The Evolution of the "Tracker" Type Knife

 The Infamous TRACKER/TRAKKER Type knife 

Almost as famous as the "RAMBO" knife but with a far more interesting history than that of Jimmy Lile's iconic design.

Most people who hear the words "Tracker knife" will immediately think of the TOPS knives product  (shown below)

and secondly think of the movie, "The Hunted", starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro. I say secondly because  "The Hunted"  was a box office failure grossing less than the cost of the movie by a long way. As for  a "cult status", Mmmm, I doubt that too!

 Quite possibly due the fact that the predominant audiences at the time of release expected "justice to be done" and  like today in real life, it isn't the case either. Here I refer to the current global situation of concurrent warfare across several countries, all of which arguably or without argument are "fostered" shall we say by the USA government and their partners in crime, who are represented by some blue stars. 

Sorry, I pull no punches here, as I have up until now kept a political free channel/s and blogs but it's just too much now to pretend it is any other way. So if you didn't know where I stand on this subject matter then you do now.

Ok so there is a third thought which might cross one's mind and that is the association of the name of Tom Brown as the originator and designer of the "Tracker Knife". 

So despite the true origins of the Tracker design having being known for some years TOPS continues to advertise as such. Their justification is that the design was modified by them! LOL, I think not. They simply made a product based upon what Tom Brown told them and nothing more. To be honest Tom Brown fell from Grace once I learnt the real story behind this knife design.

So, unfortunately if you believe this about the original Tom Brown Tracker) then you are/were just like me as of  several days ago and that is swayed by this stupid Hollywood movie and over twenty years of marketing hype as to the origins of the "Tracker knife".  The real credit goes to a guy by the name of Robb Russon. Russon, an academic (Professor) at the time and hobbyist knife maker (Yes, Russon, is the father of Mark S. Russon, knife maker) came up with this design 

Image taken from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/utahknifeworks/utah-knife-works-original-tracker-survival-knife

It is a faithful reproduction (according to Russon's knife maker son) of Robb Russon's original "Tracker knife"  as made by his knife maker son, Mark Russon.

during the early eighties. You can watch all about it here. and I totally recommend to watch this video to learn the facts.

Like all good designs, this knife of Russon's has been copied countless times and there is a plethora of design modifications and even changes to the naming, such that the word "Tracker" and or "Trakker"  and or " Trapper" have become synonymous/analogous with a  compact "survival knife"

Let me say this, (I know it's an understatement)  that Russon Sr. came up with an excellent idea/design. Far from a "mall ninja knife" (which it has been called) the design embodies several key features for the true outdoors persons who are in the know and by that I mean knife savvy.  

As to the Chinese made knife that was made by Russon (shown above) it has been reviewed and whilst it was great that the video set the record straight about the origins of the Tracker design and who came up with it first, the knife itself performed very poorly in field tests. I know the guy reviewing it said otherwise but the video did not lie. He did in  fact say the knife was "not shaving sharp", I think probably blunt out of the box. Yes, bamboo is very tough and a jungle benchmark when it comes to what's really sharp and what isn't for ANY KNIFE!

Now that being said, the knife was tested in the jungle environment with some pretty tough tasks but from my standpoint it certainly was a poor performer and I suspect to be a poorly finished/sharpened edge and or rubbish steel (he did say it was D2. You can see this video here and judge for yourself. It's a long video and you may want to skip to the actual testing at time code: 14:53

As I mentioned this original design has been much tweaked/ copied etc. 

The "tweaking" is the important thing here and for such a knife, correct geometry must be key, ie the weight distribution must be correct in order for the knife to be used as both a chopper and a cutter (see below FKMD Parus, an excellent example of great geometry).

 However, before we look at individual knife designs let's refresh ourselves with some text from one of early pioneers into the wilderness, yes no other than Horace Kephart who wrote countless books   one of which entitled:

The Book of Camping and Woodcraft 1906 by Horace Kephart, where he wrote:

Note where Kephart correctly identifies the sole use of a (large- because they were back in the day) Bowie knife inappropriate for campers. I would agree with this. Sure, I've taken my "chungfat" (I coined this term way back in primary school -like 50 years ago LOL, as a nonsense word meaning anything ginormous and amazing but it had to be ginormous!) Kizlyar Supreme Bowie knife 

out of day hikes into the deep snow of the mountains, and it's a great  knife although a little too big for regular camping and food prep and or long (greater than 10km) hiking trips on foot. 

This Bowie is like most modern Bowie knives,  a modern rendition of what the public has been  conditioned to believe is a "Bowie knife" - as a side fact, the original Bowie  knife looked  nothing like today's Bowie and in fact was of the "bird beak handle design" you can see it in some early movies, notably:  in the 1932 version of "The Most Dangerous Game" staring Joel McCrea and Fay Wray.

You can see this type of knife here at time code 6:31

Now back to this "tracker knife" and the iterations....... (excluding the plethora of no name brands).

The key cutting  features of Russon's design is that the blade features two distinct regions of cutting surfaces ( excluding the spine saw). We have a generous "belly" but now located towards the tip of the knife and a straight edge towards the hilt of the knife. The logic being that the belly could be used for skinning purposes and butchering whilst the straight edge was for cutting specific purposes. There was a little more weight towards the tip and this made the handle region not feel heavy and it shouldn't be on any good knife no matter the design ie a heavy handle.

Over the years we have seen the straight edge move towards a "recurved or slightly recurved cutting sections as seen on the following knives.

You will note the absence of a "gimmicky spine saw"*

The above 3 images afre of the FKMD ( Made in Italy by FOX knives) Parus (an in house design at FOX Knives) . Currently still in production and is a superb TNS knife. (last image is of where I easily demolished a green coconut at the coast on a chunk of wood.

