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| ColdSteel Bird &Trout vs. Tops Hoffman Harpoon |
| My Impressions and overall Assessment:
Both knives are an excellent choice as a small camp knife/ piece of survival gear. However my experience in the field with both of these knives has left me with some rather firm summations on both. Firstly the Hoffman Harpoon. As a weapon, this knife is absolutely deadly. Lash it to a stick in a variety of combinations and you can walk around the forest throwing/smacking/wacking/beating until you are blue in the face. The knife is just plain tough. The long thick handle fits people with larger hands and fingers far better than the thin and short CS Bird and Trout. As a practical backpacking knife, the Hoffman harpoon is lacking. It slices well. You can bore out holes, shave bark and even split wood. However the same blade characteristics that make it so well suited to these brute force, agressive tasks also make it a poor choice for slicing thin fillets or dressing and skinning survival game such as amphibians and rodents. Not a great carving or whittling knife. If you are a fanatic LNT treehugger, and everything I just said was complete gibberish.. you definately don't want or need this knife. A more practical everyday backpacking knife will serve you much better. Moving on ...... The sheath is just really really bad. You will need to do something about it fairly soon after purchasing one. I highly recommend a custom kydex shoulder strap sheath so you can wear it inverted on the shoulder strap of a backpack or life jacket. Several vendors are available online. The cold steel bird and trout; - definately gets the bargain buy award. This is a great little knife for small precision tasks. In practical everyday hiking terms, this knife far and away out performs the Hoffman harpoon. If you just want to repair gear, cut cordage, slice open food packets or any myriad of plain mundane camp tasks that you might otherwise use a small swiss army knife for, the CS Bird and Trout is a fantastic alternative choice. You get all the function of the SAK blade with the bonus of a full sized, fixed blade handle and at less weight than all but the smallest SAKS. What is important to keep in mind is that this knife was never intended to be used as a spear or spike-hawk or javelin. You cannot expect it to perform like a hoffman harpoon in these kind of 'survival related tasks'. The neck sheath is fantastic but requires two hands to draw the knife; one to hold the chain so you dont choke yourself, and the other (with a good deal of force) to extract the blade from the tight fitting sheath. Summary Conclusions: If you want a more practical everyday situation camp knife with "some-experience-required" survival capability and if weight is a major factor in your decision - The Cold Steel Bird and Trout is the way to go. Buy one anyways, heck they are like 12 bucks! Even if it never makes it into your pack... toss it in the car, or use it around the house. Buy 10, so what if you break one. Carry two of them for insurance at 1/2 the weight compared to one Hoffman in its sheath minus accessories. If you want high quality steel and are more interested in trying and practising survival/primitive skills, then you can't beat the TOPS Hoffman Harpoon. You still get most of the function for everyday camp chores with some penalty for dealing with a thicker clumsier blade design, but definate performance focus as a survival tool. It also doesnt hurt to have money to burn as the TOPS hoffman harpoon is quite possibly the most expensive weight to steel quality ratio I have ever seen in a knife. Its a piece of 1095!! sharpened to a spike, with a hole in one end. How can it cost 80 dollars!?! If you can get over this outrage... its a pretty darn good knife. Here is a good lashing method for a comfortable hand grip. I use this square knot method or a sailors whipping. There are of course dozens of other good means of securing large amounts of cordage to the knife. |
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| Specs: TOPS Hoffman Harpoon
Blade Length: 2 1/2" O/A Length: 8" Cutting Edge: 2 1/2" Thickness: 3/16" Weight: (*2.6oz as measured with stock paracord wrap) (2.2oz without) Blade Color: Black Traction Coating Steel: 1095 High Carbon Alloy RC-58 Sheath: Cordura, includes Lanskey sharpener, and magnesium flint striker . Mfg. Handcrafted in the USA Cost: $79.00 USD MSRP Specs: Coldsteel Bird and Trout Weight: 0.8 oz. (*0.7 measured wt) Blade Thickness: 7/64" (2.6mm) Blade Length: 2 1/4" Handle: 4 1/16" long. Steel: AUS 6A Stainless Steel Overall Length: 6 5/16" Bead Blast Finish Sheath: Concealex Neck Sheath Cost: $24.99 USD MSRP |
| Whats Good:
TOPS Hoffman Harpoon: * good quality, rugged, over-built. This is a blade that will take abusive treatment like all TOPS knives. * An excellent design for its intended purpose. Very functional * High quality, functional survival accessories come standard * The smallest, lightest, combination magnesium & flint fire starter kit I have ever seen mass produced, anywhere. Cold Steel Bird and Trout: * Extremely comfortable and utilitarian blade design with outstanding handle design to ensure confidence when precision cutting and slicing * Both blade and sheath are incredibly light weight. The fit between knife and sheath is absolutely rock solid and it is quite comfortable when worn as a neck knife. * Cheap! Common Ebay item for aprox. $12. You could get 1/2 a dozen with shipping for about the same cost as one Hoffman Harpoon at MSRP. |
| Whats Not So Good:
TOPS Hoffman Harpoon: * The blade angle is made for penetration and hard impact. It is far better suited to stabbing/harpooning than it is to delicate precision cutting. * The overall sheath design is just terrible. A sloppy ill-fitting imitation kydex insert puts the final nail in the coffin of a poorly laid out multi-carry option combination survival sheath. Recommendation for improvement: * If the other end was a tiny tomahawk head, and it had saw teeth on the spine I would pit this knife against any of the WSK Tom Brown Trackers or improved imitations out there. Cold Steel Bird and Trout: * The blade is quite thin and AUS6A SS will flex and then snap suddenly and without warning as you reach the maximum stress point. From strictly a safety viewpoint, this is a strike against for the knife. Cold Steel does not manufacture the knife in any other steel types. * As a spear/harpoon/spike-hawk the CS B&T requires careful control. Brute force combined with novice hand-eye coordination will result in a damaged or broken blade. Recommendation for Improvement: * If the finger guard were removed and was instead barbed like the Hoffman harpoon and was also sharpened to function as a gut hook, this could potentially be the greatest Ultra-light fixed blade neck knife ever. Greatest being defined an overall assessment of utility,quality and cost as highest factors |
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