A good idea? Maybe?

[littlehoot]

There were both CG’s and LE’s in that original NMFBM offering. The CG’s were nominally .25” thick and all came standard with hand-smoothed micarta or G10 grips. I’ve never seen an NMFBM at .25” thick that was made after that offering, and those original CG’s have obviously escalated nicely in value. The satin LE’s were nominally .27” thick with hand-shaped tiger-hide linen micarta, and were numbered.

Later small offerings of NMFBM’s at shows and a few ganzaas had machined grips, all satin IIRC, and all had thick blades—certainly thicker than .25”. The original CG at .25” was the quickest and most nimble, and many in the know still value that model above the others for its handling.

So it sounds like re-releases, when available, have varied the specs, not the original designs. I'm hoping that is the case, as I so desire a NMFBM, but again, I'm not gonna spend two grand on a knife I wish to beat on.

 

[Will York]

... and then there’s the ASHBM, which stayed close to the original “theme”, obviously shared DNA with the original SHBM, but is a VERY different knife at an inch greater length, re-designed and contoured grips, a full 1/10” thicker and with Light Brigade treatment under the scales.

There was a time in 2007-2008 before the economy crashed when an original CG SHBM would reliably bring $1,200-$1,500. The fact that the SHBM never got back to that level of value I do think is due in part to the improvements made to the ASHBM, available at much lower cost. Of course, no one knows what may have happened if the economy hadn’t tanked in 2008-2009.

 

[gk4ever2]

...
There was a time in 2007-2008 before the economy crashed when an original CG SHBM would reliably bring $1,200-$1,500. The fact that the SHBM never got back to that level of value I do think is due in part to the improvements made to the ASHBM, available at much lower cost. ...

Nah, that was Cobalt manipulating the SHBM market, kind of like the Hunt brothers did to the silver market decades ago.

In all seriousness, demand for a particular model can be odd. I don't think the ASH-1 had much impact on the value of the SH-1, but maybe it's a supply thing (fewer SH-1s than SHBMs)?

 

[Cobalt]

Nah, that was Cobalt manipulating the SHBM market, kind of like the Hunt brothers did to the silver market decades ago.

In all seriousness, demand for a particular model can be odd. I don't think the ASH-1 had much impact on the value of the SH-1, but maybe it's a supply thing (fewer SH-1s than SHBMs)?

LMAO. That one made me laugh. And it may have been true at the time. I was up to about 35 SHBM's in 2007. Most of the ones floating around here probably went through my hands.
I do think that the ergonomics on the ASHBM is much better. They made enough changes to the handle that it is a big improvement, especially for those with bigger hands.