My first BK&T knife [warning: big pics]

Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
267
I recently aquired one of the BK&T BK-9 combat bowies via a trade with a fellow forum member. This fellow arrived brand-new in the box, complete with the grease smeared on the blade. Needless to say, I was really blown away with the the sheer impression this knife makes! It's just massive, yet feels very agile in the hand. I was almost to the point of ordering one, as the price just can't be beat, but this trade brought it to me much more quickly.

I have larger hands than most people do, I guess, as I found the handle fit just nicely in mine. I've heard complaints about them being too big and bulky, but for me, they fit perfectly. My only point of note with the grips, is that they get pretty slick if held with cold hands. I just noticed it while sitting outside in the chilly weather, smoking a cigar, and admiring the knife.

I was doing a massive photo-shoot of all the blades in my collection today, and since I'm planning on taking it out for some testing this weekend, I thought I would take some pictures of it in its pristine shape. You'll find them just below, for your viewing pleasure. I'm still experimenting with some lighting for shots, so excuse the dark area towards the rear of the shot. If you all would like, I'll try and get some picks of it in action this weekend. In the meantime, enjoy!

bk9_large_01.jpg


bk9_large_02.jpg
 
Nice pictures. And I think we all would like to see some pics of it in action. I took my BK9 out about a week ago, nice chopper, and it slices good too.
 
Well, as they say, the best-laid plans of mice and men...

Needless to say, I came down with a pretty bad cold this week, and after working my Saturday shift, all I wanted to do was go home to bed. I've pretty much been there ever since. Ok, save for the ocassional romp here on the forums.

Hopefully, I'll get healthy this week, the weather will be good, and I'll actually be able to go out over the weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Stay tuned for updates... :D
 
Great knife, and pics. I have been using my BK7 prettyregular for the last couple of months, and its damn tough. Also I can put an edge on it pretty easy.:D
 
Great Pics Andrew! Tell us how the BK9 works for you after you regain your health! Here is my favorite pic of the COMBAT BOWIE...

BK9_6a.jpg
 
Thanks for the well-wishes Will.

Believe me, I was pretty upset that I couldn't get out to try this baby out this weekend. The kicker was that the weather was so dang nice too! :(

I'll state again that I'm very impressed with the construction of this knife, and consider it excellent value for the money, hands down.

I'll be sure to make an update when I get this pristine piece broken in! :D
 
Ok boys, I finally had a day of awesome weather, and I was feeling well enough to get out in it. I wish I could say the same today, as the creeping crud seems to have snuck up on me again, but, such is life.

So, this fine Sunday, I decided to finally get the Becker BK-9 Combat Bowie out, and take the 'new' off of it. I've been admiring the blade since I got it, and taking that first satisfying chop is just the first step to breaking in any new 'user'.

Impressions:

First off, the knife chops very well! Better than most of my other choppers, and right on par with my favorite custom-made carry knife. I was able to go through green saplings roughly 1-1/2 inches in diameter in a single, powerful swing. Needless to say, this was amazing. I'll just reinforce this point again; these knives are scary-sharp right out of the box!

When I decided to do some heavier chopping, I began work on a 3-inch thick main tree branch. While the grip is fairly comfortable most of the time, when you get into heavy, repetitive chopping, put on some gloves! I found that without them, the knife would twist in my grip, and pinch my poor little pinky with the rear of the handle. :(

Overall, the knife is going to do some twisting regardless of how you hold it, when chopping like a madman. Maybe a set of custom handle scales would help this, but hey, don't forget, this is a knife well under a 100 bucks!

My Chopping Endevours:

bk9_01.jpg


bk9_02.jpg


A Nice Clean Cut!

bk9_03.jpg


Needless to say, this knife is a chopping monster! Just for kicks, I also shaved the bark off the tree I was hacking on, just to see how well the edge held up after a couple of hours of plain hacking. As you can see in the top photo, it held up pretty dang well!

I worked on 3 different trees over the course of about 2 hours, all with the edge staying very sharp. Sharp enough to shave, in fact. This was after going through pine, oak, and ash. Not too bad indeed.

One thing I decided to partake upon, that I sometimes like to try on full-tang blades like this, is a small prying test. I sunk the blade to it's full width in a few stumps that I had cut off, and proceeded to bend it. I was mainly checking out the flexibility of the blade, but to my surprise, more often than not, I ended up snapping the limb/stump in two when prying on it! :p

My final 'impromptu' test was to see how the tip held up when subjected to some light prying. Needless to say, from the two shots below, you can see it held up just fine! Not even so much as a complaint!

