very soon to be bk9 owner and i'm wondering what to do about the handle.

S

stunt man hans

Joined
Feb 3, 2011
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hey yall i have on order a complete camping setup coming my way and contained there in is a new becker bk9 combat bowie. lol originally i just wanted the knife due to watching like 5 western movies in the last 48 hours god damn amc! so this sparked something from my childhood about large bowie knives i guess so here i am. i have been cruising around the forum for about 3 days reading all the reviews and the bk9 seems to be a bad ass piece of knife, but almost everyone says the handle is kinda slick right out of the box. lol its going to be my luck trying to wear this giant bowie knife on my hip in the only socially exceptable place far in the woods that it will slip out of my mits and stick in my foot or something. i really want to retain the factory handles and i'm not skilled enough to attempt to make micarta handles so i was wondering what my options where for redoing the handles basically to add some better functionally and possibly safety to it. i had seen one guy wrap the knife in black paracord and that looks good to me but i have no idea on where to begin with that one any advice would be much appreciated. sorry for the wall of text lol.
 
oh and was this a good choice for a working knife/ beater/ survival knife? as a kid i liked big knives an stuff, but now i'm 32 and i would not know a good woods knife if was stabbing me. thanks
 
Cool. Another first time poster in the Becker forum. Welcome to Bladeforums, stunt man has!

First, I'd advise trying the handles in some real world chores before you modify. Lots of folks like them just fine as is. If you decide you want to modify, here are a few things people have done.

1. Just roll some bike inner tube over the handle. Takes a bit of stretching and tugging, so do it with the knife in the sheath.
2. Sand blast. If you have a friend with a sand blaster, you can put a little more texture on the scales. An auto shop might do it for you for a fee.
3. Stipple. Some folks have simply taken a soldering iron and stippled the scales to taste. Those mods look pretty cool, and I may try it with a set of grivories myself.

Also keep in mind that, for about $40, you can purchase after-market micarta scales made by Ka-Bar.

Post up some pics when your gear arrives!
 
stunt man hans said:
oh and was this a good choice for a working knife/ beater/ survival knife? as a kid i liked big knives an stuff, but now i'm 32 and i would not know a good woods knife if was stabbing me. thanks
Click to expand...

Kind of depends on what you mean by survival knife. Some folks automatically think of a medium-sized, thicker 6" to 7" blade. There the BK-7 is a fine choice. If you go over to the Wilderness forum here, you'll find that tastes run much smaller for a "bushcraft" knife, and a lot of folks will be recommending thinner blades in the 4" range. Actually, the BK-2 is a nice mix of those two concepts.

ETA: I just remembered that I've also seen folks wrap knife scales in hockey tape. That too might be a quick fix if you want a little more swell and texture on the grivories.
 
Very Good Choice. You might want to give the stock handles a try. They're actually pretty comfortable. (JMHO) Definately put a lanyard on it. Better to have the knife hanging off yor wrist than sticking out of your leg :eek:

If you don't like the stock handles check out Tomars has some for aftermarket.


And welcome to the sickness - Hang onto your wallet !
 
cool thanks guys. i saw the stipple thing and that looks decent. i did not know that ka bar sold micartas handles for the becker knives lol do they come in black? also the para cord thing the guy posted the picture on amazon of his bk9 and it looks like pretty sweet. now i just have to decide which way to go.
 
stunt man hans said:
i did not know that ka bar sold micartas handles for the becker knives lol do they come in black?
Click to expand...

You can actually dye micarta. I've seen several of the ESEE scales dyed black. :thumbup:
 
OR ... you could do something like this.

My dad told there's two times when it's ok to brag: When you're trying to get laid or paid. Now I'm adding a third ... showing off your knives. :D


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Guyon said:
Cool.

1. Just roll some bike inner tube over the handle. Takes a bit of stretching and tugging, so do it with the knife in the sheath.
Click to expand...

That's what I did and it works great for better grip, can hardly tell it's on and if you don't like it, it's easy to reverse. :thumbup:

bk2-1-small.jpg
 
Great thread!! I just ordered a BK9 2 days ago. Kinda thought the handle looked a bit slick, probably even worse when your palms get a bit sweaty
 
Is there a place that offers the stock plastic handles? I would like to try a couple of different mods on some spares.
 
Just the stock scales with liners and a soldering iron stipple job.
The BK9's are yellow micarta.
 
Nice job! Did you use different fasterners on the backside of the micarta? Or did you chisel out the hex shape for a nut?
 
Used regular nuts and the closest drill bit I had, then used the screws to draw the nuts into the micarta. They aren't removable.
 
Welcome to the Becker forum and Bladeforums, Stunt Man Hans, glad you're here.

I have micarta on my BK9 mostly to absorb shock, and not for grip. The grivory handle actually has a good amount of grip. I suggest take it for a spin first and see what you think. A few years ago, some hulks took turns dipping the grivory in transmission fluid and repeatedly stabbing it in a tree. No gloves, no sense, but, they didn't have any problems. My BK2 wears grivory, I think it helps with hot spots in my hands when I'm working with it for periods of time.

Stick around, we got some good stuff here, once again, welcome.

Moose
 
I noticed that nobody has mentioned anything about the handle screws yet so I figured I'd mention it. I don't know if the "problem", if you want to call it that, has been fixed or not. There is nothing technically wrong but sometimes they aren't overly tight from the factory. I believe they take a 5/32 allen/hex key. If you can, keep one of those with you and that way if you give the knife a hard way to go and the screws get really loose, you can just tighten them back up and you're good to go. Another option that people seem to use a lot is to use some loctite on the screws. I think you'll really like your BK9. Enjoy and keep us posted on what you think! :)

jc
 
Go with the micarta grips, but there are a few that like the handles stock....

Welcome to the forum....
 
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