Ek knives: Any love?

They are like any other knife brand, they have both strong followers as well as people who dislike them. Personally I think they make a good product at a reasonable price. They use a good quality steel, fit and finish is good, sheathes are ok tho I would prefer heavier materials. I own several and have no complaints about them. I would not hesitate to buy more but I don't need them. I buy knives to use, not to collect and hide in a safe so the three I own serve me well...just don't need anymore at this time. Of course I gift away so many knives I may need to buy another at some point...lol. I do prefer the M-5 Bowie design over the dagger design of the M1-M4 models, just a more useful blade design I feel.
 
I don't plan on killing anyone so they are of no use to me.

and this is a big turn off.

Material: High-carbon surgical stainless steel HCS 1415
Hardness: Rockwell C 57-59
Sharpness: Extra sharp
 
Turn off? You don't want your knives to be "extra-sharp"?
Have to admit I bought one, years past. A blasted and cord-wrapped M3, IIRC, and based on the pics.
Junk.
 
Total classic. Ugly as shite but they are not trying for beauty. I love them! I am talking bout the Ek of old. They made knives years and years ago...I have no experience with todays Eks
 
OwenM said:
Turn off? You don't want your knives to be "extra-sharp"?
Have to admit I bought one, years past. A blasted and cord-wrapped M3, IIRC, and based on the pics.
Junk.
Click to expand...

Was it one of the ones that was made in Illinois or Virginia? Is there a real difference between the two versions? As i understand it, blackjack owned them in the 90's...maybe that affected the quality?
 
The glory days have long since passed for eks. maybe in korea they would have been a good knife but alas no more. Try ranger knives if you want a good combat knife on the cheap. or if you want the best go busse or custom.
 
The designs are too point oriented for me. All about stabbing instead of cutting. I would have no use for such a thing.
 
I have one of the Effingham Ek knives, bought it on closeout for $30. Not something I'd ever carry or use, but the brand has a long and interesting history; it's been an outstanding point of interest within my Accumulation.

What turns me off about the current production Ek knives, the price. I don't see how they're worth almost $300 apiece, not to me anyway.

The designs are too point oriented for me. All about stabbing instead of cutting. I would have no use for such a thing.
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In the past there have been Ek knives that were more hunter-oriented than combat-oriented. AG Russell has a few older Ek-brand knives like this at his website - contract made in Japan years ago. I can't vouch for the quality of these, just pointing out that they do exist.
 
I have some of the older ones that were not bad for that type of knife. But the prices on their website are WAAAY out of line with what I would personally be willing to pay today.

DancesWithKnives
 
I have one. An old safe queen of my Dad's. Only reason I keep it is sentimentality.
 
gamma_nyc said:
Was it one of the ones that was made in Illinois or Virginia? Is there a real difference between the two versions? As i understand it, blackjack owned them in the 90's...maybe that affected the quality?
Click to expand...
Not sure. It was quite some time ago. Can't say why I bought it, except that it looked cool, and was cheap. I didn't know anything about knives at the time, either. IIRC, a local gun shop had them on closeout.
I had to look at the designs on the website to decide which mine most closely resembled from memory. The ones with satin finishes and handles do look a lot nicer. I especially like the looks of the bowie blade.
Still think they're "cool", just not something I'd buy. Surgical stainless steel...?
The one I had wasn't much of a knife-more like a shiv. The design didn't lend itself to anything but a stab. The grinds were very narrow, very obtuse. The edge on mine, well it really wasn't much of an edge. It literally wouldn't cut anything. The sheath was very cheap, as well.
 
What makes any knife worth the asking price?

The EK knives are made to do a job and they do that job very well as proven through half dozen wars. Even now there a probably a good number of EK knives serving in the sandbox. Models 1,2,3, and 4 are mission oriented, the Model 5 is more versatile. These knives are not meant for "batoning", they are not made for general camp use, they are not made for food prep. They are made for soldiers to use as a weapon. They are not pretty knives, that was not what they were designed for. But the grip design is very secure in the hand, even when wet. Rather than being made to chop wood these knives were designed to slip between ribs and vertebrae.

No, this is not a knife for everyone...it wasn't meant to be. It was made to be an improvement on the Fairbairn-Sykes stiletto which had a reputation for being a bit fragile in a couple of areas. It has been called “the arms-carrying professional’s blade”.

As for quality...Ek went through several changes over the years, many companies have done the same and suffered for it (Harley Davidson comes to mind). And for a brief time quality did suffer as mass production put quantity before quality. But in 1997 a group of EK employees bought the company and the high standards of quality of the pre-93 knives became the ruler they new knives were measured against.

I am retired Army, if I was still active and headed for the sand box I would not hesitate to take a new Model 3 or 4 with me. I know they can be depended on to do the job they were designed for without breaking. I wouldn't even mind taking my Model DP-6 with me, it's bowie shape just adds a bit of versatility making it a bit more of a slicer. The fact that for over 65 years EK has been one of the knives chosen by professional soldiers speaks for itself.

for those interested in a bit of history here is a good basic history of the knives.

http://reviews.ebay.com/EK-Knives-A-Short-Introduction_W0QQugidZ10000000002133047
 
so the old man is still around met him about 20 + years ago at a show . it seems like his blades were 70 bucks back then . and he would run ads saying junk knives at high prices ha ha ha I never heard any thing bad about his stuff. Right now in da sand it is alot of cold steel . Its what the P/X is carrying as well as CRKT folders SOG and some kbars GIs buy what they can get or are offerd. Seen some benchmade switchs and some gerbers
I myself orderd a lot of S&W cheap for my guys to have ( 9 bucks each) And I carried a CS tanto { px 50 bucks} for a while till I got a tak1 . Great knife.
I have even seen a few Balis here And the hodgeie stores carry knocks offs of most eveything:cool .O and pocket tools rules!!!
latter
Chris Putnam :cool:
 
I want a knife that resembles the Fairbairn-Sykes as much as possible. I bought a Buck knife and after throwing it at the garage a few times a length-wise contact made it BREAK where the blade joins the handle. Buck is a piece of crap. A good knife would bend. My Gerber MkII is a bitchin' knife but I eye it with suspicion. The F-S was meant to be inserted into the human body and worked back and forth to slice an artery CLEANLY open as a jagged tear will cause the artery to close and make your opponent's survival more likely. A CLEANLY cut artery is less likely to close. I'd pay $300 for an Ek as long as the blade didn't break.
 
Series, Ek's website now offers their version of the old F/S knife (built like an Ek, with a full tang, but with the wasp-waisted handle design of the F/S).

I like the Ek knives, mainly for their historical value, and I would like to try their bowie-shaped blade as a general-purpose camp knife. At $300 new, though, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a used one on the cheap (yeah, right...).
 
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