You know what would be awesome? A BladeForums Special Edition Becker BK16.

Bring on the D2 Love

black titanium nitride coating would work - maybe make up some prototypes and show us some pics


black micarta with red liners ?
 
I think the engraving/etching should be done on the tang towards the handle so it doesn't get messed up or look too obnoxious, seems to have bothered a lot of the first production bk16 buyers. Also not sure what steels are available but if price is somewhat reasonable I think Elmax would be a great choice. I own two fixed blades in the steel and I can't say enough good things about it. Another good steel that might not be so expensive is cpm 154. Regardless of which steel, if its stainless ill jump on it.
 
Y'know, a maker hasn't been selected for the 2012 BFC trad yet. Maybe KA-BAR could do a two-fer.
 
I've been looking into stainless steels a little bit today, and it sounds like elmax is pretty well regarded for the price. Same with 154CM, although I hear the S30v is pretty nice as well.

For carbon steels 3v and L6 sound kind of interesting. D2 would be interesting, but more ... boring?

Really comes down to the price point though.
 
I'm in for sure! Any of the steels metioned is fine with me. Stonewashed, or polished. Maybe colored(black or OD!) micarta, to differentiate it from the regular, tan Becker micarta? Either way, its gonna be awesome!
Also, I have to say I'm impressed with my fellow Becker fans! Everyone here seems excited & not too wrapped up in exactly which steel, handle material, etc. The thread for the special edition BF Skyline is crazy! Everybody want something different, i.e., "it has to be lightning strike carbon fiber, s90v, titanium frame lock, & under $50, or I'm not interested!" Haha, ok, maybe I'm exaggerrating a bit, but it is a bit nuts. I really like that everyone here is pretty much on the same page. Maybe its because we all know that its gonna be badass no matter what, & we're lucky to have the opportunity to get a special version at all, right? So, that being said, thanks, Spark, & Ka-Bar! You guys rule!
 
osodavis said:
I'm in for sure! Any of the steels metioned is fine with me. Stonewashed, or polished. Maybe colored(black or OD!) micarta, to differentiate it from the regular, tan Becker micarta? Either way, its gonna be awesome!
Also, I have to say I'm impressed with my fellow Becker fans! Everyone here seems excited & not too wrapped up in exactly which steel, handle material, etc. The thread for the special edition BF Skyline is crazy! Everybody want something different, i.e., "it has to be lightning strike carbon fiber, s90v, titanium frame lock, & under $50, or I'm not interested!" Haha, ok, maybe I'm exaggerrating a bit, but it is a bit nuts. I really like that everyone here is pretty much on the same page. Maybe its because we all know that its gonna be badass no matter what, & we're lucky to have the opportunity to get a special version at all, right? So, that being said, thanks, Spark, & Ka-Bar! You guys rule!
Click to expand...

Agreed, I checked out that other thread and it was a bit nuts.

I think part of the reason is that the Beckers are much more prone to modifications, and that everyone here will likely be interested no matter what. Then again, maybe its just because were used to getting it in "whatever color we want, as long as its black", so any choice seems pretty exciting :).

Although I WILL say that I was a bit taken aback by the price of the skyline. If the BF BK16 is that much more (in percentage) than the standard one, then I'll have to be out, simply because it would be more than my rent for the month, and as a student, thats not really something I can just skimp on.
 
Just waiting to hear back from KaBar :)
 
I will take it regardless of steel, but a stainless would be nice. My vote is D2, should keep it reasonable.
 
zuluninja said:
I will take it regardless of steel, but a stainless would be nice. My vote is D2, should keep it reasonable.
Click to expand...
Yep,
If it's just the steel /finish change with no other changes, the price should only be $100 or a bit less.
 
I only read about half of the posts. I would probably be in reguardless but would greatly prefer full height grind, micarta, no blade coating, small etching, any of the premium stainless (or D2) mentioned.
 
All right, bad news / good news time.

Here's the deal: I had a great talk with John from Ka-Bar and bounced some ideas off him.

Bad news first: Ka-Bar is tapped out on production at this time. Because of the explosive growth they've experienced in the last few years (due in no small part to social networking through sites like here, Facebook, Twitter and what have you) they've had to add a 2nd shift just to keep up with their current production schedule. At this point they are no longer looking at runs of 500 knives, but of 5000 knives and even then their production is scheduled about a year out.

The problem here is machine time. Any project like this would have to be shoehorned in. Steel has to be cut, blades ground, blades finished, handles machined, etc, and he just can't see getting it in there. So we went back and forth on the topic, and it was something like this (to paraphrase):

John: Well, our steel is already allocated to doing existing knives
Me: What if I can source steel that isn't allocated?
John: Yeah, but machine time is all spoken for
Me: Ok, fair enough, but if you are already running BK16s, it's just adding more to the schedule, just in a different steel
John: Yeah, but then we'd have to heat treat them and that time is all taken
Me: That's not a problem, there's plenty of people who can heat treat, we'll send them to Bos if we have to. We don't have to worry about taking up Epoxy powder coat time, because we're skipping that and going with Stonewash
John: But then there's laser engraving
Me: I'm getting a laser engraver in house at some point in the near future
John: ... (I can here the wheels turning) ... And you'd want them to have Micarta handles? Let me talk to my engineers on this...

The idea is germinating. I brought up a lot of great points about the existing market and what a knife like this would bring, compared to existing offerings in the same price range. We bounced a lot of things off each other. I have to say, I'm really impressed with him.

So, without a lot of noise or act of god or something, it may be 2013 before we see a D2 / S35V / what have you BK16

Now, that said, he did mention something that may interest you guys. Apparrently, Ka-Bar has a stock of BK7 blanks... from the Camillus Era of Becker Knife & Tool. Around 200 or so, and yeah, they are 0170-6C not 1095.

I told him that we're definitely interested in those, especially stonewashed with micarta handles. So, we're totally going to do some of those.

Hopefully John can work some magic and get the D2 / S35V / whatever BK16 worked into the schedule. Maybe if we make enough noise it'll happen sooner, but let's not be screaming dicks about it ;)
 
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