October 25, 2018 Mark Denham

Introducing the TrailBuster

When customer and friends first started seeing the early versions of the TrailBuster lying around the shop their reactions were mixed. Some would think it was a joke, and others would just say its ridiculous. Well it isn’t a joke, but we aren’t going to act like it isn’t just a little ridiculous.

The idea for the TrailBuster originated from a knife that Floyd had been using to clear brush and cut limbs for years. The blade was an old Air Force survival tool. It had the same ergonomic handle and machete/saw blade that our TrailBuster has. We saw this as an opportunity to take a great idea and remaster it for today’s world.

The older knife had large bolts sticking out of it with wing nuts and plastic parts. While that may have been the peak of their manufacturing capabilities back then it was just a starting point for us.

We started by doing what we do best, making parts that aren’t made from aluminum… out of aluminum. The handle is billet machined from two separate blocks of aluminum with rare earth magnets placed inside to securely hold the Allen wrench needed for changing the blades.

Which brings us to the next point, the blades. We doubled the thickness and reinforced the attachment point to the handle. We also created two different blade types. Both blades are made from high strength, heat treated stainless steel.

One style of the blade is an aggressive tree saw with a 9/16 socket. The other is a small tooth bone saw with a gut hook and keyhole rope puller. Both blades come standard with a built-in bottle opener. This is America, opening your beer with your machete shouldn’t not be an option.

In the end, we took something old and made it new. But not just new. Improvements in quality of materials, manufacturing, and some much needed design changes took this from an outdated tool to an overbuilt, oversized and overly-fun camp tool.