tom brown jr

[woollover]

hello is there any one who no s the real story of tom brown jr and grandfather
all over the net you see the tracker knife getting bad reviews put there my people who dont know how to use a blade properly.
tom spent 11 years with a apache alder he called granfather this was a man of outdoor skills that where mind blowing
if any one is interesed he has 11 books and they are amazing tom is a man who knows how to survive anywhere and really injoy his conection to nature .

for any one interested please have a look thanks john

 

[mrcharly]

That's not a knife, it's an adolescent's dream of a knife.

 

[Goatboy]

Hi,

Not my ideal knife. Sawback blades rip things when skinning and get stuck. Will also get you shot in the trenches! Bit over complicated, much prefer a simple blade design, feel that it's trying to hard to be all things and gets in the way. Personally would go for a simple mora shaped blade or if only could take one sharp into the UK countryside it would be a billhook.

But as they say the best knife is the one you have with you.

GB.

 

[sandbender]

"...you see the tracker knife getting bad reviews put there my people who dont know how to use a blade properly..."

"As soon as your design crosses from an obvious Knife pattern to something odd and wierd shaped--all you have is something odd and wierd shaped"

Bob Loveless

 

[John Fenna]

Seen one - don't want one! It was a film prop and now is discredited as a good tool. Give me a Mora and some skill any time! TBJ is a very interesting figure but some of his stories and skills are open to question .... I am only reporting what I have read... never met the guy to ask him about it all

 

[Man of Tanith]

The knife is something I haven't yet seen in reality so I wont pass judgement.
Read most his books. Some interesting stuff in there.
As proven by my signature line.

 

[Corso]

The knife is a lump, tried it and it was terrible, I'm not a skilled woodsman but even I could see a Mora and a folding saw would be more use in any situation.

The book is an intersting story but I fail to see what relivance it realy has to bushcraft or even woodlore
The spritality is unnessesary and helps sell bushcraft to the hippies, but alot of the tracking claims sound fanciful at best.

As for the man I have no personal knowlege of him

 

[Samon]

So what are you trying to say? 'buy his books and the knife, they are good' ?...

or have I missed the somewhat confusing point to the OP?

Because even though the books might entertain some, the knife still sucks. A design that fails in so many ways is a poor one, and just because some guy who's famous made it doesn't mean it's worth anything.

 

[greensurfingbear]

I read a few of his books when I worked in the states. My colleagues were totally blown away by them I was a little more sceptical, and having seen some of the stuff written about him since then I still sceptical. Truth is I've never met the chap so not in any place to judge one way or the other. Books are entertaining just not sure I'd take them as total truth. Not seen his knife so can't say anything about it.


Orric

 

[bambodoggy]

hello is there any one who no s the real story of tom brown jr and grandfather
all over the net you see the tracker knife getting bad reviews put there my people who dont know how to use a blade properly

I suspect nobody knows the real story other than Mr Brown himself. I've read all his books and very much enjoyed them...how much is true and how much is not I don't know or really care. Some of his tracking ideas have worked for me....others have not but that might just be me and my skill level.

Rather than putting this up in a way that invites people to give their opinion on this knife (have to admit a bias...I don't like it either for most of the reasons below), why not do us a post about why you do like it and what you think it can do and where it would be useful?
might be interesting reading for us and show us why it's not as bad as most on this thread seem to think it is, including myself.

Hope that helps,

Bam.

 

[Corso]

there's a very interesting thread posted up on bushcraftusa about the knife - some seem to be able to use it with a certain amount of skill but something that takes that much effort to learn when a mora and a saw are childs play seems odd to me

 

[rg598]

This is a strange thread. Seems confrontational from the start. Perhaps it's a reaction to some other thread or which I am not aware.

With respect to the knife, any sharp object can be put to use as a survival tool. For thousands of years people lived in the wilderness with just pieces of flint as cutting tools. That alone does not make a good knife. I personally dislike the knife. I think it offers very little for such a heavy tool.

