The two Dutch brothers that test knives tested this. The shot it and they pounded it through hardwood. The metal in this knife is tough. If it passes those guys it passes. Their only complaint was the handle was not that comfortable when you put all your force to make deep cuts in wood. The knife costs close to 300. The notch works great for starting fires. He keeps going on how you can’t baton it but those guys beat it through big wood and it was still sharp.
@@joejohnston1776 Yes. Over the years this clown has just completely degraded. He just puts out garbage content for "would be viewers". On top of that.. Cruwear can be especially difficult to sharpen, while out in the bush/camping/hunting. It's a terrible steel for what he is attempting to claim. Clown. You can tell by his face that he's just an alcoholic backyard tacti-cool reviewer.
NOTE: Someone on Facebook mentioned just getting it. asked him how the sheath retention was and he said this: "That was a welcome surprise on mine the sheath is nicely tight-fitting in spite of its cheapish overall appearance."
Straight up clown! What a joke. Drink another beer. This guy is the classic alcoholic, backyard hero, tacti-fool (or cool) reviewer. This dude is a straight joke. Not even a funny one.
@@bradgrand79 Yeah its designed to work with the Exotach ferro rods, and has a crisp edge in the cutout. Dutch Bushcraft Knives demonstrated it. Guess they read the instructions lol
There is a ferra rod channel designed into the knife. Judging it for what the executives classified it as is just overlooking the quality of this blade.
It's lade isn't thin, it's perfect at that thicnkess. As You said, a knife's primary use is to cut and slice, not to pry or anything like that... The handle is what's thin and should be a lot thicker. That's a new issue, I notice geting worse every day. All knives all of a sudden, come with super thin handles... even scandi blades with thick stock, which is a huge issue, such a knife not to have a thick'(er) handle.
I love this knife. It’s extremely light, thin, super sharp, and it fits my hand perfectly as a fighter. My main use for this knife is street survival. If it ever has to come out, s h I t has hit the fan. It fits perfectly inside my pants behind my duty belt.
G'day Chris, I always advocate for @ least two knives out in the woods. Generally a thick beefy chopper/splitter and a smaller thinner fellah, for finer/slicier tasks. Though having said that, and depending on the location, a thin Trammo for example and a stout "bushcrafter" works well together too. Main thing is two different grinds for versatility and ideally one can cover the other in case of a loss or failure. This one seems to be spruiked as a primary survival tool, but with more secondary characteristics, so I'm with ya, doesn't really make sense. Not sure about that guard/choil set up either. Anyway thanks for the look mate and good luck with it. Cheers Duke.
Agree with all. But if you’re going to do that, there are much better values out there. Benchmade has never been a good value. High quality, pretty good designs, and US made. But never, ever budget-friendly or inexpensive. You pay a lot for the name. I see no reason to give this thing a “pass” when there are better options. Chris mentions a few of those other options and I bet we could come up with dozens more.
@@JohnSmith-gs4lw G'day John, yep for sure, the butterfly tax is a real turn off. The sweet spot for value to get you a primary survival knife are the Becker BKs IMO. In the absense of an axe/hatchet/machete, I dig the 9. and as you say there's many many others, we really are spoiled for choice these days. What would be your choice for a big fella, (say 7 " and up blade), proficient in chopping/splitting without breaking the bank ?
@@eyeofthetiger4184 I’ve got nothing but love for the Beckers; I won’t disagree with you there. On the big side, I love my Skrama and my ESSE Jungalas (I probably misspelled both of those). If you want even more budget, the Kershaw Camp 10 or one of Chris’s original sabre-grind Schrade’s (if you can find one) will serve well. On the small side, don’t sleep on the Mora Bushcraft Black when you are talking value and bang for the buck. I’ll tell you who covers the whole spectrum of big to small: Condor. Price bumps in the past few years make these a good value, instead of the super great value they used to be, but I still like a lot of their stuff. No super steels, you’ll need to head over to Bark River for that, but plenty of highly functional stuff in 1075 and 1095. All the way from the famous Bushlore, to the Terrasaur, to the Desert Romper on up to their larger blades by Joe Flowers and that other guy, who’s name escapes me. I dig those traditional designs. But hey, I dig my Terava Jaakaripuko and my Skrama too.
@@JohnSmith-gs4lw Thanks for the reply John, plenty of food for thought there mate. Love the Skarma design as a woods tool, I seem to remember 2 sizes being reviewed on YT, in any case, I'm very interested, I'll look 'em up. The ESEEs have always been inordinately expensive here in oz for some reason, so I've never pulled the trigger. I am definitely drawn to the handle on the Bushcraft Black, it just looks ergonomically sound !!!. In a moment of weakness, lol, I did lash out and purchase a Bravo 1.5 in S35; a sterling belt knife, at least I now understand the hype, but I certainly couldn't afford a whole collection of Bark Rivers. As for Condor, they do have some good ones alright, I have a Bushcraft Parang and it's a fantastic tool, some of Joe's designs are a bit out of left field for me but he sure knows what he's doing. I did see the other fella, I think on a Blade Show vid, but cant remember his name at the moment either. Anyway many thanks again John, I really appreciate when folks take the time to share their knowledge and experience, cant put a price on that. And I'll get on the trail of a Skarma right away. Btw I did find a "Schrade Jess X" at a good price here, 100 odd bucks AUD, (around 70 USD). Hollow ground 1070. Not particularly fussed about 1070 for the design intent, but hollow ground though apparently, rather than a "normal" straight sabre, If I may, what do you reckon ?
