JUNGLEIZED BK-16 After Action Report

averageiowaguy

averageiowaguy

Joined
Mar 22, 2011
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I am very happy to report that the BK-16 was perfect in the jungle. I brought it, my machete, a HEST 2.0 and a Leatherman Juice 2 with me this time. I went fairly light on the loadout but I had everything I needed.
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I am very glad that I made everything orange. The native guides were given knives at the beginning of the expedition but quickly lost them. I can see why. They were constantly asking to borrow mine to do things like clean game, cut fruit etc.
Here was the first time the BK-16 saw use in the jungle. It must be melon season right now because there were a ton of them.
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Anyway there were a couple times where the guides would borrow my knife and set it down somewhere. The orange handle made it stand out from the foliage so I could find it.

I modified my knife by stripping the coating off. After a week in the jungle there was some surface rust (jungle patina) on the knife.
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A little surface rust doesn't bother me because it shows that the knife has actually been used. Ninja knives don't interest me.

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Here it is after about 30 seconds of elbow grease with some steel wool.
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I was very happy with the BK-16 and I would expect to be. It is a well made knife and I made the modifications to it to suit my style of use. I think if you start with a good knife you can't go wrong.

I am supposed to go back down in the near future. Before I go down I am designing and crafting a new sheath for the knife. The stock sheath works fine, I just want something a little different because it fits what I do a little better.
 
Very cool man. Glad to hear everything went well. What were your thought for the new sheath system....
 
I made the machete from a lawnmower blade. This was it's second trip to the Amazon. Both times it was a favorite of the native guides. One of these times it is going to walk off I'm sure. It is surprising how well the oak handle does down there. It was just a piece of oak board I had laying around. A few brass pins and some epoxy secure it to the full tang handle. I give the whole handle a real good coating of linseed oil. It has been a great performer.

For sheath, what Mickey was using is the design I like best. He was using Dave Canterbury's Pathfinder 1 knife. The sheath has the kydex knife enclosure with the leather belt loop/backing. Leather doesn't work so well down there. I was going to build something similar to the sheath on the pathfinder knife, only instead of using leather for the belt loop, I was going to try to make it out of Kydex. What would be really cool is if I could figure out a way to have a pocket on the front of the sheath to hold my sharpening stone and lighter. It was very handy to have the lighter and stone so close at hand. Both were used MANY times. I put edges on a few pocket knives that the natives had to pass the time on a boat.
 
averageiowaguy said:
For sheath, what Mickey was using is the design I like best. He was using Dave Canterbury's Pathfinder 1 knife. The sheath has the kydex knife enclosure with the leather belt loop/backing. Leather doesn't work so well down there. I was going to build something similar to the sheath on the pathfinder knife, only instead of using leather for the belt loop, I was going to try to make it out of Kydex. What would be really cool is if I could figure out a way to have a pocket on the front of the sheath to hold my sharpening stone and lighter. It was very handy to have the lighter and stone so close at hand. Both were used MANY times. I put edges on a few pocket knives that the natives had to pass the time on a boat.
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Yeah, I've seen that sheath, thinking about something along those lines for my ESEE 3. I'll probably make a leather back, but you could make yours out of nylon web. If you want kydex Godspeed
http://godspeedtactical.com/mounting-options.htm has a few different kydex "drops". Esee makes a nice pouch for your stuff that you'll see on a lot of sheaths, you can see a pic on his page.

Too bad Dave got fired from Dual survival, I liked seeing him on that show
 
filedog said:
Yeah, I've seen that sheath, thinking about something along those lines for my ESEE 3. I'll probably make a leather back, but you could make yours out of nylon web. If you want kydex Godspeed
http://godspeedtactical.com/mounting-options.htm has a few different kydex "drops". Esee makes a nice pouch for your stuff that you'll see on a lot of sheaths, you can see a pic on his page.

Too bad Dave got fired from Dual survival, I liked seeing him on that show
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From what I hear, you'll be seeing Dave again soon.

Eli (godspeed) does great work. If I had time I would probably have him make me one. He and I did a little adventuring in the Superstition mountains. I think I'm going to be headed back too soon. Plus I want to make the sheath and tweak the design so it works better. I'll try it out in the jungle and maybe a few other environments and make changes as needed. After I get it the way I want it I'll have Eli make me a version with good fit and finish. Leather doesn't work well in the jungle, at least from the limited experience that this whiteboy has. The leather on Mickey's sheath failed but he was able to get it mended by a shoemaker in a village. Granted, by the time it failed it had done 2000 miles. I've got some orange Kydex, some orange chicago screws and some other parts on order. I'll see what I can come up with. Maybe I can take the pocket off the stock BK-16 sheath and put it on my new one. I guess I could get some heavy duty nylon and fashion another pocket too. We'll see.
 
