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On the trail of the Tracker

Many of you will form an instant opinion of this knife the moment you see its shape.  It’s hard not to, because it has become one of the most iconic designs in the knife world–particularly in the realm of survival knives--but there is a lot of speculation about where this knife design actually originated.  “Why do I care about yet another Tracker style knife?”, you may ask yourself, because you can find countless iterations of this design throughout the world.  Indulge me for a moment, and I hope to answer that question in full–but the short answer is: because this is the original Tracker knife as designed by my father, Robb Russon, in 1981.

It has long been accepted that the unique survival knife that rose to movie knife fame with the release of the action film “The Hunted” in 2003 was the sole creation of Tom Brown, a New Jersey tracking school instructor.  The April 2003 issue of Blade Magazine featured an article about the knife, and described it as “the brain child [sic] of tracker and survivalist Tom Brown”, who apparently consulted with Paramount Pictures on certain tracking aspects of the film.  With the success of “The Hunted,” everyone wanted one of these almost futuristic knives, and Brown struck a deal with Idaho-based TOPS Knives to mass produce the knife that Brown claimed to have designed.  In truth, the knife had its beginnings over 20 years earlier in a home workshop in Utah, where in 1981 my father Robb Russon, a college professor with a background in Western history and hobbyist knifemaker, conceived the unique knife as a proof-of-concept for an all-in-one survival tool.

Having read Brown’s fanciful allegedly true story “The Tracker”, my father knew of Brown, and sent him his unsolicited prototype knife as a gift, hoping to get feedback from the noted survival specialist.  Brown, not a knife designer or maker himself, sent back effusive praise for the knife, and the two began correspondence by letter to ostensibly work out the details of a possible business venture with the knife, which Brown thought to be very marketable.  At age 18 at the time, I was already an apprentice in my father’s knifemaking shop, and in anticipation of an order for the knives from Brown, I helped to cut out a stack of steel knife blanks.

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The Survivor knife was well-received, and I also got a lot of support from sympathetic fans of the Tracker style design, sharing their disappointment that my father had never received any credit for designing what had become an iconic knife in the survival knife community.  We sold all of the Survivor knives, but continued to get inquiries about whether we would keep producing the knife.  The funds were just not there to do it properly.

Back to the roots

Now, more than 40 years after its original design, thousands of copies of the Tracker knife exist throughout the world.  Many have variations and modifications, but my father's pattern is unmistakable and ubiquitously recognizable.  I decided that the time was right to give the world the original knife exactly as it was designed by my father, now long-retired from knifemaking.  This campaign is to promote the production of the “classic” Russon Tracker knife of 1981, unchanged from my father’s original design.  Since I still have the last surviving steel blank as made by my father, I am able to take the exact dimensions from that pattern.

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The knives will be produced by hand, made from D2 tool steel as he had intended, with black Micarta handle scales and brass pins.  Many of the copies of this knife over the years have been overly heavy and unwieldy, so I am striving to keep the weight of the knife to a minimum, as it was designed to be carried easily in the wilds, though stout enough to perform any survival or bushcraft task.  The user should keep in mind that a survival knife is not a replacement for a good hatchet–it’s still a knife, and should be nimble enough to be as useful a cutting tool as a chopping tool!  

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SPECIFICATIONS

  • 6.25" Blade of 3/16" thick D2 tool steel
  • 11.5" overall length
  • Hollow ground knife bevels
  • Black linen micarta handles with finger groove
  • Steel handle pins
  • Brass lanyard hole
  • 2" Row of saw teeth with swedge
  • Thumb rest with jimping
  • Approximately 15 oz. weight (knife only)
  • Leather sheath with snap closure - allows vertical carry or horizontal "scout" carry

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Even if you have another version of this knife, I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to support the production of this fantastically innovative knife in its original form, and give my father the homage he deserves for making this great contribution to the knife community.

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