how tough is a kabar fighting knife?

They are OK as long as you know it's limits, worth the money IMO.

I carried them for the 4 years I was in the USMC and broke or bent like 4 or 5 of them.
 
I carried an ontario F/U for 8 years active duty, through two wars, and never had a problem. I still have a couple. They are good knives, but they are not made for prying, nor for any other abuse.

Ive also owned kabars, camillus made ones, I even have a WW II USN Mk2 Kabar, that is still in good shape. Ive been using these knives for over 25 years without a problem.

You can baton, but you have to remember to keep the blade horizontal, like any other blade. You have to remember that you can break even thickest of blades not keeping the blade horizontal when batoning. It's not usually the force that breaks a blade, its the shock from a bad angle.

Usually the people that have broken ones, are the people abusing them. Any knife used for what it was not intended to do, can break.

....BTW-An axe works much better ;)
 
Many Marines use them! They're almost Marine Proof! I have a sweet USMC KABAR type knife made by Case that is a great knife. It looks just like the original kabar and I'm sure it functions the same. If you were in the military, you can even find them with various branches of service on the base of the blade near the handle such as US Navy, US Army USMC etc.........Get one and give us a report on it!
 
Danjal said:
http://www.knifetests.com/

Try checking there. Im not sure how it rates up on this site, or how they look at this guy, but he destroys knives... and you'll see what it takes to do so.
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Check out the D2 Kabar Extreme test also.

The KaBar's are good knives for the money, but I think a Rat Cutlery RC-6 would be a much more durable knife due to the full tang, slab handle design and their above average quality level.
 
Ka-Bar is one of the best knives made. If it's good enough for the USMC for 60 some odd years to fight with, you bet your ass it's good enough for you.
 
ndscustom said:
Ka-Bar is one of the best knives made. If it's good enough for the USMC for 60 some odd years to fight with, you bet your ass it's good enough for you.
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Ka-Bar is okay for the money, but that's all.


Then again, I've broken two of them. ;)
 
it's more than lightly that one would end up with a broken bone or even some bones, should one ever pit one's self against a k-bar head on.
that's how tough it is!
 
You can beat the snot out of it and it will ask for more. As long as you don't set out to break it (like knifetests does) it won't break.
 
rev_jch said:
You can baton, but you have to remember to keep the blade horizontal, like any other blade. You have to remember that you can break even thickest of blades not keeping the blade horizontal when batoning. It's not usually the force that breaks a blade, its the shock from a bad angle.
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True for most knives, not all.
I'm sure we all know the ones I'm talking about. The toughest of knives work pretty well splitting rock, never mind wood.
 
I am working on re-handling one, so took one apart last night. I was very impressed on how well it was put together. The leather washers fit very tight, and it took me a hack saw, pliers, screwdriver (for a pry bar), to take it apart.
The hidden tang is .168 x .530 and runs the entire length of the handle.
 
Joshua, some of those "rock splitters" out here are not made for realistic use......but make good pry bars though ;0)
 
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