SP50: an awesome large knife

Revolverrodger

Revolverrodger

Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
3,876
I have been using this knife for several years and I was surprised to see how the 5160 stayed quite sharp for a long time. It's an excellent knife for chopping and battoning... Even better than many more expensive knives. It is pretty good at doing the smaller tasks but you have to be careful with the small choil.
I highly recommend it

 
Yes the OKC 5160 blades are my heavily absurd use knives.

I use the SP-51 for batoning and such and wood whacking and hacking. But its been sunseted, and gone from the market unless you find one on the secondary market. Glad I got 4 when I did! :D I find the straight blade is better/easier for me to baton with.

The other good wood batoner that is FFG that probably performs like the SP-50 is the Ranger RD 9 with a good heavy hilt! Its choil makes it a good all round woodsy blade if a bit top heavy. It was retired a while ago but a few places still has them. I carry it when I take one or two blades for some thing lighter.

The best chopper I found is the SP-53, I use mine for heavy wood whacking and batoning as well. The re curve I'm still learning to sharpen properly so I use the SP-51 for most common tasks.

For a good still in production knife that is a SP-50 with a full tang, the OKC Woodsman also has a choil. 90 degree corners, I put some tape on the handle to reduce slipperiness.
 
The woodsman is a pretty good knife also
I will take it out next time

Roguer said:
Yes the OKC 5160 blades are my heavily absurd use knives.

I use the SP-51 for batoning and such and wood whacking and hacking. But its been sunseted, and gone from the market unless you find one on the secondary market. Glad I got 4 when I did! :D I find the straight blade is better/easier for me to baton with.

The other good wood batoner that is FFG that probably performs like the SP-50 is the Ranger RD 9 with a good heavy hilt! Its choil makes it a good all round woodsy blade if a bit top heavy. It was retired a while ago but a few places still has them. I carry it when I take one or two blades for some thing lighter.

The best chopper I found is the SP-53, I use mine for heavy wood whacking and batoning as well. The re curve I'm still learning to sharpen properly so I use the SP-51 for most common tasks.

For a good still in production knife that is a SP-50 with a full tang, the OKC Woodsman also has a choil. 90 degree corners, I put some tape on the handle to reduce slipperiness.
Click to expand...
 
By choosing to make your text black instead of letting the forum designate a color (normally black by default), many can not read your post, myself being one of them.

I use the FA+ Dark setting, and your text stays black against the black background. In an excercise in curiosity, I attempted to highlight some of the words, if there were any.
Boom, some words popped up.

In all honesty, I didn't read your thread. Primarily due to not wanting to need to highlight the whole thing.
----
I am not expecting you to change your posting methods, just trying to give you a heads up about missing some potential input by one, or more, folks.
 
The Ontario series hardly ever get mentioned among large knives, the -in my view- inferior (and usually heat twisted with an un-centered edge) BK-9 getting all the limelight. Yet the BK-9 is 3/16" stock and 9.5", while the Ontarios are dead-straight, with a centered grind and made of full 1/4" stock, often with 10" blades that leave everything else in the dust. The SP-50, SP-52 and SP-53, especially, are just superior knives, leaving behind knives 10 X more expensive like the Fallkniven Thor...

They are like Busses on a budget, but with acceptable sheaths and a more shock-absorbing handle (just carve off the handle's hooked end to a more rounded shape with an X-acto blade, and the ergonomics become superior...)

Plus the 1095 of BK-9s is certainly not immune to breakage... Edge holding wise, I never noticed a large difference.

Gaston
 
I had an SP50 several years ago when it first came out. It has good geometry but I found that the edge rolled when chopping. I no longer chop with a knife as an axe is far superior. For medium sized stuff I like using a Himalayan Imports khukuri.
 
NJBillK said:
By choosing to make your text black instead of letting the forum designate a color (normally black by default), many can not read your post, myself being one of them.

I use the FA+ Dark setting, and your text stays black against the black background. In an excercise in curiosity, I attempted to highlight some of the words, if there were any.
Boom, some words popped up.

In all honesty, I didn't read your thread. Primarily due to not wanting to need to highlight the whole thing.
----
I am not expecting you to change your posting methods, just trying to give you a heads up about missing some potential input by one, or more, folks.
Click to expand...
The font is also a different type than default. I've found that happen here when copy/pasting text from a different forum.
 
