Kingsley-Hughes.Com | Busse Combat

Outdoor Equipment

Busse Combat - Assault Shaker

Probably the smallest knife from Busse Combat - although it's hard to call any knife that is 1/4 inch (a shade over 6 mm) thick small. The Assault Shaker is designed as a neck knife - by that the idea is that it is worn in a Kydex sheath around the neck.

The Statistics

OK, first the stats on the Assault Shaker:

Blade length: 6.3 cm (2.5 inches)
Overall length: 14 cm (5.5 inches)
Thickness: 6.3 mm (1/4 inch)
Material: INFI
Weight: 85 g (3 oz)

Description

As you can gather from the above stats, this isn't really a small knife - chunky is one word that comes to mind. Even the handle is chunky, considering that the handle doesn't come fitted with any scales (this probably adding too much weight to the knife and making it too unwieldy for a neck knife). To reduce on the weight, the several holes have been drilled in the handle to remove much of the INFI. Even so, there is no hint that this removal of material in any way weakens the knife - this is more like a sharpened prybar than a blade!

On the subject of the handle, the Assault Shaker is designed to be held by the thumb and three fingers, with the pinky not being involved in holding it. Again, this is a weight compromise issue, although this three-fingered grip doesn't affect the strength of the grip.

One feature of the Assault Shaker (common across the whole Busse range) is the asymmetric edge on the blade which is wider on one side than on the other (something like 18 degrees on one side - the flat side - and 15 on the other - convex - side). This is meant to make the edge more durable and less likely to chip. There is little doubt that the asymmetric edge is an amazing innovation on the larger knives that are designed for chopping (such as the Steel Heart II E) but the value of such an edge on such a small blade is hard to measure - but since it is a no-cost option, it's certainly worth having!

In Action

OK, but is it any good?

To begin with, it's a small bladed knife designed to be worn around the neck in the supplied Kydex sheath. Some people worry about neck knives slipping out of the sheath and causing, well, a bad day to say the least! Having worn the Assault Shaker for many days I don't think there's little chance of it coming out of the sheath accidentally. It locks positively into the sheath and stays there until needed. OK, the next question is, is it too big for a neck knife? To begin with, I had reservations but after a few minutes of wearing it, I forgot all about it (getting used to the cold INFI against skin first thing in the morning takes some getting used to though!).

It's a small knife, so it is any good at the tasks you'd put a small knife to? Well, on this point I'm not sure. It's strong and sturdy and probably if I was at ground zero of an ICBM blast it would be the only thing left of me afterwards! But normally the tasks you put a small knife to are usually delicate tasks - whittling, making fuzz stick, camp chores, etc - and this is hindered by the thickness of the blade. It's not a traditional "bushcraft" knife, but in a tight spot, you could put the Assault Shaker to extremely hard use (spear, walloping it with a rock/baton to shop, using it to cut yourself out of a wreckage) without any worries that it's going to break - or even chip or dull that much!). As a backup knife, if you had your back against the wall you'd be happy to have it. A Swiss Army Knife (SAK) might be far more versatile for common day-to-day or camp chores, but it wouldn't stand up to even 10% of what the Assault Shaker could put up with - there is little doubt that you could use an Assault Shaker to chop through a SAK with no ill effects.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Easy to carry

Super sharp and holds an edge well

Virtually indestructible

Can be abused in an emergency

Rustproof

Cons:

Chunky

Not suited to delicate "bushcraft" tasks

Not a chopping tool

Hard to field-sharpen

Overall

Overall, I think that the Assault Shaker is a superb little knife. Strong, sharp and easy to carry. My only reservations about it is that it is a little thick for delicate work - but what do you really expect from a 1/4 inch thick blade!!! In a tight spot you could do a lot worse - apart from losing the blade there isn't much else that could go wrong with it.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Last updated: October 21st 2005
Print This Page | Email me when this page changes | Search This Site

Outdoor Gear

Making Charcloth

Learn how to make charcloth - the traditional tinder, for easily making an ember out of sparks generated by flint and steel.