Top 10 😀 A-Bar Becker BK9 Combat Bowie Fixed Blade Knife , Black 👏

4 reviews for Top 10 😀 A-Bar Becker BK9 Combat Bowie Fixed Blade Knife , Black 👏

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Lucifers Scribe – January 17, 2014

   I got one of the newer (current) models from Amazon (powder coat, laser printed), with prime, everything came fast.My rating is FOR THE KNIFE, the sheath I would score a 1-2 stars tops, and I will cover after the knife.I am giving this knife a score of 5 out of 5 for the following reasons:1: Aesthetics: Its a damn fine looking blade, it’s not elegant, or sweeping, it is brutal and utilitarian, but not without a kind of Masculine charm. Pull it free from it’s sheath, and you will have to fight the urge to say – Now THAT’S a knife…2: The blade is everything it’s cracked up to be right out of the box. I have plans to do a lot of modding to this knife, but if you use it as is out of the box and you get one at the Quality mine came in, the blade is superb for a production knife. To do better, you would need to spend ten times as much and wait months.3: This is a proven design. The balance and geometry make it an all around big knife powerhouse. You could get a blade that might do one task better, but this knife does them all. From batoning and splitting hardwood, to chopping, to fine carving and cutting, edge retention and ergonomics, I find I have a hard time putting this down or using anything else. Pair this with a smaller detail oriented knife (like a small but razor sharp neck knife) and you have all the bases covered, Whats more, despite it’s size and mass, it is still lively enough in the hand that it makes for a terrific BIG fighting knife, able to deliver cuts, thrusts and pommel smashes lightning fast, but with power and authority. While a smaller or lighter dedicated fighting knife might do better, in skilled hands, this knife would hold it’s own.4: Durability seems to be everything people claim it to be, with one caveat. I do not trust the handle scales out of the box. I took the set screws apart and put locktite in them, and wrapped the grip with hockey tape. Doing that is IMHO the minimum modding you need to do if you buy this knife to ensure it will last you and be reliable.Cons:1: DAT SHEATH! I’m sorry Ka-Bar, I have seen plenty of “acceptable” Nylon sheathes, but this one is hair brained… Whoever designed it must have been trying to save money, but ended up trying to make up for the materials by over designing it… the design is just trying too hard to be too many things to too many people, With a poor combination of Velcro and snaps that all seem to work against one another. All the useless elements seem like you guys are trying to hard to polish a turd here… A simpler Sheath like on the Ka-bar Fighter2, or the normal Marine variation Ka-Bar would have been better. despite being simpler.. This sheath is a Hot mess… The cheap plastic “box” that hods the knife rattles like a snake, and the fact that it still has the secondary box sheath for the smaller neck knife just serves to remind me that it doesn’t come with it anymore… If you just need something to keep it in and don’t care about noise discipline or ruggedness or utility, then this won’t matter to you, if it does, either buy or learn to make your own Kydex sheath, or have someone custom make something in leather.Minor nit pick – Powder coating – This stuff is a terrible choice for a blade coating for a knife like this. It makes it bind in wood, and ensures that dirt sticks to the blade… This is a nit pick because I remove the coating from all my blades. The only area where I plan to leave it intact are in the handle and pommel.Modding plans/suggestions -1: I plan to make my own Kydex sheath for this. I think it’s worth learning to do for those who don’t know how… its one of the easier “big mods” that pretty much anyone with an oven and 20$ worth of home depot hardware can accomplish. Also if you make your own, you can make it exactly how you want it!2: STRIP THE COATING – If you use their knives for real, you know that the black coating on almost ALL blades is garbage. I tend to leave the coating on “fighting/self offense” knives that don’t see any utility use (like tactical folders, Karambits etc)… Those knives IMHO should not be used for everyday tasks the same way utility knives are. In that case the coating is an easy to maintain way to keep your blade like new for a long time. However on a utility knife like this, you really should strip the coating, and force a patina instead. This knife has a VERY rough (as in gritty sandpaper rough) texture, and binds easily when used for cutting, chopping or splitting. So unless you plan to use the blade to file your nails… strip it ASAP.3: After stripping the coating I will be forcing a patina, I plan to leave some of the coating around the handle and pommel, but the blade itself will be stripped. The patina will serve to protect it very nearly as well as the powder coat, but will be smoother. This blade IS a high carbon steel and WILL rust. But a smooth, patina on a blade will only rust if not properly cared for, or stored improperly. Still a small amount of surface rust won’t destroy a blade, it just makes it look bad. You could also blue it with professional gun blue chemicals.4: Edge re profile – At some point I will sit down and really alter the edge to have a solid Convex edge, however, the edge my knife came with is one of the BEST edges I have ever seen right out of the box from any company. I can make it shaving sharp with a few minutes on my sharpening kit, but out of the box, it’s very respectable, esp for a large bowie.5: Flint striker – Somewhere on the spine I need to make the edge sharp enough to throw sparks from a Swedish fire steel. This should be easy enough once stripped.6: New grip scales – There are Micarta scales for sale on Amazon that sound nice, or I could carve my own from hardwood. The scales that come with the knife are adequate, and if properly secured with locktite and hockey tape will last a long time. But I think a better handle would make this go from a 80$ blade, to a 150$ KNIFE.7: Kydex sheath… Will take this from a 150$ KNIFE, to a 200$ SYSTEM.If you read this far, thank you, and understand that sometimes a flawed item is worth 5 stars. Because after all, this blade is a bargain IMHO, and all the cons are easy to fix, and IMHO if you are buying this knife as a survival/self reliance BIG knife, then you NEED to learn to modify and improve your tools, not just buy them as is. I have never gotten a knife AS IS that was correct or perfect out of the box, even my really expensive knives needed some custom work to make them work for me with my self reliance kit/mentality.So, I think all outdoors oriented people, need to know how to make a Knife THEIR knife… When I am done, this will be as much MY knife as it is a Bk9.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Leather Rebel – October 16, 2022

