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Lightbulb moment bk11

i find it interesting what old old old Becker stuff is coming to light.

i'd imagine that with all his business dealings, and such...

there's a ton of "old seconds" and castoffs, and all sorts of things.

pretty amazing how many "one of a kind" knives are surfacing these days, laser etched and all :P

hint: they didn't have that tech as such, back in the day

plus a few other examples that seem to be nicely printed with modern techniques

kinda weird.

i've hard there was a guy or two, that squirreled away *crates* of old cincinnati and blackjack stuff, everything really. i once bought a couple off ebay, they were clearly *extremely* flawed knives, but the seller guaranteed them, and i got refunds, but they were *not* nice about it. no names, but i think it's obvious, the dregs are coming around for a profit.

also, there's more than a few "fakes" if not outright attempts.

beware Magnum Camps with "pinhole" lock - some of those are clearly stripped camillus blanks, with a hole drilled, they have the wrong handles, angles, and don't really fit the old second sheaths.

several overseas attempts too...
 
The BK-11's I bought in the Camillus era were advertised as D2.
I had two. There's another packed around here somewhere. Psyop has the other one.
Bastards to sharpen, because large volume of very large carbides. Brittle, because large carbides, so be careful with the edges. D2 isn't really a 'hard use' blade steel (tool & die a different matter!), but not bad in a small blade that you want to never (or never want to) sharpen.

Just went looking, found #2.

Factory edge on the Camillus BK-11's was burly. They were ground thick, with very tall, obtuse edge bevels. I wouldn't go below 20dps sharpening D2, but YMMV.
 
I now remember... I made a number of holsters with my BK-11 as my cutting tool, while sitting on the couch in front of CSI re-runs.
 
Yep that sounds right, the edge is very tall and obtuse. Nice, thanks man!

Something just seemed different about them,...very dense and...idk just different. Never had a d2 before, so hey, guess I have two now.
 
Good score for sure!
They originally came with very well done kydex-like sheaths.
 
So, update...got some kydex on the way...thanks Al!

Figure I'd spice up the package with some suunto clip compasses and light my fire 3/8 fire steels. Also found some pouches that should slide right over the sheath. Snagged some ulti clips and plates...horizontal carry...Im fairly sure they will need two hands for the kydex draw. One wants to dye the handle yellow with a black sheath, and the other wants purple with an orange sheath. Still awaiting all the goodies, will post pics!
 
The thick edges are very normal for Camillus. All my Camillus Becker are in my opinion not ground thin enough. Thats one of the reasons I prefer the Kabar Beckers. Kabar does a great job at keeping the edge thin, much better than just about every other production knife.

Here are some old Camillus blanks you can see how thick they leave it.

0-2.jpg

The bk11 blank is about .030" in the middle and gradually gets thicker up to the tip at .037"

Thats not that bad, but the thickness above the edge on the kabar bk11 is .022" in the middle and .029" at the tip. Massive difference.

0-3.jpg

The bk2 blank is even worse. .040" in the middle and goes to .072" at the tip.

0-4.jpg

I guess they were really worried about tip strength. At those thicknesses you can put an edge on it and it can be sharp, but it just wont really cut and slice like I think a knife should. I have Camillus bk2 brand new in box and the last part of the edge is is completely flat metal unsharpened. They literally could not put an edge on it at the angle they were using.

Bad photo but here it is.

0-1.jpg

The bk2 from Kabar is an great example of a knife brought down to a nice thin slicey working edge that can still take a beat.

Anyway... ill step off the soap box now.
 
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