kabar or ontario?

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wreckager

Joined
Nov 23, 2009
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I've been lookuing at both the kabar and ontario Usmc knives and was wondering if there was any difference in quality between.Also does the ontario have a better sheath as i've heard all about the crappy kabar leather sheaths?
 
A Ka-Bar is $100? Even with international shipping you should be able to get one for a lot cheaper than that.

Unless it's the D2 Ka-Bar of course, then $100 sounds about right.

There's actually three different sheaths you can get for the Ka-Bar. The leather one, which sucks. The kydex one that's better. And then you have the Eagle nylon sheath that's the best of all.
 
I have a mid 70's era Ka-Bar, a mid 80's Ontario, and a late production Camillus. Of all three, the Ka-Bar takes the cake with regards to fit and finish. Not to say that the other two are inferior products - just that if you're looking for something that is functional and looks decent, the Ka-Bar is your choice. With regards to the sheaths (all three came with leather sheaths), I think the Ontario has the nicest - being all black, unmarked, and it appears to be made of decent leather. Just as it's already been mentioned, get either one and chances are you won't be disappointed. You should be able to find a NIB specimen for about $50 (USD)... Hope this helps.

hsld.
 
the kabar is $100 including postage.I cant get the kydex sheath anywhere but i can find a kabar usmc with a glass filled nylon sheath for like 5 bucks more. I forgot to mention that the ontario knife is from their spec plus line.
 
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KA-bar.

Also of interest, i think Ka-bar is the only one that uses a precision pin fit into the pommel of the handle. all the other manufacturers i believe only hammer a softer portion of the tang into a retaining (mashed / penned) fit over a slotted pommel.
 
I bought one of the Ontario ones a few weeks back and had to return it, came banged up, I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't the shippers fault but I am sure that every KaBar I've bought so far has come in great shape and they do just about anything. As far as the sheath is concerned, sheaths never last forever and I'm still on my first one with my two KaBars so I don't think there's any real quality issue.

Here's a picture of mine:
377187_orig.jpg


From top to bottom.
1. Ontario Spec Plus, this one came in good shape, a leather handled one didn't
2. Krayton Handle KaBar, Combo edge, has seen a fair amount of use
3. Leather Handled KaBar, plain edge, has seen A LOT of use
4. Brand new KaBar Leather handle, it's a gift for someone so it hasn't seen any use, that's what they all look like out of the box.

And here's what the handle on the leather handled ontario looked like right out of the box, again not entirely sure whether this is a factory problem or if it was caused by the shipper, I'm sure it wasn't caused during shipping though. There were other problems with it too but this was the most noticable. EDIT: here's the thread about this problem http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688141
72467_orig.jpg


I will say that the KaBars have much better fit and finish than the Ontarios do, but if you got a good one, I'm sure the Ontario would perform just as well as a KaBar, the Spec Plus is great, about on level with the KaBars and fifteen dollars or so less. :D
 
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wreckager said:
the kabar is $100 including postage.I cant get the kydex sheath anywhere but i can find a kabar usmc with a glass filled nylon sheath for like 5 bucks more. I forgot to mention that the ontario knife is from their spec plus line.
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If you're paying $100 dollars you're paying too much, they can be had for about $50-$60. I got the new one for about $55 plus shipping so it pays to look around a bit first.
 
the knife wont be put through heavy abuse,just light or medium camp chores.As the ontario is about the same quality as the kabar,and $15 cheaper.I think i'll get the ontario
 
I may get ran up a tree for this but here goes. I have had both and still have the Ontario, the Kabar does have better quality, to me the heat treat seemed the same on both. The reason I let the Kabar go was it was just to dern pretty to take out in the woods and beat the snot out of it(even though I know it would handle it just fine). My Ontario has held up just fine, and it's so rough looking I don't mind using it hard! Now it may just be that I got an exeptional one, but I have a lot of confidence in mine! I did have to reprofile the edge on both but a little more on the Ontario.
 
wreckager said:
the knife wont be put through heavy abuse,just light or medium camp chores.As the ontario is about the same quality as the kabar,and $15 cheaper.I think i'll get the ontario
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The KaBar has better fit and finish, the Ontario's handle is very rough even without damage, if you don't mind that than the Ontario should suit you just fine, but the KaBar handles are a lot nicer. The Ontario Spec PLus is also very nice, about the same as a KaBar and I think it might even be cheaper yet than the normal Ontario I think I got mine for about 42.
 
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