KaBar Becker Campanion

Reviewed 08/05/2014 by Porter

-Price Paid: $68.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

Great knife. Tuff stuff. Attached to my go to bag right now.

Reviewed 08/03/2014 by Jasper

-Price Paid: $70.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

The Becker BK2 is an amazing knife that handles multiple jobs well. It's very sharp and retains it's edge. The handle firs my large hand nicely without slipping, even when my hand is sweaty. The BK2 has a thick wedge of steel that is great for chopping and has enough mass to be used as a pry bar, if needed.
This is not a wimpy knife and is now a primary blade for me on trips. You'll spend a lot more for other knives in it's class, but why would you?

Reviewed 06/19/2014 by Jason Mitchell

-Price Paid: $69.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

This is a great knife with a long 7 inch blade which is a very thick quarter inch of tough steel! It weighs a full pound (16 oz.) that is perfect for heavy duty use like batoning. Becker included a very good Zytel handle. The shape fits a large hand very well.Excellent knife!

Reviewed 11/11/2013 by Aaron

-Price Paid: $60.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

The Ka-Bar BK2 is one of the best 5 inch knives for $60 around. The ergos on the handle make it a great chopper, and its 0.25 inch thick spin makes it good for batoning and indestructible. It is heavy at 16oz. and that would be the only draw back to this knife. They now come with nylon or GRN sheaths. Go with the nylon one, the GRN dulls the blade over time. Checkout my review on youtube to see this knife in action out in the wilderness.

Reviewed 12/31/2012 by Billy

-Price Paid: $97.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

The Becker BK2 by KABAR test/review:

This knife is a TANK! plain and simple. Some say it is a sharpened crowbar and those people are pretty much right.

The blade holds an edge very well and as it is made of 1095 carbon steel it is easy to sharpen in the field. The shape of the blade makes it split wood very well when batoning and even when dull it batons very well through blocks of wood.the shock from chopping and batoning isn't very bad and I had no problem at all. The heavy blade makes it an ideal chopper and I have done lots of chopping as well as splitting with this knife and it never fails. I have pounded the tip of the knife into large dead trees and pried them apart with ease and without any damage or bending to the blade. The black powdercoat on the blade does wear off the more you use it, especially if your batoning alot with it.

The handle some people say is slippery but I have never had a problem losing grip in the summer, winter or in wet conditions. There is a lanyard hole so if losing grip becomes a problem you can throw a lanyard on it for incase it slips out of your hand while chopping. With my Becker I have taken the handle apart and inside there are small cavities where I have put some items in for additional survival gear for incase I ever need it. The screws that hold the handle together do come loose after awhile but with regular maintenance just give them a quick tightening while your oiling and sharpening your knife and you should have no problem. You can get after market scales to replace the factory stock scales if you don't like them.

The sheath is garbage! Nothing ruins a great knife more than a bad sheath. I'm not a big fan of kydex as it dulls the blade when extracting or replacing the blade in the sheath.Every time you draw the knife it takes small slices out of the kydex and after awhile it doesn't fit as tight as it once did. The sheath when you first buy the knife is so tight that it takes a lot of force to draw the knife and is a bit of a safety hazard. I had to drill out a rivet to loosen it up a bit. Also if you don't use the retention strap you WILL lose the knife out of the sheath while walking, trust me I've done it. The sheath likes to flop around and tip upside down if the retention strap is not done up. I eventually saved up enough money and bought a new sheath made of leather from hedgehog leatherworks. The sheath is 3 times the cost of the knife but it is very worth it and makes the knife easier to carry and there is no rattle and the knife no longer gets dull by the sheath. another good reason to go leather is because when you oil the knife and out it in the sheath the leather will soak up some of he oil and keep your knife oiled and keep it from rusting.I have since thrown out my kydex sheath for this knife and am using the leather sheath. Hopefully KABAR puts out a better stock sheath for this knife.