As far as Tom Brown Jr, he has spend a lot of time learning and teaching in the woods, so he knows a lot. That being said, I think he has worked equally hard during those years turning himself into a legend. Tim Smith of Jack Mountian Bushcraft had a post on his site called How to Become a Famous Outdoor Guru. He outlines the following steps (sarcastically):

1. Apprentice, study, or learn from an experienced practitioner in the field who is getting on in years. If their ethnicity is other than yours, all the better.
2. Upon their passing, write a book about their profound effect on you as your mentor, as well as how they passed their wisdom, which has become lost in the modern world, onto you.
3. Position yourself as the only way for the public to access that lost knowledge.

Seems like he had someone in mind when writing this.

 

[Goatboy]

This is a strange thread. Seems confrontational from the start. Perhaps it's a reaction to some other thread or which I am not aware.

With respect to the knife, any sharp object can be put to use as a survival tool. For thousands of years people lived in the wilderness with just pieces of flint as cutting tools. That alone does not make a good knife. I personally dislike the knife. I think it offers very little for such a heavy tool.

As far as Tom Brown Jr, he has spend a lot of time learning and teaching in the woods, so he knows a lot. That being said, I think he has worked equally hard during those years turning himself into a legend. Tim Smith of Jack Mountian Bushcraft had a post on his site called How to Become a Famous Outdoor Guru. He outlines the following steps (sarcastically):

1. Apprentice, study, or learn from an experienced practitioner in the field who is getting on in years. If their ethnicity is other than yours, all the better.
2. Upon their passing, write a book about their profound effect on you as your mentor, as well as how they passed their wisdom, which has become lost in the modern world, onto you.
3. Position yourself as the only way for the public to access that lost knowledge.

Seems like he had someone in mind when writing this.

Didn't mean to sound confrontational, have just used these many faceted knives before and find them fussy and needlesly complicated. Hece the comments from the pro Tom Brown folk about "training and skills" to use them. If it comes down to real survival I don't want to have to read a set of instructions. I want a tool that is intuative. And those sawbacks are such a narrow focus tool that 90% of folk will never use. Look at most tools that have evolved for work, they are very simple. Whereas the ornate and fussy are generally used for cerimonial and show purposes. Tree felling axes, billhooks, swords all fairly simple, bar the exotics that require years of practice for a very narrow gain. Have used some weird martial art weapons in the past and I say give me a stick, a pole or a simple blade any time. Same when working outdoors.

 

[Toddy]

I don't think it was confrontational from the start, but I did feel that the OP was perhaps a tad defensive.

I have tried the tool. It's not for me, just far too much like an idea looking for a application or niche in the market, and not finding it, for my liking. Uncomfortable to use. If it was all that I had ? nah, I'd use it to make something more useful It really was that bad; but then I don't think I'm really his buyer/user demographic match. Each to their own and all that.

As for Mr Brown and his claims about Grey Owl, and his own proficiency; I am minded of the adage about not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. With all the years he devoted to things however, I'd be surprised if he didn't have a wide ranging knowledge of many aspects of outdoor living and survival.
He does seem to have his acolytes though....so beware incoming and he seems to have genuinely inspired and interested a great many people in their environment and mankind's effect upon it and place within it; which is no bad thing.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Corso]

clearly a fanboy been taken in by the mystique

 

[Goatboy]

There are folks like Tom Browns mentor Stalking Wolf who seem supernatural to us. I remember being out with an old english gentleman who worked for a timber veneer company. As we walked through the woods he would "casually" look at a tree and tell you it's inner secrets and history. At first I thought he was talking the micky and looking for deflated prices. But where he said a tree had suffered from drought or been struck by lightning or suffered an infestation he was bang on, with no apparent (to us) visual signs.
But I still don't like the knife.

 

[Gray]

I'm a simple man(by simple I don't mean that I suffer from LD ) and I don't use big words or try and be clever or cocky and I employ the same attitude to my knives. I still use a mora and my old army clasp knife. If I wanted or needed a lump of a blade I'd use an MOD survival knife, at least it looks like a knife and not like something out of a horror film. I haven't seen any zombies lately that need slaying, or aliens in my back garden.

 

[Gray]

That's not a knife, it's an adolescent's dream of a knife.

My point exactly

 

[sandbender]

That's not a knife, it's an adolescent's dream of a knife.

When I was an adolescent I dreamed of owning one of these...

...it sits in a drawer these days.

 

[Goatboy]

Oh dear it's looking like "Taxi for Mr. Brown". Surely someone must defend them?