BK21 Unboxing And Initial Impressions (UPDATED)

Good report warrior. I've been waiting and wanting this blade for two years now and I'm inches from pulling the trigger. Once I see if my bills are going to be ok I'll take the plunge with the buck fifty it costs. My wife bought herself a 180$ ring last month (that actually took its place in free money) So I feel like I have some entitlement to buying this blade :) I have to be careful because I'm a young guy with a family and they always come first
 
TheMadIndian said:
great pics as always and wow great write up
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Thanks man.

SynSerp said:
Good report warrior. I've been waiting and wanting this blade for two years now and I'm inches from pulling the trigger. Once I see if my bills are going to be ok I'll take the plunge with the buck fifty it costs. My wife bought herself a 180$ ring last month (that actually took its place in free money) So I feel like I have some entitlement to buying this blade :) I have to be careful because I'm a young guy with a family and they always come first
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Thanks man. Yep, family first. Speaking of which, I just got done purchasing my son's first Christmas gift.
 
good review.

so, i've secretly had a BK21 for a while now. bought with my own monies. beat the coating off. convexed. beat some more. i'm having a hard time with this on hardwoods, but lighter stuff is interesting. still learning.

added lineres. handles are too thin for me. by far.
 
Bladite said:
good review.

so, i've secretly had a BK21 for a while now. bought with my own monies. beat the coating off. convexed. beat some more. i'm having a hard time with this on hardwoods, but lighter stuff is interesting. still learning.

added lineres. handles are too thin for me. by far.
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Thanks Bladite, appreciate it. There sure is a learning curve involved. Yeah, liners would definitely be a good idea. I think gloves, and a lanyard would have been a good idea too. Have you tried snap cuts with it?. I haven't yet, but intend to.
 
The Warrior said:
Thanks Bladite, appreciate it. There sure is a learning curve involved. Yeah, liners would definitely be a good idea. I think gloves, and a lanyard would have been a good idea too. Have you tried snap cuts with it?. I haven't yet, but intend to.
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i used a gloves, lanyard, and various grips out of the box. three fingered snap cuts were okay, but i quickly chipped the tip, and wore out the factory edge.

i'm used to a khukri with some mass, and a fine, convexed edge (bonecutters - khadka or praj/mrdotcom) are wonderful. magical. when i'm deboning a TREE branches just pop off. good times.

with factory edge, i had to work too hard, even on green oak. did not like. i'll try again, now that i have liners. three finger technique does not pan though. that was just a cheat.

has enough mass that it should do well, but the factory edge ... not so much. perhaps i got a weird one.
 
Bladite said:
i used a gloves, lanyard, and various grips out of the box. three fingered snap cuts were okay, but i quickly chipped the tip, and wore out the factory edge.

i'm used to a khukri with some mass, and a fine, convexed edge (bonecutters - khadka or praj/mrdotcom) are wonderful. magical. when i'm deboning a TREE branches just pop off. good times.

with factory edge, i had to work too hard, even on green oak. did not like. i'll try again, now that i have liners. three finger technique does not pan though. that was just a cheat.

has enough mass that it should do well, but the factory edge ... not so much. perhaps i got a weird one.
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Although I never tried snap cuts, it almost seems a little heavy for it. The 4, yes, the 21, not so sure.

In all fairness, this is the first kukri styled blade I've ever owned. And I've only used it briefly over two days, so, I'm certainly willing to give it a chance, and learn from it. Like I said, it's a little on the heavy side for my tastes. I'll learn from it, but more than likely sell it eventually.
 
The Warrior said:
Although I never tried snap cuts, it almost seems a little heavy for it. The 4, yes, the 21, not so sure.

In all fairness, this is the first kukri styled blade I've ever owned. And I've only used it briefly over two days, so, I'm certainly willing to give it a chance, and learn from it. Like I said, it's a little on the heavy side for my tastes. I'll learn from it, but more than likely sell it eventually.
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it's got too much momentum from length/weight for snap cuts for "all day work".

which is why i'm used to a finer edge, and some mass, with a controlled full shoulder / elbow swing. like an axe.

watch out for deflection, keep it slow, and it works.

snap cuts are the way to ruination for me.
 
Bladite said:
it's got too much momentum from length/weight for snap cuts for "all day work".

which is why i'm used to a finer edge, and some mass, with a controlled full shoulder / elbow swing. like an axe.

watch out for deflection, keep it slow, and it works.

snap cuts are the way to ruination for me.
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Good advice. Sometimes I tend to go all out animal on my swing, haha. I was very careful with this however. I was hitting hard, but was thinking about deflection with every swing.
 
Great write up & pics, Warrior.
I've only played with mine a little, haven't had time to get it over to the other place. Based on that, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do have a kukri style machete (too thick for me to consider it a machete, really), and I've used it extensively; so I'm looking forward to getting it out and giving it a workout.
In the little bit that I used mine, I kept thinking that it wasn't biting as deeply as it should...but I'll blame the particular wood I was hitting; and I didn't waste much time on the stuff for that reason. I'll definitely be using it over the next few days, though. Depending on the weather, I may/may not bring the camera...but you pretty well covered the photo aspect :thumbup:
 
I just realized that I started this earlier and never finished!
Very nice job man, thanks for taking what had to be a lot of time and huge effort.
This thread will probably stand to be a long time standard for future potential purchases.
Being that I don't own one yet and have more steel than I'll ever beat through, I have no qualms about adding more in the form of this RBK.
That being said... I'll still have my eye on this watching for updates.
Thanks again Dubz!
 
