I finally got my hands on a Busse battle Mistress. First I just needed to take it out into the woods and give it a workout. I set out for an overnight camp out in a national forest. I have a nice area deep in there for doing the field tests.
I arrived on scene and cleared out the campsite using the FBM cutting down small bushes and clutter around the site. The FBM made this job very easy.
I need fire. I begin cutting some downed tress on the site mostly hard woods were available . The FBM is a fantastic chopper. I made a few piles to get me started for the night. size rang of the wood was about 3 inch and under, I had already burnt up the bigger wood on my last few trips there.
I needed to dig out my fire pit. I usually us my machete for this job. I have a Gerber NATO folding spade but a never carry it because of weight. I also have to carry heavy camera gear and batteries to video tape the action. The only blade, tool I had with me was the FBM, I used it to quickly dig the fire pit cutting some roots and scrapping the dirt out. The FBM is a fantastic digger. At this point The FBM was nice and dirty the way I like my hard use blades to be.
I always carry a magnesium fire starter with me in the field. I used the FBM to scrape the mag shaving from the block. This is very easy to do with the FBM. I just grasp the center of the blade and shave the block. Shaving mag black can be a pain. The extra wide blade and a center grip make using a large knife for this chore very easy. I used the FBM edge to strike the rod and we have fire. No damage occurred to the edge during this.
Later into the night I sat around the campfire drinking coffee and whisky. O YEAH !
About 2:00am it got very cold, close to freezing. I used the FBM to resupply my fire wood supply into the night. In no more than five minutes I had a new pile and to feed the flame.
I finally climbed into my hammock and went to sleep.
I awoke early and my fire had died out but still had hot coals. I grabbed the FBM and quickly chopped a fresh batch.
Later the trip was over and I packed up and hiked out.
Overall: The FBM did everything I needed it to do very easily without any headaches. This is one mean piece of steel. For me personally I not looking for another blade to take in the field. This one will always be with me.
There were some tasks I didn't get to perform .I only did what I needed to do. I will add more video after my next trip out.
Videos are in three parts. Enjoy