@@eyeofthetiger4184 Mr. Tanner, who’s channel we’re chatting on, will tell you he disowned that blade once they changed the design to a hollow grind. You can dig through his videos here to find out why (and why he was powerless to do anything about it). I’ll not pass judgement on that except to say that $100 AU sounds steep to me for what that is. Chris’s design has some great elements, including the handle, but if you are in the market for a budget chopper, I think there are probably better options out there for that dollar figure. The aforementioned Kershaw Camp line (10, 12) can probably be had for less. Marbles has some nice machetes for much less and will probably serve well. Cold Steel has some long blades I would put in the “budget chopper” class as well. I realize you probably pay a premium on brands over there, so any advice I could give based on price is probably going to be meaningless. Take care, my friend.
It is a light weight, light-medium duty survival knife. You are grading it against a heavier, heavy duty survival knife. Not exactly a fair comparison.
I agree with your assessment. At 72, I've been collecting & using blades for decades & have what I consider the best make/models for every category. Even for a camp/food prep knife, the finger guard hangs down so far that you would have to hang that part off of the cutting board to be able to use all of the blade length while slicing food. Not for me. I do love the "Hunt" series of knives for what they're intended; the Meatcrafter, Saddle Mountain Skinner & Steep Country being my top 3 favorites. Talk about slicers!!!
Warning be sure to put some Loctite blue to each of the Philips fasteners holding the belt loop before heading out for the first time! Mine came loose from the factory and I lost one fastener with the second screw very loose while in the field on the first day out! Cheers, #SeattleRingHunter
Chris I totally agree with your review. I own both the Nimravus and the Adamas they both are tactical knives....they sit in my chest rigs. This knife is very similar to both. Shame on Benchmade for marketing as anything other than tactical.
The Benchmade Bushcrafter 162 is the better bushcraft and survival knife. The Benchmade Anonymous 539 is more of a field knife and is more in the category of the Benchmade Adamas 375-1 (it's a great knife especially with handle scales from TP Grips).
I love my Bushcrafter ...I should have bought it years ago I could have saved a ton of money. I actually love the leather sheath that everyone seems to hate . I've had no issues with the sheath , matter of fact I prefer it over a typical bucket sheath now.
That choil looks too small to get your finger into if you want to choke up. Maybe if you were four years old it would work. Probably good for skinning and food processing. Thanks Chris for the video
Benchmade "Hey what is popular right now in knife use circles/" marketing director "Our surveys show that bushcraft and survival seem to be the main two things coming up on Google." "Ok, market our new knife as a bushcraft survival knife" Uh sir I don't think, "Shut up that is what is in now so the knife is that" "Oh and name it Anonimous cause I have no idea what else to name the dang thing" Now for my take Yeah Chris like you the steel is great in my eyes. If I do a belt knife in the size range I want a thicker blade one that can do everything I might need it to do. If I am going for hunting knife I have others and my wife is starting to get a little frowny when I say but I NEED this and theis one right now anyway I don't need. Thanks for the review.
Makes sense. Hiking, you want to save weight and most likely wont be making large fires, and all willing you are not trying to get into a survival situation. Still...it should be a touch thicker, even if it was half an inch shorter.
Benchmade can’t seem to be able to make a decent sheath to save their lives. I have yet to buy a Benchmade that I’ve kept in the original sheath. I wish I knew what their problem is, because it’s such a stupid thing to keep messing up. Especially considering how much they charge you for their inferior attempts at a sheath.
Scandi edges of that size of knives, can't go more than 3mm thick stock blade (any med size knife, witha scandi and a 4mm thick blade and more, is a NO NO) If it's a full flat or a saber flat etc, it can be 4mm thick, even though at that sie, 3mm would be better, eve nwith that kind of grinds, but those don't have the limitations the Scandi has. Most people nowdays, are driven by Marketing trends and a lot of misinformation, that is spread, mostly on RU-vid. So, they get some knives ,that those factors made them to buy, and theey think that they instantly became Metallurgists, knife experts, surival experts and so on. Not to mention, the other trend, where all became Mors Kochanski all of a sudden and start RU-vid channels,pretending they are Bushcraft teachers. Worse than that, is that they strongly believe that, they are for real....
PS At least Chris and some others, who started all this, have a decent knowledge on the subject and they never pretend, something that they never where or will be...
I like a choil. I also like, not a choil (if it is a smaller knife). Looking at it, that knife just makes me angry. Useless choil, and a big guard infront of said useless choil. Just do one or the other.
If you didn't have a RU-vid channel would you have spent around $260 on a belt knife that falls out of its sheath when you turn it upside down? It reminds me of the merchandise tobacco manufacturers used to peddle to get customers to show brand loyalty. If you were really loyal to the brand you could get kitted out head to toe in branded merch, collecting tokens from packets of cigarettes, but you had to be committed. The same with this. If you love Benchmade you'll buy it. If you don't you won't. Never came across a knife manufacturer who generated such polarised views.
I don't get how you say you can't use it for fire starting when it has the notch built right in for using a ferro rod? I'm new so this is a question not a trolling slam...
It lost me as soon as I partially unsheathed it and saw the big sharpening choil. I loathe big deep sharpening choils that trap cordage and other materials in low light situations, and as soon as I saw that I re-sheathed it and put it back in the case.
