Customer Reviews

Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion Fixed Blade Knife

5 star:		(200)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this knife because I wanted an ergonomic survival knife that was both high quality and affordable. I got it delivered to me on a silver platter with this blade. A bolt of excitement will shoot up your spine the moment you grasp the handle and remove the cardboard shipping sheath from it and realize you're holding a tractable survival knife that is thicker than a pry bar. It is a serious hunk of metal at 1/4" thick - as thick as a Tom Brown Tracker or a Busse Ash-1 without costing as much as a Playstation 3.

Ethan Becker, the man who designed this knife, is a mountain climber, chef, and survivalist. He designed these same types of blades for the legendary but now defunct Camillus. Ka-bar was wise to ask him on board and he continues his basic approach - bringing people Busse-style ultra-thick high-quality steel fixed blades to those of us who don't want to shell out $450 for a used Ash-1 on Ebay or $275 for a Tom Brown Tracker. The Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Companion is easily in their league.

The Kydex shealth is excellent too - the knife snaps into it without even using the snap on belt and it's much tougher than leather and will not retain moisture. More lanyard holes than you could possibly need too.

I ordered my Becker Companion through Goliath and it came two days ahead of schedule. I cannot emphasize this knife enough. It is the survivalist's survival knife. It is not a short sword or a silly Rambo knife. You can baton through a piece of steel pipe and then go skin a rabbit or fillet fish or whittle an oak spear with this knife if you so choose. I think that sums it up pretty well. Indestructible yet tractable.

This is an awesome knife by Ethan Becker, available from KA-BAR. Great for handling just about anything you could ask from a solid everyday carry survival knife, including batoning wood. The edge that came on the blade was shaving sharp out of the box, the handle has one of the most comfortable I have come across, and the sheath is versatile yet durable. I can't speak highly enough about this work-horse of a knife that feels incredibly rugged in your hand.

The pricing here on Amazon is about as good as I have been able to find- I think I paid maybe a dollar or two less for mine from another website. Including shipping you should not spend more than $65 on this knife, which sets it even further apart as being an outstanding buy. If you do some research, you will quickly find that comparable knives go for at least $200.

Get the Bk2, you will not be disappointed.

If you are looking for something light. Don't buy it. If you are looking for something that is rust-proof and requiring no blade maintenance, don't buy it. If you are looking for the sturdiest, most durable blade in a survival/camping knife, get this one. You can chop a 4" birch to the ground with this knife. Yet, you can get the thing as sharp as you want. It has no peer when it comes to the amount of abuse it can take. It is well worth the money. Get yourself one.

There is SO much to say about the Ka-Bar BK2, but I'll try to keep this short, sweet and to the point... no promises

First off, I need to say that the pictures that they show of the knife on Amazon.com aren't 100% accurate for this knife. The picture that they show is of the BK2 first edition. The knife that you will receive if you order one is slightly different, but in a good way in my opinion. The bottom of the handle in the picture shows that the handle material and the bottom of the knife are flush together, when in reality the knife you will receive has an extended tang that sticks out of the bottom of the handle by about 1/3 to 1/2 of an inch; This allows for the knife to be used as a chisel.

The BK2 is an absolute BEAST! You can put this knife through just about any torture test and it'll come out ready to kick Chuck Norris' butt. The blade is 1/4 of an inch thick which makes the entire knife feel sturdy and VERY hefty in your hand. The knife isn't a light one, but for camping or any other place you may need to chop wood, this knife will blow the competition out of the water. The BK2 is definitely more for brute jobs like chopping wood, cutting thick plastic or anything you would need a hatchet for. You can also use this knife as a chisel because of the extended handle that I mentioned earlier.

The handle of the BK2 feels just as solid as the blade of the knife. The handle is made of grivory. Grivory is a very hard material which feels a lot like the love child if glass-filled nylon and aluminum had a baby. If you take the two halves of the handle apart, you have a fairly good sized space inside of the handle in which you could store some small survival items like some fishing line and a few hooks. The handle has a very solid feel to the shape of it; while the handle isn't made of a very "grippy" material, the shape of this knife handle will make it pretty hard to slip out of your grip, wet or dry.

