KA-BAR Tech Talk

Toooj,

Awesome Q&A you got over here btw. My questions more of "just wondering" than anything else but I'd like to know why the leather sheaths for the USMC, mark 1, Bowie, etc etc have the retention snap on the belt loop by at the pommel. I've always liked straps and snaps that secured the blade in the sheath by crossing over the guard. Of course that's just one guys opinion but was just wondering why the top of the loop. Seems like there would be more play based on the curves on the handles than there would be with a snap over the guard. So I guess my question is is there any plans to change leather sheath designs in the future? Why or why not? I get its less expensive to keep a design the same but didn't know if classic style knives of the future (oxymoron?) would have a different sheath design.
 
clich,

Good observation on the old style sheaths. For the Mark II sheaths; they were spec'ed out by the military and we keep with the spec. I agree that it isn't the best design but we will probably keep them as is, due to the historic nature of the knife and sheath. As many others have stated before; the top strap arrangement allows for some potentially troublesome sitituations to arise. Notice on our more contemporary sheaths, we have multiple holding arrangements; both at the guard and pommel area. We like that system better and will use that as much as possible. As far as new designs...we will try to use new concepts; on old historic design remakes; we will try to be as historically accurate as possible.
Sheaths tend to be very personal to users. We try to give an adequate sheath but there are many options available and we encourage users to explore those avenues. Custom sheaths are one way to really personalize "Your" knife.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Toooj, as a knife designer for a factory knife company, do you ever grind out or hammer out one-off custom knives yourself? Maybe for KA-BAR protos, or to sell, or for whatever other reason?
 
BRL,

Yes, I used to spend mucho hours in the Prod Dev lab cutting, grinding, etc. Now days we let our contractors and factory production departments do most of the proto developement (under my and/or Jason's watchful eyes, of course). What we can do by hand is not necessarily what can be done by the factory, so we get them involved right from the get go. We develope our designs on AutoCad and Solidworks with a fairly firm idea of the production capabilities and then refine, refine and refine.
Sometimes prototypes make it on the market. I've seen some on E-BAY, on the cover of knife publications and catalogs; We give protos out to customers, sales reps, designers, etc so they can play with them. Then they do with them what they want...Keep 'em or sell em.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
speaking of Solidworks... the new update to the Macbook Air is really slick. Dev anywhere :>

oh, and there's something i want ;) you know what it is. yesss...
 
Hey Toooj,

Why on the "fighter" 1271 knife the thickness is only .165"? It would be very awesome (and one would think) easy to make it .187", then it would be much stronger and have more swing, and heft as a military type tactical knife.
 
Salty,

Back when we made the 1271 fighter, we wanted to use the existing handle, guard and pommel from the 1217, 1211, 1245 et al; so we used the same steel thickness....0.165". I'm thinking we didn't have any 0.188" thick stock in the plant then. We now have that gauge due to the Becker line. It would still take a lot of money to develope new guards, handles, etc. A lot the factors in product dev have nothing to do with the actual product but how it can be processed through the plant effectively.
Not so romantic is it?

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Heya Paul,

I just bought this knife and was wondering if you can tell me what era in Kabars history it came from.
I'm pretty sure it's a 1013 barlow, although not marked as such like the others i have with the dark and light brown sawcut scales. This one also appears to have black not-sawcut scales. I also seem to remember somewhere that the 1013 barlows were made for Kabar by Camillus. I appreciate your knowledge and hope you can give me a little education on this barlow and the 1013 pattern in general.


