Tezza

Can vouch for Condors products, very very good, I have their Village Parang and Bushlore knife, I doubt you could find better quality for the price. For normal scrub and camp use though, i've got a Martindale #2, compact, light weight, does the job. The only let down with the Martindale is that they come with really crappy sheaths, if any at all. I ended up buying a bunch of leather working tools to make my own, it was that bad.

Hi guys, thanks for all your feedback. My mate sent me a couple of PDF's for two hand held thermal units available from Summit Night Vision, the Thermal Eye X-50 and X-200. If anyones interested, I can forward them the PDF's, but i've yet to receive a price list. I'll ring him today and see how I go there. After all the feedback that I passed onto him from this and other forums, I don't believe that they'll be going ahead with the night vision, as, as many people have already commented, the market is already being catered for by NVT and the like, and it simply isn't worth their while trying to tap into that market as they won't be able to beat the competitions prices by much if any. Hopefully thermal might still be on the cards though. Thanks again for all your feedback though guys, much appreciated. Cheers, Terry

Thanks again David, I really appreciate your advice and input, I know bugger all about NV myself, i'm just trying to gage the public, but your help and advice is very much appreciated. I'll pass all this on. I'm pretty sure, as the company my friend works for (I haven't named it yet as I didn't specifically ask my mate if that was okay) is quite large and provides the military with all kinds of gear from radios and aerials and alot of other comms gear, to HUD's and NV/Thermal that they'd have all that covered, but I don't know myself. Again, appreciate your advice and input. Cheers.

Cheers for the reply Jack. I'll forward your query onto my mate and get back to you. Would you be willing to drop that kind of coin on NV or Thermal Imaging if a quality product was available and readily in stock?

Cheers for the reply optic. I've posed the original question on a couple of other forums. At the end of the week, I'll forward all replies to my mate and get him to provide a product/price list.

Fair enough. Do you have anything to add in relation to the original question though?

Appreciate the reply David. All those issues you hightlighted are pretty much, to the letter, what I told my mate. My opinion is, that if they could provide even a reconditioned Gen2 monocular for under $1600, then perhaps they might get a couple of buys, especially if the monocular have provision for a picatinny rail mount or the like, but the only people that are going to fork out large sums of money for serious kit are pro shooters on Govenment contracts and possibly the 'watched Shooter one too many times, own a .338 Lap and nothing else, soldier wanna be' lunatic fringe. I was just trying to get a feel for what people would pay for Gen1 and Gen2 kit, monoculars, scopes etc, and pass that info back to my mate. (I remember your thread where you made the NV from Gen1 tubes, told above mate just in the off chance that Summit would agree to sell Gen2 tubes for people to make their own.................don't think that's a possibilty though, the Yanks will agree to sell some NV gear to the general public, but not the tubes unfortunately) Cheers.

G'day all A good mate of mine works for a company that supplies the ADF with some of their NV kit. The NV kit is made by Summit Night Vision in the USA, and is top quality stuff. My mates company is putting the feelers out to see whether they should expand to include the general public. I have my own opinions on the matter and I don't really believe there exists a market for it, however, I thought i'd ask all you guys: - Would you ever buy NV and - What would be the most you'd contemplate paying for it Any feedback would be appreciated. Cheers

Depends what your using it for. If it's just for range use, then going cheap won't matter too much. If it's for hunting however, noting that most people that use spotting scopes for hunting are trying to spot trophy potential, then the same rules apply as for binoculars and scopes, buy the best quality you can afford.

I think your definately right about the technique being equally, if not more, important than the medium. My technique isn't that great and i'm not a great fan of sharpening knives. If the Arkansas stones work, as they have for thousands of people for many many years, then I probably wouldn't splurge on the Japanese Whetstones. I do think though that they give a better polish........is it noticeable enough to warrant splurging on them........probably not. I didn't have any Arkansas stones of my own, used to use the old boys, so when I needed to get some for myself I got the Jap Whetstones instead. I haven't been dissapointed. I have a 400, 1000 and 3000 grit. I can only imagine how fine a polish an 8000 grit would provide. I've messed around with one of those sharpening systems........it hasn't seen the light of day for a fair while. It does seem to be more trouble than it's worth. Mate, I can definately relate about actually taking things into the field to use. I'm really bad for it myself. I bought my Mora for that reason, it has a brilliant but simple stainless laminate blade, with a scanti grind. Sharp as a razor and I couldn't give a #### if it get's abit dinged up. I'll be interested to hear how you tackle sharpening the Diamond Blade. I've been looking on there website since you posted the picture of yours..........i'm trying to be strong, but it's hard. I'm blaming you if I get one. Cheers. Tez

Cheers ManU and Len, much appreciated

Seems i'm a bit late in replying. My appologies. Looks like you got some nice knives though mate. That Knives of Alaska set looks the goods, i've got one of their saws and it's a beaut. That Diamondblade crackers looks like a beautiful bit of craftsmanship. As for my choices, I chose the Fallkniven F1 as I was looking for a good alround bushcraft knife and I saw that alot of the guys her were really into bushcraft were using Fallkniven F1's. I figure, why re-invent the wheel. If that's what most people are using, then there must be some merrit to it. The Ka-Bar I like as it's tough as nails and really handy around camp, whether for quickly knocking up some wooden pegs to anchor a tarp with, cutting up some vegies for dinner or even using the pommel to hammer something home. Takes a pretty decent edge as well. The Canadian belt knife is just a fantastic and user friendly design that really makes skinning much easier. They're well made as well. The Piranta means that I never have to stop in the middle of skinning/caping to sharpen my knife. Old blade off, new blade on, keep going.......I hate sharpening knives mid task. Another knife that's given me exceptional value for money is my Mora. Sharp as a razor, only cost me about $30. If your spending alot of money on knives, I recommend you get yourself some Japanese Whetstones. They're bloody brilliant, will give a quality knife back it's razor edge in no time. Bought mine through the mob at the link below: http://www.chefsarmoury.com/sharpening-stones/naniwa-superstones/cat_153.html

Steiner make good bino's and you can't go wrong with them. If you do go Steiner, recommend you get the predator c5's. Other binos around that price that I don't have any personal experience with but have heard good things about are the Minox range, Meopta range, Leupold Mojaves, Vortex Vipers, Nikon Monarchs, Burris Signatures. I love my Steiners, for general hunting I use mine more than my Leicas as they do a good job and I don't mind if the get a bit bashed around. Check out Optics Planet below for their prices on binos. They're an American mob, but you'll probably be able to get yourself a decent pair of binos for alot cheaper than you can here in Australia http://www.opticsplanet.net/steiner-predator-c5-10x42-waterproof-binoculars-250.html

Hey ManU, where's the shop that you got the Dexter Russells from mate? Cheers.

My favourite general bush craft knife is a Fallkniven F1 For a camp knife I use a Ka-Bar, WW2 style US Marine knife For skinning and caping I use a Grohman Canadian Belt Knife and a Havalon Piranta with the replaceable scalpal blades. I've gotten great service out of these knives and i'm pretty happy with them.