KA-BAR BK22 Becker Campanion Fixed Blade Knife 5.25" Drop Point 1095 Cro-Van Black Blade Ultramid Handle Black

I ordered the BK22 the other day and received it today. I opened the box which was sealed at both ends and when I took the protective sleeve off the blade it wasn’t a BK22 😳 it’s a BK2 with the BK22 sheath. After doing some research I found out that the only difference in a BK2 and a BK22 is the sheath. The BK2 is supposed to come with a plain plastic sheath. What I got was the nylon sheath with the front pouch that the BK22 comes with. Not a deal breaker but still strange. Another thing that was odd is the coating on the blade is smooth. Not rough like my BK9. Only thing I could find online was that it may be an older model BK2. I’m not really sure what’s going on. I don’t think it’s a fake but part of me is saying it could be. I guess I’ll email KA-BAR and ask them what’s going. Unless it’s a fake I am over all impressed with knife. Pictures don’t give it justice of how beefy this thing is. When you hold it, it just feels like you could chop a tree down with it. I’ve seen some reviews that said it was too heavy but I like the weight of it. It feels extremely durable.

This is without a doubt the BEST knife for camping / outdoors/ survival that I have ever owned! It's built like a brick outhouse- full tang, 1/4" thick all the way to the exposed hilt. Perfect for driving tent stakes or anything else you want to hit. The knife is perfectly balanced around the index finger - when holding it normally, lay your hand palm up & open your fingers, the knife balances on your index finger. The nylon sheath is awesome! Particularly when you consider that the sheath has a Kydex insert so the knife won't punch through the bottom of the sheath. It's a great size and is easily stored or attached inside or outside a backpack or EDC bag. The blade retains it's edge under normal use (I admit I haven't put it through heavy abuse - yet!). Ka-Bar quality through & through!

Having been a lifelong owner of Buck, United, etc knives...this is the nicest blade I've owned. The blade thickness gives me great confidence that I'd be able to tackle any outdoors task without fear of blade failure/injury...and that's just not the case with many of my cheaper knives. The handle feels great in my XL hands. I can see, however, how the Micarta grips would be an upgrade if a rainy/snowy environment is expected. For the extra $50, you'd lose a lot of the "value" of this tool, but I might eventually go down that road anyway. For someone who likes Japanese-style blades in the kitchen, you might find this knife too bulky/unwieldy for finer work. However, for someone who likes beefier Henckels/Wusthoff-styled German blades, you'd feel comfortable with this. Although it wouldn't be my first choice, I'm confident that I could process a deer or a trout with this knife. As for the weight, if you're comfortable front-pants-pocket carrying a "snubbie", the weight and "tugging" sensation on your pants is very comparable...and not much of a concern. Otherwise, you might want to consider a lighter knife. The front pocket is the perfect size for a magnesium/ferro "combination" block (such as from Coghlan's) AND a swedish firesteel if you prefer that combination of fire starters. The sheath is nice and tight, and fortunately the snaps loosened up a bit after the first dozen times or so that it went back in. Very pleased with this purchase and I look forward to many years of dependable use.

So my reason for this purchase was because I lost my esee 6.....we were in the middle of a big move from state to state, stuff went one place and stuff went to another. In the midst of it all, my esee was lost. Promised my wife that would be the last knife I ever buy etc. etc, but I digress. Point is that loss left a big hole to be filled since I tested that knife to he umpteenth degree and used it from gardening to wood shaving. However, I also used this loss as an opportunity to branch out and check out other brands specifically KA BAR. I will say though this knife is not disappointing and familiar in all the right places. From its weight it felt like my old esee, but it carrys a shorter length of blade, not necessarily more compact, just less chance of it getting stuck somewhere while it's on your person. While I did love the extra groove in my esee to choke the knife better for shaving wood from different angles, the handle on BK seems to grip your hand instead, giving you less chance of a slip. As for the micarta handles I added, i would say they are a must for that extra grip and weather purposes, polymer grips won't hold well against rain or wet gloves even. The original sheathe that it comes with is actually really nice and sturdy, just not necessarily my style. Granted my esee came with a kydex sheathe, loved it to death. Fact is I learned that certain plastics can dull the sharpening, so I switched to something more organic. Leather is my choice but you could do wood if you really wanted to. Overall, granted it's difference in specs are quite noticeable, and I preferred to order upgrades of my choice; such as the micarta handles, and the leather sheathe, this knife really was worth the money. Also, based on the countless reviews and YouTube videos, this knife should prove to be a great replacement. I do plan on making an update with this knife after a camping trip, to give performance review, see if it's worth that five star rating 😎

ive not had a chance to put this to the test in the bush yet. (soon i will, going on a cold weather hike soon) but by all measures and tests ive given this knife. It is simply topnotch. Update: Ive now used this knife a few times out hiking/camping and frankly, its a beast. From shaping wood for a shelter, to batoning wood down from fuel, to kindling, to tinder, it never missed a beat. I Even used it on fuel wood as wide as the blade (not always recommended) but didnt go down the middle but took it in 1/3rds and it worked flawlessly. The handle and the tip both took batoning well and made very short work of the wood i was working with. I was out for a week excursion, and didnt even bother to sharpen the blade as it continued doing its job just fine all week long. Of course once back home I took it to my favorite stones, and the edge is better than new. The black finish held up very well, tho not perfectly (understandable, I was beating crap out of it) and one of the allen screws started coming loose after much use. (again no big deal, i keep a small set of tools in my pack anyway HINT!!) All in all, this knife far exceeded my expectations, as I planned on giving it a big workout with possible breakage in back of my mind.... I never once even considered having to dig out my backup belt knife. HIGHLY recommended.

