OKC Bush RD-9 or OKC RD-9 or Ka-bar BK-9?

What is your price range?

-Stan

DISREGARD as I just saw the original date on the post.
 
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Son of a beasting! What's with all the thread necromancers?!?!?!

Stop raising the dead, people!! It wastes everyone else's time.

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I love the BK9 for the price, but there are better in the OKC/RAT/ESSE direction if you can afford the $80-$130 prices.

And right now Chestnut is having the free shipping sale, great time to get any one from there. I would compare prices and basically you get what you pay for.

Now the BK9 is awesome, the sheath is ok but nothing special. You save $50 basically because you aren't getting a micarta handle. I find my handle just fine on my BK2, but on my BK7 for instance I wrap it with hockey stick tape for better grip. So the only downside to the BK9 is the grip and the sheath. But you are getting an amazing blade that you save $50 on.

So as much as I love Becker and Ka-Bar, if you can afford it, go ahead and upgrade to an ESSE Junglas for twice the money. Depends if the scales are worth it to you or not. And the BK9 is only .188 thick I believe, not 1/4 inch.

This is not a battle of the blade as much as it is the handles.

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Bushman5 said:
well, the BK9 is a wicked chopper, slicer, all round knife, with one hell of a warranty if need be. I beat the tar outta mine and never lets me down

Ontario.......not so much ......cracked and tried to warranty mine........... waste of time.
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:thumbup:

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I love my BK9. It's the only chopper I own now.
 
kage said:
I'm considering an all around camp knife. I want something that I can chop with and still do fine work with too. All this talk around here lately of choppers has got my curiosity up and now I'm considering getting another.
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I brought an ESEE-6 and an Izula to a weekend Primitive Skills class. The only blade I used the entire weekend was the ESEE-6. It was great for batoning logs into more managable pieces, and worked well when time came to carve those managable pieces into a bowdrill set.

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If I were to go bigger, it would be a JUNGLAS from ESEE. Like another said:

This is not a battle of the blade as much as it is the handles.
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franchisekid said:
I was also looking at the RD9 in 5160 but decided the 5160 was not the steel for me. I have used more than a couple steels in my day and I just keep coming back to 1095 (if properly done). It is just so affordable and durable. I have the utmost confidence in 1095 steel. I think I would go with the BK9 over all unless you want to go with something like the Rtak II which is perhaps my favorite large blade knife. I have two Ka-Bar Large Heavy Bowies and have beaten the snot out of them. For around $45 you get a very high value knife. The Rtak II, although $100, is just a supreme knife in almost every way. I have not used the BK9 but would guess by looking at the make up that it would be on par with the Rtak II in terms of heft, etc. I know the 5160 is a great tough steel, but I wonder if it is just too hard for those hard use tasks?
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You do know that 5160 is spring steel, right. 5160 is considerably tougher that 1095 crovan. The crovan will have the advantage in abrassion resistance, but will not match 5160 for toughness. Assuming the heat treat is good on both. I just reviewed the SP50 in the review section. I think it's tougher than my BK9. It's made from .25" 5160, same as the RD line. The BK9 excells in other ways, much more than a sharpened prybar. The BK9 makes a pretty decent 9" chef's knife.. Either will serve you well if you use the knife responsibly, and niether should ever break or fail.. Ontario is following the heat treat protocol that Justin uses and is hitting it on the head. If you can handle the knives before purchase, that would be best. The BK has a larger handle than the RD, and is contoured. I think the BK beats the RD for comfort, but I think the RD is tougher.. Old old old. oops
 
I have an older Camillus BK9,and it is my go to chopper.I'm pretty sure it's made from 01760(something like that),which I read was the same as Carbon V.It's .210" thick as opposed to .188".I love the hell out of that knife,it's chopped alot of wood!
 
I just did kitchen duty with the bush RD9, and it did itself proud. I minced onions and chopped celery and it was at least as good as my professional chef knife, maybe a bit better. I sliced chicken breasts up for our wolves and sparked my ferro rod, and chopped and batoned dry oak firewood. it still has a good working edge. It won't shave but it's close. The heat treat is good as is the steel. This is now my camping blade and I highly recommend it...Jim
 
Hey guys, I'm the original poster (from last February). Suggestions are always still welcome for those who are doing research on their next chopper.

Of the knives I originally listed I decided the BK-9 was the one that most appealed to me. I decided to hold off purchasing it to see more about the Junglee. Obviously this is considerably more expensive than the BK-9, but it would be my preference over the BK-9. While waiting on reviews for the Junglee my funds kept being redirected towards other endeavors, so I still haven't purchased either one of those knives. Both of them are on my short list.

On a slightly different note, I received a Condor Golok and sheath for Christmas today. Can't wait to put it through its paces.

Thanks again for everyone's kind suggestions!
 
With that golok, i think your chopping needs are filled. Please let us know what you think of it, and how it performs..
 
Say Heah Guys, yup I have both the Ranger RD9, and the BK9, the 5160 is a Flat Grind with a choil, the 1095 CroVan, you have to say CroVan, I like my BK9 better, because I think the Saber Grind chops more like a axe, and the Flat Grind is more like machete, my RD9 has a pretty thin edge and it slices pretty good, it does bite deep, I use it with my Ranger Afghan and mostly for just going out for a hot cup of coffee on the open fire and a baked potato, some scouting especially for fatwood, I do like my BK9, BK10 combo better, but when I'm going to process alot of wood, my Gen2 SP-53 is hard to beat, even with the BK9.
 
Of all the knives I've tried and what I've read and seen from others, the BK9 and BK4 are probably the best large chopping knives for under $100. To beat it, as far as I know, you have to go larger. Now I haven't tried the latter RTAK II's, had an older one with the heavier handle so the balance sucked and it didn't chop as well as it should have. I've thought about buying a new one but I'd want a kydex sheath for it and by that point it's not that much cheaper than the Esse Junglas which already comes with kydex.

I'm not expert on blade steels but from what I've read I don't think there's a huge difference between the two. I know that the 1095crovan Ka-Bar uses for the Becker knives is great stuff.
 
kage said:
I want something that I can chop with and still do fine work with too. A
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The Becker BK 4 is a kukiri shaped chopper the same length as the BK 9
But is is angled so it swings very fast

The beginning of the blade is quite narrow so you can choke up right to the narrow part of the blade and do surprisingly fine work

 
It's not well known, but I bought a Condor Mountain Camp Knife on clearance a couple years ago, I'used it to chop and baton firewood, a fallen tree in the middle of the road (along with my saw), limbs across trails at my parents property, etc. It rides in my car most of the time and is strapped onto my pack when I go hiking, even for a day hike, I have complete faith in that knife to do whatever I need it to do.
The two downsides to the knife are the sheath, which is well made, but the belt hanger attaches to the sheath with a rivet that swings and pivots right at the fulcrum, so the knife constantly flips over while walking if wearing it on the belt. The second drawback is the backside of the blade is sharpened on the first couple of inches, which I ground down with a file.
It's pretty cheap, I paid $17 on sale, usually it runs $27-35 depending on the blade length. Despite the drawbacks, I would definitely buy another.
 
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