Bk2 (campanion) Blade Thickness?

R

Ron Athay

Joined
Mar 12, 2006
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541
I just received a new BK2 Campanion (says so on the blade). Everything I have read about the BK2 says it is 1/4" thick 0170-6C and weighs 14 oz. The knife I received has a blade the EXACT same thickness as my BK7, BK9HH, and CS Recon Tonto (all 3/16"). It is definately not heavier than the BK9HH, about the same as the BK7. Have I been mis-lead by all the web-sites (Includeing Camillus/Becker), or has Camillus recently changed the BK2 blade thickness due to supplies of steel, or what ever? I actually am very happy that the knife is much lighter than I had anticipated. I think 3/16" 0170-6C in a 1 3/4 inch tall blade is tough enough for anything I am ever going to do and should have a better edge potential.
Does anyone have a BK2 with an actual 1/4" thick blade?
Ron Athay
 
Well yes, but it's an original Blackjack Becker Campanion.

I have four of the Campanions from Camillus--two plain edge and two with serrations. I'll have to measure when I get a chance, but I think they're awfully close in thickness to the BK7 and BK9. If they're thicker, it may be by 1/32" instead of a full 1/16".

Will report back when I get a chance.
 
I just measured mine at 3/16", same as my Crewman. The Campanion is a couple years old maybe, the Crewman only ~6 months or so.
 
Thanks Guys,
I think I either miss-read the websites or I'm just too excited about knives or I.m just too old. It sounds like mine is normal and I'm happy about that. It's a little short for a chopper so 3/16" is good. It looks like a good camp knife and good for battoning.
Ron Athay
 
The blurb "Made from 1/4" stock" could well be right. It would not be unheard of to remove 1/32 from each side during blank finishing operations. Most (not all) blanking methods leave a raised edge on one side, and a slight radius on the other. The side with the raised edge is reduced until the raised portion is gone, then the other side is ground to a standardized blade thickness. Thus the stock is thicker than the finished blade. At least that is my understanding of the manufacturing processes.

Codger
 
Hello,

I just measured the BK2 knives that I have in stock here at Chestnut ridge Knife Shop, they measure .217"
 
Well, I measured mine again today more precisely with a set of calipers and the Crewman came up at .187" and the Campanion .212". The difference is, the Crewman has the black coating removed. I think the underlying steel thickness itself is essentially the same between the two.
 
Nowhere near .250", in mm it's like 4.5mm.

I know it originally was .250", and there's a post by Ethan Becker himself stating that he didn't think it should be that thick.

So, either

a) they just use the same thickness due to cost savings and/or they ran out of the thicker one and/or

b) it was felt the original campanion was too thick.

Anyway, I got mine for $52, and the kydex sheath alone is worth it. If they had a kydex sheath for the crewman I might have gotten that (I wanted to stay close to $50 for a beater).

My next purchase might be a Fallkniven A1, that thing is 6mm at the spine (.240"?) and fantastic all-around, but at least double the cost of the becker.

Then there is the Scrapper 6, or the RD6, ah crap :confused:

D
 
Thanks for the info. I just weighed mine. It weighs 14 oz., just like the advertisement says. It measures something very close to 0.2" So, with the weight dead on, I think the thickness is what it is.
dikrek, I have a Scrapper 6 LE, an RD7 (Orange handle), inaddition to the BK2, BK7 and BK9HH. They are all great. the Scrapper 6 and the RD7 are real chunks of steel. I just got the micarta handles for the three Beckers. I will try to post pictures as soon as I get them all installed. the BK2 now wears the micrata (raises weight to 15 oz) and I think it greatly improves the knife.
Ron Athay
 
Here are a couple of comparison pictures for you.

The older Blackjack Becker Campanion comes in at a full 1/4". You can see that both the spine and the profile of the Blackjack version are a bit more robust than the Camillus version. My Camillus Campanion measures just a whisker over 3/16".

Campanions1.jpg


Campanions2.jpg
 
Interesting, I had wondered about the BK2 thickness. I was curious since if you look at the Camillus-BK&T website the spec sheets for the different knives are not consistent. For example...

BK2 - CAMPANION
Blade Length: 5 1/4"
Overall Length: 10 5/8"
..vs..
BK10 - CREWMAN
Blade: 5.5" length
0.188" thickness

The BK2 spec calls out the overall length but not the blade thickness. The BK10 has the thickness but not overall length. Of course I was only curious about the thickness since the handles are all the same.
 
Both of mine are gone now but I'm pretty sure my Campanion was the same thickness as my BK9. Both were thicker than the Crewman or BK7.
 
bk2-t.jpg
vs.
bk10-t.jpg

........BK2 Companion ................... BK10 Crewman ........
...... 0.212" Thickness ................ 0.188" Thickness ......
.... 5 1/4" Blade Length.............. 5 1/2" Blade Length ....

I had been debating which one to buy, this helps, I think I will go with the BK2 :thumbup:
 
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