Our latest encampment was in the rocky hills outside of Gettysburg, PA with myself, my g.f., and a horde of her inexperienced (at camping) friends. The BK9 was my primary tool.
We had to clear some brush and saplings prior to setting up camp ... no problem, no damage, still shaving sharp.
Next on the list of chores, setting stakes and tent poles / digging a cathole. This proved troublesome. The ground is very rocky and gritty rock sand, almost turned to concrete with the drought conditions on arrival. I made a digging stick with the BK9, which proved useless in this ground. I used the BK9. It performed admirably! I had one minor spot roll slightly 3/4" from the tip. This rollover was easily corrected and the blade returned to shaving sharp, post haste.
With the drought conditions the first day, tinder and kindling wasn't a problem. It became a problem that night when the drought conditions were cured with 10 straight hours of downpours accompanied by 3 separate thunderstorms of pretty impressive proportions. For fire the next day, we had to resort to splitting wood to get to the dry stuff inside. The BK9 handled the heavy ash and hard maple we had sans problems. I was pretty impressed at how easy it was and how safe it was to split wood with this fine knife and a hard maple baton. The edge held up fine and the finish suffered very little. It sailed through some huge, very hard wood with little effort. The handle proved comfortable to use, with absolutely no "hot spots" on my hand after a good deal of chopping / batoning.
I can't be any happier with this blade's performance and I highly recommend it to anyone with similar needs. Stuff a diamond hone, FireSteel and SAK into the handy pouch on the sheath and you're good to go. This is THE best $60 I've ever spent on a blade!
Mike
We had to clear some brush and saplings prior to setting up camp ... no problem, no damage, still shaving sharp.
Next on the list of chores, setting stakes and tent poles / digging a cathole. This proved troublesome. The ground is very rocky and gritty rock sand, almost turned to concrete with the drought conditions on arrival. I made a digging stick with the BK9, which proved useless in this ground. I used the BK9. It performed admirably! I had one minor spot roll slightly 3/4" from the tip. This rollover was easily corrected and the blade returned to shaving sharp, post haste.
With the drought conditions the first day, tinder and kindling wasn't a problem. It became a problem that night when the drought conditions were cured with 10 straight hours of downpours accompanied by 3 separate thunderstorms of pretty impressive proportions. For fire the next day, we had to resort to splitting wood to get to the dry stuff inside. The BK9 handled the heavy ash and hard maple we had sans problems. I was pretty impressed at how easy it was and how safe it was to split wood with this fine knife and a hard maple baton. The edge held up fine and the finish suffered very little. It sailed through some huge, very hard wood with little effort. The handle proved comfortable to use, with absolutely no "hot spots" on my hand after a good deal of chopping / batoning.
I can't be any happier with this blade's performance and I highly recommend it to anyone with similar needs. Stuff a diamond hone, FireSteel and SAK into the handy pouch on the sheath and you're good to go. This is THE best $60 I've ever spent on a blade!
Mike
