Thanks to a buddy, I can review this knife in detail. It's Kabar's remake of the popular Camillus Becker Necker, model BK11. Kabar's version is available in laminated steel or CroVan carbon steel; this is the carbon steel version. It's made in America and sells for around $35 in stores. The knife itself weighs 2.5 ounces. It comes with a Kydex sheath and some cord. Here are the details (as usual, the measurements are by my ruler, not a website description)...
Handle Details: The Becker Necker is one piece of carbon steel, so there is no seperate handle. The entire knife, except for the grind line, is powder coated in black. The whole thing is just under 3/16" thick. The handle portion is 3-7/16" long and 3/4" wide. It's skeltonized in the exact same shape and size as the original Necker (see the photo). Kabar left the bottle opener / wire breaker, which I find useful only a small fraction of the time. But I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I tested it out on a fence, and sure enough, it works. You also get three holes - one near the guard and two in the butt - large enough to accomodate non-gutted 550 cord if you want to wrap the handle.
Without wrapping, the handle is a bit irritating. The corners aren't smooth and they're not sharp enough to cut your hand, but they're irritating. They dig in and make anything more than light cutting just... difficult. After only a few minutes, I wanted to put the Necker down and reach for something that won't tear up my hand as much. The handle length is a bit short for me; the Necker is a three-finger knife. Surprisingly, the Necker's wire breaker notch didn't dig into my hand at all. Wrapping the handle in 550 cord solved the handle's roughness problems for the most part. It became smoother and easier to grasp. However, I had to stop the wrap about 1/4" behind the guard; otherwise the knife won't fit into the sheath. This makes my trigger finger (index finger, sorry) wedge between the 550 wrap and the metal guard, which gets uncomfortable when squeezing the handle for any period of time. It's not unmanageable, but it sure irritates me.
Blade Details: The Necker has the same blade shape and size as the original; it's a drop point with 3-1/4" of cutting edge. It's flat ground, and shares the same thickness (3/16") as the rest of the knife all the way up to the last inch or so of the tip. It's Kabar's CroVan carbon steel, which seems to be 1095 with a nice heat treat. I'm not sure of the Rockwell hardness, but it takes and holds an edge well. Out of the box, it was sharp enough to cut paper. It achieved razor sharpness after a few minutes of work. Again, the entire blade, except for the grind line, is powder coated for corrosion resistance. The left side of the tang has BK&T over KA-BAR while the right tang has BK-11 over USA. All of these markings are stamped. What can be said about the Becker Necker's blade that hasn't been said before? It's a great utility blade, and it will do a nice job at cleaning any game you might find. It makes a fantastic wilderness knife, and will be right at home in a camp setting. It's just great all around.
The Sheath: I thought this was going to be a big, obtrusive piece of plastic. I was wrong. The Necker is housed in a black Kydex sheath, it measures 4-3/4" long and 2-1/2" wide, and is 1/4" thick. Both sides have the BK&T Ka-bar logo molded in. You get six large holes (large enough for non-gutted 550 cord); two on each side on the far ends, and two on the sealed end for neck carry. There are also four smaller holes closer to the center; I'm guessing these are for lashing the Necker to MOLLE gear via cord or something similar. All in all, it's a nice set-up. The holes will accomodate a Tek Lok, but I chose to use 550 cord in the holes for belt carry. There's also a drainage hole in the bottom. Retention-wise, the Necker's sheath works as expected. I had to play around with this one before it loosened up; at first, the knife just didn't want to come out of the sheath. After about 10 times inserting and withdrawing, the sheath loosened up enough to get a snug fit on the knife without making it impossible to take out. Everything said, I still prefer the older Camillus-style sheath. With the knife inserted, the entire package is 7-3/4" long. This knife feels at home on my belt, but not so much around my neck.
The Cord: Kabar also gives you a length of black cord. Mine measured 5 feet, 2 inches and had both ends melted closed. It's not, I repeat, not 550 cord. The outer shell certainly feels like 550 cord, but the inside reveals what looks and feels like shoelace string. It's not the seven-strand (or even five-strand) lengths of string, but it's shoestring material. This isn't a huge deal, as I'm not going to hang weight off the thing, but it's just a detail you might want to know. You get around five feet of it, and you can use it to wrap the handle or you can make a neck carry option. I used it to wrap the handle (with a wrist lanyard) and lash to the sheath for belt carry, and I had about a foot left over.
The Becker Necker is everything we remember it to be; a nice fixed blade for those of us who don't want a huge knife. It's not fancy and it's not made with the highest-tech steels; it just works. The sheath is good. I think that if we forgot about the original Becker Necker sheaths and this was the first one, we'd be totally happy with it. As it stands now, this is one of only two fixed blades that I'm comfortable using every day. The other is my Hartsook Neck Knife, but it's not as versatile. Hope you enjoyed the review.
