What appeals to you about a kephart blade shape?

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Smithhammer said:
Any version of the Kephart that adheres to the original design does have a guard to it - it's not a huge guard (which might interfere with other tasks), but it's certainly enough of one that your hand is not going to slip past it on the the blade with you knowing it, even in slippery conditions. A so-called "Kephart" that doesn't have this is a Kephart in name only.


iu
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For sure, I know most kepharts have some form of a guard. I'd prefer a little more like Sam Wilson's design, but I'll take any amount of guard over no guard. I wasn't specifically targeting kepharts as having no guard, more so musing on my experience and speaking out loud.
 
Sam Wilson said:
The integral guard on the original design is usually sufficient, but I personally prefer a little more significant guard/protection there for the reason Shinyedges mentioned. Once covered in mud/blood/whatever, I don't want any possibility of my fingers needing to get rewired by a team of surgeons.

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Sam⚔️⚔️
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I quite like this design, Sam.
 
shinyedges said:
For sure, I know most kepharts have some form of a guard. I'd prefer a little more like Sam Wilson's design, but I'll take any amount of guard over no guard. I wasn't specifically targeting kepharts as having no guard, more so musing on my experience and speaking out loud.
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Yup. And my comment wasn't just responding to your thoughts (which I agree with), I was also just addressing in general some of the knives I see that are called "Kephart" but deviate significantly from the original design.
 
NapalmCheese said:
A Kephart woudn't be my first kitchen knife choice... Kitchen knives are kitchen knives because they do kitchen knife things well. The Kephart his not a kitchen knife. It's an outdoors allrounder.

So unless your kitchen duties revolve around cooking over a campfire after gutting a deer, I would not expect the Kephart to perform great in the kitchen.
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Well, I do process a lot of meat, but also, I just prefer to bond with, and enjoy using my knives more.. Right now I rotate the Aurora2 and the Tundra and I love them. The appleseed/convex grind negates somewhat the problems caused by the thickness of the blades, so I still think the Kephart will be awesome.

My only remaining use for a Victorinox chef's knife is slicing large watermelons. I still use a couple of spyderco z-cuts, but I like the sturdy, ergonomic and more handsome Barkies more.
 
Smithhammer said:
I guess I didn't get the memo - mine works just fine in the kitchen for basic tasks. It may not perform like a custom Nikiri, but it gets the job done, and better than some other options. I don't know why a knife would only work in camp kitchens, and not in the kitchen at home.
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Does it perform GREAT in the kitchen? Because what I said was "I would not expect the Kephart to perform great in the kitchen.".

I've used it in the kitchen. It does NOT perform great. Which is why it's not in my knife block and a 10 inch Sabatier is.

I do have a spear point petty that is not at all dissimilar from a Kephart, but it is smaller and much thinner make it a great petty.
 
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I just got back from a week long motorcycle tent camping trip out in the boonies. I brought my Becker Kephart as my only fixed blade, I had to pack real light. It's an amazing knife, I really like the Kephart design. It rode on my hip in it's sheath up and down all kinds of crazy dirt, gravel, and sand terrain on my dual sport. It was also my kitchen knife for preparing meals. It was a new knife when I brought it out, so it still has the original edge. It worked good for cutting up potatoes, onions, cheese, turkey breast, steak and the like. It doesn't cut fruit and veggies as well as a Victorinox/Opinel kitchen knife or the like due to it's thickness, however it works very good as an all around outdoors/camp cook/bushcraft knife. The belly on the spear point works very well for initiating the cut on tomatoes and other veggies. I was impressed that it didn't smoosh the tomatoes, and I was able to cut thin, clean slices.
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Well, heck, I just ordered a Kephart from Kabar just to see what all the fuss is about. 1095 CroVan/Carbon V/0170-6/50100-B is one of my favorite steels, and it looks like it just might come in handy in the picnic kit, or for assaulting watermelons.
 
Oddly enough, I think I've cut more cakes with my Ka-Bar Becker Kephart that I have with any other knife (I hate the idea of my super thing Japanese kitchen knife edges making contact with ceramic plates). So I can tell you that it is an excellent cake cutter!

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Carothers Kephart here
Love the design. I find the edge to be very predictable of where it’s at when I’m doing tasks with it. I’ve broken down a few deer and completely processed them. I find larger knives handy for this but they need a really straight blade like a Kephart to know where the edge is when you can’t see it.

For around-camp use, it’s perfect!

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I like that the kephart shape, which is essentially a Spearpoint is a very user-friendly blade profile, the nessmuk knife is a sort of stubby modified upswept skinner shape, it's like taking a green river skinner and widening the knife and shortening it some, not really interested in the nessmuk design
 
The Kephart, to me, is a sleeper knife. It's understated visually, but really comes alive in use. Good balance, good cutting geometry, feels good in use, for my needs its hard to fault. I have two of them, a BK62, and one I made slightly smaller from 80CrV2 and Mango. When I'm not sure what knife I want to bring to the woods it's what I'll reach for, because it's hardly ever the wrong answer.IMG_20230727_115644_HDR_1.jpg
 
redsquid2 as a good user knife on the exchange right now, good useful tool, solid Knife.
 
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