Sunk In:

bk9_04.jpg


The Results:

bk9_05.jpg


Not an absolutely huge chunk taken out, but pretty impressive for me, I must admit. I wouldn't try that with too many knives.

The finish on the knife held up remarkably well, with the coating only smoothing out near the edge as time went on. To the best my eyes could see, nothing actually came off of the edge itself. I still have to clean it all up, and take a couple of shots once its had some TLC.

Results:

I'll say it again; this knife is a super value! Chops like the dickens, maintains a great edge while doing so, and yet is flexible enough to play the 'sharpened prybar' role. My only point of contention with the knife is the handle. It gets hard to hold onto under heavy chopping, and can hurt your poor pinky if you're not wearing gloves. I may consider looking into custom grips for the knife, and if I do so, I'll update you all again with the results.

To anyone thinking of buying one....what are you waiting for?!?...

buy it!...

now!

I hope you all enjoyed my little 'review'!

:D
 
So far I only own 2 Camillus/Beckers...A BK-2 Campanion, and a BK-9 Combat Bowie. These ARE some excellent knives that can keep-up with the best of 'em. I'm hooked.
 
Thanks Pax-V. :D

I've had a chance to clean up the knife a bit since the weekend, and the finish held up remarkably well. Basically, you can see some scuffing on the coating itself, where it smoothed out a bit, but nothing came off!

I haven't had a chance to take any shots of the blade since its been cleaned off, but I'll take some tomorrow, and post them for you all to see. As I've mentioned before, I'm very impressed by this knife. :D
 
Ok boys, as requested:

Here are some shots of the blade after the weekend outing. I haven't touched up the actual edge either, so how you're seeing it here, is right after it was scrubbed down. You can click on the provided links to get higher-resolution shots.

This is the worst of the scuffing on the finish:
bk9_scuff01_small.jpg


High-Res Version

A little better shot of it:
bk9_scuff02_small.jpg


High-Res Version

The flip-side:
bk9_scuff03_small.jpg


High-Res Version

Just another formal 'pose':
bk9_scuff04_small.jpg


So, as you can see, even though I beat on it pretty good, the coating held up quite admirably. If you guys are looking for any other information, be sure to ask!

Oh yes, and I've had a small name change here on the forums. My prior handle, and the one I've changed to, are actually one in the same. For the answer to that little riddle, you'll either have to be a fan of science-fiction writings, or break down and e-mail me for the scoop. :p

Enjoy! :D
 
Hey _ender
I would like to congratulate you on your EXTREMELY good taste in knives!!
Very nice pics ... I am Always happy to hear kind words about my babies...THANKS!!
All Best
Ethan
 
Ethan,

I just love the BK9! I've always thought the BK9 was designed more as fighter than the big utilty knives Battle Rat, am I correct? Could you give a bit of history on how you came up with it? I'd be intrested to know if you looked at other Bowie designs and how you decided on the blade geometry.

Some folks would like big choil but I'm fine with out it. I'll take an inch more of blade anytime. I feel a choil may be a liablity on a fighting knie because it may get caught up in things.

I just noticed you were a fellow Ohioan! I'm in Columbus, GO BUCKS!

Regards,

Chris
 
Mr. Becker,

You have my thanks for both your comments on my review, and for the wonderful knife I had fun using to create it with! I had never really intended for this thread to become a review of the knife, but hey, things sometimes just happen. :D

I guess that's something I would like to see more of here; knife reviews that are competently written, with photos, and good follow-ups. I'm sure my decisions on knives would be far more influenced if I had access to more of them. However, I can certainly understand the limitations of reviews like this online, and that not everyone has the resources available to post them.

I'm lucky in that I do have those resources available to me, and that I'm able to share it with the people who have given so much valuable insight to me over the short time that I've been here. This is truly the best part of being a member of the Blade Forums. There is just no substitute for that one-on-one contact that we can all share.

I certainly look forward to many more adventures with the BK-9 in the coming year (once it warms up again! sheesh!), and you can rest assured that I'll post anything I discover right here for you all to see. I'm also looking forward to possibly picking up one of the new BK&T 'pilot' models, as it looks quite interesting indeed.

