Hi Unsub,

Thanks for those warm words. I have had a great welcome here and benefitted from a lot of advice. I have bought a Skinny Ash1 as per HD's suggestion in Desert Sage and Black Micarta Magnum with a Kydex sheath. This comes in at 14oz and is light enough for a second web knife and can fulfil the role of my diving knife when I alter the sheath. It is light enough for leg carry/swimming without being off putting and will enable me to sell my present knife which again is rare and no longer made. This is it -



It is a Berger Patriot designed by Blackie Collins and the steel is 440 B I think. The clip point serations I had custom done for fishing line cutting and the sheath is excellent for diving and inverted carry. It is Jump Certified for this and for freefall jumping it should work well as a cut away knife ( so far so good.....never needed it for that).

My first try for a replacement for the Vought knife was a Chris Reeve Project 1. I had a very early South African Jereboam done by Chris and this knife worked well but had his custom eye on it and on the heat treat. After seeing the Noss test on this I will move it on. I try not to duplicate my carry knives anyway...to expensive...I did some simple leatherwork on the sheath to attach a flint and Eze Lap and a small pouch for a Silva marching compass. The sheath is well designed for a quick release from the webbing and I fancied a one stop shop for the important gear. Anyway here is a pic -


Not sure what has happened to the CR knives since he left S.A. but it looks like the heat treat is not as it should be.

I will also sell the Enterek Dissapointer as HD calls it (LOL) and the Badger....no point in having something which is secondary to my Busse System. If I need substitutes the Vought can come out of retirement until I get a replacement.

I saw a FSH on the forum for $520 shipped and at 19oz and a 8 inch blade it is the exact spec of the Vought. I was sorely tempted at this as it was already stripped and had a nice convex edge profiling job. I decided to wait out until the FFBM arrived.....if it were simply a matter of a credit card entry and not all the faff of e-mails and extra postage calculations I would have gone for it. However, I want to give the FFBM a good roll of the dice. Heavy is'nt too bad if you know you have the performance. The FFBM is a bit like the .50 cal...you can probably use a .338 LM for much of the time but when you need it.....there is no point crying because you have to hump it.

All the best.SF.