

2. Same reason I wouldn't buy a Harley. They may be the best bikes out there (I wouldn't know), but there's too much cultural baggage. If I want a motorcycle, I'll buy a motorcycle- I don't necessarily want to buy a religion to go with it.

1. Busse. Even his advocates will mostly agree he's pretty insufferably arrogant. I decline to support that sort of behavior with my bucks. Do as you like with yours.

All of that aside, they're probably very good knives... but I'm not putting all of that aside.

I'm sorry guys, except for bragging rights about who spent the most money for the newest steel, manufacturing process, or molecular bombardment of the blade, I don't get it.

If it holds an edge and does the neccessary task, I go with what I can afford at a sensible level. In my most active years (Which are long gone now.) I never considered a knife as a hammer and anvil to be taken into the woods.

Unless the T-Rex is being cloned back into existence and you plan to stick one with your knife and then pick up the T-Rex by the handle of your knife and flip the T-Rex away, it doesn't matter how tough your knife.

I like knives, guns, onyx eggs, crystal balls, marbles, scooters, motorcycles, tools, boats, outboards, sailboats, and a whole host of toys and "necessaties". If I were wealthy enough with my own warehouse, I would buy anything that strikes my fancy. I buy my knives to cut first and formost and if they do that, I do not try to impress people by the name of knife, but the efficiency with which it does its job. The size and type of the knife is determined by the anticipated use. I have already mentioned having an 11" bladed swiss bayonet that I would like to be able to mount and remove from a walking stick as a thrusting spear. It is hard to sharpen and very tough stainless steel, but you could probably dig a fox hole in rock with it. I may never use that bayonet, but my everyday walking around knife is sharp, small, not designer made, and still does what I need from it.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Presumed Lost:

I like my shiney stilettoes because they remind me of jewelery in their overall design. However in the matter of having to use a knife as a defensive weapon, most of everything I have read and practiced goes the other way with a strong preference for an overall dark knife. I have never been concerned for my physical safety because:

1) I stay away from bad areas and situations.

2) If I get into a bad situation, I don't want them to know I have a knife until it is too late for them to do anything about it.

3) I have been in a few fist fights and lost more than I won, but earned the respect to not be bothered, and even in losing I did not pull a knife. Of course the men I fought didn't try to kick me to death when I was down.

4) Despite the fact that I am a lovable teddy bear in nature, my overall appearance and size makes me look tougher than I am.

Bountyhunter

(PS: <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />Don't give me any crap about number 4. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />)





















<img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

My point is that there is no one knife for one application. I think Alain would agree l'Opinel and a corkscrew are tres superb for brie cheese, bread and a good burgandy, while a BattleMistress would have your haute culture dressed date remembering an appointment elsewhere.

I don't think a couple hundred for a blade I will bet my life on is unreasonble. Hell most peoples EDC folders or kits cost near that.

I have snapped a few well known blades while spitting and prying logs for dry wood and learned my lesson the hard way. You get what you pay for in most cases.

Bounty, steels have changed a lot in recent years and people demand quality steels more than ever. Sure you can get mediocre blade steels for less but why would you when the option is fairly resonably priced.
Buy the best you can afford.

Some women find cheese slicing with a battle rat sexy <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

FLip

Nor have I. Not sure what your point is here, unless you're assuming I'm going around with a knife threatening poor unarmed defenseless muggers, or bullying neighbors intent on gentlemanly fisticuffs.

The only time in my life I can remember being the first to display a weapon, it was to a gentleman who was dragging a beaten, screaming woman across a common area by her hair. It seems that most pat rules have exceptions.


Which is apparently gospel these days, and is what I've been told again and again.

It's not that I haven't heard it, it's that I don't agree.

If we're discussing what scenarios are likely, it's very unlikely that I'm going to be crawling through the jungle with a knife in my teeth intent on sentry removal, which seems to be the main implied value of a dark blade. If that scenario looks likely in the future, I'll run out and buy one.

I agree that you're probably better off with the assailants not knowing what you have, IF violence is inevitable. But that's a big "if".

Very often, these people are bullying cowards looking for easy targets they can victimize at no risk to themselves. Depending on circumstances, it may be possible to dissuade them from initiating an attack. I find that solution preferable. As I said, twice I was able to do this, whereas if I had pretended to be unarmed, in effect I would have been choosing to let the attack happen, and probably would have ended up having to stab someone.

