Becker BK-3 : What's this thing good for?

DOC-CANADA said:
I think the BK-3 doesn't get enough credit as a woods knife. Does it chop as well as a BK-9? No. Does it carve wood as well as a BK-16? No. Does it skin critters as well as most of the other BK knives? Goodness, no! And what about food prep? LOL! So what does it do?

Well, first off, while it is choppy enough to chop, it's also short enough to fit in most shoulder bags. Fits in mine, where a BK-9 won't. Even one of my BK-4s are a stretch.

It works well as a digging tool. I've dug things with the 3, I certainly wouldn't want to use any of my other BK blades for, and the serrations can make short work of any tree roots that might hinder your progress. It was even highlighted in one of Karen Hood's videos for this purpose. Brian Jones, one of the moderators of W&SS (although MIA for quite awhile, now) said that in one of Ron Hood's videotaped excursions, which included Brian. the 3 was one of their most used woods tools.

Want to rip apart a stump for fatwood? You don't have to worry about overstressing the 3 using it for this kind of work. I wouldn't be as eager to use a 3/16" blade (think BK-4 or 9) for this purpose.

I hear a lot of criticism of it only being a right hand chopper because of the chisel grind. Well, I guess that's true, but I could never see the purpose of chopping a piece of wood with 'V' cuts on a piece of horizontal wood, anyway, although I see quite a few threads where people are doing just that. Any wood I would be chopping would be held vertical with cuts made around the wood in one direction only. Any horizontal piece of wood would be cut with a saw. See here.

And don't forget the 'hook' on the 3 which makes a perfect tool for grabbing the bail of a cooking pot and removing it from the fire. So that's a few of my observations. Want to see it action? Check out the thread I mentioned above.

Doc
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Hey Doc, I did a search an hour or two ago for all the BK3 threads and did stumble onto yours. Very good stuff man. You sure put it thru a lot of use in the woods. I really enjoyed all your pics too.

Thanks for the pointers and I never thought about the bail grabber! Thanks Doc.
 
Dexwithers said:
Hey Doc, I did a search an hour or two ago for all the BK3 threads and did stumble onto yours. Very good stuff man. You sure put it thru a lot of use in the woods. I really enjoyed all your pics too.

Thanks for the pointers and I never thought about the bail grabber! Thanks Doc.
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Thanks, Dexwithers, glad you liked it. And, I'm not just playing devil's advocate, I really like the BK-3.

Doc
 
People joke about the Beckers being "sharpened prybars" because of their beefiness. Well, enter the BK3, "THE REAL SHARPENED PRYBAR". :D

I've used mine to:
Dig holes
Cut roots
Pry up rocks
Pull nails (with the "bail hook")
Pry loose boards on a building I was "deconstructing" where a regular pry bar wouldn't fit.
As a short wedge in leveling a house
As a hive tool working bees hives when I've misplaced my real hive tool.
Cut stuff - mainly nylon baling twine, string, rope, etc
Open boxes
chop small tree limbs

and more.

After the 16/17/11, it is my most used Becker with respect to frequency of use. As posted above, it's not the best skinner, cooking knife, cutting knife, chopping knife.... oh, heck, it's not the best at anything as a knife. But as a sharpened pry bar, it's a great all-around workhorse here on the farm.

If it came as in a 5.5 inch version (max legal knife in Texas), I'd find a reason to pack it as an semi-EDC.
 
I like the design overall of the 3, I just cannot stand the hook. Every time I look at it, that hook screams weak point in an otherwise beast of the knife. If they made a 3 without the hook, I'd pick it up tomorrow. I've been saying that for years now. lol
 
Dexwithers said:
And by the way...... I think a BK3 Tweener would be awesome!
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I've been saying this for over a year now. Or a BK3 with the dimensions of a 14 (no serrations though). I would totally LOVE that!!!

Of course, Dex, if you keep screamin' "BK3 tweener" people will listen because you're respected around these parts. I just get passed over with weather reports and dog shit comments. :D

The 3 is my next Becker. Before the 10, Before the 7.
 
Tdhurl1103 said:
I've been saying this for over a year now. Or a BK3 with the dimensions of a 14 (no serrations though). I would totally LOVE that!!!

Of course, Dex, if you keep screamin' "BK3 tweener" people will listen because you're respected around these parts. I just get passed over with weather reports and dog shit comments. :D

The 3 is my next Becker. Before the 10, Before the 7.
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Haha! Who's gonna listen to me?! :D If that was the case we would have new Saber 16's in production.