Gaston444 said:
The Ontario series hardly ever get mentioned among large knives, the -in my view- inferior (and usually heat twisted with an un-centered edge) BK-9 getting all the limelight. Yet the BK-9 is 3/16" stock and 9.5", while the Ontarios are dead-straight, with a centered grind and made of full 1/4" stock, often with 10" blades that leave everything else in the dust. The SP-50, SP-52 and SP-53, especially, are just superior knives, leaving behind knives 10 X more expensive like the Fallkniven Thor...

They are like Busses on a budget, but with acceptable sheaths and a more shock-absorbing handle (just carve off the handle's hooked end to a more rounded shape with an X-acto blade, and the ergonomics become superior...)

Plus the 1095 of BK-9s is certainly not immune to breakage... Edge holding wise, I never noticed a large difference.

Gaston
Click to expand...

Gaston,
Since you are saying that this is "usual" for the BK9, I am sure you can provide us with a few links of people detailing these issues.

You Can back up your claims, right?

Oh yea, I forgot that you are incapable of doing so. Numerous times of being called out by Many members here have proven that to be the case.

And yes, if you want me to supply you with links, I can do so.


**edited for grammatical reasonings.
 
Last edited:
I have been wanting to try out an Ontario in 5160.

The SP50 does look like an awesome big knife.
I have a SP5 and SP10 and they are very nice knives, especially for the price.

It is surprising that Ontario doesn’t get much love here as they have a knife for just about every use and most are pretty affordable.
 
NJBillK said:
Gaston,
Since you are saying that this is "usual" for the BK9, I am sure you can provide us with a few links of people detailing these issues.

You Can back up your claims, right?

Oh yea, I forgot that you are incapable of doing so. Numerous times of being called out by Many members here have proven that to be the case.

And yes, if you want me to supply you with links, I can do so.


**edited for grammatical reasonings.
Click to expand...

Well how about this at #6 post?:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bent-my-bk9-how-do-i-fix.704160/

"Wow:eek: My new one was more bent than your used one. Getting mine replaced."



And how about this from a (Russian?) dude in the comment section of this video:

https://ruclip.com/video/CL2XxWyVfGM/how-to-straighten-warped-blades-after-heat-treat.html

Babak P 2 года назад
Thank you for this video! I wanted to ask you a question about a kabar becker bk-9! Unfortunately most of them from
The factory come a bit bent! I contacted them and they said that it was the roller stamping process that bends them! They are now using laser for the logo but that still hasn't solved the issue! They have very minimal quality control, specially for the Becker knives!At any rate I got one that is not too bad! Would you recommend this technic on a factory tempered blade? Can I heat up the spine a bit and try to reverse bend it a bit? Thank you again for the video!


Or this post #35:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ka-bar-becker-quality-control-issues.618931/page-2


Jeff S1
1,135
May 18, 2008
My BK9 arrives yesterday. Nice knife, however, blade is slightly curved to the left and the scales looked as if a blind chimp lined them up. I reset the scales and am good to go. The bend to the left should not be a problem as this is a field knife. All my knives see use for hunting or camping. No safe queens allowed.


Same thread: I talked to Linda up at KA BAR a few moths ago; Linda told me that KA BAR scraps any seconds, they will not sell them to anyone.



So is that clear? No seconds!


And how about this thread for a BK-5 which was warped, he sent it back for a replacement and got ANOTHER curved one?

https://bladeforums.com/threads/first-issue-with-becker-qc-what-to-do.1435166/page-2

CoolBreeze135
243
Oct 23, 2014
Replacement arrived today. Was home for my lunch break and got to check it out. Unfortunately, it appears to have some of the same issues. The bend is sligtly lessened to the naked eye on the replacement, but that may just be because the swedge is unevenly ground in a different way.

Did I get unlucky twice, or is there just something about this design/manufacturing process combination. I would expect that a full swedge, trailing point, 8'' knife could be tricky to get perfect.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Follows then a hilarious discussion where all sorts of excuses are brought up such as factory seconds and a dealer conspiracy to intentionally sell those mysterious non-existent seconds...

This took all of ten minutes. I could do more research, but perhaps I have wasted enough of my time?

Let's see pictures of an obviously straight one... That would be a sight to see.

Gaston

 
I dunno, my BK5 is straight as an arrow.
2017-11-23 20.05.16.jpg 2017-11-23 20.05.47.jpg

One big thing you may have noticed in those threads. Ethan Becker himself often posts his personal phone number for folks with issues to call him directly and chat, square away any issues, and make sure they are content.

If this alone doesn't sell someone on Becker, I don't know what would...
Can you name someone from Ontario that has contacted a customer through anything other than Email?
Has one person from Ontario stepped up and handed out a personal phone number make sure that ancustomer is taken care of?

