Thoughts on Ka Bar Short?

K

knifedaddy84

Joined
Oct 8, 2002
Messages
339
I'm thinking of making the Ka bar short (leather handle/partially serrated) my all around hunting/woodsman knife. The short is the right price for me (easily replaceable) and I like the nostalgia factor. I do like the full-size Ka-bar but think it's really too unnecessarily big. Yet the short seems a bit small, especially if I ever need to use it while wearing heavy gloves and cold hands (I'll also have a folder).

What do you think?
 
have you looked at the Pilot's Survival Knife? It's made by the same people with s few small differences but IMO, aside from the untreated leather, a better knife than the short.
 
I checked out the short Kabar with the kraton handle. The blade length was OK, but the handle was much smaller in girth than the stacked leather handle on the full-size Kabar - too small for me, and I have fairly small hands. I have been thinking about the full-size Kabar with the kraton handle, but I don't know if the difference in girth of the handle that I saw was because it was the short Kabar or because it was the kraton handle. Has anyone else checked out the full-size Kabar with the kraton handle? Is the handle the same size (girth)as the stacked leather handle on the full-size Kabar?
 
I find the smaller Ka-Bars are a little too small as well. It seems like they just scaled down the original version for kids. I think they would have been better off to just keep everything the same but just shorten the blade by an inch or so.

I also like the short recurve Ka-Bar blade. I wouldn't mind seeing that with a leather handle and a little bigger as well.
 
It doesn't have the nostalgia factor, but for similar size and performance take a look at the SOG X-42 Field Knife with 5-3/8" BG-42 blade. It may cost twice as much, but it is twice the knife of the Kabar. Russell lists them around $90 and other web retailers may offer a bit lower price.

http://www.agrussell.com/sog/sog-bgh93.html
 
Sepcat expressed it much better than I. They should have just shortened the blade to 5.5". Instead they downsized the whole knife.
 
You're right, the issue really is girth of the handle. I have the Ka- Bar Warthog, and the kraton handle is perfect, as is the blade length, but it's awful wide. Good camp tool, but carrying it around other hunters are apt to say, "What the heck is that?" Though maybe that's a good thing.
 
Say Jeff, or anyone else, does the SOG X-42 Field Knife with 5-3/8" BG-42 blade have the larger girth than the ka-bar that I'm looking for? I'll pay the money if it's sized right.
 
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