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Hi Karda,

Good hearing from you. Hope all is well.
Yes, you have a Ka-bar 1013. They were originally produced in the KA-BAR factory but when the company got bought out and moved to Cleveland, the slipjoint knife production eventually moved to Camillus. IIRC that was sometime in the 1970s when the KA-BAR Olean Factory closed it's doors. The 1013 had sawcut handle slabs and a sister Barlow (1014) had the wooden slabs. (the 1014 also had the master and pen blades reversed.) Why yours has the wooden handles; I don't know. However, it does look like the handles were factory processed as opposed to an aftermarket mod. Many times small runs with different handles, blade configs, etc would be produced.
Your knife was produced by KA-BAR as opposed to Camillus and was made somewhere in the 1950-60s. Camillus had slightly different manufacturing processes that would show a different look.
Nice knife in pretty good condition.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Thank You, my friend!
That is more info than i've been able to find about them. It is much appreciated!
 
Toooj said:
Hi Karda,

Good hearing from you. Hope all is well.
Yes, you have a Ka-bar 1013. They were originally produced in the KA-BAR factory but when the company got bought out and moved to Cleveland, the slipjoint knife production eventually moved to Camillus. IIRC that was sometime in the 1970s when the KA-BAR Olean Factory closed it's doors. The 1013 had sawcut handle slabs and a sister Barlow (1014) had the wooden slabs. (the 1014 also had the master and pen blades reversed.) Why yours has the wooden handles; I don't know. However, it does look like the handles were factory processed as opposed to an aftermarket mod. Many times small runs with different handles, blade configs, etc would be produced.
Your knife was produced by KA-BAR as opposed to Camillus and was made somewhere in the 1950-60s. Camillus had slightly different manufacturing processes that would show a different look.
Nice knife in pretty good condition.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,
i recieved the knife today and just wanted to let you know what an odd duck this really is.
It must be it was made in a small run of leftover parts or something.
It is clearly a 1013 frame. But the main and pen blades are reversed as on the 1014. The handle slabs are not wood but hard plastic. If i knew a little more than i do, my might surmise they could be smooth black bakelite. It seems a bit bulkier than the camillus made ones i have, although i should add that camillus did a fine job of reproducing this model for kabar.
Thanks again!
 
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Tooj;

Are there any plans for other "ZK" folders? I'd love the polished Dozier-style blades on the lime green handles.

Thank you and have a pleasant tomorrow.
 
JNieporte,

The lime green handles seem to be the new blaze orange. We are already discussing it (internally and with Bob D.). Bob isn't into Zombies but he does understand colors. No decision as of yet but it's an easy thing to do.
I'm sure there will be samples.....
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,


Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Tooj;

At Blade Show 2008, there were some colors for the Doziers (red, blaze orange, pink, purple, sage green) posted by Bob Dozier. What happened to the red and purple versions? My collection must be completed!

KBARURNGRED.jpg


KBARPNKPOIP.jpg

(The images belong to Mr. Dozier.)
 
JNieporte,

Some things do no always turn into viable products.....But seeing as you are the Bladite of Dozier Folding Hunters........
We'll try and take care of you.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Hey Toooj,

two questions regarding the Heavy Bowie:
1) Who designed the knife (not that technical, I know, but it's one of my favorites)?
2) When and why did you change the blade grind near the choil? I have both versions and I like the newer one a lot more.

Thanks a lot!
 
Toooj said:
JNieporte,

Some things do no always turn into viable products.....But seeing as you are the Bladite of Dozier Folding Hunters........
We'll try and take care of you.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
Click to expand...

That's either high praise or fightin' words. :D
 
Morales,

I designed the heavy cutting tool line in 2004 in response to the Becker line when the "Big E" was with Camillus. We were going to discontinue the "Heavy" line when Ethan came on board at KA-BAR. But to our surprise, the Heavy line grew even with the Becker line in place. Ethan says it's the "4 restaurants at the corner theory" (they all do well).
I'm not sure what you mean by changing the grind at the choil. Please post a picture if you can. KA-BAR did not knowingly change the grind config (IIRC). However, manufacturing weirdness does happen.

Gingivitis,

LOL. Only compliments concerning Bladite's Becker knowledge and collection. Seems JNieporte has a good start on those Doziers.


Mooose,

SSSSHHHH.


Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
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