What better way to finish up a fantastic knife review than to tell you about the fantastic sheath that comes with the knife. The BK2 comes with an extremely well molded kydex sheath. (for those of you who don't like kydex, just ignore me while I gush over this sheath) It comes with many different customization options and places to wrap molle straps, paracord or other kinds of rope or material. Another plus to getting the newer generation model of this knife is that they improved not only the looks of the sheath, but also the functionality of it as well; The sheath now holds the knife in place extremely firmly, which is an area that they had problems with before with the earlier edition. The only downside to the sheath is the nylon strap that they used in order to attach it to your belt; The nylon strap loop is WAY to big. (this can be easily solved by stitching it together in the middle) There is even a section of the sheath that indents, making it possible to put something like a magnesium fire starter on it without interfering with the way the sheath fits snugly against your leg. The last thing that I love about the sheath is that it has a drain hole on the very bottom of the sheath, where the tip of the blade is, in order for water that may get inside of the sheath to drain out through.

All together, this is one of the finest, most durable and BEST knives that I've ever owned. You will be VERY hard pressed to find a better knife that can do what this knife does, take the abuse that this knife can and still be as affordable as it is. This knife is absolutely the best value if you're looking for a knife that can take a TON of abuse and still work just as well as the day you bought it!

I'm not entirely sure how to do this knife justice within a five star rating system. It's very good for what it is, the question is what is it? As others have mentioned, it's a whopping quarter inch hunk of 1095 steel fashioned into a short brute of a knife shape. As near as I can tell, the knife itself is made in the USA, whereas other online sources indicate that the very well designed and executed sheath is made in Taiwan. The sheath itself deserves some commentary as I feel that it's easily worth maybe half the cost of the $63 knife/sheath system. The blade snaps solidly into the plastic sheath and the retention is good enough for inverted carry even without using the provided nylon grip snap retainer. The heavy duty sheath is also fully ambidextrous.

The plastic handle is retained by allen bolts with nuts and it's a good thing they're user tightenable, since the handle loosened up almost immediately with some batoning through hickory kindling. The blade is certainly robust enough for plenty of batoning through wood, yet at only 5.25" long, it's too short for batoning through much over about 3" wood or so. Yet, it's short length makes it relatively easy to carry on one's belt. When using it to whack and chop, I found it to be particularly bone jarring, and it's short length makes it a very inefficient chopper, even though it's quite heavy for it's size. I've seen comments to the effect that this would be a better knife with thinner micarta handle scales, and I agree, but at that point, it might well become as expensive as an Ontario Rat 5, which in my opinion, is an all around better knife for most purposes.

Some have said that the Campanion works as a kitchen knife. That's true as far as it goes, but nearly any dedicated kitchen knife or cleaver one happens to have is a superior slicer, and dicer due to the extreme thickness of the Campanion and the resulting obtuse bevel. Edge retention on the 1095 blade is only so-so.

The Amazon blurb that describes this as "lightweight" is hysterical. At nearly a pound (14.6 ounces), this knife is actually heavier than some lightweight tomahawks and hatchets. That brings up the question of whether one is better off with a lightweight puuko, or even a Becker Necker, combined with a light hatchet, machete or 'hawk, and in my opinion, the answer is most definitely. I like the Becker Campanion, but honestly can't think of too many scenarios where it would be my first choice in a carry knife. I'll probably use this one as a backup knife left in the vehicle for any situations in which, for whatever reasons I either don't have something more suitable with me, or want a knife that can be used as a beater. It's a good solid tool that should last for several lifetimes. I recommend it with reservations, though.

After reading the early reviews on the BK2 I bought one. It was my baby until my brother who is overseas asked for it ( Drat ). So naturally being the big brother, I handed it over to him (with a few minor whimpers). Then I bought another one and an old friend of mine took a shine to it. Guess what? Yep, that's two of them gone.
Now my plan is buy two so that I have at least one to fall back on. Everyone's going on about how great the BK2 is. It is that and more, but here's a biting criticism of the knife. I just can't seem to hold onto mine! It's that good. I've been pining for a survival / camping / hunting knife for over two years until I saw the BK2. It's an unbelievable knife. Both mine came hair shaving sharp at an extremely reasonable price; and best of all it's made in The U.S.A.
Ka-Bar and Becker could teach a few things to those who send our jobs overseas.

