Designed by Ethan Becker (one of the nicest dudes on the planet) and manufactured by KA-BAR Knives, the BK11 is one of my favorite blades. Check this link for the full specs/info about the BK11 on Blade Forums. (Blade Forums is awesome place on the internets where you can chat with other blade obsessed folks.) The BK11 that I use was a gift from a good friend who wanted to introduce me to the awesomeness that is the Becker line of knives.
And lemme tell ya, the Becker knives are great! They’re affordable, made in the good ol’ USA, thoughtfully designed, incredibly durable, and meant to be used. I think they’re pretty, but hey, beauty is subjective so whatever.
A cool thing about the BK11 (and the Becker line of knives in general) is that it’s meant to be a user knife, and a lot of people have found them to be super customizable. Some people really go all out with their customizations. Mine are pretty simple, but it really makes a huge difference.
I have an amazing custom sheath for mine made by Sagewood Gear. The sheath is a kydex/leather hybrid with a belt clip. I asked for this because I’m often not wearing a belt, and I don’t actually carry this knife around my neck anymore. I used to carry it around my neck a whole lot actually, under my shirt when I worked in a hardware store, but I had a work apron on to help hide the blade. One of the curses of being a lady is that it’s pretty hard to conceal any sort of tool/weapon. Most of the time, if I am carrying a blade now, I either have it clipped to my pocket (see below) or have it in a bag/pack of some sort.
Other than the sheath, I haven’t made too many alterations to the blade. I did square off the spine a bit with some sandpaper and added a paracord wrap. I’ve actually been through several different wraps, but I like the lime green paracord the best!
Wait, why does one square the spine of a knife? I did it for two reasons, striking a ferro rod/fire steel, and for making really fine pitchwood (Also known as fatwood) fuzzies by just scraping the back of the knife, rather than the blade, against some pitchwood. Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about:
I use my BK11 for so many things. Probably the thing I do with it the most is make wood curls/shavings for starting fires. I’m not actually good at making feather sticks like some people can do, I’m more of a get-er-done type and just make a pile of little wood shavings for starting fires.
I also use the BK11 to open packages, cut strings/rope/paracord, cut sticks, open beer, poke at things I don’t want to touch with my hands, carve pieces of wood, cut food…. the list could keep going. If I actually kept it sharp enough, there isn’t any reason why I couldn’t use it to skin an animal, but dang I need to step up my sharpening game. It works, though, and I love it.
Some people don’t like the BK11 because the handle is a little short. But designed to be a necker, so it’s supposed to be that way. For most men with larger hands, they can get a solid three fingered grip on the knife. I can get four fingers on the handle because even though I’m pretty tall for a lady, I still have thinner fingers. Anyway, the BK14 has a longer handle, which a lot of people really love.
I’ll probably think of more things to say once I’ve officially posted this and have almost fallen asleep, but there you have it, the Becker Knife & Tool BK11. One of my favorite things!
Thanks for reading!
*** Please Note: The favorite things posts are not ranked in a particular order, I just post about anything I really love.***
