Temper; that's a sweet hunting knife! A little pricey though - I lean more towards what JJW said about not having to worry about a less expensive knife - plus, for only $100 or so more, I could get that FN / FAL I've been wanting
Rok: Regarding the SRK - Knife Center has them w/kydex sheaths for $53.95 and they are not seconds (!):
http://store.knifecenter.com/pgi-Cu...Knives,2,16,=,cs,&,157,=,fixed,&,160,=,carbon
As for tip strength, I read a testamonial of a dude using one to hammer into a rock in a rock climbing emergency - don't know about that, but I've subjected mine to hundreds of
throws with minimal damage. As a matter of fact, Jeff Randall & his people think very highly of the SRK as well - especially for throwing, if you check out their Survival school website...
LongBow: That is the 'short' model & is an actual "Kabar" brand knife - I got one not too long ago but with the kraton handle & kydex sheath; It's a nice knife but I'm not too keen on the handle length (and I'm a relatively small person, though I have average sized hands). Point is that someone with large hands would probably find the short model's handle far too small.
On a related note, I would be interested in seeing a comparisson of the various "kabars" (aka; Marine Combat Knife). Everyone from Kabar, Ontario & Camillus made them - I recently discovered Case made them as well (I'd like to pick up that one sometime). They all have slight variations; I know Camillus' version has a bit of a blade / handle offset. Ontario's handle appears longer & Case's handle seems more narrow / better quality overall. Nonetheless, I have not handled all of them (used to have an Ontario which I learned to throw with as a kid and I've handled the smaller Kabar & full sized Camillus)... Perhaps one of our intrepid knife reviewers will have a go at that as a project?!?!?
JJW: As an American, I'm kind of proud to hear that the Kabar is held in high regard overseas
...how much in US$$ is 15 Euro anyway?
Nevertheless, as stated above, I'm with Moine in that the edge would need to be reground for optimal cutting ability on a Kabar. I don't have the equipment for that personally. Also, I think years ago Bill Bagwell wrote an article on the relative merits of the Marine Combat design - it came up kind of short if I recall - and mostly due to blade geometry. The steel is fine but the edge angle is too steep IMO.
Don't get me wrong, you could definately do worse than a Kabar, no matter which brand & what the intended task. Every design is a trade-off & no one knife will do everything great. To me, the most important thing a knife should do is
CUT though - and that's why the Blackjack knife is first choice.
Here's a thought for a decent,
very cheap, all around knife: the Cold Steel True Flight thrower... For all of $21.95 (Knife Center again) you get 1095 steel, decent edge geometry, strong point and easy to modify as far as handle projects go. I took mine and added another layer of paracord to the handle, in a Japanese wrap style; if you like a knife with a low profile that's cheap, tough & can be easily made razor sharp, the True Flight thrower isn't a bad choice at all!
To sum up, I would go with the Blackjack in the hundred dollar range, the SRK in the $50 range & the True Flight thrower in the under $25 range as a replacement for the Buck 119. Though I acknowledge this is personal choice & many other knives fit into the catagory.
Choose wisely
)