I'm grateful that didn't happen for a number of reasons, and I will continue to prefer a bright blade (or at least one that doesn't completely disappear in the dark), whatever the pundits are pontificating about it.

Bounty,
I couldn't agree more. I think that some knives are overpriced and overhyped, and the average user is sold on the dream and the imagery of "battle mistress" = 'cool and tough survival nut', opinel / mora = ' poor peasant'.
To each his own, is what I say. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
If people are happy with their moras, opinels, SAKs leave them be. No need to shove 'my knife is fancier/tougher/more expensive' than yours down other peoples' throats.

Personally, I love my moras and opinels and SAKs. I have yet to trash any of them cutting stuff. And yes, opinels cut cheese and cheesecake very nicely, thank you.... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Don't get me wrong I carry a SAK too but for the brutal beatings I give blades in the bush quality steel can't be beat.

For some I guess there is a look at me factor but for many it is mandatory to have good tools to do the job. No different than assembling an EDC kit with the best gear on the market because you know it will serve you well when it matters.

Of course cutting some cheeze at a picknick with an Opinel some may say is over kill you big tough cheeze slicer you <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

Its not about being tough and stupid for spending good money for a good product or is Doug's reccomendations for quality gear a mout point in this forum and on this site.

Flip

Presumed Lost:

My position on the dark knife issue is not a jungle scenerio, but an urban area scenerio.

Having and displaying a weapon of any type does not mean you will prevail even if the other guy is unarmed.

My knives will always stay sheathed until needed in a confrontation because flashing a knife is not that threatening to the kind of people that may also have one or know how to take your knife away.

Bountyhunter

Bounty is right but having a nice balde is a deterrrant in of itself as people who know also realize that everyone gets cut in a knife fight. Better to have a blade than not.

Flip

OK a few of you hate the cold steel products.

I have read some of the knife reviews on other websites and after filtering through the Internet conjecture, and hype i started to worry that my cold steel trail master was a hunk of crap. Well it has performed all the simple tasks i have asked of it and i hope it will be around as a camp knife for years to come. The reviews i have read comparing the busse, strider, and the swamp rat knives have all been through some very abusive comparisons. These tests take the knife to its failure point and then compare which failed first. I think this kind of testing is way beyond what the knife manufacture intended the knife to be used for.

I know the, what if the world is going to end guys will say its junk but i think it will perform good when needed.

Any opinions on the Bark river EVO?

I imagine Oetzi with his small flint dagger, a Hoplite with a bronze sword, the blacksmith in the finnish national poem Kalevala (and a good portion of us on severe budgets today) would find any decently tempered plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade a treasured item. I passed my Cold Steel SRK on when I acquired a Fallkniven. It is serving it's new owner well and the split billets of wood niether care, nor complain which contributes to their metamorphosis back to the energy of the sun.

Chris:

Why did you swallow your Cold Steel SRK in the first place? <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"I imagine Oetzi with his small flint dagger, a Hoplite with a bronze sword, the blacksmith in the finnish national poem Kalevala (and a good portion of us on severe budgets today) would find any decently tempered plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade a treasured item."

That's funny you mention that. I recently found out that the blade I carried hunting for the last 30 years was just that: a plain vanilla 1095 carbon blade. A Schrade Old Timer Woodsman to be exact. I honestly didn't know I was underequipped until I began making more money. Now I have the werewithal to buy a $400.00 knife. I wonder why I should...

Vince

Nothin wrong with Moras. I have a couple $200+ blades and still love my Frost Moras. I have a standard $9 model with the plastic sheath and a $14 model (i know I really splurged) with an unpainted birch handle and a wax-treated leather sheath. I still love my CRKs also. The Moras are great beaters and get a lot of use and I could be quite effective with them in a survival situations... however, given a choice of only one knife when betting my life, I would still go for the CRK fixed blade which is why it goes with me when I venture off in to wilderness alone.

"I wonder why I should..."

The same reason why the SRK was traded up and the Mora given a break. If you need a blade to perform you want the best you can afford.

If you gave the blacksmith of yesteryear a choice between the plain old 1095 and a better steel blade he would choose the better blade.

Its what this thread is all about.
<img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Flip


<img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Because a knife is such a universally accepted #1 survival item, I figured I could eat it too.