Thanks Warrior for the great pics. My first impression when I got mine was, Holy crap, the box is like 3 feet long! I too gain quick respect for the forward weight of this blade and was thinking about safety when swinging it.

I saw a review by Pm101 on the Bk21. At first he was not to happy with the factory edge but after sharpening it to his liking, it was a chopping machine. Before I use mine, I'll also tune the edge up a bit.
 
Bladite said:
it's got too much momentum from length/weight for snap cuts for "all day work".

which is why i'm used to a finer edge, and some mass, with a controlled full shoulder / elbow swing. like an axe.

watch out for deflection, keep it slow, and it works.


snap cuts are the way to ruination for me.
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By snap cuts do you mean closed hand or the Gurkha/Filipino/Indo snap-your-hand-shut at the moment of impact snap cuts? That's my default bush knife method and it's very sustainable, and should work like mad with a light khuk like the 21
 
Great write-up, Dubz...but this thread has WAY too many pics ;). And one ore two of them are mediocre....
Love the one of the wood dust flying up from the little branch cut. I've been using mine some, and I ear you on the learning curve. Definitely not a blade you'd want to have a lapse of attention with.

J W Bensinger said:
By snap cuts do you mean closed hand or the Gurkha/Filipino/Indo snap-your-hand-shut at the moment of impact snap cuts? That's my default bush knife method and it's very sustainable, and should work like mad with a light khuk like the 21
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Of course, YOU would be the one to call this a "light" khuk.....
 
hhmoore said:
Great write up & pics, Warrior.
I've only played with mine a little, haven't had time to get it over to the other place. Based on that, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do have a kukri style machete (too thick for me to consider it a machete, really), and I've used it extensively; so I'm looking forward to getting it out and giving it a workout.
In the little bit that I used mine, I kept thinking that it wasn't biting as deeply as it should...but I'll blame the particular wood I was hitting; and I didn't waste much time on the stuff for that reason. I'll definitely be using it over the next few days, though. Depending on the weather, I may/may not bring the camera...but you pretty well covered the photo aspect :thumbup:
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Thanks man.

NCSlice said:
I just realized that I started this earlier and never finished!
Very nice job man, thanks for taking what had to be a lot of time and huge effort.
This thread will probably stand to be a long time standard for future potential purchases.
Being that I don't own one yet and have more steel than I'll ever beat through, I have no qualms about adding more in the form of this RBK.
That being said... I'll still have my eye on this watching for updates.
Thanks again Dubz!
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Thanks man, no problems. May be a few weeks for an update. Not much at home to chop up.

DJC72 said:
Thanks Warrior for the great pics. My first impression when I got mine was, Holy crap, the box is like 3 feet long! I too gain quick respect for the forward weight of this blade and was thinking about safety when swinging it.

I saw a review by Pm101 on the Bk21. At first he was not to happy with the factory edge but after sharpening it to his liking, it was a chopping machine. Before I use mine, I'll also tune the edge up a bit.
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Thanks man. It is a safety inducing blade, fo sho.

J W Bensinger said:
By snap cuts do you mean closed hand or the Gurkha/Filipino/Indo snap-your-hand-shut at the moment of impact snap cuts? That's my default bush knife method and it's very sustainable, and should work like mad with a light khuk like the 21
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I like the sound of that. Will have to give her a go. Light kukri? Haha.

granitestateofmind said:
Great write-up, Dubz...but this thread has WAY too many pics ;). And one ore two of them are mediocre....
Love the one of the wood dust flying up from the little branch cut. I've been using mine some, and I ear you on the learning curve. Definitely not a blade you'd want to have a lapse of attention with.


Of course, YOU would be the one to call this a "light" khuk.....
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Thanks man. I took 444 photos. Plenty more where that came from. ;) I wish I would have spent more time chopping with it. The results were throwing me off. One time it would hit hard, with not much of a bite, then the next time it seems I was doing the same thing, and it would bite deep.

I was thinking about all the variables involved when it came to chopping. Type of wood/grain structure, live or dead, diameter, hitting dead on, at an upper angle, lower angle, wrist more forward on impact, more back upon impact, straight upon impact, grip, squaring of the blade to the tree, what part of the blade that hits, stance/foot placement, how much body movement goes into the swing, following through or not, etc. A lot to think about.
 
Outstanding review, as all here have attested to. Honestly, although I am quite partial to my 4 for this type of activity, I will almost certainly get one anyway (can't have a hole in my Becker collection!), but it was very informative and interesting to read your thoughts on it nonetheless. Great job, brother!
 
You never cease to amaze Warrior, Great write up, Photo's and glad no injury's as I am waiting for the first post where one of us get bit by the 21, My 21 on hold for the moment so all the photo's and write ups are keeping my Beckeritis for the 21 at bay for the moment Thanks Again for Sharing and Showing

KEEP EM SHARP
 
bull4242 said:
Outstanding review, as all here have attested to. Honestly, although I am quite partial to my 4 for this type of activity, I will almost certainly get one anyway (can't have a hole in my Becker collection!), but it was very informative and interesting to read your thoughts on it nonetheless. Great job, brother!
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Thanks man, appreciate it. I love my 4, nearly as much as my 9. I want to use my 4 more. I think once I get used to it more, it'll be my fav. So many knives, not enough time...
 
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