You might want to look at Horn Dog's
SYKCO 1311 Review.
I own both, but haven't chopped with either -- if you have an extra $700+, then you could do much worse than buying a NMFBM -- I carried a really sweet one around for a while at the last Knob Creek before finally deciding to return it. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, the reason that Busse Combat knives are worth as much as they are is because people are willing to pay what they cost. Sure, you can use them, but their value is set by the market; Tramontina makes cheap machetes that work real well and Condor makes some that are even thicker/"better", but don't expect to re-sell either of those brands for much more than you'll pay to ship them.
My personal opinion is that a NMFBM won't offer a significant performance advantage over a 1311 -- I'm not even sure that it would chop as well; it's a heavier knife, but I think that the 1311 is heavy enough and easier to pack on a hike. However a NMFBM will cost more and retain a much higher value (as long as the secondary market remains healthy). Most of the people who are willing to pay for a NMFBM buy it for what it is (a big slab of INFI) rather than because it's the best chopper on the market -- if nothing else, a good axe will out-perform it. Also, you'll probably get a different answer here than you would on the Busse Combat subforum -- there's overlap between the groups, but there are also some folks over there wouldn't ever consider buying a Scrap Yard.
