Not quite sure what to make of them. Fwiw, I already have my eyes one another brand (or three) so I’m not necessarily looking to purchase. I’ve just kept seeing them advertised in a certain magazine, so I finally gave in and checked out their website and did some quick searching around for info.
I think their advertisement (at least this one) is trying a little to hard to promote them as totally basdass/hard use knives. And I’m not sure what to make of their apparent association with Opsgear.
And there’s like six zillion knives on their site so… yeah.
Overall I’m getting sort of a 50/50 vibe on them- some folks, as usual say they’re great and as tough as advertised, and they do have a few rather appealing designs (Moccasin Ranger and such). Others not so much- too wannabe-commando, not so great design features for the price, and so on.
(Honestly, I don’t personally care how a company chooses to design it’s blades- different strokes for different folks and all that- if you want a blade to make you feel like Rambo, have at it. I just want to know it’s of at least a known quality)
As you can see, they both seem like pretty serious sized blades, and in the youtube review you can actually watch it get bent chopping a regular 'ol piece of wood. From the comments, it seems like the youtube blade had a bad temper (har har :rolleyes:), however I’ve seen some of the other knives in that review get put through way worse situations- chopping a chunk of wood seems like kind of an easy task.
But I don’t know enough about these blades to say yeah, it’s one in a million, or to take this as a clue that this is a pervasive problem as it’s obviously happened more than once, and I can’t seem to find a comperhensive review here, or one that I trust elsewhere.
My TOPS-BUCK Folder is the single greatest folder Ive ever owned.
It is absolutly the stoutest, overbuilt, heavy folder Ive owned. I have many, and I carry this one the most.
Also, when I bought this blade last Christmas, I noticed a little icon on the rear of the blade that had a little flame and the name BOS on it.
Curious as to what/who this was, I did some research and found out.
Paul Bos is considered to be one of, if not THE most knowledgable man alive on the subject of heat treating/tempering steel/metal.
Check him out, read his background and how Buck got him to work for them. To know he personally treated the ATS-34 steel used in my knife assures me it can be made no stronger or finer. Its a very interesting story.
Anyway, back to the knife…I love the damn thing. Its also 100% USA MADE, and yes that matters to me. Awesome knife.
From what Ive read and the few other TOPS knives Ive seen and handled, I think they are great blades for money charged. ANY blade can be bent if improperly used, and I never take these youtube torture test seriously. Hope this helps.
Update: After viewing their website again for the first time in awhile, I ordered one of their SERE Belts just now. Good looking belt. Also, left out in my opinion of my TOPS-BUCK FOLDER that it came out the box wickedly sharp.
I havent had any issues with the single TOPS blade that I own, but I havent used it for chopping trees or anything like that. Thier advertising isnt the most appealing to me; but I purchased the blade while at a shop so their ad didnt influence me in any way.
I have a Top Knives Wolf Pup. There are several design flaws with it.
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The worst is the fact that it was dull, dull, dull straight out of the box.
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Secondly, the sheath that it was sent out with was poorly designed. it was impossible to get a good grip on the handle when trying to pull it out.
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The Handle was a decent length, but the blade needed to be about 1-1.5" longer, but maintain the same width/profile.
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back when i had my review site up and running, i emailed top knives a copy of the review that i did on it (including a review of a sheath i had josh kolbeson make up for it). The review stated things that were issues as well as the positive things. If there was a negative I made suggestions as to how it could be improved (ie: shipping the knife with a sharp edge on it). I was completely blown off by them and was told that under no circumstances would they be changing anything about it.
so basically I wrote off top knives all together.
eta: here’s the before and after shot of the sheath:
"TOPS Knives who agreed to have me send the knife in to be straightened and re-sharpened. My returned knife was completely straightened, and the blade was as sharp as I when I first bought it. TOPS Knives even sent me a T-Shirt for the ordeal, and all I paid was the price of shipping to mail the knife to them. Their service has been outstanding! "
Well, that’s the thing- it wasn’t a “torture test”, it was just a guy chopping up some wood, which is why it raised a bit of concern to me.
If he had done some other outlandish task and bent it, I would agree.
Well, to be fair, it was around 1am when I typed this up so I suppose I forgot to add that in with everything else…:o My bad.
That being said, while the circumstances as described in this article seem a lot more likely to be something that would cause a problem like this, in my opinion, you still have two apparently serious-use knives do the same thing.
I’m glad to hear their CS is that good, but on the same note, technically one could make an argument that has been brought up for other products and say what does that matter when I need the tool and can’t take advantage of the warranty?
The only reason I’m harping on this is that I’m curious if this is just a 2 in a million fluke, or a continuing/pervasive problem. That is all. Please just take my ramblings at face value as I am NOT in any way trying top stir up negativity towards a company that obviously I am not intimately familiar with.
I just want more input from folks that own and use these knives to get a better understanding of where they fit in on the quality scale.
I’m tracking, just had to point out the end result was a good one. I’ve heard of a few knives, with poor/wrong tempering do this.
I think Busse and Scrapyard get around this sort of bending by having blades that are as thick as axes.
