Ontario raider bowie. Went and bought it too

[sdt11670]

Well i went ahead and added the sp10 to my hard use knife collection and am very impressed with it for the money! Now my hard use knife list is as follows. Becker bk2,bk7,bk10,bk9 ontario sp10, kabar usmc, kabar short heavy bowie,cold steel oda,cold steel two handed machete, Large old carbon saber bowie (much bigger than sp10) an old india kukri and probably a couple more that havent come to mind at present. Out of them all it's hard to beat the beckers both for durability and economy as well as ease of carrying and they likely will continue to see the most use. I am interested in everyone else's favorites out of the ones i have and why it's your choice.

 

[frank k]

I preferred the 12” Ontario D guard camper machete to the BK9, CS LTC, Martindale Paratrooper and No. 2 Golok when I tried them side by side.


The BK9, LTC and Paratrooper worked very well but they were not as good as the 12” Ontario machete for brush clearing and chopping. I didn’t much like the No.2 Golok mainly because it sent a lot of vibration through the handle and generally mediocre performance (I liked a No.15 Martindale Machete which was cut down to similar length, much better).



So far, the closest competition to the 12” Ontario that I have found is the Ontario SP5 Bowie. The SP5 chops nearly as well as the 12” machete, is usable as a machete and is an excellent large camp knife. I have some reservations about the Spec Plus handles (Kraton secured to the tang by the brass thong hole liner/rivet), but I find them more comfortable than the Becker handles.





- Frank

 

[sdt11670]

Opposite opinions on the handles. I find the becker handles more comfortable in that they dont cause blisters and seem to fit my hand better.I do however count kraton as one of my favorite using knife handle materials in that they wont slip no matter how wet or bloody your hands get. The reason i love the bk9 so much is that it's basically straight allowing for a long decent chopper that rides on your belt without being overly bulky and snagging on everything you walk past and i like gaurds and since the beckers are engineered into the blade rather than being a seperate attachment it cant get loose from chopping. the bk9 is really just a big butcher knife with a thicker blade & thumb rest and fancier handle. maybe it's simplicity is the reason i like it so much And the same for the bk10 and also the blades are sharpened all the way down on the beckers so even though the bk9 has a shorter blade than the sp10 the sharpened portion is actually longer on the becker than the ontario same is true of the bk7 which has a shorter blade than my ka-bar short heavy bowie yet the bk7 has a longer sharpened portion.