Sunday, May 28, 2006

The Tracker

I recently had the opportunity to try out the Tracker knife from TOPS Knives. This knife was designed by well-known survival instructor, and Friend to the Earth, Tom Brown and was also featured in the film, The Hunted. Yes, it looks like a Rambo Knife's worst nightmare. The Tracker is designed to act as a survival knife, axe and hammer all in one. TOPS Knives are advertised as being made for the "spec ops" community. I have no idea how many of our spooky protectors are actually carrying these monsters, but the knives sure are cool.
Despite the knife's ungainly, top heavy appearance, the Tracker is surprisingly well balanced and is as good at hacking stuff as you would imagine. The blade coating held up amazingly well as we put it through some pretty abrasive target material. I have no good idea what the top-of-the-blade serrations are; speculation ran from them being sawteeth to wire cutting notches. We didn't try sawing anything, but it didn't look like that would be an easy task. I could see wire-cutting, but it seemed odd there would be more than one notch, and I wasn't sure what survival situation would call for that feature regularly enough to warrant wire cutting notches. The handle is made of micarta and was extremely comfortable even when held in several types of grip. As we cut through milk jugs, the micarta became wet, but lived up to its reputation for staying tacky to the touch. No slippery fingers here. The handle was also purposely designed to accommodate different drips for different survival tasks.

The sheath is the current standard kydex/thermoplastic. It is as well-made as the knife and holds the blade very securely in place. It feature two rotating, clipping belt loops allowing for many different modes of carry. The flat-across the small of the back view shown above has serious cool factor to it, and looks very hardman. The sheath also had a slot for water drainage.
This is not a knife for everyone. And at $250-$400 (depending on your retailer) not everybody can have one. But it definitely gives its owner serious bragging rights when it comes to "Who Has the Coolest Toys" discussions.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why does everybody want to coat knives? My favorite Spec Ops finish is bead blast as found on my first generation recon tanto.

jrf said...

First runner-up in the "Who has the coolest Knives" competition: Shinobi.Wind and his first generation Cold Steel Recon Tanto.