Workin' my Becker Necker (pics)

[esrice]

So I spent the day in Brown County, and was kinda bummed that I don't have a $600 knife to beat up.

Then I got to thinking, "if I had a $600 knife, I wouldn't even know what to compare it to!"

So I took along my $35 Becker Necker (Ka-Bar) and made it do some stupid knife tricks. For more info on this knife, checkout A.G. Russell Knives | Ka-Bar® Becker Necker .

Now, this knife has been sitting in my safe since I bought it last year. I haven't cut a thing with it, so it's essentially new. It came with a length of black paracord to wrap the handle, but I wasn't feeling artsy (nor crafty) today, so I left it at home.

The included sheath covers the blade and doesn't do much else. It's large and leaves something to be desired. Friction is the only thing keeping it in place.

So I ventured out into the woods with my trusty Necker. I came across some recently split logs, so I decided to snap a glamor shot.



So far so good.

Next, I wanted to try some 'batoning', like the cool knife guys do. Tyler34 showed me the proper technique at NFA Day, so I was eager to try it out myself. Keep in mind that this is a small knife, and would be comparable in size to a RAT Izula. I realize that this size knife isn't the best for batoning, but I still wanted to do it.



Not too shabby. The spine on the Necker is nice and beefy, and took the whacks well. It wasn't a 'hot knife through butter', but it finally did the deed.

Next, at the risk of totally mutilating the tip, I decided to drive it into the stump. I'm not sure why I wanted to do this, and I don't know exactly why I would need to do this in a survival situation, but it sounded like abuse, so I gave it a whirl. I took my 'batoning stick' and smacked the butt of the knife, driving it nicely into the log.



This was the part that probably surprised me the most. It drove in there REALLY easily. Getting it back out just took a few whacks in different directions on the handle.

Having done that, I spied a tree that appeared dangerous and threatening. Not wanting to take any chances, I decided to drive the knife through the tree entirely.



That worked well too, splitting it nicely up the middle.



After all the abuse, the blade still seemed sharp. The black coating stayed pretty well intact, with it rubbing off only on the edges of the spine. I treated it to a bath by tossing it into the creek.



This washed away all the debris off the blade, and made it look new again.

Now it looks like I've got a good 'baseline' to begin looking for a more "hard-use knife".