Re: knife advice requested
hope this help.
i'm a custom knifemaker,(
http://www.spanglercustomknives.com/Spangler_Custom_Knives/Welcome.html)
if that means anything as far as my input goes.
for 1k you can get a lot of knife, especially fixed blade. i would look for something in 110V if possible. but they're not making that steel anymore.
rj martin has the last of it.
martinsite.com
he is the man for tactical knives. read his BIO he engineered helicopters for a living, and now makes knives full time. i can vouch for the fact that he puts more engineering in to his knives than any other maker i know of
his knives are as good as it's going to get.
stick with S30V, S90V, and S110V for the top in performance.
i just finished this one out of S90V and i can tell you with 9% vanadium this stuff has amazing wear resistance, and the 14% chromium will hold up well against corrosion, especially with a fine finish on the blade,
that bead blast stuff just makes steel rust faster (unless they use ceramic media that peens the surface of the steel vs cutting like sharp aggressive aluminum oxide)
busse blades are not worth the $
they're one dimensional in what they can do. way too much $ for a knife like that
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/827648-approximating-infi?p=9491537#post9491537 they may work for some things, but cutting isn't one of them. the geometry is less than desirable for a knife. it performs poorly as a cutting tool, more like a hatchet, but still won't out perform a $30 hatchet you picked up at sears
i would look around and check out some of the top tactical makers and ask for some price quotes. for what you're looking to do, you can have that knife made for a fraction of that price.
hope this helps man! let us know what you go with. also check out anything from PML knives.
robertsoncustomcutlery.com has a good selection of tacticals.
shoot me a pm if you have questions on steel or anything.