My only regret thus far is this; not having enough money to buy more! :D

I have too many expensive hobbies, this being one of them, and I have to be very careful where I spend my hard-earned money. This is another reason why the Blade Forums are such an invaluable resource. Without them, I wouldn't have access to the sheer depth of knowledge that can help me make the best buying decisions. As I've said before, this is one of the reasons for my review, to try and give back some of what I've taken.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you for your positive words. Hopefully in this coming year, I'll be able to afford more toys, and add more reviews not only to the Blade Forums, but to my own personal site as well.

That is, if I'm ever healthy enough to do it again! :mad: This damn cold/flu/virus I've been fighting off for what seems like forever, might actually go away sometime soon....I can always hope anyway... :D
 
Hey Yojimbo...

I would guess that the first influence on this blade design starts in childhood with my second "quality knife" which was a Solingen Bowie about 10 inches long, carbon blade, relatively narrow,stag grips, and a convex grind (something I sure did not understand at the time)... My other main knife was a Puma White Hunter with all it's obsessive little German quirks (use this part for this. that part for that,etc.,etc). The Puma DID however actually slice stuff, you could whittle with it and everything. The Solingen had copping power. More recently I obtained a Moran-Warner Rio Grande Bowie and also started hanging out with Jerry Fisk. I really liked the size and concept of the Rio Grande Bowie (it was Bill Moran's solution to the one knife problem when his friend Ken Warner was headed to Vietnam as correspondent for American Rifleman) . Mr. Moran's blade, in it's factory form at least, was a little blade heavy for my tastes after that aforementioned bad influence The National Living Treasure Jerry Fisk came into my life. Jerry's blades are as close to living things as cutlery gets. They are a tribute to what balance and poise will get you. Being a stuuborn Kraut with a real belief in Brute Force with a strong dash of overkill this was a concept I had to be lead to gently. Thanks Jerry! So what I hoped to accomplish was the size of the RioGrande ...Great chopper blade wide enough to grind it high enough to get the cutting power.whittleability (OK> OK> it ain't a word but it should be), and chopping power , combined with the lightweight and balnce I have so come to admire in TNLT's blades.

The Moran Bowie BTW has a choil and the reason the BKT Combat Bowie does not is a certain squeamishness on my part.
I have cut myself a couple of times using a choil as a place to park a finger. You will note , I hope, that my answer to this little problem is to grind back as far as possible . In some cases the scales on Beckers almost overlap the grind lines. I agree with you that one more sharp inch of steel is a very good thing. The Magnum camp does have a choil were but it was designed by TNLT. I do not think that they are inherently evil or anything I am just not very comfortable with them..
I hate to comment on the Battle Rat knife as I am not familiar enough with it to make an informed comment.

Thanks for the thoughtful questions and nice comments,

If you are cruising through , drop in or when I am up bothering Darrel Ralph mayhaps we can congregate for a beer or something.

All Best
Ethan
 
Hey _Ender
Thanks for the reply to my comments... keep up the good work .. I hope you like your as yet undelivered Beckers as much as you like the Combat Bowie !

All Best....
Ethan
 
Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Well _Ender with your pictures and the responce of everyone in this thread including Mr. Becker, I went ahead and ordered my very own BK9 from One Stop Knife Shop today. Should have it before the end of the week.
 
Hey fivepointohh

Does your handle mean you originated around Five Points Ohio ?
I do hope you enjoy your new Becker... Please let us know how it works for you !
All Best
Ethan
 
Hi Ethan,

No I was born in upstate PA in Nanticoke. The FivePointOhh refers to my '89 Mustang GT 5.0 convertible.

Just checked with UPS and I should have my BK9 in hand this Thursday. Can't wait to try it down the lake when it opens this spring. It will get plenty of use slashing and hacking. :)
 
Hey there FivePointOhh,

I'm glad that you found this thread informative, and that some reviews and pictures helped you with your purchasing decision. The whole idea behind orginally posting with all of this, was to do exactly that; aid people who were considering this knife. It's a great value, and a great knife to boot.

:D

Let us know what you think of it, once you get it, and have a chance to test it out. I'd be interested to know if you're happy with it. I also wanted to congradulate you on your purchase from One Stop Knife Shop. As we all know, this goes towards keeping these great forums going. Good Show!
 
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