Maybe a wooden or bone knife, but remember to chew slowly and thoroughly! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Interesting topic.
I read a lot about Busse on internet forums and then talked to a few Busse owners. After this I finally decided to buy one.
What can I say? In truth, Busse knives are really great, but I would say most of it is metal. My knife does keep the edge quite well and then it sharpens to a shaving condition as if it is made of a soft metal. The metal thickness also gives confidence that the knife won't break in any situation. Just amazing!
This is great. However, ergonomics of the handle, blade thickness and weight... Maarttini IMO will be much more convenient than Busse for carving or food preparation.
I heart many times that Swamp Rat knives have better handles and are lighter than Busse, so Swamp Rat some real advantages over Busse. But it is difficult for me to imagine a real situation when Swamp Rat or Busse will make the difference, except artificial ones, like cutting roof of a car.
Busse is one of my best knives, but most of work I do using other knives for reasons I explained before.

I can think of a reason every time I am in the bush when theyd make a difference.

I split 3 to 6 inch logs by hamerring them down the log or prying with full force to split it. This provides me with dry core wood for fires in damp conditions which is most of the year where I live.

A hatchet is too heavy and I have snapped several blades doing this but never a Busse product.

Flip

Well, what can I say? I do really like Busse or Swamp Rat. And I really love their warranty, who can match it? But until recent times I did not see any Swamp Rat or Busse product which I would say 100% satisfies my demands, mainly because of weight and size. But now they have new Rat Trap knife and it is most likely one of them will end up in my pocket for Christmas....

Mind that Rat Trap does not share their fixed blades warranty. Which although understandable is a pitty.

I echo your statements guys. I think a full warranty on a folder is asking too much of any maker. That being said I will not be buying the rat trap folder as some on their website have pointed out is a tip down carry which I realy hate as I like tip up better for easier deployment.

I think they missed the mark on this one with tip down carry.

I don't think carrying a large fixed blade EDC is even a common practice not to mention its a pain in the butt. For bush operations however I never leave home without one personally.

Flip

I do not understand how you can draw a tip up knife from your pocket fast at all!
Are you wearing the knife OUTSIDE your pocket?
That is the only way I could see that you could get a grip on a tip up knife...

I think he's talking about a folder. With the tip up on a folder, the pivot is on the bottom while it's attached to your belt or pocket. So when you grab it, it's in the right position to flip open.

Apparently we aren't the only people that think the RT shoulda been tip up. I saw some pics on BF just this afternoon of a nice tip up mod that was done to a Trap.

I prefer tip down. I draw by pinching the pivot area and swinging the handle into my palm as I draw the knife up from my pocket.

With the tip up, I have to push my thumb down into my pocket, grab the handle through my pants, and draw the whole thing out of my pocket. It seems kludgy to me, but I've learned to live with it.

Bear

Exactly right. I laugh when I hear people moan about how empty and hype-only modern technology is. "Well, I'm sure that the infantryman at Valley Forge was quite happy in his soaked, 20+ pound outerwear...who needs this newfangled GoreTex & fleece anyway? Its just a scam to get your money!".

What a load of crap.

Equipment is not the paramount priority. In descending order, the priorities are Mindset, Tactics, Skill, then Equipment. But when the subject IS equipment, find and acquire the best.

Sure, there is some gear & gear-sellers out there who are bogus. But writing off true advancements because "Grok was happy with his sharpened stick 5000 years ago" is stupid.

' "Well, I'm sure that the infantryman at Valley Forge was quite happy in his soaked, 20+ pound outerwear...who needs this newfangled GoreTex & fleece anyway? Its just a scam to get your money!" '.

That's a good one. I just bought another pair of Swedish Army surplus wool cargo pants to replace the wool pants that I've happily used hunting for the last 7 years. Maybe not all that much different from what that Revolutionary grunt had around his shivering buttocks back in 1776. You see, I've never had anything Gore-tex that was worth a damn--except for maybe my new boonie hat. (Time will tell on that one--so far so good.)

Meanwhile another year has gone by and I still don't own a $400.00 knife--or a $200.00 knife for that matter. I remain unconvinced as to MY needs. My wants are something else again. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> (Note: I did NOT say that Busse knives are not fine knives.)

I will admit every time I see a Randall I drool--but that may just be because they, to my eye at least, represent form AND function. There may be one of those in my future after all. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Regards, Vince