First and foremost I must state that I absolutely love KA-BAR knives, the Becker line to be more specific. To narrow it down even more, I grown particularly fond of the Becker Companion BK2.

The Becker Companion BK2 was given to me by my wife several years ago as a birthday gift. Oh how I marveled at this magnificent, heavy American made drop point knife.

I soon learned that the rumors that I had heard were true, that the sheath would dull blade's edge when drawing and sheathing. Honestly, I was disheartened.

Not for long. The sheath eventually stopped dulling the blade's edge; it seemed that the more that I drew and sheathed the blade the less and less the dulling occurred. Eureka! And there folks is the answer. Use your knife. Often.

Over years I have used this knife for many things; chopping, batoning, cutting, stirring, skinning, digging and even as a coal dust collector beneath the fire board in a bow drill kit. I never used the knife itself to try and create fire. Challenge accepted!

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What I did

I have hit enough things by mistake with this knife over the years to know that when struck in proper fashion sparks would fly. My son Gabriel and I would take hikes along our Roanoke River and find large and small chunks of quartz scattered about. We'd come home sometimes with small plum sized pieces and sometimes with larger potato sized ones. I split a few of the quartz pieces with the hammer end of my BK2 so that I'd have a sharp edge to strike the back of the Becker Companion against with hopes of getting a big enough spark to light a piece of char cloth. I scraped the protective coating away from the spine of the 1/4" thick blade.

I had great success with quartz and not as much with chert. I suspect that the greatest reason for one and not the other is that I had much larger pieces of quartz than chert, its mass allowed me to strike harder against it to produce a larger shower of sparks. Once the char cloth mated with a spark produced from the BK2 being struck against the quartz rock I was able to blow a tinder bundle of cedar bark into flame.

I love this knife.

Becker Companion BK2 Specs

Techincal Specs

• Weight: 1.0 lb.
• Steel: 1095 Cro-Van
• Blade Type: Fixed Blade
• Blade length 5-1/4"; Overall length 10-1/2"
• Grind: Flat
• Edge Angles: 20 Degrees
• Handle Material: Zytel
• Shape: Drop Point
• HRC: 56-58

1095 Crovan Steel

1095 CRO-VAN (chromium vanadium) STEEL is easy to sharpen, plain carbon steel used in knife making. Proven to be one of the most popular steels used in KA-BAR knives.

Where can I buy it?

Purchase the Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion Fixed Blade Knife by clicking this link.