BK9 vs. KA-BAR large heavy Bowie vs. Cold Steel Trail Master -HELP ME CHOOSE

[Borgnine]

Hi,
Newbie to the board here from the "wet" coast of Canada.
Looking for an outdoor knife for camp tasks. Knocking branches off saplings, splitting some wood, that kind of thing Hopefully, no knife fights!

The Trail Master may be a little out of my price range, so unless it's clearly superior, I'm leaning more toward the BK9 or the KA-BAR.

Thanks in advance. I'm enjoying the forums a lot.

[Theoryrealm]

Originally Posted by Borgnine

Hi,
Newbie to the board here from the "wet" coast of Canada.
Looking for an outdoor knife for camp tasks. Knocking branches off saplings, splitting some wood, that kind of thing Hopefully, no knife fights!

The Trail Master may be a little out of my price range, so unless it's clearly superior, I'm leaning more toward the BK9 or the KA-BAR.

Thanks in advance. I'm enjoying the forums a lot.

I have the Ka-Bar Heavy Bowie 9" Model and it works wonders in the field. I've used this extensively in batoning firewood and for overall "camp" duties while on many hiking/camping trips.

Nutnfancy reviewed this knife (Youtube) and was very impressed with it.
I prefer the non-serrated version..

YouTube- Ka-Bar Heavy Bowie: Wicked and Cheap

I looked at the Becker (quality knife, btw) as well, but it has a Edge Angle: 20 degree's, and for batoning for kindling/firewood, I prefer the straight angle (easier going through wood). Most importantly, the vibration/pain aspect from the exposed tang of the Becker was an issue. If one has to baton/cut some firewood up for fire use, that aspect is going to grind on your nerves and hand, quite a bit. Both are great, but reviews/price/usage/history always pushed me back to the Ka-Bar. I have pushed this "tool" to hell and back and it will not quit.

[BIGJAY]

Originally Posted by Borgnine

Hi,
Newbie to the board here from the "wet" coast of Canada.
Looking for an outdoor knife for camp tasks. Knocking branches off saplings, splitting some wood, that kind of thing Hopefully, no knife fights!

The Trail Master may be a little out of my price range, so unless it's clearly superior, I'm leaning more toward the BK9 or the KA-BAR.

Thanks in advance. I'm enjoying the forums a lot.

check out some Canadian sites so you don't have to deal with customs if you choose not to.

can't go wrong with the BK2
http://www.warriorsandwonders.com/Ka...n_BK2?cPath=38

http://www.warriorsandwonders.com/Al...Kukri?cPath=38


Also, I would recommend anything Esee knives from http://www.workwearcanada.com/produc...cfm?category=7

[Borgnine]

W&W is a great shop. That's where I plan to buy.
I hate the name, though.

[Entrekman]

Ever consider ESEE knives? They'll outperform the Ka-bar and Becker and on par with the Trailmaster, but toughness wise ESEE's got 'em all beat. Check out their destruction video on YouTube. I can attest, because I got three of 'em. For $150.00 it's just as tough as a Swamp Rat knife but at half the cost.

[Ls1]

The trailmaster has known to break at the tang due to square and sharp transistions from the tang to the blade. It is a bit over priced too in my opinion. Still some last for years without any issues. It's a decent option. Remember though it only has a 5 year warranty. Sk-5 is nothing special as it is very similar to1095, but the temper is usually top notch.

I have/had two bk-9's. One chipped and on the other the edge seriously rippled half way up the blade. The sheath is crap, and the handle is rather uncomfortable. You can track my issues with it on blade forums if you look in the Becker section. I'm going to ask K bar to trade me a 9" heavy bowie for it because I no longer care to own a bk-9. It chops very well until that super fine edge gives up the ghost and either chips, rolls, or ripples...

The heavy bowie seems like a good knife with a comfortable handle. The tang has rounded transistions tot he blade and overall the knife seems tough and sharp. It also has a life time warranty. It's 1085 which is again, very similar to sk-5 and 1095. I'd like to try one out. Oh, I've also been told by a Ka bar engineer that the tempering process for the bk-9 and heavy bowie are indentical.

