I think you’ll agree with me when i say…
TOPS Knife from BOB (Brother of Bushcraft) is a great bushcraft knife. And in this post i’ll review it.
And i’ll cover all the good and bad aspects of the knife in detail. So that you can finally decide if it is worth buying.
Key features
In this article...
● Fixed knife, designed especially for bushcrafting by the Brothers of Bushcraft
● 1095 carbon steel blade
● Micarta handle with a cut-out on both sides for a fire bow
● Sturdy steel belt clip makes it easy to attach it to your belt
● Comes with a solid kydex sheath
Overall Look And Feel of the Knife
The Tops B.O.B. Brothers of Bushcraft Survival Knife is a full fixed blade knife with an overall length of 9.87 Inches. And a blade length of 4.63 inches and weighs around 9.73 oz.
Blade
The blade of the knife is made from 1095 high carbon steel. 1095 steel is a basic form of carbon steel and is most commonly used in the construction of various knives. It is both hard and wear resistant. It can easily hold itself during the long sessions of batoning and chopping.
Knives made with 1095, holds a great edge and are very easy to sharpen. It will be an asset especially for those people who are still an amateur when it comes to their knife sharpening skills. However, the 1095 has the tendency to easily rust if not oiled and deliberately cared for.
Furthermore the knife got a different heat treatment on the blade and spine for strength. The spine of the blade is 3/16 of an inch thick. It’s not too thick not too thin. You can easily baton it to split large pieces of wood into smaller pieces for fire during your camping trips without bending or breaking the blade.
Even batoning an old wood is not a problem where you needed a greater amount of force. But unfortunately the spine is not grinded flat instead it is nicely rounded. Those who are habitual of using the spine of the knife to scrap firesteel will find it difficult to produce some nice sparks with the spine.
But don’t worry Tops Knives does offer an alternative to this which we will take in a bit. And there’s also an aggressive jimping at the back of the spine near the handle. Which could scrape off your skin if you’re not careful with it.
The blade features a drop-point design. And a modified scandi grind, which is a regular scandi grind with a small secondary bevel. It is very well capable of making feather sticks. You can indeed get some fine shavings with this scandi grind.
The edge of the blade is sharp, though you cannot shave your arm hair with it out the box. But it is reasonably shaped to slice through a piece of paper effortlessly. As for chopping goes, for the weight which is by the way 9.73 oz, it can really chop impressively without much effort. With every hit you can take out good chunks of wood and blow it away into pieces in no time.
Handle
The handle is made of micarta scales on the tang of the knife. The handle scale has a bow drill divot on both sides including a lanyard hole. There are thumb scallops up near the blade which help you to have better alternate grips like a chest pull reverse cut.
It makes this type of cutting easy and very comfortable. There is an exposed pommel with a cutout for fire steel scraper, which I was telling you about a few moments ago. It is nice and definitely gets the job done but in my opinion it is a lot easier to do this same thing with the flat spine.
The handle is put together very well. The fit and finish is very good and it feels really nice in the hands. Every aspect of the handle is designed very carefully keeping the use of the knife in mind. And as it is called a bushcraft knife, the handle feels comfortable and never fatigues your hand while doing any bushcrafting task.
Sheath
The sheath that comes with the Tops BOB is made of kydex. It is nothing fancy but a very basic and simple kydex sheath. The knife fits into the sheath very tightly and you hear a nice click while putting it inside the sheath. Knife doesn’t rattling inside whatsoever and doesn’t fall off on its own.
Even if you give it a very aggressive shaking, it will not fall out. On the front there is a molded fire steel holder/loop for firesteel. Tops themselves have included a firesteel with the knife which consists of two magnesium rods and one ferro rod to light the fire.
It fits very snugly inside the holder and you should not worry about it falling out of the holder. Plus there’s a whistle attached to these firesteel which can be useful when you’re lost or when you want to alert someone about danger. It is nice to have along with your other gear.
On the back side of the sheath there’s a well known Tops belt clip. You can freely adjust it accordingly to your liking as it can freely rotate full 360 degrees. It will fit on larger LBE, Molle loops and all sorts of different ways.
However if you desire you can take that off. It’s just held on by just a hex head bolt back which you can remove easily without any effort. There’s also a thumb ramp on the sheath. It makes it very easy to pull the knife out. You have to do a walk up so it is not very suitable for real life tactical use.
Watch TOPS Knife BOB Field Testing
Conclusion
This is for those people who’re looking for a solid durable bushcraft knife. This knife has great features and it feels comfortable in hand. Although it does have few downsides. But overall it is good value for money.
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