Opinions for Full sized black Ka-Bar

[Wlgover]

Hey Guys,
So basically I am just curious and would really appreciate your opinions when it comes to picking between this Ka-Bar, http://www.kabar.com/knives/detail/25 and the none serrated version. Would be camping, hiking, utility knife and I am having trouble deciding if giving up overall blade for serration is worth it. Or if having the serrated section of the blade would be good to have. Thanks for the responses!

[orca8589]

What will you be using the knife for specifically?

I have a plain edge #1217, and it works fine for what I normally do. I don't cut a lot of rope & cordage, so I don't feel the need for serrations on my fixed blades. (I have a serrated Spyderco Endura 4 that I use for that kind of work.)

~Chris

[TwinStick]

For a KaBar for what you described the uses would be, i would say a BK7 would be the way to go. It is a Becker Knife & Tool design, sold under the KaBar name. Great blade. VERY HD. Great customer service, great warranty. Serrations---Phhh, i have only ever used them once in my life. 999 times out of a 1000, if your blade is sharp, you will not need serrations. This is just my oppinion. Buy what you really want.

[Wlgover]

Thank you for the advice. That B7 definitely looks nice and would probably suit my needs a bit better, the only thing is my girlfriend will be purchasing a knife for my birthday and being in college doesn't exactly have all the money in the world. Looking on BladeHQ the black fighting utility knife is almost 20 dollars cheaper than the BK7 which will probably be the deal breaker for her. I know it seems petty but she is probably going to want to try and save as much money as possible. But we will see. Thank you for the feedback, very much appreciated.

[Wlgover]

Hey Chris,
basically to baton with, feather wood with, cut branches if need be, cutting rope. Just trying to cover as many basis as I can with the knife, also self defense. Which was why I was looking at this one because I watched some reviews and the knife seemed to be very durable and got the job done adequately. The review from NaturalBushcraft also helped out with my decision, and as you know the knife is also made for fighting so I figured it would be a good all around knife. But I did want to double check, hence the post haha.

[jimnolimit]

Thank you for the advice. That B7 definitely looks nice and would probably suit my needs a bit better, the only thing is my girlfriend will be purchasing a knife for my birthday and being in college doesn't exactly have all the money in the world. Looking on BladeHQ the black fighting utility knife is almost 20 dollars cheaper than the BK7 which will probably be the deal breaker for her. I know it seems petty but she is probably going to want to try and save as much money as possible. But we will see. Thank you for the feedback, very much appreciated.

if you search around the web, you can find the BK7 for around $60-$70, just saying

[Wlgover]

Oh wow, that's awesome. I appreciate you saying haha. I will check around,as you can probably tell I am fairly new to knives so I don't have a huge list of online shopping websites I know about that are trustworthy. But again, thank you for taking the time to fill me in!

[jimnolimit]

Oh wow, that's awesome. I appreciate you saying haha. I will check around,as you can probably tell I am fairly new to knives so I don't have a huge list of online shopping websites I know about that are trustworthy. But again, thank you for taking the time to fill me in!

welcome to the knife community

[Wlgover]

Thank you! It has been great so far

[ozgooner]

I'll vote the BK-7 as well. A great knife that will do everything you want it to, and if you look after it, it will deal with anything you might think you want serrations for.

[Wlgover]

Thank you for the input Oz, I am assuming with the clip point you could use the BK7 for self defense just as well as the full sized black Ka-Bar fighting utility knife?

[c10darren]

yeah. get a becker. you might look at a few different models. they are all pretty affordable and excellent knives. i love my bk2. i would check out the bk2, bk7, bk11, bk14, bk16, and bk17.

welcome and good luck with the knife!

[orca8589]

If you plan to baton, I'd say go for the Becker. The Kabar C/U is a very tough knife, but I don't baton mine. I have a Becker BK-7 (Camillus-made) that will easily outlive me. It'll probably outlive my son, too.

~Chris

[marcinek]

Welcome! Great to have you with us.

Girlfriend buying you knife?!? Awesome! Do you own any other knives? Fixed blades? Folders? Knowing which ones and what you like about them may help us help you.

And where would you do this camping? Woods on the East Coast? Desert out West? That might help us too! Also where you are at might be an issue with legality of your blade.

Finally, as to self defense...do you have any training?

[Wlgover]

Hey Marc,
yeah it's my birthday soon so I told her I would like a quality fixed blade. That's how I'm swinging that past her haha, but yes I do have other knives. They are cheaper but it was just to get me started. Right now I have a Gerber F.A.S.T. draw which i just recently replaced with a Benchmade Mini-Grip, a Gerber Profile fixed blade, a cheap Winchester bowie knife, and just recently bought a SOG seal pup tiger elite for the out doors, which now after doing a lot more research and talking to some blade reviewers I now find kind of funny. I got a really good deal on it, ended payin $100 for it. But I am gonna be trying to sell it now. That's all I got right now. As far as what I like, honestly I'm not over picky about the feel of them, like I said I am still new so I don't really have a certain style that defines my knife selection. I know some of you will probably kill me for saying it I don't care for the blade design for the Spyderco knives, although I admit they are made out of great mats! But as far as camping, it will mostly be in the eastern part of Washington in Spokane. As well as possibly some in texas when I am on break, East Texas. Also the knife law for at least Seattle is the blade can't be longer than 3 1/2 inches. However I wouldn't be carrying this knife in a city or most likely even in a small town. Honestly, and other people online were having trouble finding the specific law requirement for blade length but I can't find anything specific on it. Hope this helps, I am going to try to nab that BK7, with it being completely full tang and not rattailed I think that would be even better.

[marcinek]

Good to know ya!

You should love that BK7, but....people do rave endlessly about the BK2.

[Wlgover]

Oh also to answer your question about self defense, I don't have any formal training.

[Wlgover]

Yeah I have read a lot of good things on the BK7 and watched a lot of reviews on YouTube. I told my girlfriend to please get me that one haha. Looks like a great knife.

[hiwa]

I have couple of the Kabar 1213 ( black straight edge/kydex sheath) and BK -7's as well. I've put the 7 through heavy use and it's a great general purpose bush knife. I prefer it to the Kabar because of the broader tang and feel of it in my hands.

[Wlgover]

Very good to know. The full tang through the 7 was something that caught my eye as well. Good to know that you're BK 7 has held up through a lot of work. Where did you pick you're knife up and for how much?