it was a good deal. it isn't from anyone here is it?

it is the only infi I will have
I own none right now

Yep, with the sheath...black paper- that is an amazing looking knife

I collect kuks and love them but I do not know the technique. even without the technique they are still great. I use a 15 inch kuk from kukri palace and it does very well.

I have an ltc, htc, ghurka and machete kuk all from cs. I own a couple from india, seven from nepal, one from taiwan, a coulpe ontario, china, and now this busse.

Scrappy, I think you got an excellent deal. I forked out another 60.00 more to get mine without a sheath. And I feel I got a good deal. The tag on it said 797.00. It is still unused (for now).

I have to say that the KZ is the first Busse that did not feel quite right. I do not have that many busse knives but, the ones that I have have all felt good in the hand. The KZ, seems to want to fly out of my hand when I swing it around. Granted, it's much bigger than my biggest bussekin (a swamprat battle rat). Actually, I just remembered that I have an AK too. But, that does not really count as a chopper ... or does it.

I'm still debating whether to use it and send it to Nate for be optimized or trade it for a FFBM or CGFBM.

One thing for sure, it's one impressive looking knife. I may just do the unthinkable and safequeen it for a rainy day.


Anyhow, good score.

And thanks for the review guys!!

I had to thin out the edge on mine to get good chopping performance. It's an impressive heavy chopper for sure. Jerry has already said the production model will have a thinner, lighter grind. At least the handles didn't work loose like on two of my Condors and every Ontario that has riveted handles. But an original Test Team model should be a keeper if that kind of knife is your thing. Right now they are not in high demand, but that may change with time. It is Busse's first Khukri, and there can only be one first anything.

HD,

With the thinned out edge, would you say that it can hang with the FFBM?

The killa zilla, with proper edge geometry, will DESTROY the FFBM. The problem is that, for an $800 knife, it might take quite a lot of work to get a proper edge geometry on it.


For what it's worth, I wouldn't keep an FFBM, or an NMFBM, that costs $800, either. It's just too much money for a job that can be done by a $20 machete.


But that's more a statement about my values in a big knife than the quality of the knife. Lots of people own the expensive LE versions of those two knives and love them.




Realize that my very negative initial test was due to the complete lack of sharpness from the factory. I was disappointed with the NMSFNO, too, and now it's one of my favorite blades. And if I had paid around $350 for the killa zilla, like I did the NMSFNO, I would still have it.


Instead, I sold it at a loss just to try to get some of my money back. If they release a CG Killa Zilla for $400 or so, I will probably buy it. But to me, it's not worth twice that.

Easily.

Well I have done a bit of checking up on the CS LTC Carbon V khukri and all of it is good...so after searching for a good while I found somewhere that still has them in stock and ordered one...it should be interesting...it is quite a thin blade...3/16 I believe and will be interesting to compare it with it's heavier and thicker brother the Carbon V ATC and with my KZ.

I know the KZ has not gone down well with some but for Scrappy who had just bought one I can say that properly thinned down it is awesome. Maybe HD could tweak Scrappy's for him....I would willing do so but sending it to the UK is a none starter...

I think I am done tweaking my KZ...I wanted to take it gradually and see how things went...for the simple reason you cannot put steel back...

The best way is as per my CS Khukri...I did that one on the Parang sharpening suggestions in the SAS Survival book which basically means giving the finest fully convex edge at the section neat the hilt and tapering the convex to a thicker more robust edge on the main curve and then thinning to the tip for fine work again.

With the KZ it actually works best quite thin even on the belly section...this does invovle a lot of removal work if you want to keep it fully convexed...but I found the tension in my belt was not as effective as using leather shaped and glued to the back plate of the belt sander...and holding the lower part of the blade up against this...an earlier job I did on a SJTAC has nicely curved the leather and this helped a lot with the KZ...

Here is a pic of what I mean...



I want to give my CS Khukri the same treatment...it gives a higher more "appleseed" shaped edge which seems a lot more effective...

Anyway...gradually getting there...when the LTC comes I think I will remove the checkering on the grip with a dremel like I have done on my other one...makes it a lot more comfortable...

Looking forward to the LTC ... "thin is definately in" when it comes to carrying and using...the KZ though is doing better on chopping than the CS ATC for tree trunk stuff...limbing they both now often just clean cut with one swing...gradually seem to be getting better edges or better at sharpening and stropping these...the shape is a [censored] akward one for belt sander use...but that is easy compared to trying these blades on a stone...

In a moment of madness I tried out a Japanese wet combination stone on the edge of the CS ATC near the hilt after doing some fuzz sticks...just made it worse...took it back to the belt sander and it came back great...no wonder the Gurkha's use a Karda like a sharpening steel to work the blade...to many curves for a flat stone IMO...

Pic's and a few reviews will follow in due course once I piece it all together... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I'm surprised you were able to find a place with the LTC in stock - they have been discontinued for years. I'm tempted to pick up one or two more, knowing I won't ever be able to get them again.