For those who have used their beckers for extended chopping...

[Translash]

So, I share the same love of Becker knives as you guys too. About 3 weeks ago I took a BK-4, BK-9, and BK-2 for knife testing in the woods and mainly used the Becker BK-9 and 2. The BK-2 is awesome. I have a convex edge on it and it was excellent for small knife tasks (which surprised me due to its size) and small chopping for fire prep. I also used a BK-9 extensively to chop through many downed trees up to ~ 7 inches in diameter. All in all, I used the Bk-9 for about 45 minutes of just pure chopping.

When I got home, I was surprised to see multiple dents throughout the blade. There were some clustered near the tip which may have been possibly hitting the ground though I don't recall such a thing happening, and there were sparse rolls and dents through the rest of the blade. The edge however seemed to be still fairly sharp, which is good. I'll be honest, I was disappointed because this means I have to go through the tedious process of removing steel to get rid of the dents and rolls. I'd very much rather the edge get dull and I can strop it, than remove steel to get rid of dents.

I'll be repeating this again sometime soon with a BK-4 and BK-9, but I wanted to ask you guys the main question:

For those of you who use your beckers extensively for chopping, do you normally get dents and/or rolls?

 

[Eero]

Pictures would help. Could be a heat treat issue.

 

[TheWambo]

^definitely pictures, but it could be something as simple as resharpening at a thicker grind angle (like a 50 degree inclusive). or like Eero said it might be a heat treating issue (uncommon but not unheard of) My 9 is still at factory angles, and I beat it through quite a bit of really knotty hard wood, chopped with it extensively and I haven't had any chipping or rolling.

 

[RogueBowie]

^definitely pictures, but it could be something as simple as resharpening at a thicker grind angle (like a 50 degree inclusive). or like Eero said it might be a heat treating issue (uncommon but not unheard of) My 9 is still at factory angles, and I beat it through quite a bit of really knotty hard wood, chopped with it extensively and I haven't had any chipping or rolling.

Grinds are definitely important! Moose once actually listed what grinds he finds are good for what tasks so if you know your blade is going to be used for chopping, grind at X angle for best performance, for slicing, grind at Y angle, etc. But who knows, without pictures and an extensive account of what happened who can really say with certainty. I will say that I have chopped, batonned, and beat on my 2, 7, and 9. I've even batonned with my BK-14. I might have a few tiny micro chips on the 9, but none that are even noticeable, none on the 7 (and I just recently processed down a whole dead Christmas tree), none on the 14, and actually a good few decent sized chips on my BK-2 I'm still in the process of sharpening out but that's from me being a dumba** and batonning my 2 through a cheap China made folder.

 

[Translash]

The thing is, this happened 3 weeks ago and I already sharpened out the nicks in the blade. Wish I did take pics though. Believe me, if this didn't happen I wouldn't be posting this. I still love the BK-9 and I'll take it out again. We'll see.

 

[DerekH]

We put a BK9 into some very hard oak Sunday for about 3 hours, nothing wrong with it at all afterwards, some slight edge dulling (shiny spots with light on the very edge) but that was it, no rolls, no chips, no dents. We also were not careful to avoid knots, which in an oak may not be as severe as in a pine, but again, no issues.

 

[Moosez45]

Stuff happens, I suppose.

I've hit stuff with my BKT's before. Found part of a fence in a tree, and a bullet in another.

I'm not saying this happened to you, it happened to me.

I usually don't notice I've dinged the blade until I go to sharpen it, sometimes a couple of weeks.

My rule of thumb for my blades,

50 inclusive on my hard chargers, BK9, 2, and 4

40 inclusive on my General users, BKT Shorts and BK7, 11/14

30 inclusive on my BK15, and my 5.

Pick the edge you like though, they all will cut and slice, some just take to the baton better, others wanna slice.

Moose

 

[Silverthorn]

Production knives are sharpened on a belt., and in a hurry. If they aren't careful they can soften the edge a little from the heat generated,
Ethan and a lot of other knife people have commented on the Good Steel underneath, from this. if you give your knife a good edge clean up it should be a champ after that, assuming you dont use a belt and overheat the edge.
Dents should steel out without losing any metal, dents are much better than chips.

Just my 2 cents

 

[bsmith_shoot]

I can honestly say I've never found a dent in any of my edges. I can also honestly say that I use my blades more than the average knife owner. Idk my friend, it could be a heat treat issue or it could be foreign objects in the wood? I'm just an end user though, not an engineer?

Heck, my 7 year old uses it more than most people do lol.

