Beckerhead 149
I got into Becker knives by looking for a small, fixed blade, for every day carry, and I heard about the BK11 and BK14. I ended up choosing the BK11 because I drink a lot of Virgil's root beer, and I wanted the bottle opener. I ended up ordering the CSM version, and carried it with me everywhere. In fact, the BK11 was my very first regular carry fixed blades, and I attribute it's influence to the fact that my fixed blade collection now includes nearly 100, and the fact that I'm making blades myself. It was the very first blade I ever attempted to put my own handle scales on, in fact:
I know it's not the best picture ever, but it's meaningful to me because, from making that first set of scales, I graduated to making handle scales for my BK2, and then to grinding out a knife from a file. Since then, I've made probably 20 blades, and am on full scale hobby mode. So in many respects, I have Ethan to thank for my favorite hobby, and for inspiration in making my own blades. It's been one heck of a ride so far, and I actually chose 1095 because I knew how tough it was, thanks to the Becker lineup, although I can't get the CV stuff with extra chromium and vanadium. Oh well.
But I digress.
My ACTUAL story begins on a cold and blustery day, in the quiet town of Boulder, Colorado, which, if you don't know, is probably the ultimate sheeple town, and basically the liberal capital of the world. It's full of trustafarians and hippies, homeless folks, Subarus and Toyotas, with nary a Hummer in sight. Needless to say, it's not exactly the most knife-friendly town. In fact, I started out this cold and blustery day at the doctor's office, where the nurse noticed my BK11 strapped to the back of my belt. She tells me, "that's kinda scary..." I responded, "Well, Crocodile Dundee would be ashamed to carry something this tiny. And, if more people carried a knife on a regular basis, that
child in Pasadena would have lived." Well, that very day, I had my own experience where my BK11 saved me. Not from anything like death or anything, but later that day, I found myself trapped in an elevator with my boss. We had been trying to bring a load of old electronics to Best Buy to recycle them, and loaded up the dolly into the elevator, when we discovered that it wasn't moving. We called the elevator emergency people, and they responded: "We'll have a tech out there in an hour. Maybe... Actually, it could be a while. I'll have to get back to you..." Well, needless to say, that didn't make us all that happy. It was a fairly small elevator, and from the times I've seen this happen in the movies, it seemed possible to pull the doors open. Only problem, I just couldn't get a grip.
Fortunately, Becker knives are inexpensive, and I figured that if I bent mine, but got out of the elevator, it would be worth it. So, I whipped out the BK11, stuck it in the crack, and easily pried the doors open to where I could get my fingers in, and easily forced the doors open. Of course, I discovered that there are two sets of doors, but the BK11 easily pried open the second set of doors. I slipped out and jumped down to the next floor, as we were trapped about halfway in between two floors, had the electronics and dolly passed out, helped my boss out, and we were on our way. The best part? The BK11 was COMPLETELY fine. It didn't bend at all, edge didn't need sharpening again, and it opened another Virgil's for me at home. You never know when you might need your Becker, but you DO know that when you need it, it will be there for you, and it will perform, no matter what the task. You'll never find a better bang for your buck. If I'd had my BK2, I probably could have used one of the spare hunks of metal and batoned through the door if I had to
Thanks for the contest; the tweeners are another source of inspiration for those of us would-be knifemakers. Thanks, Ethan, for making such amazing products!