I would add another option for you. The Ontario sp-10. I've owned one for almost 8 years now with out a single issue while all the while batoning, chopping, even light hammering and prying. No chipping no edge ripples, the handle is comfortable, and the sheath while not great, at least does not allow the sp-10 to rattle like the bk-9 does.

[BigJer4x4]

Hey! Good to see a fellow Canadian on here! I'm from Northern Ontario, Canada. I would say, get a Panawal Khukuri from Khukuri House in Nepal. I recently got one from them, and it is an Unbelievable chopper/camp knife! You can't beat the strength of a full-tang chunk of hand-crafted leaf spring with a 1cm thick spine!

[doc from philly]

I like the BK-7 or 9.

[Borgnine]

Update: Got the BK-9. First thing I did was put loc-tite on the threads of the allan bolts that hold the grips on.
So far, so good. Feels good in the hand, blade has a lot of heft for chopping, but finer work is not out of the question.

[Big Andy1966]

My BK9 came with a smaller knife in the sheath. The sheath had a pouch for a stone, I made 550 cord lanyards for them. Nice knife.

[Bearspirit]

Originally Posted by Ls1

The trailmaster has known to break at the tang due to square and sharp transistions from the tang to the blade. It is a bit over priced too in my opinion. Still some last for years without any issues. It's a decent option. Remember though it only has a 5 year warranty. Sk-5 is nothing special as it is very similar to1095, but the temper is usually top notch.

I have/had two bk-9's. One chipped and on the other the edge seriously rippled half way up the blade. The sheath is crap, and the handle is rather uncomfortable. You can track my issues with it on blade forums if you look in the Becker section. I'm going to ask K bar to trade me a 9" heavy bowie for it because I no longer care to own a bk-9. It chops very well until that super fine edge gives up the ghost and either chips, rolls, or ripples...

The heavy bowie seems like a good knife with a comfortable handle. The tang has rounded transistions tot he blade and overall the knife seems tough and sharp. It also has a life time warranty. It's 1085 which is again, very similar to sk-5 and 1095. I'd like to try one out. Oh, I've also been told by a Ka bar engineer that the tempering process for the bk-9 and heavy bowie are indentical.

I would add another option for you. The Ontario sp-10. I've owned one for almost 8 years now with out a single issue while all the while batoning, chopping, even light hammering and prying. No chipping no edge ripples, the handle is comfortable, and the sheath while not great, at least does not allow the sp-10 to rattle like the bk-9 does.

If the trailmaster Broke; were they Prying with it or pounding it with a sledgehammer?; How on earth do people break these kinds of knives?

[naturalist]

Just go on BK9, please consider also ESEE 6 (formerly RAT 6, bit smaller than knives at your list) or their Junglas...
Many custom chopping knives at BF have very reasonable price as well.

[kajunman1]

bad post i deleted it

[ArmchairDeity]

I was looking online for info on my knife because it seems that KABAR has discontinued the heavy Bowie... but when I came across this thread I stopped to join the forum simply to post a response to this thread.

I have owned dozens of knives in my life... Opinel, Victorinox, Buck, no-name random/cheap/weird (which have been some of the best, actually). But nothing has ever compared to the KABAR heavy Bowie. I just got back from a 5-day camping trip where I had forgotten my hatchet, so this Bowie was my primary tool for cutting up deadfall for firewood, splitting said deadfall firewood (I used it to split logs up to about 6" diameter) and for carving a bit... I used the knife to whittle down two logs into fire tools, one as a beater for doing the splitting and one for tending.

I have a Lansky sharpening kit, so the knife started the trip sharp enough that scraping it up my arm left a bald spot. After spending 5 days in the woods carving, chopping and splitting wood, tending the fire and cutting up food, scraping it up my arm... you guessed it... would leave a bald spot. I keep the rear 2/3 of the blade at 30º and the tip and belly at 19º so that I can use the different areas of the blade for different things. The 19º edge cuts thru food, rope, etc., like any decent knife should, but the 30º edge chews thru logs like the best axe you can find and splits wood like it was born to the task.

And yet at one point when I was doing some remodeling in the house I actually used this knife to cut holes in sheetrock for outlets I was adding to the family room and heavy stranded copper wire that I was installing for our surround sound system.

There is no way I could say enough good things about that KABAR... without a doubt the most useful general purpose cutting tool I have ever owned.