 

[Psyop]

My BK9 has had a couple very small chips. It has had a very hard life and Im not even sure what caused them. I do know that once I batoned my 9 into my wood stove on accident and it left a 1/4 inch gouge in the stove but the 9 was fine. Other than the 9 I damaged the tip of my BK4 but that was when I was cutting the top off of a 55 gal drum. It sharpened right out.
Thats about it for Becker damage and I have worked them all hard.

 

[tradewater]

I've always felt a hard use knife should be convexed. It's only been (relatively) recently that knifemakers started using V grinds anyway, and that was for production reasons. If you want your knife to hold up to any kind of severe use convex it. There's a reason you don't see V grinds on axes.

 

[Gravelface]

Don't have any user Beckers, but if it makes you feel any better, yes I have experienced dents on my edges in my Busses and Fehrmans, my customs ( Bill Siegle ...5160, David Wesner....A2) and my inexpensive knives. Only the "cheap" knives I bought to test have chipped. When I chop trees, it is generally as close to the ground and have struck buried rocks, bricks, glass....etc. yes it dents the edge of all those brands. Chopping limbs on the ground also have resulted in dents, and some seasoned oak knots dented the best of them.

Very minor and with a few passes on a stone they are generally gone, a few minutes at the most for the worst. I've never damaged an edge from use. I consider dents part of normal use. I'm actually going over my Extreme Judgment right now after a couple hours of clearing brush from the side of my house. The 2 inches near the tip certainly took the worst of it.

 

[europeanoutdoorsman]

I put very thin, convex edges on all of mine. I never had any problems. I was able to get the BK2 to cut better than a Delica 4 .

I only got chips when I hit dirt and sand and that was with the factory edge. So, that is sort of like hitting small rocks.

 

[tradewater]

Don't have any user Beckers, but if it makes you feel any better, yes I have experienced dents on my edges in my Busses and Fehrmans, my customs ( Bill Siegle ...5160, David Wesner....A2) and my inexpensive knives. Only the "cheap" knives I bought to test have chipped. When I chop trees, it is generally as close to the ground and have struck buried rocks, bricks, glass....etc. yes it dents the edge of all those brands. Chopping limbs on the ground also have resulted in dents, and some seasoned oak knots dented the best of them.

Very minor and with a few passes on a stone they are generally gone, a few minutes at the most for the worst. I've never damaged an edge from use. I consider dents part of normal use. I'm actually going over my Extreme Judgment right now after a couple hours of clearing brush from the side of my house. The 2 inches near the tip certainly took the worst of it.

This is a great post. If you're going to chop with your knives they will get some edge damage sooner or later.

 

[LeeBower]

I chopped up a bunch of sun hardened oak and some cedar fence pickets on Saturday evening. I chopped and batoned enough that I was sore in the back and chest muscles the next day. I figured my 9 would be dull after, but I nicked my thumb while running it over the blade. It wasn't hair splitting sharp, but sharp enough to cut paper easily.

 

[mrn8]

On my final camping trip last fall, I did manage to chip the edge. However, it sharpened right out and I decided to widen the angle a bit (close to 50 inclusive, but done by hand). From what I can tell, though, the chip that I got was from hitting something hard and not just from the chopping. I'm thinking it happened when I hit a nail or wire in a limb I was splitting to find some dry wood.

I haven't really tested the new angle at any length, because we don't have a woodstove / fireplace at home. Once I can find time to get out again, I look forward to seeing how it holds up.

 

[Translash]

Thanks for the input guys. I actually did convex the edge of the BK-9 with a work sharp to a 40 degree all inclusive, so that may have affected the heat treat and the dents And GravelFace, I didnt mention this in this thread because I wanted to keep it Becker related but I actually did bring a Busse CGFBM with me on the same trip, and pounded on it even more so than the BK-9 because it was the first time bringing a Busse blade in the wilderness. The edge didnt even dull, so I was very impressed. But I'll give the BK-9 another chance, dont worry fellas!

i got some pics from that trip I'll add for your pleasure:

 

[Gravelface]

I've been wanting to give a few beckers a try, but wanted to find out if there is any noticeable differences in the steel used between the different eras/manufacturers.


That Battle Mistress is impressive....and a great thrower!!

 

[Melektau]

My son is 7 also and loves the bk7 fellow Appalachian

 

[Shotgun]

Production knives are sharpened on a belt., and in a hurry. If they aren't careful they can soften the edge a little from the heat generated,
Ethan and a lot of other knife people have commented on the Good Steel underneath, from this. if you give your knife a good edge clean up it should be a champ after that, assuming you dont use a belt and overheat the edge.
Dents should steel out without losing any metal, dents are much better than chips.

Just my 2 cents

Could be this. It also could be bad form. I noticed that the more glancing chops I have the more likely I have small edge damage.