The reviewers before me have done this knife plenty of justice, but I thought I'd add a good review, just because this is one HELL of a knife!It more than stands up to any of the Ontario RAT series, for 1/3rd of the price. From splitting frozen 4" thick hardwood logs into kindling, batoning down dead trees, to cleaning game and fish, this knife can do anything you put it to. You will never need another knife after you buy this one.

Length:: 2:24 Mins

Hi there,

This is my review video of the Ka-Bar Becker "BK2" Companion knife.

So I have really mixed feelings about this knife. On the one hand, the quality and ergonomics are fantastic. It's everything the other reviewers say it is. I spent a whole weekend in the mountains putting this knife through the paces, and it's stellar. But I still struggle with it because of its size. I feel like it's too much knife for some tasks, and not enough for other tasks.

Here's the problem. This knife tries to be the kitchen sink - the one knife for every task. But in reality, knife tasks break down into two broad categories: fine work like cutting cord, food, feather sticks, etc., and heavy work like chopping and batoning wood. In my opinion, a knife that's heavy and sturdy enough for the latter is too clumsy for the former. "Jack of all trades, master of none ... "

The Becker Campanion is a hefty knife. I wore it around on my belt the whole weekend, and there was never a time I wasn't aware of it there. It's a full pound of knife tugging on your pants. You'll need a thick utility or gun belt to make this ride more comfortably.

Because of its heft, it's actually a passable chopper and it was fantastic at splitting wood with a baton. With that 1/4" blade, it's a short knife that's deliberately designed for heavy duty work. The problem is that because of the short blade, you're limited to about 4" wood. I found that too limiting. Most of the dead wood around my camp site was 6" or thicker.

Then we get down to the fine work - the kind of stuff you're pulling your knife out all the time to handle. Because of the heft, it was awkward using this knife to open a boy's bag of beef jerky or trim off a length of cord. Too much knife for the job, which can be dangerous. I found myself resenting having to pull out this much knife every time I needed to do a small job and started wishing for a smaller knife.

Which begs the question: if I'm going to end up taking two knives, why would I take this one as the "big" knife? It's not quite long enough for big knife tasks.

For me, the perfect combination is the KABAR Short Black Plain Edge Knife with nylon sheath on my belt - small, light and elegant for the fine work, but very tough and can be pressed into survival work in an emergency (some find the grip of the Ka-Bar Short too small, but I have smaller hands; pick a knife that suits your hands and your needs), and the Ka-Bar Black Cutlass Machete for processing wood. Two knives that excel in their specialty. Go to the Cutlass Machete product page to read my review of that fantastic knife.

Which brings us back to my quandary. How do I rate this knife? The ergonomics and quality are outstanding. But it tries to do too much and ends up not doing any of it as well as more specialized knives would. So here's what it comes down to. If I can only take one blade with me, it will be the Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion. As a jack-of-all-trades, it does as good a job as anyone could expect. It's well designed and well thought out. As a survival knife, it will do a stellar job. But if I can take two knives, this one's going to stay home.

One word about the sheath. I've got the second generation knife with the tight-locking sheath. It's a great sheath. The complaint I have is that pressing on the thumb break can actually keep the two halves of the sheath from separating. So I end up having to press on the back side of the sheath instead of the thumb break, which isn't as easy. It's not a quick operation to unsheath this knife.

I bought this knife a little while ago and immediately didn't like the grips that it came with, they felt cheap and kind of slippery with wet hands. I took them off and initially wrapped the knife in 550 paracord but was not too crazy about that so I ended up taking leather shoe laces and wrapping the handle and sanding and oiling them down, I wrapped the handle with the leather wet and it has made a very nice comfortable grip that doesn't slide even with wet hands and ( I think) looks a lot better. The edge on the knife came out of the box fairly sharp, definitely good enough for doing most things. I prefer a knife to be extremely shard and don't mind sharpening it a little more often. The steel this knife is made if sharpened at the proper angle will get scary sharp and still hold up to plenty of cutting. I have used this knife for some heavy cutting and chopping but not for log splitting ( you may want to leave the original sharpening angle on it for that kind of work). I would recommend this knife if you are looking for a heavy duty knife ( I use mine for backpacking) but it is kind of heavy. The sheath is pretty good, its not fancy but it gets the job done and the kydex type material its constructed out of should withstand years of abuse. So overall the knife is great with the exception of the grips, definitely recommend the leather wrapping or paracord wrapping (plenty of videos on [...] to show you how).