Bladework:KABAR

Bladework: KABAR Knives

I was back down at the swimming lake today, and spent quite a while in the water. This provides me with an opportunity to do a little product-comparison for those of you who are choosing a fighting knife.

I mentioned that the last trip involved a KABAR USMC Knife, designed for WWII Marines. We're several days from the swim now, and I can report the following: there is some mild discoloration along the steel edge, and on the butt of the knife where the baked protective layer has chipped due to more than a decade of being used as a hammer in field circumstances (such as, "I don't feel like looking for a hammer. Hand me the KABAR").

It's nothing serious -- it'll clear off with a few strokes on an oiled whetstone. The knife requires minimal maintenance, and it's good to go. The leather sheath took more than a full day to dry, however.

I also own a "Next Generation" KABAR, with serrations, and it was that knife I took swimming with me today. Now, I'm the guy who prefers lever-action rifles and revolvers to anything semiautomatic. The old USMC KABAR is a thing of beauty, and the NextGen one is not. It's all too new, too black, not enough leather.

All that said -- if you're looking for a knife to swim with, it really is a lot better.

The steel blade lacks a baked protective layer, but is instead blasted with glass beads until its outer shell is so smooth as to be essentially immune to water. The result is a knife that is substantially more waterproof than traditional stainless steel, with the good qualities you usually only get with carbon steel. It will not rust, if you take even minimal care of it, but it is not as fragile as regular stainless steel, and it holds an edge better than any other "stainless" blade I've had.

The leather sheath is made from a different grade of leather, and dried quite quickly.

There is a straight edge variant, if you'd prefer that. I would have myself, in fact, but it was not available when I bought the thing -- which, I'm embarrassed to mention, was the very day it came out.

Ahem. Anyway, there you are. If you want a "big knife" of the "Military Fighting/Utility" variation, and you plan to take it in the water, the NextGen KABAR has my recommendation. It's not quite as good a fighting knife as a Bowie style, but the straight blade has a lot of good qualities, and I am certainly proud to carry one myself when I'm planning on getting wet.