Dan Koster - Bushmaster Knife Review
I had the wonderful chance to take part in a knife passaround courtesy of Dan Koster of Koster knives this week and as part of the stipulations of the pass around I had to get some pictures and post them along with a brief write up.
The Bushmaster is not in production at this time and is only a PROTOTYPE, it may be part of Dan’s everyday line up, but only time will tell. The dimensions and specifications as posted by Dan are:
10″ overall
5″ blade = O1, hardened to ~59, full flat ground to a keen edge, as-forged flats
5″ handle = natural canvas micarta, aluminum corby bolts and lanyards
The passaround actually consisted of 2 Bushmasters, one with natural micarta handles and the other with ironwood as well as 3 different types of sheaths.
The nicest looking sheath in my opinion would be the fancier one with the styled design elements, that would be my first choice to be offered with this blade. Now onto the knives.
The blade shape is near perfect, I couldn’t ask for a better shape. It really reminds me of my Bark River Bravo 1, which is a big hit and one of BRK&T’s best selling blades. I have taken some comparison pictures along side the Bravo. 
The handles of the knives were shaped evenly, I preferred the ironwood over the micarta, but both of the handles were way to big for me. I think it was the depth that was too big for me. I think I was just getting too much bite from the micarta where as the ironwood was nice and smooth. A couple of differences between the two knives were obviously the handle material, the micarta had some thumb grooves and was full tang where the ironwood had a tappered tang. 
The natural canvas micarta handled knife came with some thumb grooves meant for a firesteel striker those are a must have, I could grip the handle and place my thumb firmly on the grooves for added traction. 
I would though make the section of grooves extend back closer to the hilt of the knife so I wouldn’t have to extend my thumb so far up the spine of the knife.
I was about the 8th person to do a bit a testing with these knifes so after the brief handling of them I checked to see if the sharpness had maintained throughout the testing. The ironwood one still shaved some hair from my arms where the micarta one didn’t. 
I chalked this up to people putting the micarta blade though the paces. I also noticed that there were some warping in 2 places along the edge that appeared to be from some sort of twisting motion. For my testing, I kept it simple and just cut down a piece of oleander (2-3″ diameter) using the ironwood blade and the Bushmaster bit into it pretty hard cutting it up quickly. I tried to make a feather stick, but oleanders suck for that so I moved on. 
I used the tip to drill through a 1/2 inch thick piece of hardwood bark which was no problem for the knife and there was no noticeable tip damage after the fact. This will be a good hard working knife and coming from Dan I’m sure it will be reasonably priced to boot.
Overall I really like the knives, my biggest concern was that the handles were simply to fat for me to use comfortably. The thumb ramp is a great feature, but should be lengthened or start closer to the hilt. The ironwood is gorgeous and that is the handle I would prefer. The stylized sheath is a thumbs up, the other sheaths were nice, but the stylized one would be my choice.
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Burchtree B.U.S.K (Burch’s Ultimate Survival Knife)
I acquired this fine blade in trade last month and finally got around to taking some pictures. This knife has many features that I love, great steel, spear point, multiple comfortable grips. My favorite part about this knife is the extra long handle for choking back for heavy, heavy chopping.
The knife came with a nice kydex sheath, but I really prefer this upgrade Blackhawk airborne sheath with the front pouch/pocket. It holds my Leatherman Blast and a mini kit nicely. I had to slightly modify the Blackhawk sheath by cutting the back off of the plastic insert, I guess the B.U.S.K. is a little wider that I thought. The sheath was a good buy so I wasn’t to worried about a slight unseen modification. I did pick up a cheapo first aid kit pouch that I attached onto the original sheath. It fits good and is attached via 550 paracord (must have) and hold quite a bit of personal survival gear.
I haven’t had a chance to really put this knife through the paces, but I did do some destruction to some oleanders without any issues. Clean chops through 2″ branches took a good couple of swings, but it was very impressive chopper for the blade length (6.75 inches).
The pseudo official specs are:
Steel: L6
Grind: Hollow ground spearpoint
Rockwell: 57-58
Blade Length: 6.75 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches
Handle Length: 6.75 inches
Overall Length: 13.5 inches
Handle Material: G10 Birch Bark Pattern (removable)
Sheath: Original Kydex with Tec Lock plus an OD blackhawk Airborne Deluxe (slightly moded)
Other: KC gun-kote
Notes: Michael Burch has been acknowledged as a maker to watch in 2008 by Blade magazine. Here is a link to the article. I’m waiting confirmation, but I think there are less than a dozen of these bad boys made.
Condition: Gingerly used, but in excellent overall condition. Kydex rubs and general scuffs on gun-kote. This can be re-coated and sharpened to be 100% at no charge.
“The knife is designed to be an all around heavy-duty camp/combat knife that is comfortable to use for a variety of tasks. The handle is long (about six inches from the butt to the front of the scales) so you can easily chop with it, or choke up for fine work. The choil gives even more room to choke up and it trails into the edge so material won’t be caught in it. A checkered thumb-ramp is placed right were your thumb would naturally lay and all edges are smoothed over except for the spine for those of you that like to smack firestarters.” - Posted by Burchtree in Bladeforums.com on 1/4/06.
“Nice to see one of those around! I probably put more thought into the designing of the BUSK than any other knife I ever made, but it didn’t hit off as well as some other blades. I made them to be around 57-58 HRC so they can take plenty of abuse. I wanted them to be easily “sharpenable” in the field (without a diamond hone ). The handles are removeable so the blade can be sent back to me for a fresh coat of gun-kote if ever needed. The reason the handles is a little long is so you can hold it in the back for serious chopping or choke up for fine work. The finger-groove/choil is radiused out toward the edge so you won’t cut your fingers while choking up and it allows material to slide towards the edge is it gets caught in there.” - Posted by Burchtree in the Jerzeedevil.com forums on 3/4/08.
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