Karbars

deltablade

deltablade

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I am intrigued with the Modifications Chuck Karwan made to his Kabars, and have done similar to a few different knives. I wish he were still here to provide his considerable insight into such things. The knives work so much better for me in this modified configuration.

 
The kabar dogs head utility knife looks almost exactly like those modified kabars. Top guard is removed, different pommel, etc. Sounds like it might be right up your ally :).
 
Looking at it again, yeah, it has a touch more of an upper guard left than the modified kabars. Not much more, but you're right. The pommel on the dogs head is the same as the "next generation" pommel if I remember correctly.

So I guess not exactly the same, but close.
 
Not Ka Bars, but PALs from the Second World War. No way am I modding them in anyway.

RH-35 USN Mk1, RH-36, and RH-37 U.S. Nay Mk2

PALs%2520RH-35%2C%252036%2C%252037.jpg
 
I have (had?) a KaBar USMC I bought at the little Camp Smith, Hawaii NEX in the early 1990s.

I modified it by:


1. Drilling a hole through the top of the guard and notching the blade spine.

2. While sighting through the handguard hole, using the clip point cut off as the front sight, I aimed at a point I placed on the wall to ensure my line of sight was LEVEL (level line of sight is crucial).

3. While maintaining that level line of sight, I placed nylon string in the blade spine notch I cut and let the string hang like a plumb bob (tied a nut to the end of the string).

4. While maintaining that level line of sight, and hanging the plumb bob, I pinched the string against the side if the blade and used a sharpie to mark where the string laid on the blade. This is angle zero/level.

5. Then I drew and arch (open end up) on the blade with the zero/level line bisecting the arc, and marked 10 degree increments on the arc toward the tip of the blade and 10 degree increments on the arc toward the handguard.

6. Lastly I used a dremel tool to engrave the arc, the zero angle line, and the 10 degree hacks along the arc.



This proved to be a very practical mod for me. After having done this I could use the knife with a string and anything acting as a plumb bob as a clinometer. Mostly I used it to determine the height of trees or other obstacles when laying out helicopter LZs and such.

I've looked and looked for that knife but can't find it. I fear it may have been behind the bench seat of an old Toyota HiLux pickup I had my son sell for me in 2012.
 
I received this knife in Iraq in 2005 from two buddies, SGM B and SGM H. It's still in the original packing, and I plan to keep it that way. I certainly won't modify it. I believe KaBar still sells them, so there's nothing special about it excepting when I consider who gave it to me.

KaBar%2520Fixed.JPG
 
deltablade said:
I am intrigued with the Modifications Chuck Karwan made to his Kabars, and have done similar to a few different knives. I wish he were still here to provide his considerable insight into such things. The knives work so much better for me in this modified configuration.

Click to expand...

Those are all nice!
 
The Next Generation Ka-Bars were largely designed from the Karbar, but unfortunately are only available as the Extreme D2 now, with a bunch of (for me) useless serrations.
 
I agree with that about the next generation. I had one in 1095 without the serrations, yet the handle felt to chunky to me. Actually, the best feel for my hand of the knives above is the Ontario SP1 followed by the Muela Scorpion. The Kabars and Camillus both feel better to me than the Next Generation Kabar. Yet my hands fit a large size glove. Extra large hands would probably prefer a larger grip.
 
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