   I have become a firm believer in big knives for the woods. I used to like 5-7 inch survival knives but I will never go back at this point. Now I just take this 9 inch beast and a Cold Steel Mini Hunter for food prep. Yes, it’s a bit more weight but there’s good weight and there’s bad weight when it comes to backpacking. The BK9 is good weight.The BK9’s length and weigh distribution makes it an excellent chopper. I thought the size and weight would make it too unwieldy for feather sticking but it performed surprisingly well. The light jimping helps a lot with blade control on finer tasks. I HIGHLY recommend putting a lanyard on it for safety as the stock handle scales are a bit slick. You can upgrade them to micarta or G10 but I haven’t cared enough to. You also might want to take a fine grit sandpaper and remove just a bit of the texture on the coating.I wish it had come a bit sharper, but 5 minutes with my Warthog V-Sharp had an excellent convex edge on it. The tough 1095 steel edge got some nicks on it while batonning through some particularly hard knots but I was able to resharpen it to sufficient sharpness on a river rock. The blade coating’s texture caught some of the wood fibers; another reason to sand it down just a bit or hit it with a bit of WD40 before use.The BK9 makes a good hunting knife, although ideally You would pair it with a filleting knife. If you tie a lanyard around your wrist and run it up to mid-forearm you can use the rounded belly of the blade for skinning. Obviously you can chop through ribs and joints as well.I wish it came with a better sheath but you really can’t complain at such a low price. There are excellent 3rd party kydex sheaths available. Get this knife you won’t regret it.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Navaro – October 29, 2022

   I ordered this along side the BK2!The BK9 Combat bowie is hands down the best bang for buck on the market.It’s a huge 9 inch beautiful blade. The 1095 CV steel is wicked sharp, super tough, and holds its edge way longer than it should.This knife is top of its class in chopping, and slicing. You can chop timber, then shave with this thing right after. I honestly cannot rate this knife high enough.I did strip mine with a paint stripper, and replace the handles with Micarta scales (dyed them an oxblood red with Rit Dye)This knife is well worth the mods and love, it will last you a lifetime and be your go to blade no matter the task. Splitting firewood, clearing brush, chopping through bone, or cutting steak.Spoil yourself and get this blade, it’s just so much better than anything else in its market. Cannot recommend this Combat Bowie enough.

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   John Walters – December 17, 2022

   No complaints about the knife as it arrived shaving sharp right out of the box, but the retention strap on the sheath was cut or torn before the blade even left the cardboard shipping sheath. This from an item with a “new item” sticker on the box. I was planning on upgrading the sheath eventually with a kydex dangler type in the future, but now I’m going to have to do it sooner rather than later as this strap basically renders this sheath useless. Not too happy about that as, Im going on a winter hot tent camp, and don’t plan on returning the whole package just to get the sheath replaced. I am however very happy with the knife itself.