I’m a knife guy. Large knives, small knives; fixed blades, folders — I loves ’em all. It’s a fundamental tool and I am never without one. I am firmly of the conviction that a man is not properly dressed unless he’s carrying a blade.
I own number of fine big blades, but my go-to knife for the heavy stuff is the Becker BK 9.
It’s not the finest big knife I own, nor the handsomest. That’s the point. The Becker is a utilitarian workhorse, the kind that you don’t mind using hard. You can knick the blade and never feel a twinge of remorse.
It’s kind of the AK-47 of blades. Designed by outdoorsman Ethan Becker and distributed through KA-BAR, the Becker is forged of humble yet practical 1095 carbon steel. These days, knife makers offer up a bewildering array of exotic custom-brewed steels, capable of carving through dragon scales and cleaving the shinbones of giants with a single stroke and the like. Thing is, blades made of legendary Valeryan steel are expensive, and you need a support team of dwarven smiths to put an edge back on when the magic steel finally dulls.
It’s like modern ballistics: Spells and dragon fire can tease out extraordinary performance that can only be actually felt at the extreme margins. Cool, but not useful for most of us.
1095 is not exotic, it is not sexy, and it is far from the best knife steel out there — but it is plenty good enough. Like the .30-06, it’ll get any job done that needs doing. You can get it real sharp and it stays sharp for a reasonable amount of time — and, importantly, you can put an edge on with a few strokes of a diamond hone or the old traditional Arkansas stone. I think I bought my Becker for $75 and they’re still under $100 on Amazon. That’s value that’s hard to beat.
Some folks upgrade the stock grivory handle scales with micarta, which KA-BAR sells for about $40. I haven’t felt the need to do that. You have to watch the grivory a bit when it’s wet, but that’s never really been an issue for me.
Last week, we had to take down seven small trees that have been killed by beetles and get the downed wood off the property. Fortunately, since burning season is closed, we can avail ourselves of a free program to chip and haul the stuff. The Becker got a good Saturday workout limbing the down stuff. That’s the kind of work I use that big ol’ thing for. I’ve also cut PVC, used the flat of the blade as a field-expedient hammer, and used the thick spine to bust up cement or glass in a pinch. They call it a “Combat Bowie” — and I suppose it would be fearsome in a scrap — but it ain’t really a weapon. For one thing, it doesn’t have a guard. It’s just a field knife — the kind that mountain men like Liver-Eatin’ Johnson beat hell out of with everyday chores.
Those micarta scales ARE nice, I admit.
It’s scratched; it’s dinged and it ain’t good-lookin’ but that Becker BK 9 is nevertheless a fine fistful o’ knife — and stuff that works.
Matthew says
Off topic but this is the anniversary of of the Normandy Invasion….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJAwCBbnuc
JimC says
Indeed — and the jup-off for the 4th Marines’ assault on Belleau Wood.
Ike says
Ooh-Rah!
John C. says
Not off topic at all on the anniversary. If anyone missed reading The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan, put it on the list. The best single volume book about the Normandy Invasion, in my opinion.
John C.
tom says
a good knife reminds me of my marriage. my 43 years marriage. when I met my wife the first gift she gave me was not a neck tie, or a flask of jade east, or a bottle of the upwardly mobile wine of the day, mateus. she bought me a buck knife! I still have the buck knife and it is in good service!
JimC says
Keeper!
Keith West says
“I am firmly of the conviction that a man is not properly dressed unless he’s carrying a blade.”
Agreed. I just wish all the places with metal detectors and bag search policies felt the same way.
Matthew says
You know I think that certain large knives like the Bowie or tar Arkansas tooth pick are emblematic of American culture like katana of Japanese.
lane batot says
I have quita few nice kuhnifes too–mostly gifts from folks who can’t figure out what to give me! And I have an old buck knife that’s at least three very abused decades old–it has become my “back-up” knife for some years now, as I have been abusing a cheapo, lightweight,sturdy, easily sharpened(like on a smooth creekstone even)Coleman camping sheath knife I got at the Wal-Mart some years ago on a whim. Mainly to have a knife to abuse without guilt–but, by gosh, the little cheapo feller has shore held up! And I, too, feel far more nekkid without a knife than I do a loincloth! Like Mowgli gloated in the first film version of the “Jungle Book” about his “tooth”!
lane batot says
……and, a few weeks ago when I broke down and went to a larger city to finally git my own computer-thingy, while there, I couldn’t resist going into a Sporting Goods store that I normally don’t have access to(rarely visiting large cities, as I mentioned). I was feeling a bit too civilized and uppity, gittin’ that computer(which I am pecking on at this moment), so when I saw a “survival SPEAR” in that store, well heck, I WAS on a rare big city splurge, so I couldn’t resist! Made me feel a bit more respectably primitive again! It is a HECK of a sturdy spear, too–I’ll havta send YOU photos of my spear collection one day! After all, what is a spear but a “knife-on-a-stick”? An incredibly basic, useful tool/weapon!
Rice villatoro says
I find my bk9 useful for a lot of things and I am proud to own one.
It does nearly everything I throw at it well and I don’t mind the stock scales, in fact mine has fishing line, hooks, and waterproof matches stored inside the handles. I see a lot of people complain about the zytel handles but they don’t complain when their firearms all have thermoplastic parts. After owning a few Becker knives with upgraded scales, I don’t think I’ll do that to my new bk9. I like it just the way is. I might upgrade the sheath to a leather one but the stock sheath will do fine for right now. In fact you can do a lot of cool mods with the stock sheath itself. For example, you can piggyback a smaller knife onto your bk9 sheath using zip ties and it works great and looks cool. You can throw a diamond sharpener in the pouch or whatever you want that can fit in it, like a multitool or a small survival tin. The possibilities are endless for modding both the knife and the sheath. The Becker bk9 is my favorite large fixed blade knife. And you’re right, a man is not properly dressed. Unless he has a good fixed blade knife attached to his belt.
JimC says
Right on. I still haven’t felt a need to change out the scales. Thanks for stopping by the campfire.