I know, I promised a chop off today. The rest of my yard will just have to wait until I take care of THE YARD. Thunder is all around, but as you can see, my yard needs rain, bad.

So out to the chopping stump we go. Starting with three well-known 9" choppers, the Becker BK-9 Combat Bowie, Ranger RD9, and the new Swamp Rat M9LE. The Becker is 3/16" thick 0170-6C, the Ranger is 1/4" thick 5160, and the Swamp Rat is 1/4" thick SR101 or modified 52100 steel. The Becker and Ranger have micarta handles and the SR has G10 scales. You would be hard pressed to find three more similar choppers. The M9 has the thinnest scales of the three. I already knew that the Becker and Ranger were top notch choppers.

I found some good dead but not dry Red Bay for the test. I chopped 22 chops into the wood, starting with the BK-9. This a comfortable knife to chop with.

Next was the RD9 with 22 chops. It is also comfortable to chop with, but not as much so as the Becker.

Finally, it was the M9s turn.

All chopped closely, but the M9 went just a bit deeper than the Becker, followed by the Ranger. The difference separating them was only about 1/8".
I did a little light brush thinning with the M9 and its speed made it work well for a bowie. Not a golok, but not bad.

Then I remembered the Busse NMSFNO. But it is an 8" blade, not a 9".

It's a chopping beast with that full convex grind, and the heaviest knife here. It almost went all the way through in 22 chops. No contest.


So there it is. My NMSFNO will out chop my M9LE, definitively.
Here is how they ranked, but the bottom three are very close. For all practical purposes, the three bowies chop about the same.

I'm off this week and now my day is complete! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cool as always- gotta say I thought the Rat was gonna knock the Busse of it's perch.

Wrong!

I decided not to baton. What's the point? They all can do it, and all it would do is further scratch up my M9LE. I also decided not to include the 10" DFLE. It's a 10" blade. I already know that the RD9 chops about as well. The DFLE is my favorite chopping bowie, but my old DF CG would out chop it, as will my FBM. I felt that the three 9" bowies were alike in size and purpose. I threw in the NMSFNO because several have mentioned comparing it to the M9LE. The M9LE is the "fastest" knife in this chop off. It is less blade heavy than the RD9 and BK-9. The balance point is right at the end of the scales, like the NMSFNO, but the M9 is much faster in the hand for some reason. Maybe it's the thinner point, I don't know, but the two knives feel very different.

wow...so now i have to get the NMSFNO?

Yes. You must. Hurry, like Sham Wow, they can't make that offer forever!

if only i'd seen this chopoff before they went out of stock.

can't blow any more on bowies right now anyway.

Chopping isn't everything. I still prefer the feel of the M9LE to the NMSFNO just like I prefer the DFLE to the DF CG. Besides, you have a FBM. That's a heck of a chopper. But for an 8" blade, the NMSFNO kicks some butt. If I had to have just one knife in the boonies to survive with, I think I'd pick the NMSFNO.

i expected you to pick the lighter M9 or DFLE.

I'm sure they would do fine, especially in machete mode, but the NMSFNO is such a tank, it could handle anything.

Was the M9 Horn Dog sharp?

All of the knives were of comparable sharpness. I touched up the edge on the M9LE.