Carving with this knife is good but it's no mora. With the size and weight of the knife you gain chopping and splitting ability but you lose some fine carving ability, however you can still do fine carving just some of it is not as easy as with a mora. You can dig with this knife and it wont hurt the blade at all. The pommel of the knife is great for smashing,cracking different things. It also works great to hit with a baton to drive the tip into a dead tree to pry out the dry wood inside for fire making or to hit when your botoning and you have to pound the blade back in if it comes out to far.

This is a great over all knife for doing absolutely any task you throw at it. As a combat knife I would recommend something lighter as well as a somewhat differently shaped such as the USMC KABAR or the SOG seal pup. But for any task you come across in the bush or around the yard I highly recommend the Becker BK2.

This is my primary knife I take to the bush and if I could only take one knife the Becker BK2 is what I would take. It's indestructible and even if you manage to break the handle a quick wrap with paracord and your back in business.

Hope this review helps

Reviewed 12/26/2011 by Jan Förster

-Price Paid: $63.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

I'll be brief and blunt:The Becker Knife and Tools/KaBar is a portable sharpened wedge of 1095 steel with a handle. A square pommel services as a hitting surface for a hammer. It comes with slippery handle scales (which loosen themselvesafter prolonged use) and a kydex sheath with floppy belt attachement.It's main charm and hype is customizing via paint stripper, rehandling and it's community supporting Becker Knife and Tools.Initial design, handle and blade ergonomics turn it into an impeding tool. Too short for most tasks and too heavy for about anything but outdoor and survival. As such however, the BK2 Campanion has proven to be a everlasting tool, seeing as there is hardly anything in the woods that could scathe the blade. It functions similar to a hatchet or a small axe but does everything a little worse and with painful handle vibrations.

Reviewed 02/09/2011 by MO

-Price Paid: $57.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

This knife is a built to work.

My first impression out of the box is "this is a stout tool... commercial grade for a tradesman that knows what tools are for and not afraid to put them to work. The black matte blade finish and black handles were utilitarian and fit the intended purpose of a tool. The handles felt very good in the hand. The origional handles were excellent and I even used them as a hammer once and they held up fine. I just wanted to dress thing up so I ordered the Micarta handles which also fit perfectly and gave the knife a "custom" look. I did notice that when unscrewing the screws to replace the old handles, the hardware was just slightly tighter than finger tight. Left untightened, I have no doubt I would have eventually lost some hardware had I not been removing them. That's a big quality control issue. Good thing they don't let cars out of the factory with finger-tight lug nuts! Locktite was used on the new Micarta handles and so far, so good.

The sheath is a combination of very good and very poor. The sheath itself is Kydex and as good as it gets. The retention and fit is excellent. The belt loop and snap that holds the knife in the upright position, however lacks sound design. Once unsnapped, the knife dangles in a loose horizontal position. This may not be a problem if you use the knife once or twice a day but is extremely aggravating if you do some work, sheath, unsheathe, work (rinse and repeat). You must also look down at what your doing to be sure the knife is secure before continuing with what you were doing. That original sheath design is a real time waster. I drilled out the rivets on the belt loop and tossed it. I replaced it with a Tek-Lok belt loop which works just fine. I was pleased to keep the sheath as the fit and appearance was perfect.

I noticed the spine of the tang had some ripples in it, either from machine marks or ripples from the coating used on the blade. This is not a problem. Again... tools are not for fondling. The sharpness of the blade was only so-so. There was obvious roughness on the edge of the blade. This was O.K. because I knew that a little care in sharpening would improve the cutting ability immensely. I tried to slice a thin plastic water bottle and only managed to "punch" it about 15 feet across the yard. After careful sharpening with a whetstone, the blade is now sharp and holds an edge nicely. It also slices through water bottles, cuts paper, shaves arm hair and cuts onions quite nicely (not to mention it's "in the field" uses).

Out of the box, basically, all this knife needed was the handles tightened and a little sharpening. The sheath... or more specifically, the belt loop & snap was ill conceived. Perhaps it's not an issue if you keep your knives in your sock drawer however if you plan it use your BK-2, fix the sheath or replace it with something that works.