Is it overkill? Yes, most definitely. Is it cool? HECK YEAH! I love this knife! KNIFE EVOLUTION I have a theory on how this knife evolved. For years, survivalist experts have been clamoring for the ultimate survival end-of-the-world knife: full tang, thick blade, indestructible – etc. etc. etc. Any knife produced under the umbrella of a survival knife was quickly subjected to torture tests that involved hammers, vices, blow torches, and knives being used in a manner that they were never designed to be. This was very good because survivalists quickly whittled away the "JUNK" that was being passed along as survival knives. This crucible of testing produced knives that a nomadic Neanderthal living at the edge of an ice age would dream about all his entire short life. I'm confident Neanderthals dreams of this Kabar BK-22! (I DID, for decades). It’s quite frankly the very best hunk of steel a nomadic close to extinction Neanderthal living at the edge of an Ice Age would dream of carrying. In knife evolution, all of these inventions were being used to fell full size trees, dig holes through rocks, skill wooly mammoths, etc. Videos were posted of all of this. In time, the industry responded by producing knives that were tougher and tougher. Sturdy full-tang knives like the excellent Marine Corps Kabar were relegated to the degrading rat-tail tang category. This knife is at that long line of survival-knife-abuse evolution. It’s the toughest, baddest, most well designed and engineered survival knife on the planet. I am confident of that. Sure, you can pay a guy $4,000 to go make you a custom crowbar…but for us simple folk who deal with mass produced tools – this is the Apex Predator of our realm. Is this knife going camping with me from now on? HELL YES. Does it replace my Axe? HELL NO. Does it replace my .357 magnum? HELL NO. Does this mean my SOG Pup or my folding knife aren’t going with me? HELL NO! I always carry at least two knives with me – my main side knife and a folding knife that actually sees all the action while camping. Mind you, I’m not a big fan of using knives as crowbars. In my humble opinion, it’s not the kind of work that knives were designed for. Use an axe to fell a tree. Use a crowbar to pry things. Just because a knife is at your side does not mean that it should be used as a hammer, crowbar, axe, and chisel – but that’s just me and experts do disagree – as evidenced by the creation of this brute! Also, without survivalists torture testing knives, this beast would not have evolved and it would be a much more boring world-of-knives with junk knives being peddled as survival knives – so thank you to all you torture testers out there. This knife though is now more than just the ultimate survival tool, it’s an image – it’s fashion. Most of these knives are not going to see much action, they are going to be heirloom display pieces, which is just fine. BEING SERIOUS I’m a backpacking camper. I’m not Rambo. I don’t expect to go out into the woods and have to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. The knife I always carry is a Coast DX356 Double Lock Folding Knife . It’s a smaller folding blade knife that I wind up using all the time to cut line, whittle a stick, etc. It’s cheap, it locks, the blade geometry is great (that means its thick enough and wide enough that I like it and robust enough that it’ll cut through bark etc.). It’s a perfect camping knife. I will turn the house upside down before I go camping if I can’t find that little folding knife. If I were to lose that little knife, I would cry because I use it so much but I know that I could just buy another one for very little money. I almost always carry a bigger knife at my side that doesn’t see almost any action out in the woods. It’s more of a showpiece that’s there in case the Zombie Apocalypse hits. The thunder is stolen from that show-knife by my folding knife and by my camping axe. The knife that almost always winds up on my side is a nice and sturdy SOG Specialty Knives & Tools E37N-CP Seal Pup Elite Knife with Straight Edge Fixed 4.85-Inch Steel Blade and GRN Handle, Satin Finish . It’s light and its short enough that it’s not a weapon but it’s a proper knife. I posted some pictures that compares a SOG pup and my little Coast knife to this knife. I put on a 40lb pack, hike for a day, camp and then do it again the next day. Weight is everything to me. The best purchase I made was a Estwing E45ASE 26-Inch Special Edition Camper's Axe-All Steel with Shock Reduction Grip . I probably shouldn’t say this because it’ll give up my secret, but what I find is that most campers will gather all the small wood and leave the larger dead pieces that they can’t harvest – a 28inch camper’s axe allows me to harvest wood that less experienced campers cannot. Yes, that axe weighs 3lbs but those are the very best 3lbs I carry. STEEL People get all wrapped up around the axle over steel types for knives: S5, 1095, ATS-34, AUS8A. You can have arguments with engineers who are experts at metallurgy and you can have countless arguments with people who know nothing about steel but who will still argue that their knife is best. Just know that there are thousands of different types of steel. One of the most common knife steels out there is ANSI 1095, which is a high carbon steel that