Initial review: Ka-Bar BK16 short drop point knife

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Mr. Hill

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Santa brought me a Ka-Bar BK16 Short drop point knife for Christmas. On Christmas morning, I unwrapped it. I haven’t had a chance to take it to the mountains yet, but I’ll follow up with a field report later.

Th knife comes in a nice box with the sheath and extra tan handles. The handles are outstanding! They are the most ergonomic handles I’ve ever held. They are very well designed to provide a very good grip, even while holding the knife in different ways. I really like the handles. The zytel handles are smooth but still seem to provide plenty of grip surface and a bit of texture. I doubt that I’ll replace the grips with aftermarket micartas, but we’ll see how the field test goes.

The frame of the knife is impressively finished and coated with ka-bar’s finish/protectant. The frame is smooth and polished, with no sharp edges or rough spots, even under the handles. The grips don’t completely and perfectly mold to the top and bottom of the frame where the handles meet the frame, but the handle edges and the knife frame are so well contoured and smooth that I can’t feel any edges when I hold the knife. The handles really do mate with the frame that well! I like the coating: I can tell it has been very evenly applied to the blade and frame, and it should do a good job of protecting the cro-van steel from moisture and hand sweat.

But the blade....

I gave the knife blade a close look. Awesome shape - Ethan Becker must be a hunter, because this blade has a wonderful belly and a really cool and pointy drop point. The finish was evenly applied on the blade. The flat blade grind was even on each side of the blade, and the tip taper was even on both sides. There’s some nice jimping at the top of the blade. The top of the knife point is a tad rough. But back to that blade...

I knew something was wrong when I examined it closely. There were very small vertical serrations or ridges that ran from the top of the blade’s bevel to the bottom of the edge, and they ran along the entire length of each side of the blade. I’m no machinist, but they looked like ridges left by a dull cutter or chatter marks from a dull cutter (???). That didn’t look good, and I’d never seen such marks on a new or old knife blade.

My concerns were justified when I pressed my thumb to the blade. First a gentle push, then harder. It didn’t matter how hard I pushed, because the blade was dull. And by dull, I mean really dull. It wouldn’t cut paper, even stiff paper; heck, it barely tore through it. I mean the dangerous kind of dull, where the blade could slip right off the cutting surface and send the point of the blade right into your hand or gut or leg kind of dull. Super-dull.

So I’ve got little kids running up to me with gifts in boxes that need to be cut open to get the toys out. A perfect chance to use a new knife. But not with a brick-dull blade. I shook my head, put the knife back in the box, and went and got a cheap pair of old Chinese-made scissors from the utility drawer that were still semi-sharp. They were at least sharp enough to work. Hear that, Ka-Bar?

I soon realized that this wasn’t going to be a simple sharpening job to whip the BK16 into shape. It was like the bevel was barely cut, and those ridges all had to be knocked off and smoothed out before I could begin to get the blade sharp. It’s hard to explain and I’m certainly not a knife expert, but it was like I had to do the blade-bevel finishing myself. It took a long time to finish that edge just so that I could begin to sharpen the blade. So I’ve had to put a lot of time into just getting the darn edge established, and IMHO the knife never should have left the factory like that. That knife was so dull when I bought it that had I purchased it on the way to the mountains for camping or hunting, and needed it for an emergency, the knife would have been useless and dangerous to use. Do you hear this, Ka-Bar?

The saving grace for Ka-Bar is their excellent Cro-Van 1095 steel. It sharpens somewhat easily (thank goodness) and man, what a sharp, toothy edge that really bites into wood! I love the steel. It’s taken a lot of sharpening and work, but the blade is starting to get really sharp. And those excellent handles, they are really outstanding. I even like the finish, which I’m going to leave on the knife. But for the life of me, I cannot fathom how Ka-Bar would put so much attention to detail in to the fit and finish of every part of the knife except for the blade’s edge. It was really irritating, to the point that I wouldn’t buy a new Ka-Bar knife without being able to inspect the blade prior to purchase.

Thanks for letting me vent. I’m happy with the knife, but I wanted to provide an honest and accurate review. I’ll follow up with a field report after I get her a bit sharper and it warms up outside. Happy new year!





I
 
buck sheath 017.jpg buck sheath 016.jpg I have the knife and like it. I did customize it with new grips and a different sheath. Mine wasn't that dull out of the box, but with some work it is just fine. It isn't really a hunting knife, more of a bushcraft knife, but it should do double duty for hunting pretty well.

Azwelke link

http://www.azwelke.com/sheaths/becker/bk16-ffg/

Grips
https://www.amazon.com/Ka-Bar-BK16H...F8&qid=1514844261&sr=8-2&keywords=becker+bk16


I found a buck sheath on Amazon for about $12 that fits perfectly. There is another company that makes very high quality kydex sheaths that I later bought. Sorry, no pics of that sheath, just a link.

I plan to use paint stripper and remove the coating and just go with natural metal. But that is one of those projects I've just not gotten around to yet. I believe that once sharpened you'll really like it.
 

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I’m trying to stay mad at Ka-Bar, but that 1095 cro-van steel is so good! The blade is getting really sharp. The more I sharpen, the more I like the knife....
 
Why didn't you swap it out for one with the proper edge. KaBar would have done this in a heartbeat. They want to know when they've had a QC failure like that. I'll tell Ethan and the president of the company about the edge issue.

Glad the thing is performing so well you're happy with it.
 
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Thanks. I’m starting to like the knife more and more. I’ve got it slicing through paper now. It just took a lot of elbow grease. I’ve worked enough on it to become attached to it. I like the sweet 16!
 
Update: I took HSO’s advice and swapped out the knife for a new one. The replacement knife is very well finished and the bevels are even and correct. I’m very happy with the knife, which was sharp out of the box. That 1095 Cro-Van sharpens really well!! This is my first experience with this steel and it’s a huge step up from the cheap steel I’m used to.
 
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