Okay, now I'm modifying my Becker Combat Bowie

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
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Feb 2, 2005
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I recently got a Becker Combat Bowie (BK9) in a trade, and while I really like the big beefy bastard, the handle keeps slipping out of my hands. I've got big paws too. This morning, I finally got the chance to play with it, and it almost jumped out of my hands. Naturally, I'd like to keep all of my fingers. I did not care what happened to my Bushman, but I do care what happens to this Becker. Other than ducttape, what has been the handle covering of choice?
 
The green grip tape Lee Valley sells is cheap and self adhesive so it leaves no residue. It is also very aggressive textured so it makes a great grip enhancer. If you just want to try it out and not buy a whole roll then drop me an email and I'll send you off some in an envelope .

-Cliff
 
What is the handle made from ? You could always physically modify it if you felt comfortable doing that.
 
The handle is amde from a Swiss Glass Material, very hard and slick when wet.

I find both the material properties and the shape to be very poor for my uses.

I sent my BK9 to a custom maker to have a new handle fitted, including lopping off the birds beak pommell and the extended area on the tang (the hammer part). A pommel can swell in thickness for security, it does not need to be extended downward as this causes pretty severe finger impacts under hard use.

Mine is being rehandled in either birch or osage (I forget which), because I want a light wood that will keep the point of balnce blade heavy. In fact, the Maker I sent mine to has a very good feel for how a balde should be balanced, and will be taking all the steps he can to make sure my BK9 comes back to me at its full potential. By grinding off the birds beak and extending the handle all the way back the useable grip area will be much increased with no weight gain or increase in overall length.

The grinds on the BK9 are very nice for a medium use knife, though too acute for real hard use.
 
A while back I heard good reviews of just having the handle sandblasted. Try a search on this forum.

I cut Micarta slabs for mine but never got around to shapping them.

Badge54
 
While I haven't modified my BK7, I did experiement with the slick grip slabs on a USGI machete.
I Heated the tip of a large nail and made indentions/divots into the plastic handle. Not quite "stippling" as on a handgun's grip frame but you get the idea.
I did not push the nail too deep so as to weaken the cheap plastic riveted grips but enough to give a better purchase.
A friend did something similair using a small hacksaw to modify the grips of a USGI machete.
While mine "looks" better, the results were similiar and neither modification caused excess blisters while clearing brush/vegetation.
Of course, your "trade value" may decrease with a Becker's grip scales but for a "keeper" this worked well for me.
 
knifetester said:
The grinds on the BK9 are very nice for a medium use knife, though too acute for real hard use.
Click to expand...
Where were yours? The one I had was about 0.040", which is fairly heavy duty. The problem with the Beckers was the tolerances, it tended to vary a lot, especially on the larger blades like the Patrol Machete.

-Cliff
 
Sandblast the scales, and then coat them with the spray-in box liner stuff they coat the insides of truck boxs. You can buy it at any automotive store in a aerosol can, I did mine, and it works great. If you have access to a milling machine, mill the finger choil a little deeper, to keep you fingers from coming off the handle. I did all these mods to mine, and it improved 100%.
 
Could the spray make it too rough? If one does not have access to sandblasting, would rough sandpapering do the trick??

This sounds like a neat idea.....
 
you could try sum of that skate board tape. they sell it everywhere. and its really really, well it feels like sandpaper. i saw watching shooting usa and they were showing a grip precut fer the glock handles. so whynot try sum skate board tape. Im not sure if thats the name or not.
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Where were yours? The one I had was about 0.040", which is fairly heavy duty. The problem with the Beckers was the tolerances, it tended to vary a lot, especially on the larger blades like the Patrol Machete.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

I don't have it with me, but from memory it ran about ~.030-.035 behind the edge, the edge bevel itself was really acute though. I did not measure it (sent it off for a custom handle before I used it) but it was under 15 degrees per side, as I was going to use the Spyderco Sharpmaker to add a microbevel (20), and comparing the edge to the rods I noticed that I could actually cut in a bevel using the 15 degree rods with plenty of clearance from the shoulder.

I bought it a while back from Mike Dye at New Graham, excellent service. Once I got it, I remember why I detest the Becker grip configuration, as I had used the Campanion and BK7. Again, decent knives with a handle that was not suited for my hand at all.

As for its scope of work, with the stock edge, I would feel comfortable working with most any green wood, limbing most sticks except the real hard, dry stuff, and I would not trust it to hold up to ring knots or the like.