This is a pry bar thingy I have and a BK3 tweener this size would be awesome! Hope someone important is listening........ If so..... make it happen! lol

0DD374F1-5EC8-40F4-8709-B84634E859F8_zpsrxnqzjwd.jpg


67B9EB06-1483-4682-8D9E-0B4FB0EC9A70_zps8wdyt5my.jpg


And yea man get it before the 7 for sure, but the 10 is a bad ass knife so that's gonna be a tough decision.

DOC-CANADA said:
Well if you really want a bigger BK-3................ They say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation???

Doc
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You really think they look similar? Let me look again............ well....... I sort of see it, I guess?










Oh wait........ I went to the wrong link...... Yep...... it's a poor copy alright! hahaha







Did some playing around with it today. I'm starting to like this thing a lot. Even put it under my seat when I went to town today...... just in case, you know. haha
FA6ECF81-23A6-4ED8-AE15-47019F74B21E_zpsrt9p6t2e.jpg




Also did a little digging with it getting a few roots up, and man it's cool to use. So different from all the other Beckers.


Been searching through old posts finding BK3 content, and man I really like the red one that I think K-9 has. Very cool stuff.


On a side note, I really don't want to cut stuff with this knife. When I put it in my hand, something takes over and I just want to bash stuff and destroy anything in my path! Really........ Don't know what it is about this blade but it just screams destruction. Think I'll go find a car window to break.......... :D
 
Chameleonbear said:
Third from the back, that is what you're looking for Dex...
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Thanks C-Bear! I'd like to get my hands on that whole box of protos!

Wonder if they will ever release some new tweeners? I say we need a BK-18 (Tweener Tac-tool), BK-19 (Tweener Skinner), and BK-20 (Hell surprise me. I'll still buy one).
 
I'm totally down with what you've got going on there Dex.

I think all the Beckers need; Small (11/14 side) Medium (Tweener) and Large representations. I've always kind of liked the idea of a clipped 11 or 14, which has been done before.
 
I think your right TD. There was a time when I was like many here and thought all you needed was a bk9. But the more I started collecting and using my knives, I realized that the smaller ones were getting used the most. Don't get me wrong, I still love the large blades like the bk9 bk1 bk6 and bk12 but my two most used blades are the bk11 and the bk16. It would be very cool to have a version of each shape in all 3 sizes!!
 
I like my BK-3 even though I don't use it as much as some of my other Beckers. I find that when I do use it I have a lot of fun with it. Sometimes I look for things to use it on, I mean destroy.

It did a good job when I had to remove sections of rabbit cages.



I want to get a junk TV on the side of the road and test out my BK-3 on it (destroy it) but the old lady won't let me.

Jeremy
 
dresnor said:
I like my BK-3 even though I don't use it as much as some of my other Beckers. I find that when I do use it I have a lot of fun with it. Sometimes I look for things to use it on, I mean destroy.

It did a good job when I had to remove sections of rabbit cages.

I want to get a junk TV on the side of the road and test out my BK-3 on it (destroy it) but the old lady won't let me.

Jeremy
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Haha. An old TV would be fun! And yea looks it it was the perfect tool for the job on those rabbit cages. Don't think I'd want to take the risk of hitting a nail or something with my other Becker's but the BK-3 is just screaming to chop thru metal and anything else in it's path. Think it is the one knife in my collection that I won't mind if it gets scratch and nicked up. It's supposed to be abused.
 
dresnor said:
I like my BK-3 even though I don't use it as much as some of my other Beckers. I find that when I do use it I have a lot of fun with it. Sometimes I look for things to use it on, I mean destroy.

It did a good job when I had to remove sections of rabbit cages.



I want to get a junk TV on the side of the road and test out my BK-3 on it (destroy it) but the old lady won't let me.

Jeremy
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Be careful, some of those old CRT TV's can hold a charge for a week..
 
LeeBower said:
Be careful, some of those old CRT TV's can hold a charge for a week..
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I say plug it in, put ranger band over your handle, and watch the sparks fly! Haha

But really, I didn't know that. Guess it's kind a like guitar tube amplifiers. People have died working on those things and they were unplugged for days.
 
Dexwithers said:
I say plug it in, put ranger band over your handle, and watch the sparks fly! Haha

But really, I didn't know that. Guess it's kind a like guitar tube amplifiers. People have died working on those things and they were unplugged for days.
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On a serious note, yeah any electronic device that has capacitors in it has the potential to "wake you up" with a little nip or give you the "deep sleep". Some really good ones can literally hold a potentially lethal charge for weeks.
 
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