Got the BK9 today .. Initial impressions

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SOUTHSTAR

Joined
Jul 1, 2009
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I got the bk9 today and initial pressions are good. I like the knife a lot. The balance feels good. The handle feels very good in my hand. It's very comfortable. The edge it came with kinda sucked. The grinds at the edge Are not even. The angles are uneaven I mean. I sharpened it with my $5 sharpener. It took a much better edge and is now shredding magazine paper easily. The bk13 also benefitted from a quick sharpening. So far seems to be a good value .

Could someone explain to me how to post pics I'd like to put some up. I'm going to take it out and do some chopping soon and would like to update with pics.
 
Huh. My BK9 came with a symetrical grind and shaved hair off my arm without scraping. The 13 did need a touch-up though, the grind was good, but it wasn't finely honed. It took about 6 strokes on my lansky turnbox set to bring it to razor blade level.

You'll probably need to loctite your handle screws. Keep a close eye on them your first time out.

The 9 is a good chopper, better then the machetes and hachets i've handled so far for tree limbs. And control is surprisingly good for finer work.

Have fun! :)
 
They must have there Good & Bad Day's at the Shop putting on the Edge's, My BK7 and the China Made BK13 both came Super Sharp and after a touch up on the Ceramic Crock Stick's they took a Shaveing Edge pretty quik, Congrat's on the New BK9 ! Here's some Info. on posting picture's on a Forum/Message Board,
If you want to put picture's on a Forum/Message Board you gotta have a Photo Hosting Web-Site like Photo Bucket or TiniPic and when you use them you'll be able to upload picture's from your Computor to there Site, When you Register you'll have your own Photo Gallery and when you upload picture's you want the size to be 680 X 480 that's the perfect size for the Forum's and for sending In E-Mail's and eveything, Most of the picture's you see on the Internet are that size, But when you get your Gallery going when you upload picture's you'll see the Link's beside each picture and It will say Image Link you left click on that box It'll turn Black or Blue then you right click and Copy then on the Forum when you want to post the picture you paste It and It's In, When you paste a picture make sure It's in the lower left side like your starting a new sentence that way your picture's will all be In a row, You can only paste one picture at a time but you can go back and edit In picture's at anytime, TiniPic Is the easyest to use just do a Google search and you'll see there Site, Then you can get your own Photo Gallery going and you'll be good to go, If you need more help just let me know,
 
I havent seen a BK7 but my BK11 and BK2 are both perfect in every way. My first BK9 had some issues with chunks missing from the laser cutting and a uneven grind. I sent that one back and they shipped me a new one. The new one I got still has some very minor problems because of the laser cutting (I understand this is normal) and the cutting edge was put on it wrong. At one point on the blade the cutting edge is soooo shallow on one side that its almost a chisel grind. I'm not going to lie...its annoying but I'm just going to live with it. I'm going to guess that the BK9 problems are because the knife is so large. I've yet to hear anything bad about the new Becker's except the BK9.

I guess it will take time for things to get worked out.
 
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Eeeek! nooooo!
grinding wheel can remove a lot of material very fast with little control. Recipe for disaster IMHO.
I tried it once, ended up with some nasty chunks out of my blade.
(Fortunately it was a $7 Walmart machete and I didn't care)

you need sharpening stones or rods.

Cosmetically you might be stuck with it looking a bit uneven for a while.

Functionally though...what matters most is the final angles as they meet at the edge. I think mine was about 25 degrees per side from the factory, and that seems reasonable for a knife like this...

sharpening is a fairly large topic...and I'm not sure how much you know. What kind of sharpener do you have?
 
Learn to convex your blade and how to maintain. It's not only going to be the strongest and sharpest (most 'efficient' grind for slicing), but the cheapest to maintain. Just takes a mousepad, various high grits of wet/dry sandpaper, and some leather. Stropping compound can be had for just a few dollars once you get the edge formed as you like. Read all you can on the subject before attempting. Searching the forum listed above will do a lot.

http://www.barkriverknives.com/docs/convex.pdf

http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/valiant5.html

This one is great:
http://www.knivesshipfree.com/pages/Sharpening-Videos

Get yourself some old knives you don't care about so much, or something cheap like an Opinel or something to learn on.
 
Just a quick question, when one uses the locktight on the screws on the handle, as suggested by users of the BK9 for chopping, will it completely keep the screws tight and would it be difficult to remove the scales again to put on the micarta slabs?
 
It'll make it pretty tough to remove them. Heat will usually work (at least on the 'medium' strength loctite), but if you do too much you'll risk damaging the handles or messing with the heat treat. Best I could suggest would be to figure which you want on the knife, and then loctite it. (Not if you're still deciding). I've just tightened mine up (they were a little loose when it first arrived, after a chopping session) and since then they've held together fine.
 
Thanks, best first to tighten and see if that will solve the issue, because I am thinking of buying the new micarta slabs.
 
There are different levels of loctite. I believe Red is more or less permanent. Blue is removable. If you can't take it off with just the tool then heat loosens it. Fairly mild heat, nothing that would harm a heat treat. When i've used it, we're talking a couple seconds with a lighter, or dipping in hot water.
 
Joben said:
There are different levels of loctite. I believe Red is more or less permanent. Blue is removable. If you can't take it off with just the tool then heat loosens it. Fairly mild heat, nothing that would harm a heat treat. When i've used it, we're talking a couple seconds with a lighter, or dipping in hot water.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I had it on something once and had to get a soldering iron and hold it to the screw for a few moments.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. I have heard a lot about the convex edge so maybe I will just go for that. I'll research up and then go for it.

Also I took the knife out with another I had and did some chopping a firemaki g yesterday. I took pics and will be posting up soon.
 
ive had good success with a really coarse water stone and a bucket of water , NOT TO MENTION LOTS OF ELBOW GREASE! and DO NOT SLIP while in extremis with the stone .
 
SOUTHSTAR said:
I have heard a lot about the convex edge so maybe I will just go for that. I'll research up and then go for it.
Click to expand...

I think you'll be very please with a convex edge. It is fairly easy to do yourself or there used to be folks who could do it for you and maybe still are some around here on bladeforum.

To offer one extra incentive, most of the knives I've convexed have been much sharper and easier to keep sharp after. Particularly the knives I've had with the same steel as the Beckers. Three Beckers and Cold Steel SRK. Both the B11s and SRK are much improved for sharpness and cutting on general camp craft kinds of tasks. The BK-9 went from nice (with the touched up factory edge) to by golly spooky sharp with the edge convexed. Do not aim that thing at anything you don't want to sever!!!

Good luck and be careful!
 
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