Not crazy about the BK2

[prowland]

So I recently purchased the BK2 from lapolicegear.com and at first I was impressed.

It is a THICK knife! The sheath is crappy but man this knife is nice (looking).

So i decided to give it a try and cut down a shrub on the side of the house that i have been wanting to get rid of for a while. It did a pretty good job in knocking it down when I slightly modified my grip on the knife.

Before:

shrub:

Then I looked at the blade and not a scratch on the finish! Great coating... should hold up to the light abuse I will send its way.

But wait... the handle is all cockeyed. No big problem... I have read about taking the bolts out and using some locktite on them. Okay no big deal.

Handle:

Now in a closer examination of the cutting edge there are several nicks in the edge. I really though that a little chopping of mostly dead would not even make this knife flench. Guess not. There are 7 or 8 "chips" in the blade. One is about a 16th of an inch deep. I did not hit anything other than wood with the blade.

Blade:

Now my question is should this kind of wear happen to this knife with such little chopping? If this is not normal i guess I should contact Ka-bar...

Any input is welcome!

 

[sheriff125]

i'm sure they would take care of you if you are concerned. my two cents is the 2 really isn't the best becker for chopping.

 

[prowland]

I was not really doing any serious chopping... what is the BK2 good for?

 

[glockednlocked]

Not a huge becker fan but for the money they are usually solid workhorses. Just my opinion but for that kind of knife chips like that dont really scare me. I would sharpen it up and hope the knew edge found some less brittle steel. Sometimes the heat treat gets alittle fryed in high speed sharpening at the factory. Ymmv just my thoughts but as said before if you want a real chopper this model might not be the best suited. I class this as more of a jack of all trades backpacker knife. When in doubt pm tyler he can give you a far more reasoned opinion than I. I feel your pain I hate scuffing a new toy. Wait who am I kidding I am the fat kid that trys to break all my toys

 

[prowland]

I got this for a hiking pack not for chopping but didn't think it would chip on a half dead shrub... gotta get ahold of tyler... i actually have a few knives i would like him to sharpen.

 

[sadclownwp]

thats weird, i whooped the out of mine when I got it, and I split like 40 pounds of firewood with it. mine had no chipping. You can always send it back to LAPoliceGear and say it came to you defective.

 

[Knife Lady]

thats weird, i whooped the out of mine when I got it, and I split like 40 pounds of firewood with it. mine had no chipping. You can always send it back to LAPoliceGear and say it came to you defective.

Do you think the knife is defective because you used it and the blade shows usage now?

 

[grunt soldier]

i don't think you can return it after you have used it and call it defective but that chip could possibly be a warranty issue. its not huge you could probably sharpen it out.

 

[Sailor]

2 solid days of heavy batoning with my BK2, The wood was so hard I was hitting as hard as I could and barely making it through. Zero damage to the spine or the edge. The finish took a hit but thats expected. Put a tek-loc on the sheath.

 

[sadclownwp]

I'm pretty sure that it is just your knife, could be a bad one. I just went outside and chopped through a fallen oak branch about 6 inches in diameter, and my blade shows no signs of wear accept for some of the coating wore off a bit.

 

[TopDog]

At one time I was going to get a Becker BK but after much research I found that the gen one models seemed to have many QC issues, the second generation seemed to be flaw free. The reason I have never purchased a BK (any model) I have no idea how to tell the difference between a first and second generation model.

Now understand that I'm no expert this is based on information I found on forums. And I don't fully understand what a first gen and second gen are. The model numbers didn't change as far as I can tell, so I'm guessing the generations that are referred to on the internet might be nothing more that time periods of manufacture.

After researching I decided to stay with ESEE. Looking at what you chopped I think you might have a defective knife. As others have posted they ran their knives through the mill and no damage.

 

[paddling_man]

It depends on what you call gen1 & gen2. Really, it would be gen1, gen2 and gen3.

gen1 would be when Ethan was having the blades produced in concert with Blackjack knives (associated with Mike Stewart of later Bark River.) The Blackjack days were reasonable.

gen2 would be the Camillus years before Camillus went toes-up from poor management and further union issues. The Camillus days were spotty... the earlier ones were fine but as Camillus ground to a halt, there were a lot of "Friday afternoon" knives. Avoid the digicamo ones from the end... that was in the death throes of the factory when unfamiliar folks (management) might be trying to make a knife. The Camillus years always used 0170-6 steel, with the exception of the bk-77 that used s30v. (S30V is a great folder steel but not one that I would recommend for a chopper...)

gen3 - The current batch. This is now Ethan working with ka-bar. Any issues you have now could/should be able to be solved by working directly with ka-bar.


Ethan Becker is "good folks." Seriously. A man of honor and of the highest caliber. Some of the folks he had to work with in the past? Not so much.

I own(ed) a few Beckers. A Campanion, a BK11, a BK7 and two BK9s. They could take a keen edge, are relatively tough, tended to chip rather than roll though, and the exposed edge would rust/corrode if you breathed on it. His designs are well thought out but while the machete-like handles work well for large blades (7"+) they seemed overly large for any blade smaller.

They are, like ESEE, very good deals for the price.

Is your blade defective? Probably not. If it had taken a BIG chunk out of it rather than edge deformation, then "yes." If it bothers you, then talk directly to ka-bar/becker. They may (should) replace it just to keep you happy. I would replicate the same chopping on the replacement if it is what you regularly plan to do. If it performs the same, then you should expect that as typical behavior and deal with it or search for another steel/manufacturer that performs as you expect. I certainly wouldn't, in good conscience, ask for a *second* replacement if it performs the same. Your expectations and the steel's attributes just may not be a match.


BK2 compared to a lil Gerber boot knife.

Ranger Knives RD9 and a BK91 (Justin Gingrich... he nows has Ontario making his stuff but this was the early years when he still made them in the garage in Columbus, GA.)

Another size comp with a Swamp Rat Howling Rat at the top.

I would still like to have one of the BK6 becker patrol.

Some of the variations of the Campanion. (Not mine or my pic)

EVERYTHING you likely want to know about Beckers.

 

[TopDog]

Thanks for all the great information paddling_mam that clears up a lot for me.

 

[paddling_man]

Eh, I'm a prickly pirate who likes to have fun but occasionally I contribute. Thanks for the rep.

 

[prowland]

Thanks for the info!

I was just wandering if this was to be expected... i mean I don't think what i did should have chipped the blade at all. What I was doing didn't even scuff the finish. What I was wanting was a good all purpose knife that I could put on a hiking pack and not have to worry about it breaking on a couple day trip.

I am going to send an email to ka-bar and see what they think. I really want to like this knife!! But if they all act the same to light use I will need to go elsewhere for what I am wanting.

From the way some of you have treated yours there appears to be hope and maybe I just got one that had a problem in manufacturing.

I will let you all know what they say in response to my questions.

 

[tTotalProvidence]

I am not an expert, but I own a bk2. I've chopped through wood - branches, 2/4's, logs - with my becker and have had no problems with chipping.

I have seen similar chipping issues with comparable knifes on other forums, and more experienced people than I said it looked like a heat-treat issue. This is my vote. I would contact ka-bar and get it replaced. Then, as Paddling suggests, see if the replacement has the same problem. Please let us know the results!