Note: I personally regard fixing this sheath issue as a hidden cost of purchasing this knife. Cost of modifying or replacing the sheath may range from $15.00 to $250.00

This knife is a great chopper, batons/splits through wood like butter, is acceptably compact to carry on a belt and even has some options to dress it up a little bit (Micarta Handles). I've used it in the kitchen and as long as it's sharp, will perform kitchen tasks as well.

The Becker BK-2 is a keeper and belongs in the same category as your green Stanley Thermos, a good pair of work boots or a faithful dog.

Reviewed 08/21/2010 by Del

-Price Paid: $57.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

Overall, I think The KaBar Becker BK-2 "Campanion" is an excellent knife. I was very happy to find that KaBar is producing the Becker designs again. I like this knife so much I recently bought a second one for a back up. I bought my first for about $57 from Amazon.com. I think this is an excellent field/utility knife that would also certainly serve well in a survival situation.

It's a very robust knife, just a hair under 1/4 inch thick, full tang*, weighs a little over a pound or so, holds an edge well, and it's not too hard to sharpen. It's made of 1095 steel, coated with a smooth black protective coating. I have the second version, which has the tang extended slightly beyond the handle into a pommel useful for pounding. This is a very solid knife which holds up well to: cutting, slicing, scraping, chopping, batoning, and even digging, prying, hammering, and cooking.

The original handle scales are black "Grivory," which is fiberglass impregnated nylon plastic, I believe. It's very light and strong and should be impervious to weather, but the handle scales are where I have my main criticisms. First, they are a comfortable shape and fit my hands well, but they are quite smooth. This can be easily fixed with some skateboard tape or other wrapping, or by scoring or checking the handle scales with a file or Dremel tool. Second, as many others have noted, the handle scales can come loose a little too easily. The scales are fixed to the knife with three hex-head bolts and nuts. Apparently these are not well-torqued at the factory. This can also be easily fixed in several different ways. Simply using a hex key wrench to tighten the bolts. Wrapping with tape or cord as I mentioned above also works. My solution was to remove the bolts and coat their threads with LockTite, then properly torque them down again. They haven't loosened at all since I did this.

The knife comes with a black Kydex sheath which holds the knife well and includes a nylon belt loop and retention snap strap, although the Kydex holds the knife very securely without the strap. The belt loop will fit belts up to five inches wide and is removable in case you want to attach the Kydex sheath to your gear with its grommets and slots. I believe the sheath would hold the knife securely without the retention strap even in a tip up position.

Finally, I'd like to add that although I'm very please with this knife as it came from the factory, I have modified it a bit. I replaces the handle scales with the Micarta version that KaBar sells about $40. They are a little heavier and of course they add quite a bit to the overall cost of the knife, but they do improve the grip, since they're "rougher" than the original Grivory scales. They fit perfectly with the original nuts and bolts, but as I said above I used LockTite on the bolts when I installed the Micarta grips. So far I'm very pleased with the improved grip. They also seem to slightly improve the sheath's grip on the knife, which was already very good. Of course, I also think they improve the appearance of the knife, giving it a more "organic" look and feel. I also added a short 550 cord lanyard.

*I said full tang above, and I believe it does meet this definition, but I did find, when I removed the scales, that the tang has two cutouts between the bolt holes. I suspect this was done to improve the balance of the knife. I don't believe this affects the structural strength of the knife at all.

I would like to hear others' thoughts on this knife, so I hope more will post here soon.

Reviewed 02/22/2010 by Yoclif

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

Let me start out by saying that I love the design and weight of this knife. My problems with the knife are handle is slick; it needs some type of texture to it. There are also gaps between the handle material and the blade. The blade is not finished very well; there are dings and scratches in the blade that they just paint over. And last I had to put an edge on the blade, I think they sharpen it with 40 grit sandpaper.

I planning on replacing the handle with micarta and remove the black paint and dings and scratches from the blade.

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