EDITED: The picture above shows the grind ending about 1/4" to 1/8" towards the top. The knife that I got has a full flat grind (not as pictured above).
Photos added, see post #10 below.
Handle Details: The Becker Necker is one piece of carbon steel, so there is no seperate handle. The entire knife, except for the grind line, is powder coated in black. The whole thing is just under 3/16" thick. The handle portion is 3-7/16" long and 3/4" wide. It's skeltonized in the exact same shape and size as the original Necker (see the photo). Kabar left the bottle opener / wire breaker, which I find useful only a small fraction of the time. But I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I tested it out on a fence, and sure enough, it works. You also get three holes - one near the guard and two in the butt - large enough to accomodate non-gutted 550 cord if you want to wrap the handle.
Without wrapping, the handle is a bit irritating. The corners aren't smooth and they're not sharp enough to cut your hand, but they're irritating. They dig in and make anything more than light cutting just... difficult. After only a few minutes, I wanted to put the Necker down and reach for something that won't tear up my hand as much. The handle length is a bit short for me; the Necker is a three-finger knife. Surprisingly, the Necker's wire breaker notch didn't dig into my hand at all. Wrapping the handle in 550 cord solved the handle's roughness problems for the most part. It became smoother and easier to grasp. However, I had to stop the wrap about 1/4" behind the guard; otherwise the knife won't fit into the sheath. This makes my trigger finger (index finger, sorry) wedge between the 550 wrap and the metal guard, which gets uncomfortable when squeezing the handle for any period of time. It's not unmanageable, but it sure irritates me.
Blade Details: The Necker has the same blade shape and size as the original; it's a drop point with 3-1/4" of cutting edge. It's flat ground, and shares the same thickness (3/16") as the rest of the knife all the way up to the last inch or so of the tip. It's Kabar's CroVan carbon steel, which seems to be 1095 with a nice heat treat. I'm not sure of the Rockwell hardness, but it takes and holds an edge well. Out of the box, it was sharp enough to cut paper. It achieved razor sharpness after a few minutes of work. Again, the entire blade, except for the grind line, is powder coated for corrosion resistance. The left side of the tang has BK&T over KA-BAR while the right tang has BK-11 over USA. All of these markings are stamped. What can be said about the Becker Necker's blade that hasn't been said before? It's a great utility blade, and it will do a nice job at cleaning any game you might find. It makes a fantastic wilderness knife, and will be right at home in a camp setting. It's just great all around.
The Sheath: I thought this was going to be a big, obtrusive piece of plastic. I was wrong. The Necker is housed in a black Kydex sheath, it measures 4-3/4" long and 2-1/2" wide, and is 1/4" thick. Both sides have the BK&T Ka-bar logo molded in. You get six large holes (large enough for non-gutted 550 cord); two on each side on the far ends, and two on the sealed end for neck carry. There are also four smaller holes closer to the center; I'm guessing these are for lashing the Necker to MOLLE gear via cord or something similar. All in all, it's a nice set-up. The holes will accomodate a Tek Lok, but I chose to use 550 cord in the holes for belt carry. There's also a drainage hole in the bottom. Retention-wise, the Necker's sheath works as expected. I had to play around with this one before it loosened up; at first, the knife just didn't want to come out of the sheath. After about 10 times inserting and withdrawing, the sheath loosened up enough to get a snug fit on the knife without making it impossible to take out. Everything said, I still prefer the older Camillus-style sheath. With the knife inserted, the entire package is 7-3/4" long. This knife feels at home on my belt, but not so much around my neck.
The Cord: Kabar also gives you a length of black cord. Mine measured 5 feet, 2 inches and had both ends melted closed. It's not, I repeat, not 550 cord. The outer shell certainly feels like 550 cord, but the inside reveals what looks and feels like shoelace string. It's not the seven-strand (or even five-strand) lengths of string, but it's shoestring material. This isn't a huge deal, as I'm not going to hang weight off the thing, but it's just a detail you might want to know. You get around five feet of it, and you can use it to wrap the handle or you can make a neck carry option. I used it to wrap the handle (with a wrist lanyard) and lash to the sheath for belt carry, and I had about a foot left over.
The Becker Necker is everything we remember it to be; a nice fixed blade for those of us who don't want a huge knife. It's not fancy and it's not made with the highest-tech steels; it just works. The sheath is good. I think that if we forgot about the original Becker Necker sheaths and this was the first one, we'd be totally happy with it. As it stands now, this is one of only two fixed blades that I'm comfortable using every day. The other is my Hartsook Neck Knife, but it's not as versatile. Hope you enjoyed the review.
EDITED: The picture above shows the grind ending about 1/4" to 1/8" towards the top. The knife that I got has a full flat grind (not as pictured above).
Photos added, see post #10 below.
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