Welcome to the yard, Mike!
Other than the slight length difference, I find the blades pretty similar. If you can, try out each just to get a feel for the handles. I like both, but that doesn't really help you. If you do purchase one and not like it, you can always sell it on the exchange and get most or all of your money back. As someone once put it, its kind of like renting the knife.
As Runit said, Resiprene can take some serious pounding, so that really shouldn't be an issue and you will likely break yourself before you break either blade.
JJ is celebrating his promotion to staff sergeant, I believe.
