Ka Bar Big Brother - full tang?

retzius

retzius

Joined
Sep 17, 2009
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Does the Big Brother have a full tang or just a rat tail tang like the regular KaBar?

Is the tang suitable for use as a heavy woods knife i.e. chopping and splitting wood?
 
Actually, a stick tang. It does run the full length of handle, but its not a full tang. Easy mistake to make.

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Moose
 
thanks moosez for the corection... retzius there are better knives for the outdoor use try one of the beckers. they are made for outdoor use. the big brother has the clip point that eats up a baton. other than that i guess you can use it for great out doors i use a bk2 or a kabar 1211
 
Hey Moose,

That is a full (length) tang. It's just not a full (profile) tang. Easy Mistake to make :D
 
thanks guys.

I wanted to see if it had a "full profile" tang. I guess it does not. Seems like an odd choice to put a stick tang on a large knife that seems like its made as an outdoors chopper.

BK9 is calling to me now :)
 
For hard use that won't see combat I think the becker 9 will suit you better, its like a 21 century version of old school mountain mans butcher knife, a do it all kind of knife.
Not many big choppers like it that can do the tough stuff and slice onions thin at camp.
Besides chopping and clear trail/limbing on my 10 acres I use it for lopping heads/tails off salmon at home and cutting loins/ribeyes into steaks..... a tall blade keeps the meat from shifting during the cut keeping the cuts even and not tapered or ragged.

Sidenote.......An old butchers trick is to put a whole loin in the deep freeze for an 1 to 2 hours before cutting steaks for the freezer, the outside freezes and makes it really easy to make perfect cuts without the meat moving around.

It should be called the combat butcher not bowie IMOP. Get the little companion knife that fits in the sheath, rounds out the big blade perfectly, great little steak knife at camp.

If you order one you won't be sorry, its still KABAR and the butcher approves

Regards
 
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Thanks for sharing the knowledge :) I'm very close to buying the KA-BAR "Big Brother", and the ONLY concern I have is the tang system. But this is almost a full tang, no? The only difference (the way I see it) is that the butt is welded on separately?
 
JOMANI said:
Thanks for sharing the knowledge :) I'm very close to buying the KA-BAR "Big Brother", and the ONLY concern I have is the tang system. But this is almost a full tang, no? The only difference (the way I see it) is that the butt is welded on separately?
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Welcome to the forums, Jo.

That buttcap is pinned on, not welded. Not to worry though, cuz I've never seen on break at the butt..........

The Big Brother is a solid knife, you won't go wrong with it.

Moose
 
Have you looked into the Kabar 1271 "Fighter" yet? I have no experience with either of them, but it looks to me like an all around better option than the big brother as a heavier bladed utility purpose knife that still retains the need to kill in it's geometry.

If your looking for that bigger blade on a more traditionally styled Kabar as opposed to the LHB or BK9 (Both solid, renowned outdoors choices.) The 1271 lacks the serrations along the spine, yet still retains a useful portion on the blade at the bottom. Probably a big help with batoning as you mentioned splitting wood with it.

Just throwin' another option out there, Happy trails with whatever you choose! :D
 
The BK9 is one of the best outdoor knives you can get, at least for under $100. People that have the Large Heavy Bowie also seem to be very fond of it and it only has a stick tang. All of the Heavy line has the same tang and they are very popular and are far from babied.

Ka-Bar is a good company and Moose knows his blades, so if he says it's good, it's good. Buy with confidence.
 
This is an old conversation so no one might see my comment. I could not help but notice the slight debate on tang nomenclature or jargon. Could this be historical somewhat as with other fields of interest like firearms? I saw many a gun store clerk actually get ornery when person referred to a revolver as a 'pistol', a term they reserved for an automatic or semiauto pistol. Actually, historically, revolvers were called pistols before any autos had been invented; and gunmen were often called by the Spanish term 'pistolleros'.

I always thought that originally full tang meant all the way back to the hilt or butt and rat tail was the same but tapered as if the knife was made from a rat tail file. Perhaps rat tail knives originated from knives made from large files. Thus, with my logic, Ka-bars would be full tang. I further thought that the distinction between full and full profile was added later.

As to strength in tang design, the seemingly weakest tangs, rat tails, are employed in the great classic knives utilised by the world's toughest knife fighters, Nepalese Gurkas in their heavy-bladed khukris. The good major mentioned below has worked with them and said he would not want to fight one who was really mad. Gurka fighting kukris are rattail tanged. Their similar farm kukris are often full profile, as trees are tougher than flesh. So basically, the most proven heavy fighting knife known has a thin rattail tang.

Though soldiers, marines, and sailors have had to use Ka-bars as survival knives and done so successfully, as a Green Beret, medical corpsman major has related to me, they are primarily for killing, not chopping wood, as the good major also agreed on. This Big Brother, which is essentially a modern 'Bowie' and definitely a fighting knife, would seem to be abused if used for batoning and the like unless one had no other choice. I hate to see high quality knives misused because of the survivalist urge, but I suppose such testing is necessary to be prepared if the need arises. I carry a small quality hatchet, and for lighter weight have a quality tomahawk made by Boy Scouts decades ago. If you must have a knife that is a multitool in a knife sort of way, try a Condor heavy khukri (kukri). It has a ten inch blade you could probably dig a fox hole with.
 
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I haven't found a reference to any historical calling a revolver a pistol. The definition is on a pistol the chamber is part of the barrel.

The old time references to a pistol are to single shot handguns either breech loaded or muzzle loaded.

Back on topic, I prefer stick tangs to actual full tangs.
 
monstrum said:
the bigbrother has a full tang. the other regular kabars have full tangs as well
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Nope. They don’t. Just that stick-tang.

But I’ve never had a problem. As long as you know what it can reasonably do, or not do, you should be fine. I’ve owned 3, even had to put them under a bit of stress now and again, and never broken one.

I dig ‘em.
 
JOMANI said:
Thanks for sharing the knowledge :) I'm very close to buying the KA-BAR "Big Brother", and the ONLY concern I have is the tang system. But this is almost a full tang, no? The only difference (the way I see it) is that the butt is welded on separately?
Click to expand...
The Big Brother blade measures .165 inches, or 4.191mm thick with my digital micrometer. There are far superior combat knives, and certainly better choppers. I'd save money to invest in a more prolific tool. It's not bad for the money, but really a less than average chopper, or combat knife. I just removed the handle, and it looks like a stick tail, and not very substantive. I'm not ever emotionally involved whatsoever. The Big Brother reminds me of a Walmart array. Not terrible, but I'd refer to it as a " budget knife."
 
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