keeps a great edge. The major issue with 1095 is that it rusts easily. To combat this, the folks at Kabar have always added Chrome and Vanadium to their steel – hence 1095CV or ChroVan. It’s one of the distinguishing characteristics of Kabar – they made knives for the Marine Corps and those knives had to withstand marine environments. This Kabar is made out of 1095CV steel – which is the same as Sharon 170-06 – steel from Sharon Pennsylvania. It’s basically ANSI 1095 with a bit of Chrome, Vanadium, Nickel and Molybdenum to help protect it. So, it’s not pure 1095 but 1095+. The blade is coated to further inhibit corrosion. Will it rust? All steels rust if subjected to the right conditions. If you throw it in the ground and leave it there for two months in the rain – yes, it will rust – you can, of course, polish those rust stains out. But, if you take care of this blade, keep it sharp and clean, with maybe a drop of oil now and again, it will last three lifetimes and you’ll never have a problem. WEIGHT When you have a hunk of steel like this one, you’re going to pay with the weight. It weighs in at 15 ounces. That’s a pound of solid steel because the handles don’t weigh much. The sheath adds another 5 ounces – 20 ounces total. That’s heavier than my .357 Magnum Snubby – which is always at my side. By comparison, the SOG pup comes in at 5 ounces and the sheath adds another 5 ounces for a total of 50% weight savings. It bears repeating, this knife weighs as much as 3 SOG Pups and more than my .357 Magnum!! Bear in mind, my 28” camping axe weighs 46 ounces – this knife weighs 20 ounces. If you give me a choice of taking my axe or this knife, I will take the axe every day of the week. If you’re a light camper that is concerned with weight, this knife weighs you down. If you’re a diehard survivalist, you’ll gladly carry it. FIGHTING Quite realistically, you are not going to fight with this knife. It’s too heavy. As a trained knife fighter, I’d say that the full size KA-BAR Full Size US Marine Corps Fighting Knife, Straight or even the SOG Pup are better knives for fighting. This thing is a brute…you could use it as a hatchet maybe and crack a skull or a femur but you can find better fighting knives. Of course, if I’m fighting a Grizzly Bear or the Alien Predator from the Schwarzenegger movies, and I’ve lost my rifle and gun, this is the knife I want in my hands when they find my dismembered body. SHEATH This new nylon sheath is much more in line with a high quality sheath for this knife than the previous generation. It does have a kydex-like liner to protect the nylon, just like the SOG sheath, and it has an outer pocket which is perfect for a fire starter magnesium block. I love that the belt loop is held together with Velcro (hook and loop) and with a snap closure, so I don’t have to take off my belt to don this. It also comes with a variety of attach points that you can use to latch this to an Alice pack or for you to use paracord to strap this to your leg, if you so choose. It’s a really nice sheath in my opinion. Basically, the BK2 had the old sheath and the BK22 has the new sheath. I recommend the new model. THE LAW In my state, it is illegal to carry a knife whose blade is 5” or longer. Because this knife is 5.25”, you would need a weapons carry license to lug this bad boy around the woods. I am a licensed carrier so I can carry this knife but I always check up on my laws and the laws of the states I visit. The last thing you want is to go camping and wind up with a felony weapons charge. Know your knives and know your knife laws. The SOG pup’s blade is 4.75” which makes it easier to carry without legal entanglements. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to have laws of this sort but they exist – ignore them at your grave peril. WHO SHOULD CARRY THIS KNIFE - If your name is Arnold Schwarzenegger, you should carry this knife - If your name is Vin Diesel, aka Riddick, you should carry this knife - If your name is The Mountain, from Game of Thrones, you should carry this knife - If your name is Quartermain’s towering travel companion, you should carry this knife - If you are a guide in Alaska, you should carry this knife - If you are a bush craft master and a knife is the only tool you are allowed to take into the woods, take this knife - If you drive a Hummer or an F250, you should carry this knife - If you want to impress a bunch of 5-year-old boy scouts, you should carry this knife - When the Zombie apocalypse hits, carry this knife - If you are a red-blooded American, you should carry this knife.

I just received this knife and holy moly. I didn't expect it to be as big as it was. The pictures DO NOT do this thing justice. It's a full tang beast. I'm so excited to use this thing. I can tell just by handling it how durable it is. Very happy with my purchase. I now understand the price point. I'm sure it will live up to the test. Great knife! Sheath could be a bit better, but to me that's not as big of a deal. Update* Yup this knife is perfect. It's a solid monster. Batoning was easy even with medium sized pieces of wood. If I had to buy another knife it would be this one. My friend had the bk-7 I think and I prefer the thickness and shorter blade length of this one. Great knife, highly recommend!

Well conceived and well executed.