The above 4 images: Knife was short term  collaborative design project between Memo tek in Russia and Fox Knives of Italy, called the Grand Trapper, no longer in production. Also a great knife seen here thoroughly tested out in  the southern hemisphere bush and jungle environments.

Now to the custom knife maker.

Above 2 images:  Knife based upon the FKMD "Trapper" knife (pers. comm. by knife maker and myself) and is an early  custom design from Nino Maglia. No longer in production as this was a "one-off"  made with 8mm Sleipner steel. Big, heavy and indestructible, with a wicked edge holding capacity. 

This knife, design (by Angel Corts) based upon Chilean knives 

This knife, however is definitely a pre 1980's design from the Spanish knife maker Aitor and bears all the hallmarks of early Spanish knife designs.

The knife shown above is from FKMD, it is their long term production model known as the "Tracker Sniper knife". This is a super robust small survival  knife intended for military personnel engaged in sniper activities. Snipers working alone may need to be in the field for some time and as such require a knife which can double as a small shovel/survival tool. This knife has a very thick spine, a slight belly, a tanto-like tip and a recurved section for cutting in an arcing motion. This portion of the blade enables rapid effective cutting strokes for cutting fibrous materials such as ferns, reeds, grasses  etc (which could be used to disguise one's position), make bedding material/ cover booby traps etc. etc. 

The sturdy forward weigh enables this tool to be used to cut down small saplings with ease. Since there are multiple sections of  blade, if one dulls the front edge from digging then there  is still the  remaining edge close to the hilt which can be used for cutting tasks. 

As to the robustness of the knife tang, this knife has been subjected to being run over by a "people mover"   stuck in the  ground and kicked repeatedly and subjected to all sorts of ridiculous  abusive tests many years ago by a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@bastinelli AKA Bastinelli 

and also here you can see another crazy video.

I will now focus upon the above knife in the rest of the discussion here in relation to the evolution of Tracker type knives.

Some of the specifications at a glance. 

Thickness: 6mm or 0.24" (I measured 6.19mm at the guard)

Blade Length: 150mm or  5.91"

Weight: 310gr or 10.93 Oz.

Steel: Böhler  N690

Blade coating: PVD DLC

Designer: Giorgio Danese (military background)- I found him impossible to locate and as such I will not be able to offer any input from the designer.

Handle: Forprene elasto polymer (TPV- thermoplastic vulcanizate). Long since field proven toughness.

Tang: Full width to tapering with lanyard hole.

Scabbard: Ballistic nylon and plastic. There is a hard plastic inner scabbard liner, an elasticized leg loop and a quick release dangler strap which also features a safety lock to prevent accidental release.

 This knife can also be worn simply attached to a belt . OR carried directly on a pack or any article of clothing that features PALS webbing.

So I've had my eye on this knife from FKMD (the military division of FOX Knives in Maniago) for many years, (about 13 to be exact) infact ever since they started producing it however for some strange reason, I  never got it but now all that has changed and I decided I MUST have this knife because I must share my thoughts on  it with other outdoors persons and just knife enthusiasts the world over! (You can tell I'm excited about it!).

Already a very satisfied user of other similar yet different FKMD products as shown above, this is like the bare bones "military grade" version of the Trapper knife also by FKMD, which was one of my earliest acquisitions from FOX and has served me well all around the globe. I saw no reason why the FX9CM01B would not also serve me well.

The FX-9CM01 B TRACKER SNIPER KNIFE is a small knife by outdoor standards coming in at only just under 6". However, as a military knife which needs to be carried with a plethora of other equipment, especially a sniper, then the size is totally appropriate. It is of very robust design without being overly heavy.

As mentioned above the blade has been coated with a Diamond like Carbon via a PVD process. This is the same PVD process which has been used on my super abused and heavily used FKMD Hitam Golok. (Shown below)

The FKMD FX9CM01B has 3 separate blade grinds. A small recurved portion closest to the hilt, A belly region and the tip is in the shape of a Western styled tanto.

I'm not going to say this knife is "bullet-proof" but I'm certain it could take several rounds and come out basically unscathed!

The scabbard is very well made and features what appears to be Hypalon material for the retention strap (same stuff Zodiac inflatables are made from). The stitching is top notch as could be expected for a military end point knife. The scabbard also has generous room for a pistol mag or for a folding knife or a multitool.

One thing you will find in ALL of my blogs about knives is that there will definitely be images showing the spine. Why do I do this? Well, that's because when I read a blog or watch a video about a knife and there is no image of the knife's spine, this annoys me because the spine shape will tell you a lot about the knife even before one sees the blade. In the above image, one can clearly see that the spine is at full thickness but at approximately 40mm away from the guard it starts to taper with a chamfer to the tip. 

The tip is not overly thick so this knife is still capable of piercing tasks without too much effort.

There is a generous thumb ramp to upper guard the guard has two holes which could be used for a multitude of purposes, for example but far from limited to: lashing to a pole, wire bending, extraction of certain objects made from lead (5.8, 5.56, 5.45 mm) use your imagination here, these guard holes are NOT some random diameter. After all this knife is intended for military personnel and I'm a big advocate of certain military knives as excellent bushcrafting knives, notwithstanding their usual robustness as a key feature. 

Anyway, stick around for some outdoor stuff. I haven't done any full reviews for some time as the audience retention level is non existent so I really appreciate those of you who bother to read my articles and watch my videos.

@BushCampingTools

* I say gimmicky because there are definitely good spine saws but the one on the Russon tracker and Tops Tracker are not good saws as they are just of the wrong design IMHO.