This means Much more to me than a slightly thicker blade.
 
Gaston444 said:
Well how about this at #6 post?:



Gaston
Click to expand...

How about this for Ontario Knives?

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ontario-kukri-uneven-blade-grind.1263069/

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/onterio-spec-plus-knives.438835/

There are bad grinds on some Ontario Knives.
Some Beckers have off grinds.
Big deal.

My Becker BK7 has a pretty much perfect grind, but my pictures of it show it being used, rather than taking a boring picture of how straight it is.

If I get super bored after my current lab technician contract runs out, maybe I'll take a boring picture of how straight it is.
But I'll have to be pretty bored to bother doing that. :D
 
The Ontario knives are great. I've got a few and a sneaking suspicion that I have the recently discontinued LSA under the tree;)

Very good affordable knives that really take a licking.
 
Gaston I also own a few beckers and never had an issue with quality
My old stamped bk9 broke when I was chopping at -20oC and the warranty gave me a new one
Great service

Gaston444 said:
Well how about this at #6 post?:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bent-my-bk9-how-do-i-fix.704160/

"Wow:eek: My new one was more bent than your used one. Getting mine replaced."



And how about this from a (Russian?) dude in the comment section of this video:

https://ruclip.com/video/CL2XxWyVfGM/how-to-straighten-warped-blades-after-heat-treat.html

Babak P 2 года назад
Thank you for this video! I wanted to ask you a question about a kabar becker bk-9! Unfortunately most of them from
The factory come a bit bent! I contacted them and they said that it was the roller stamping process that bends them! They are now using laser for the logo but that still hasn't solved the issue! They have very minimal quality control, specially for the Becker knives!At any rate I got one that is not too bad! Would you recommend this technic on a factory tempered blade? Can I heat up the spine a bit and try to reverse bend it a bit? Thank you again for the video!


Or this post #35:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ka-bar-becker-quality-control-issues.618931/page-2


Jeff S1
1,135
May 18, 2008
My BK9 arrives yesterday. Nice knife, however, blade is slightly curved to the left and the scales looked as if a blind chimp lined them up. I reset the scales and am good to go. The bend to the left should not be a problem as this is a field knife. All my knives see use for hunting or camping. No safe queens allowed.


Same thread: I talked to Linda up at KA BAR a few moths ago; Linda told me that KA BAR scraps any seconds, they will not sell them to anyone.



So is that clear? No seconds!


And how about this thread for a BK-5 which was warped, he sent it back for a replacement and got ANOTHER curved one?

https://bladeforums.com/threads/first-issue-with-becker-qc-what-to-do.1435166/page-2

CoolBreeze135
243
Oct 23, 2014
Replacement arrived today. Was home for my lunch break and got to check it out. Unfortunately, it appears to have some of the same issues. The bend is sligtly lessened to the naked eye on the replacement, but that may just be because the swedge is unevenly ground in a different way.

Did I get unlucky twice, or is there just something about this design/manufacturing process combination. I would expect that a full swedge, trailing point, 8'' knife could be tricky to get perfect.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Follows then a hilarious discussion where all sorts of excuses are brought up such as factory seconds and a dealer conspiracy to intentionally sell those mysterious non-existent seconds...

This took all of ten minutes. I could do more research, but perhaps I have wasted enough of my time?

Let's see pictures of an obviously straight one... That would be a sight to see.

Gaston
Click to expand...
 
NJBillK said:
I dunno, my BK5 is straight as an arrow.
View attachment 813960 View attachment 813961

One big thing you may have noticed in those threads. Ethan Becker himself often posts his personal phone number for folks with issues to call him directly and chat, square away any issues, and make sure they are content.

If this alone doesn't sell someone on Becker, I don't know what would...
Can you name someone from Ontario that has contacted a customer through anything other than Email?
Has one person from Ontario stepped up and handed out a personal phone number make sure that ancustomer is taken care of?

This means Much more to me than a slightly thicker blade.
Click to expand...


Could be the lens, but it certainly doesn't look straight on screen...

I was talking mostly about the longer models, as I don't doubt even Becker has made a few straight skinners...

Suffice it to say, I have more than backed up the notion Becker considers curved blades perfectly acceptable as firsts...

I have a $39 Chinese knife that is larger than a BK-9, and with far more complicated grinds, and it is dead straight, with the edge centered to the spine, consistent in thickness, and also aligned to the spine. I think Becker could figure out a way to match low-end Chinese workmanship.

Gaston
 
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