This problem occurs so rarely I think it's better to talk about the norm (excellent blades) than the exception (warped blade)
I shouldn't have said "warped", as that implies a kind of serious useability issue... It is purely a cosmetic issue, so I should have said "heat curved". It never has been a useability issue, only a cosmetic issue, but one I consider very dire...
Maybe Becker, by some miraculous coincidence, lucked out that the on the first and only one I ever bought, the blade was obviously heat curved, this falling on just on the
one guy who cared...
But you shouldn't look at it that way: Cooling straightness is
always a danger and an obvious issue on
all knives, even customs that cost thousands (I have seen it, and also on one very mild one on one of my four Randalls). It takes only a second to check for straightness, and the fact they let it pass tells
far more than you want to recognize...: It means that something that takes a second to check, or would take seconds to prevent with cooling plates, is not segregated against and is not prevented (the Randall Model 18 might have been caused by the peculiar handle welding, so more difficult to prevent) ... That even one went through speaks of an inferior QC, on something that is a very basic issue they watched for even in the Middle Ages...: Probably the guy finishing it knew the rough blank he was working on was curved, and he didn't care... If that's who you want finishing your blades... Well that's why some people pay more...
You can bet no Chris Reeves ever came out heat curved: Not even one...
Sure the Becker still can cut, but it all depends if you want something that is as good as it can be, regardless of price, or just some mass-produced item made without much care...: The heat curving is a clear sign of second-rate concern for an object that is often invested by the owner with many fond memories...: I can point to other cheap knives that would NEVER have heat curved blades:
Nothing recently made in Seki-City Japan, no matter how cheap, will ever show any heat-curving, and neither will
anything from dull-edge mall-Ninjaesque TOPS knives... No Cold Steel knife made in either Japan or Taiwan will
ever have any heat curving, though the only American-made Cold Steel I ever owned, a 1991 Recon Tanto in Carbon V,
was heat-curved...
It all depends what your tolerance level is: If you don't care that the people making it,
knowing what they are doing, don't care, then fine. But even some cheap $40 knives are better made than this, and will never show this kind of flaw, so it is not a matter of being a knife snob... No knife should
ever be made like this, regardless of price.
Rather than getting the BK-9, I would recommend getting the Ontario SP-52 in the same price range, especially for use as a chopper... One thing is true is that the Bk-9 sheath is very good for its price, so that could weight against the SP-52...: No question that in straightness and blade performance the Ontario SP-52 is way better, even on the Becker's own terms.
Gaston
