why is the bk4 so angle-ey? and do i really need a 9?

J

JoberSeven

Joined
Oct 5, 2013
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302
1st, i apologize if this has been asked too often. 2nd, i understand the blade forward of knuckles idea. and it makes lots of sense. but isn't the bk4 a little extreme? i've never used one, so i don't know. tell me. is it as awkward as it looks?

3rd, i've read that i need a 9. but do i need a clip point on a really big knife? i feel like a drop point would be better. not sure why, i just do. convince me otherwise.
 
I dont have a 9 but its really big wicked looking and its sharp. wouldn't you want to journey with a proper sword-esk object?
 
I have a BK4 so I can speak from experience. It's not at all awkward or clumsy to work with. It takes about five minutes to get used to it but after that its a chopping animal like you've never seen. I've always been a forward curve design fan but the BK4 takes the cake. For a ~9" blade, it chops like a 13" and handles like a 7". It doesn't fatigue your hands and wrists like similarly sized knives do when doing fine detail work either.

I can't speak for the 9 because I don't own one, but the BK4 is work every penny it sells for and every ounce in your pack. If the BK2 is the ultimate medium knife, then the BK4 is the ultimate large knife. It's versatile, unique, nimble, aggressive, and ITS A BECKER.


I love how many different ways it can be held too.
Chop with it like a machete or hatchet,
Carve like you would a smaller knife using the blade near the handle,
Drag cut towards yourself o make thin shavings with the recurve (like the Tracker guys do with the quarter-round),
Use it as a draw knife,
And also I've found that if you grip the end of the blade by the spine, the swell at the end makes a great improvised ulu.



Buy one and love it!
 
JoberSeven said:
3rd, i've read that i need a 9. but do i need a clip point on a really big knife? i feel like a drop point would be better. not sure why, i just do. convince me otherwise.
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I haven't had any issue with the tip on mine and I use the crap out of that thing. You need a 9 not just for chopping (though it is stupid-good at that compared to a lot of knives that size) but because the 9 works really well at most chores in the woods. On my last camp out my buddy forgot a spatula so I made one with the BK9. I batoned a log to get a board and then roughed out the shape. My Mora did most of the finish work but I could have done it with the 9, just not as easily. For the heck of it I made some tongs and a large two-tined fork. My buddy kept all of them so now he has dedicated camp cooking utensils. Not great ones but functional as well as having a good backstory. I've also use it to make feather sticks and played around whittling with it just to see how it would do and it handles very well for such a large blade.
 
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The angle-y thing on the 4 is mainly about leverage. The physics involved are beyond my ability to explain fully, but such a radical cant allows for a lot more power than you would get from the same size/weight blade if it was straight. See also, khukri/khukuri knives.

As for the clip on the 9, it allows for better penetration without sacrificing hardly any strength. Personally I'm not a huge fan of clip points/swedges on big knives unless they're fully sharpened for back-cuts (because back-cuts are awesome!!), but I don't think it hurts anything, either.
 
The bk4 is a great woods bumming knife.
I really like how small it feels for a good size knife.
 
I'm not a fan of my 4 . But I'm stuck with it. So one day I'll just have to go out and actually use it in the bush
 
i love how enthusiastic you guys are. I've got some other kit that's a higher priority, but i think a 9 has made the list. maybe a 4 too.
 
JoberSeven said:
i love how enthusiastic you guys are. I've got some other kit that's a higher priority, but i think a 9 has made the list. maybe a 4 too.
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Lots of people ask about the BK9 and they get talked into trying one (usually they've already decided they want one so it doesn't take much pushing). Every time I've read a thread like that the OP comes back and raves about how amazed they are with the knife. The BK9 is probably the most versatile woods tool out there.
 
I didn't like my 4 at all...and then I took it in the woods and found out why its made the way it is :) Now it's one of my most prized woods tools. Combine it with a SAK or Mora and there's nothing you cant handle.
 
I have the 9 and the 4. The 4 is my go-to woods knife. It is smaller/lighter than the 9 and just feels very natural in my hand for wood processing and/or camp chores. The curviness of it is strange, and kind of a pain when it's time to sharpen, but once the blade is in your hand it just all makes sense.

I tend to use the 9 most for large kitchen chores, ie, slicing squash or melons.
 
It takes a little getting used to at first, but after that it chops like a beast!

Ethan could have put any angle he wanted on that bad boy and he chose that particular angle cause it's the best power to weight ratio imaginable!!!

(I'm totally just making that last part up, but it sounds legit!! Right?) :D
 
Pardon mua my ignorance, is it the BK4 a machete or a complete different thing?
 
Zaper said:
Pardon mua my ignorance, is it the BK4 a machete or a complete different thing?
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It is the Machax, because it has some machete like properties and chops like an axe. I was a little disappointed when I first got mine, because I thought the blade would be bigger...but now that I've used it a little, I really like it. This, and I've had my 9 almost a year now. The 4 really hits hard, and it's not quite as heavy as the 9. It also behaves like a much smaller knife towards the handle, and offers quite a bit more finesse than one might expect from a knife that size. I'm still trying to thin out the edge at the handle, and it is a little bit of a pain to sharpen, but overall I'm diggin' it and it's already strapped to my Condor pack in hopes that I'll be able to take a couple of short hikes real soon. I'm not giving up my 9, mind you, I'm just looking forward to enjoying the 4 as much.
 
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