CRKT Alaska Bwana

Joined
Dec 2, 2002
Messages
73
This is not a knife a steel snob will love as it is Aus 6 bladed but I like mine more and more as I use it. The design is superb and obviously Kommer knows a thing or two about animal processing.

I have used mine for skinning and some utility work and it is a very good slicer. The hollow grind is ground very thin and sharp and this knife is built to cut period. Not prying or chopping but cutting. The blade has lots of belly and is thin enough to slice like a bugger. You can actually flex the blade fairly easily as this knife was not built to be a sharpened pry bar like so much of the stuff you can buy these days. I tend to stay away from bone but the Aus 6 will handle caribou ribs as long as you don't pry side ways and limit to a straight cut. I imagine if you needed to pry you could fracture this light blade pretty easily. (I won't lend mine to Stamp) However, you don't need to pry bone if you know where the joints are.

The handle fits like ...well a glove. It is very comfortable and even when covered in blood the texture and shape give a good grip. The teflon washer really smoothes out opening and closing and the two steel bolsters give lots of strength for the iliner lock. I don't think you could white knuckle this one though the LAWKS is there to give extra security.

Edge retention is fair not up to my Wegner but at least as good as 440A knives I have used. Sharpening is easy and I can generally get through one caribou and then touch up the blade with a steel and go on to the next. With a lot of caribou on the ground you need to re-sharpen at some point anyway and this is a very easy steel to touch up.

I recently removed some linoleum from our kitchen and the acute edge cut through it like butter but got dull noticeably quicker than my VG10 Spyderco. Again touch up was easy using a simple steel.

The pocket clip allows for very deep carry and secure retention.

It doesn't have the bank vault construction of my Wegner but I can honestly say that it is about as good a folding hunter as I need and much less traumatic to lose or damage. In fact the Wegner is sitting home more and more though it might get the nod for moose this year.

Good value, I'd prefer Aus 8 but it works as is. Great value slick design, fair materials. I'd buy another if I lose this one.
 
Just did a search and it seems these Alaska Bwana threads die on the vine. I guess this knife doesn't catch the fancy of hard core knife enthusisasts but it really is a great design for a folding hunter/slicer.
 
Great review. I'll agree, good knife for the money. I do wish it were available in a higher grade of steel as an option. My one complaint with the knife is that the pocket clip is too narrow for my purposes. When worn in my jeans pocket the combination of the narrow clip with the wide thumbstud have a tendency to hang up, making it hard to draw. This is the only reason I don't EDC this one. Good to hear others have a liking for this one, too.
 
Sharp:

Yes I'd rather have a higher grade steel too. Then again I learned caribou and seal skinning from the Inuit and none ever had a high tech knife nor deid they seem to covet mine, instead they seemed to have a good natured and well concealed contempt for anything over $20.00 Canadian. Maybe I read too much? These boys had an el-cheepo butcher knife and a sharpening steel and made a few sharpening passes every few minutes to keep everything working easy. Not a bad system when you process a lot of animals as once the high tech knife dulls it might not be so easy to bring back on line. I have got pretty good at processing caribou and am now up to about 25-33% as fast as a good Inuk. (They do 3-4 to my one). High Tech steel didn't seem to help.

I find the AUS 6 gets sharp, dulls moderately quickly but is fast to bring back.
A lot like a kitchen butcher grade steel used by my Inuit friends. I have a feeling they might really like this one. I know I do.

Never noticed the quick draw problem...but I'll check it out.
 
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