AFAustin
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,503
I picked up a pretty one recently and thought Id post it up. Its a KA-BAR 1990 Collectors Club Dogs Head LO "Bent Barlow" (whew....thats a mouthful), #102 of 480.
I tried to find some info. on this knife and learned a bit here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1293791-Info-on-1990-Ka-Bar-Club-knife and then a little more here (see: post #11): http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1043923-Barlows-for-Dog-Lovers-Ka-Bar-Lo
Its a stout knife at 4" closed and 4.1 oz. The fit and finish is very nice: no gaps, well matched smooth jade green bone, and flush pins and shield. It appeared virtually unused when I bought it, and I believe had the factory edges, which were very toothy but well apexed and with nice even bevels. Ive since sharpened it and both blades now sport smooth polished edges and are admirable slicers. This is enhanced further by the fairly thin grind towards the tip on both blades.
The only modification Ive done is to smooth out the tangs, which were quite sharp. It's much more comfortable in hand and in the pocket now. Other than that I just gave it a good cleaning and polishing---it's now pretty shiny for a 25 year old knife!
The pulls are moderate and about right for me: 4-5 on the clip and 5-6 on the pen, with no half-stops. Opening is made even easier thanks to a feature I wish I saw more of: oversized (larger and deeper) nail nicks. I can imagine how they could make some of GECs famous nailbreakers a lot more manageable.
Another interesting feature is the supersized "pen" secondary. Im not even sure it counts as a pen, with a full 2" of cutting edgemaybe "small spear" is more like it!
Im still trying to determine the blade steel, but no luck so far on that (other than it obviously being stainless). I even contacted KA-BAR and they kindly sent me a PDF of the Collectors Club Reference Guide (1976-1994), but it didnt really have much info. or answer that question. So if anyone knows or has a good guess, please post it.
Not much down side to this one, but I guess a couple of things might count as negatives to some: it is a bit heavy in the pocket, and the mirror finish attracts lots of fingerprints.
In my book, though, its an easy winner, and as a bonus, the dogs head shield even reminds me a little of our own pointer rescue in my avatar.
Thanks for taking a look.
Andrew
I tried to find some info. on this knife and learned a bit here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1293791-Info-on-1990-Ka-Bar-Club-knife and then a little more here (see: post #11): http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1043923-Barlows-for-Dog-Lovers-Ka-Bar-Lo
Its a stout knife at 4" closed and 4.1 oz. The fit and finish is very nice: no gaps, well matched smooth jade green bone, and flush pins and shield. It appeared virtually unused when I bought it, and I believe had the factory edges, which were very toothy but well apexed and with nice even bevels. Ive since sharpened it and both blades now sport smooth polished edges and are admirable slicers. This is enhanced further by the fairly thin grind towards the tip on both blades.
The only modification Ive done is to smooth out the tangs, which were quite sharp. It's much more comfortable in hand and in the pocket now. Other than that I just gave it a good cleaning and polishing---it's now pretty shiny for a 25 year old knife!
The pulls are moderate and about right for me: 4-5 on the clip and 5-6 on the pen, with no half-stops. Opening is made even easier thanks to a feature I wish I saw more of: oversized (larger and deeper) nail nicks. I can imagine how they could make some of GECs famous nailbreakers a lot more manageable.
Another interesting feature is the supersized "pen" secondary. Im not even sure it counts as a pen, with a full 2" of cutting edgemaybe "small spear" is more like it!
Im still trying to determine the blade steel, but no luck so far on that (other than it obviously being stainless). I even contacted KA-BAR and they kindly sent me a PDF of the Collectors Club Reference Guide (1976-1994), but it didnt really have much info. or answer that question. So if anyone knows or has a good guess, please post it.
Not much down side to this one, but I guess a couple of things might count as negatives to some: it is a bit heavy in the pocket, and the mirror finish attracts lots of fingerprints.
In my book, though, its an easy winner, and as a bonus, the dogs head shield even reminds me a little of our own pointer rescue in my avatar.
Thanks for taking a look.
Andrew
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