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Thursday, May 5, 2011

Survival knife: Busse Boss Jack review

No other tool represents survival as well as the knife. Say the word “survival” to people and many of them will picture in their minds a “Rambo” knife being used in some way.

The epitome of man’s ingenuity, the knife was man’s first elaborated tool. Its not that hard to imagine primitive men, maybe using a rock for crushing, the when that stone broke into a few sharp shards… oh! The wonder of physics! The sharp edge means less contact surface, applying a bit of pressure cutting through materials was suddenly possible.

Some may not know this, but its in fact a knife (Oldowan, stone blade) that marks the beginning of the archeological record, the begginig of human prehistory, about 2 million years ago.
Oldowan "Chopper" 1.7 million years old

It was these first stone blades that proved that we were intelligent beyond common apes, these first pieces of evidence that a tool had been purposefully created through a rudimentary yet intelligent process. Think about it for a second my friends: Knives are our first tools, and have been evolving along with us through our entire history, right from the begging. No other tool even begins to get close to 2 million years of use and continuous evolution.

Thousands of years fast forward and here we are, still innovating on knife designs, creating better materials to make them, figuring out how to come up with more portable versions.


Busse Boss Jack

Survival knives are tools to be used during emergencies, often in the wilderness or some other adverse scenario. They are tough blades, around 4 to 6 inches long, intended for camping tasks, hunting, skinning, carving and wood cutting. Some survival knives also may be designed for a defensive role as well.

When I first took a look at Busse’s Boss Jack, I was reminded of the use of survival knives right away. Not really large with its 6.25 inch blade, its still a knife of generous proportions without being a large (and heavy) chopper. If you have to run around with other heavy gear and walk for long distances, a medium sized survival knife would be preferred.

From a modern survival perspective the knife may be called upon for a number of other tasks, and here’s where requirements become more demanding. From defensive roles to being used as a pry bar after a disaster, digging through rubble, maybe cut through the metal of a plane or chopper fuselage or cutting through plastic sheath or cables to rescue a victim. Your one fixed blade survival knife should be able to do all this. As it often happens, what you have on you is all you have when disaster strikes.

There’s lots of excellent knifes, but bomb proof knives? That’s a bit more difficult to come by. Its not difficult today to make an excellent blade that will perform its intended duty excellently well during your entire lifetime and generations to come… IF cared for. But what happens when you need MORE? What happens when you have no other option but to abuse such knife beyond its intended use which is cutting? That’s when the challenge starts, to find the most rugged, most abuse resistant knife, one that will not only cut and sharpen with relative ease, keep an edge long enough, but also tolerate being used as a prybay if I don’t have any other choice, if I use it as a cold chisel to cut through metal if my life ever depends on that and the knife breaking or not makes the difference between life and death. That’s when Busse comes into the picture.
Not all knives are made equal, knifetests.com shows the limits to which each knife can be abused.
Here’s my review of the Busse Boss Jack:




FerFAL
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I kinda liked the 15 minute limit. I don't normally have 25-60 minutes to spare to watch the long videos.

Uncle George said...

Check out the review on page 2 for the Cheaper Than Dirt rough use knife. It is really about as cheap as dirt and holds up much better than the more expensive knives.

Anonymous said...

$400 for a knife is going pretty far, even for someone in the States. Maybe affordable for a gear whore ;)

Anonymous said...

400 for a knife is not that bad depending on what your expecting out of it. if you want a knife for just cuting string or maybe eating a streak anything will work but if you want a knife that will survive allmost anthing you throw at it and has a complete life time replacement warrienty then busse is your best bet