New BK20 - Ka-Bar please stop mutilating tips of the blades! Third bad one for me.

Just remember that the exorbitant price YOU are paying for these Beckers is because of where you live. They are not made to that price point. Crappy grinds are still crappy grinds though and Kabar should fix that process.
 
Messing up even limited edition knife for 200 USD is little bit too much I think. At least they could make this 450 pieces right. I was little bit uncertain after the bad tip on new BK21,
but than I thought, that on limited edition everything would be just fine - expensive mistake :-(.
 
Price for the BK20 was the same like for everyone, I just paid expensive shipping for it. That´s still no excuse for messed up grinds. BK21 for me was little bit cheaper, than buying it in Czech knife store.
 
MKabar I hear you 100% and agree with you, however being a realist, although I am a picky SOB, these knives are priced as users not collectors items and buying them in your country just makes things that much harder to replace. I have a dozen Beckers and there are some ugly grinds in there but all of them were good buys at good prices and all are completely usable for the intended purpose.

My suggestion is use the snot out of it and keep it sharp.
 
There is nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism. If you really care about a brand you will encourage it. Silencing constructive criticism is a disservice to the brand. Ethan is a good guy and his tools are well designed. I just want to see him be as successful as possible. Nobody should expect perfection at this price point but expecting more than wonky grinds is totally reasonable and telling the maker is the only way to address the problem. Ethan said that he would mention it to Olean so it would appear to me that this thread was positive and productive. Silence is acceptance.
 
I just picked up one of those sterile BK24's and the tip grind was messed up. Guess I'll be taking a bit of time tonight to straighten it up.


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Out of my 24 Ka-Bar BK&Ts, only 1 had a perfect edge (BK15). All the rest were anywhere from "slightly off" to "how did that pass QC". Whether they were stamped or etched did not matter, so it has been going on for a while with few complaints. All three of my BK20s have uneven edges.

Does it matter? Only if I am looking at the edge - all of my users (BK4, BK5, BK7, BK9, BK15 and BK20) have exceeded my expectations in terms of functionality. So much so that 18 NIB Beckers are in my collection, along with 6 NIB Camillus BK&Ts. At this price point, I feel like I get more than my money's worth with every BK&T purchase.

However, as someone with mild OCD in terms of neatness, the uneven edges make me want to scream upon initial inspection every time. That feeling almost immediately subsided.
 
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I was also kind of dissappointed, as another European guy, by the grinds, as well as sharpness of the BK9 and 21 out of the box. Bought from US during my trip, so at least I didn't pay for international shipping.

If you were indeed told that "nothing can be done about it" (paraphrasing), it's a shame...

Is it only me, or "Made in USA" in the 80s / 90s carried another weight?
 
Well... Now that I think of it, my US-made Cold Steel Recon Tanto of the early-mid 1990s was also cooling curved... But my SRK was not, and the cooling curve struck me as unusual for Cold Steel...

Everything I 've ever seen from Seki-City was always straight, even very cheap stuff. Often dull, but straight.

Gaston
 
Obviously messed up grinds are very common. It´s not just my bad luck. Ka-Bar is destroying beautiful blades on the grinder and don´t care about it.
Not cool and definitely not appropriate for Made in USA. With all those messed up tips and grinds it should be marked Made in China.
I am disappointed, there is no good quality/performance/desing on the market today in any product sector. Everything is messed up for the cheaper cost, faster mass production and bigger profits.
 
I am wonder what would Ka-Bar director said, if I sold him a new premium laptop for 1500 USD with top notch hardware configuration and the LCD screen would be broken in one or two of the corners. Well, it happens and nothing can be done about it...
 
In the end, it's a mass produced blade made by a company that makes and sells a ton of blades every year. And for cheap prices I might add. It's not really that hard to fix an edge. Even on the bk24 I got a few days ago. It took maybe 15 minutes to get it perfect. By hand. I've never considered these knives to be collection pieces. They are tools. Great tools.


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mchipman said:
^^^^This^^^^ Becker Knife & Tool

I think it is cool that they get collected, but I don't think that was in any way the intension of the designer or manufacturer.
Click to expand...

I use at least 2 Beckers every single day for work. They out perform anything else I have ever used and they are still so versatile. They make my jobs so much easier.


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Hey MKabar......

I have been trying to figure out some way to square things up with you....... Could you please email me an address where a package will reach you? ...... beckerkt@gmail.com....... Thanks..... E
 
Email sent, but as I wrote in the email, Mr. Becker you don´t have to square up anything with me. You didn´t do anything wrong. Some guy (I don´t know him but I don´t like him :-D) on the grinder in Ka-Bar factory did.
So I am testing the new 5 randomly for the last two weeks (I put best edge on it from all my knives) and yesterday it was little bit funny - I was opening some envelopes from China and successfully managed to cut the content in half too O:-).
 
I took a look at the edge on the tip of my user 20, and it was slightly higher on one side. That didn't stop my from destroying some wood while abusing the blade with a 3' long baton. After all was said and done, the edge was pretty much the same, no dings/chips/ripples. When the factory edge gets dull, I'll carefully go over it and make it even at the tip, the first half inch of slight un-evenness. I still don't get why it bothers you that much. Not being a fanboi, an edge like that from any manufacturer won't bother me at all, unless said edge was not capable of cutting.

I make knives and I know that getting that edge bevel can be tricky as you are trying to keep everything straight, sharp and not cook the temper using a power tool. I won't try to figure how it must be for the guys at Olean doing hundreds of edges in a day.
 
you got a 5 you lucky mutta been around all kinds a blade 44 of my 51 years using em hard and keeping edges on for those thar have trouble thinking in 3d
you got a 5
the rest were pretty nice too will be getting a 10 brand new with papers from the old camuillus line
just cause
you got a 5
 
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