I have a Scrapyard Yard Guard and Dumpster Mutt, and the rear of the blades are listed as 0.280" and 0.285" or ~9/32" thick. That’s pretty serious thickness.
Yea those blades that bent weren’t tempered. Other than that a TOPS fixed blade will serve you good with its good ole’ 1095 high carbon steel blades, micarta slabbed handles properly fastened.
I have no time with any of their Buck colaborations but I do have one of there other folders and wouldn’t recomend it. They’re are made in Italy by Fox and just aren’t anything to write home about as far as robustness is concerned, especially for the over $200 price tag. Frankly I think their fixed blades are over priced to considering the steel used but when you consider that you can’t hurt them its not too bad.
And like so many companies the sheath situation blows goats. Their kydex is doable but their nylon sheaths are trash.
I wouldn’t say they are horrible per say…gimmicky yes. Value? No. You could do much better for the money. I agree 100% with the previous poster about Scrapyard and Swamprat for the money. Better steel, better heat treat. Awesome warranties as well. Holding some of TOPS designs in hand really lets you get a sense of the lack of thought put into the designs. They are catered much more to looking the part than doing the part. May I ask what size knife, price range, and activities you plan of using the potential knife for? Recommendations would be easier that way. Just want to reiterate. TOPS aren’t horrible just lack value and thought out design.
Knife designs are sort of a pet peeve for me. Most people who claim to know something about knife fighting are fakers. Strider is among the worst in this regard.
Just looking at the website only the Bagdad Box cutter and Bartenders Pal seem remotely interesting in terms of design. The rest of the designs seem pretty gimmicky.
Here is a clue on knives, look at the history of knives. In most cases, you would be best served by a traditional design like the Arkansas Toothpick, Bowie, or Roach Belly. If you know the manual of arms, you may be ok with a Tanto.
For a custom or semi-custom knife my cutoff is $300-500 and the guy must understand why a knife is made the way it is. If your knife fighting resume is not very deep do not go for some new-fangle design. In most cases you need a knife that can serve as a kitchen knife and act like a prison shank, because, in the REAL world, this is how most knives are used.
Scrapyard and Swamprat remind of the AR argument… Why buy BM or DPMS when you can get Colt or BCM for the same price if not cheaper now. TOPS whole spec-ops marketing is way over board. I’ve met the owner and he seems like a down to earth dude though.
Busse has some gimmicky marketing too but they have also proved what seperates them from the pack when it comes to perfomance and scrapyard can’t be beat when it comes to their moto of price to performance ratio. Jerry Busse is also a 400 pound college professor which I guess proves you don’t have to be HSLD to understand and produce a real deal product.
Here’s my opinion. I’m completely turned off by their designs and the marketing is beyond retarded. Any company that tries to cash in on a name like Special Forces or any other unit will not get a cent of my money. Most of their knives are pretty mall ninja and are often form over function styles. I tend to view them in the same light as I do those Dark Ops abortions they used to advertise. The steels TOPS uses tend to be lower end compared to the prices they ask. I like that they have good customer service but that’s not hard to find in their price range. In my opinion there are much better knife makers that use great materials and traditional, well thought out designs that actually work whether or not they look cool to teenagers. I prefer knives made by any of the Busse brands, Chris Reeve, ESEE, and even Spyderco and Fallkniven for production knives. There are just too many good, credible knife makers out there for me to take TOPS seriously.
That’s sort of what first went through my head when I went on their site and saw ALL those knives.
As far as me, right now I’m looking for a general purpose/survival/shtf knife in the 5-6" range- seems like the best “do-all” size . Thanks to the search button, and some other helpful folks, I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to something from Swamprat/ESEE/Scrapyard/OKC and friends, with a to be decided aftermarket/custom sheath as apparently the majority suck from the factory.
Currently going for something from OKC as I can get them for a super good price- most likely a Ranger RD6.
Although I probably won’t be able to help myself from getting a tanto-design blade at some point…
As far as ‘knife fighting’- that’s a low second or third priority. Unlike some folk, I am under no illusions as to my skill (read:lack of) in this area, not to mention, as a last resort measure it would most likely (under current conditions) take place with a knife more in the EDC size category anyway.
Current priority is a knife I can beat the crap out of, hence the reason I asked about Tops, as they’re supposedly also ‘hard-use’ knives.
^good choice. Esse makes good knives with great value. I personally like Bussekin knives better though. When it comes to Bussekin (Scrapyard and Swamprat) it depends on your goals. If you want a chopper to beat on get a scrapyard in sr77. If you want a more practical do all knife look for a Swamprat OR Scrapyard in sr101, which is a modified 52100 steel. It will hold an edge much better than the more shock resistant sr77. That sycko really is a hell of a lot of knife for the money. The resiprene c handles on the Scrapyards aren’t as “cool” or nice looking as the g10 and micarta options on Swamprats but handle shock extremely well and are super comfortable. If you want something more slicing and food prep-ish Phil Dobson makes fixed blades in crazy super steels with super nice thin grinds. But for a do it all value filled knife you will do well to sticking with the Bussekins.
I hate hate hate bringing drama and crap into threads but that guy Brous who makes those is a major dick head. He has been kicked off other forums for threatening peoples lives. I WOULD NOT give him my money.