Actually, I know exactly how I will attach the lighter and stone to the front of the sheath - Ranger bands. Problem solved.
 
Sounds like a good trip, Doc. Wish I coulda went, but I had to work. :eek:

Also, glad you made it back in one piece. Any strange illnesses to report after this trip?

Moose
 
Very cook pics AIG, even the "Jungle Patina" looks great:D I wanted to ask you about the scales... if they're aftermarket or you called in a favor with Ethan or Moose? I need to get some and then get together with you on a sheath design and knock that out for ya. "Ranger Bands".... friends don't let friends rely on ranger bands....lol, I'll take care of it.

Thanks for the recommendation filedog!

Can't wait to see video if you had a chance to take any.


Eli
 
Awesome thread, love the Parang like Machete and the "Jungle Patina".So much better than fake forced patinas.....

Best
Moin.
 
Murphnuge said:
Hey Doc, have you posted your video of the boat escapade yet?
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I'll bring what video I have of it to Ethan's. The entire expedition is being filmed as part of a documentary film/series. I was allowed to take video for personal use but I can't post it publicly. I asked if personal use included showing a few snippets of it at Ethan's and they said that would be fine. The whole burning boat incident is on tape, nearly from the beginning. They also got us boarding the boat at night before it caught on fire, which was pretty crazy in the first place. I got just a few seconds of the fire situation on my personal camera before Mickey fired his own camera man and handed the camera to me. So I filmed the abandon ship. LOL! I am, however, allowed to post still photographs and tell stories. They just don't want video leaking out. Here is a photo of the upper deck of the boat, where we bedded down for a few hours before the fire.
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And here is the first photo taken of me after jumping to the new ship.
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Look pretty enthused about the situation don't I?
 
Moosez45 said:
Also, glad you made it back in one piece. Any strange illnesses to report after this trip?

Moose
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I have spots like that all over my body. They itch pretty bad.

The problem was this time I brought the single bottom hammock as opposed to the double bottom hammock. I thought I would be OK. I lent the double bottom hammock to Patrick Rollins. Mosquitos will bite you right through the nylon on a single bottom hammock and your clothing.
 
GODSPEED TACTICAL said:
I wanted to ask you about the scales... if they're aftermarket or you called in a favor with Ethan or Moose? I need to get some and then get together with you on a sheath design and knock that out for ya. "Ranger Bands".... friends don't let friends rely on ranger bands....lol, I'll take care of it.

Eli
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I bought those scales from K9 Handler. They're basically stock scales that he waved a magic wand over. I'm not sure of his process. Whatever he did, the color held up in the jungle.

This is what I'm trying to do with the sheath.
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The top is secured in with a piece of surgical tubing looped through the belt loop part of the sheath. The surgical tubing is tied with bank line to secure it in place. The piece of tubing is like a little bit of insurance, like the piece of shock cord I used to modify the stock Becker sheath.

Here is the Pathfinder knife after 2100 miles in the jungle.
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Mickey absolutely loves the thing. I played around with it for a while. Aaron also brought a pathfinder knife. I like the knife but I like the BK16 a little better for how I use a knife.

95% of what I do with a fixed blade of that size in the jungle is food prep. The Scandi grind on the Pathfinder works for that, but in my hands a convex (Fisk) grind works better. Whenever I try to cut vegies with a Scandi grind, especially carrots, they shoot across the room. I'm not doing something right.
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The other 5% of the knife involves stabbing and killing. They have been feeding themselves by drive hunting wild boar. They herd a bunch of boars to the river or to a dropoff and trap one. Then they club it on the head to stun it and stab it in the heart. I didn't get to go on a hunt but I saw video of it. Absolutely brutal, but I love wild boar meat. Maybe when I go down there next time I'll get to hunt them.

I also like the handle on the Becker knife better. The handle on the Pathfinder is very comfortable but for the way I use a knife I like a shaped handle like Ethan makes. Eventually I'm going to get around making a custom handle for the Becker. I would have done it at the outset but Ethan outsmarted me by embedding the nuts for the bolt in the handle and I don't know how to do that. I would change the shape of the handle very slightly and make the handle a little thicker in spots. It has to do with the anatomy of the hand.
 
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Great write-up! I love to see these experiences posted so we can see what works and what could be made better- thanks Doc!

slik
 
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