tom brown tracker ??????

[Toddy]

My immediate response was, "What the h3ll is that? "

It's like he's tried to soup up an axe and a parang into a knife. Oh well, if it works for him there's no way I'd lug that around though.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[C_Claycomb]

There are threads about the Tracker on several US sites which make interesting to entertaining reading.
http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/for...ghlight=&sid=a5b7c636fb450b0ea0d476dbf01e72a3

It is worth remembering that the knife in the movie was NOT the one that TOPS makes, but a David Beck model which was much better made and ground. Roger Linger also makes one which is much better than the TOPS model, but is still a beast and not for everyone

 

[Toddy]

That last image is a better looking tool; why have they got crescent spines though?
I could imagine using it like a modernized billhook if they changed the blade tip profile.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Looks like a £3.99 ebay buy to me

 

[sam_acw]

If you are going camping/walking whatever you carry proper tools.
If you are going about daily business you probably don't carry much more than a pocket knife.
Where does the monstrosity fit in? I can't seriously see why you'd ever have it with you.
Funny enough there is a companion knife for when you don't need to butcher a mammoth or defend yourself from werewolves

 

[sharp88]

Ray Mears always says somthing like '...you dont want to hack, but carve...'. Somehow I cant see myself carving with that thing. Looks like some sort of crude hacking tool design - Im puzzled what that large strong curve is for.

 

[kb31]

it seemed like a 80's rambo flash back -jack of all will do it if ya got 2 week handy
if the first bevel was flat the 2nd like a axe trys to be but isn't may be would'it be so bad but topps over worked it-
like the flim designed to kill folk not wood
i think the first one was made out of flint when you hold it side ways so when ya got nout fair dos- steel man myself ..karl

 

[Feral]

The Spainish knife maker Aitor made a simeler knife a few years ago, ( the blade was longer) I had one of these, it was a great knife, mind you I used it mainly for feral pig hunting. It was on the heavy side. I would still have it but it was in my landie when it was stolen, got the car back but no knife.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Ray Mears always says somthing like '...you dont want to hack, but carve...'. Somehow I cant see myself carving with that thing.

Whereas, Madison Parker says something along the lines that he doesn't want to waste energy carving (trap triggers for instance) when jobs can be done faster by hacking

The tight curve is meant to help make round shafted items...arrows, drill spindles, that kind of thing. There may be other uses.

 

[Minotaur]

I think the Tracker is a waste of space.

However if you are going on the course, it might be worth buying after. The only people whoever have a good word to say about it, have been on the course.

The Tracker is a Survival knife and this is a Bushcraft forum, so for most of our uses, it is just a waste of time. Most people here would universally agree that you would be better spending your money on a mora(style blade), and an axe or saw. I think you could do any survival task with a mora and a handpowered chainsaw, and it would still take up less room/weight in your kit.

Just a word on the throwing potential of this knife, why would you? Think about it, your life depends on it and you throw it at someone! To put this in prosective, the advice to serving officers when they could carry .38 snubbys(2" barrel), was in a real situation, unless you could touch them, you will not hit them. They had six trys. The sales pitch for the Rambo special is alive and well.

Does anyone have any information on what else Tom Brown recommends you carry? I have heard that you should carry a rasp to make this knife work perfectly.

Of course the Tom Brown Tracker is awful looking and the movie isn't all that great, but man, the cinematography and background shots were amazing. I don't know how many others noticed that, but I'm one of those "weirdly creative" types.

The fight scenes, as well, are amazing. Not the Bourne identity or Ong Bak but getting there.

Count me in there, I'm a weirdly creative-type also. Take Cliffhanger, while this was little better than The Hunted, the scenary is lush. I watch the film every time it plays on the box just to see that wonderful countryside. The same goes for The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise at his self-indulgent worst but the landscape shots are to die for. :Wow:

Guilty secret, I love The Last Samurai. Not the first time, but if you skip to the first battle and from then on it is a brillant film. The best explaintion of Mind/No Mind I have ever heard.

 

[OldJimbo]

I think that the movie "Hunted" had incredible potential if they'd have edited the silliness out of it and put it together properly.
I wish that I could say the same for the knife since it'd be interesting to see something new which actually works. Unfortunately our ancestors were just as smart as us and had far more incentive to develop efficient edged tools. I've never found anything which was really new and yet worked well. I thought I that had with the GB carver's axe, which was newly developed with the help of a famous wood carver, and does everything they say. Well, I got to see one developed long long ago - and I should have expected that simply because of how well the design works. "Re-inventing the wheel" is often a disparaging term, but not in the case of axe development and use. There, it's an incredible accomplishment.
So has anyone seen any really new design that does anything incredibly well?

 

[Montivagus]

So has anyone seen any really new design that does anything incredibly well?

A Dyson?!

 

[laurens ch]

The one handed opening hole on spyderco knives was a pretty good idea, can’t think of anything major that could have been done years ago.

 

[spamel]

It's not the first time I've seen that knife, boy is it ugly!! I don't know why somebody would carry that thing unless they were at a Star Trek convention dressed as a Klingon!! I'd prefer the version Benetio Del Torre made in the film in his little fire, at least it is unique!!

 

[OldJimbo]

A Dyson?!

I've never heard of that one if it's a blade???

 

[OldJimbo]

The one handed opening hole on spyderco knives was a pretty good idea,

Wow - there you might have something! Studs on blades aren't new but the hole concept for one handed opening is something I can't recall seeing in older blades. I guess that really counts as something since it requires a different blade shape.

 

[Stew]

I've never heard of that one if it's a blade???

I think he's taking the p*ss Jim!

 

[OldJimbo]

Really! Well that's safe enough as only people with a good sense of humor would come to a tracker thread.

 

[Montivagus]

I think he's taking the p*ss Jim!

Sorry just a joke! The question just seemed separate from specifically knife development......and I'd rather try cutting something with my Dyson than with a Tracker!

 

[OldJimbo]

No problem - I've just been over here a long time so I get stumped on a lot of words in common use over there now, and I'm sure the younger people there have trouble with some old terms I still use. At least I'm not alone as French Canadian movies made in Quebec have to have sub titles when shown in France.

One thing that's just occurred to me as being wrong with the movie is when Tommy Lee Jones is making a flint knife to go hunting. That seemed a little contrived but maybe his character is supposed to be a low tech guy. Now we have no flint in western Canada as far as I know, and while I have samples of jade and obsidian from Oregon, I'm wondering if there's any flint to be found there. I've heard of white flint scrapers being found - but the native people traded over great distances to get stuff like that.