I would probably use it on soft metals, copper wire, thin aluminum cans, and such and most plastics except thick PVC.

In contrast, the Ranger RD9 I would use for the heavist of work, it has a much thicker grind (I will measure it tonight, I'll guess it is ~.050-.065 at least behind the edge) and I imagine the 5160 is a good bit tougher and the small shop heat treat superior to the large batch heat treat that Camlilus uses.

Given that there is not a great price difference between the knives, I would readily choose the RD9, choosing a stock edge for really heavy work or requesting a thinner edge for most tasks. IN fact, with the additional costs of the custom handle (more than the cost of the knife), the Becker will actually cost me more than the RD9 and have a more limited scope of work.
 
knifetester said:
...from memory it ran about ~.030-.035 behind the edge, the edge bevel itself was really acute though. I did not measure it (sent it off for a custom handle before I used it) but it was under 15 degrees per side
Click to expand...
Mine was 0.035-0.040" and from 15-19 degrees per side, thickening through the tip. I kind of figured that was just a variance from my CU/7 which was thinner and more acute, though not as much as yours. They also had the same problem with the Patrol Matchete which lead to several breaks as reported on the forums, the edge on that was spec'ed fairly thin and had little room for variance without blowouts, assuming you went beyond alders.

-Cliff
 
This in a long project. Sand the grip to slightly undrsize for your hand. Lightly coat with epoxy. Before dry sprinly fine sand on epoxy. Then paint to desired color. Won't slip now!!!!!!!!!! :eek:
 
SilentHunter -

I've got a Becker Necker, a Campanion, and a Combat Bowie. I've got a suggestion for ya... While my BK9 is the desert model with more tacky grips, I did the following inexpensive mod to my Campanion and couldn't be happier.

Run by a discount store and buy an inexpensive bike inner tube. As I recall I used a spare from my mountain bike, not my road bike. Slice an appropriate length to fit between the guard and butt of the handle. Slip (& tug & pull) that baby on. You've now got a nice rubber surface for the grip. It sounds ghetto but works well and looks fine.

Once I did this to my Campanion, the grip was comfortable and ultra-secure. It doesn't move around at all. This might be a problem if you already find the handle too big... I'm 6'3" and 218 so it's not a problem for me. I guess you could always remove the plastic slabs and sand some material away from the tang side to narrow the grips if necessary.

After you've sacrificed this part of the tube, you can always cut up the rest to make "ranger bands."

This same grip-slip also works on very small automatics (22, 25, & 32's) that are too small for the Hogue Handall Jr.
 
I justed mic'd the RD9, it is even thicker (overbuilt) than I remembered.

Me:
In contrast, the Ranger RD9 I would use for the heavist of work, it has a much thicker grind (I will measure it tonight, I'll guess it is ~.050-.065 at least behind the edge) . . .
Click to expand...

It is .072 behind the edge (with a very distinct shoulder) at the base of the blade and stays that thickness through the main body of the blade. It then sweeps to .035 behind the edge as towards the tip.

The edge bevel is .112 tall on one side (right, edge down), .109 on the left, stays even through the main body of the blade. As the blade sweeps into the tip, the edge bevel height decreases to .040 on both sides. The transistion between the main blade edge bevel and the sweep is abrupt.

Spine thickness is .228, blade width from spine to edge through the main body of the blade is 1.719. The handle, it the mid palm swell is .728 thick, well radiused at the edges. ( This is a little thin for me, I like my handles about 1" thick for better shock absorbtion, fills the ahnd better, more security, etc.) Handle height is 1.570".
 
Yeah, 0.07" is a bit overkill. About 0.025" on a quality steel will handle even the heaviest of chopping on knotty woods, but can bend on batoning through heavy knots, however about 0.035" is pretty difficult to do anything with in terms of trying to move damage up beyond the edge grind. Of course you have to allow for variances so you can't set you spec's at the minimum so allow for this as well. You could also just get into a habit of mic'ing the edge and then boxing them according to user profile. So when they dip a little under they go to the guys wanting mainly a wood blade and when they go a little over you reserve them for the military/extreme use crowd who do a lot of metal cutting, concrete/rock contact, etc. . This both vastly improves QC and makes the blades truely more custom. It also gives the maker and user more interaction which can only help improve satisfication.

-Cliff
 
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