It's a nice decision to be making, first of all.
I became an instant fan of the Ka-Bar "Heavy" Bowie 1277. For starters, it is not all that heavy, compared to other commonly-available Bowies. Its flat grind makes for a blade that will slice nicely. The handle is surprisingly comfortable. Right after getting it I used it to cut several sizeable branches for sort of a jungle-looking canopy for the back yard, and I had no trouble blazing through lots of tough wood with it. The sheath's a little suboptimal--e.g., it's got a two-part sheath with the belt loop attached to the sheath body with a ring to allow flexibility, but this is then negated by the fact that the snapping retention loops are both located on the belt-loop part, preventing any flexing from happening. I'll agree that the enclosed handle makes for a very comfortable long afternoon of chopping. The handle might be too large for some with small hands, but I had no problem with it at all. That big bulge at the end of the grip (it gets wider, in addition to the bird's-beak shape that you see in side photographs) keeps it very firmly in hand, too--very unlikely to fly out. What the knife really begs for, however, is to be modded into a combat Bowie--the kraton handle removed, a guard added, and then an appropriate stag or wooden handle. Note that the false edge goes remarkably far back on the blade; it's pretty thin, and would be more easily sharpened than the clip on most production Bowies. It would make for a very fast, very durable fighting Bowie, for a very low cost.
Another advantage of all of these Ka-Bars: there are a million out there, and if you lose or break one, you can just get another without much expense or regret.
Kukri: I love khukuris, but have never handled or used the Ka-Bar version. They pack a lot of chopping power into a fairly-short space, which makes for greater utility in that you're maybe likelier to carry it. Himalayan Imports is more or less the only kind I've seriously used, and the Himalayan Imports forum offers knives with minor flaws (like cracked handles that can be fixed with epoxy) almost every weekday afternoon for competitive prices. These are individually hand-forged works of art, with differential tempering (meaning the primary cutting parts of the edge are hardened, whereas the rest of the blade is left relatively soft, which allows both edge-holding and great toughness.) For example, I note that one nice khukuri was sold through the H.I. forum this afternoon for about $40, delivered--a presumably-fixable crack in the water-buffalo-horn handle reduced the price drastically. I'd hesitate to try batoning an H.I. khukuri, in that it'd likely deform the soft steel of the spine--but then, these knives deliver so much kinetic energy on chopping that it'd never occurred to me to baton one. If you're getting a kukri, I'd recommend getting one of the H.I. ones, just as they have so much more character (and probably quality) than the mass-produced Ka-Bar version, and the price for an H.I. second is not a whole lot more than for the Ka-Bar. Losing it might be a little harder to take than with a production knife, since there are no two that are quite alike.
Never handled the Ka-Bar camp knife. I find the blade configuration interesting. I had an Ontario Spec Plus "Freedom Fighter", with similar Kraton handle, snap its tang on light chopping, and I'd be curious to know whether the Ka-Bar camp knife has a half-inch tang like the Ka-Bar USMC leather-handled knife, or a thinner tang that threads into the pommel. If the latter, I'd question its long-term strength, as that's not a huge amount of steel, and the kraton might allow more flexing and thus more fatigue to a thin tang, if that's what it's got. A lot of people really object to the cross guard on knives for survival use, as they like to be able to extend their thumbs out over the blade for more precise guidance or cutting power. If you are of this opinion, you might opt for a knife without the top part of the guard, and/or cut off the top part of the guard.
Have fun, and tell us how whatever you get works for you.
