KA5011-BRK Fighting Knife

After going through the process of discovery, learning, and deciding, I arrived at this knife. And I love it.Where to start.. Well, it came in the mail quickly, arrived safely, as the box wasn't harmed and everything was in-order in its case. Blade portion sheathed in cardboard, kept within a sealed plastic bag. No loose ends.Feels great to hold. The kind of knife you may want to pass on to your children as they get older.Blade:I have shaved wood, chopped, and "batoned" with it so far, and it performs wonderfully every time. After shaving wood about 30 times, chopping 20 times, and batoning about 6 times, the knife could still shave the hair off my arm. The weight is nice to have with a large survival knife, as it makes chopping easy. The steel is tough enough to hold up to the pounding of batoning, but fine enough to do detail work. The angle of the edge is set at 20 degrees, and is more than very sharp. Ease of re-sharpening makes up for the supposed "speed at which it becomes dull", though it didn't appear to dull after what I mentioned earlier.Handle:Very nice material that provides great grip. The shape sits in your hand comfortably. The finger guards are wide enough to not let anything past them, even if you have large fingers. The butt end appears strong. Though I have not used it to pound anything yet, I'm sure it will hold up to the test.Sheath:Only complaint: After a while of use, the locking system appears to damper. The metal finger guards are what keep the knife in place within the sheath, and when pushing the knife in and pulling it out, the plastic of the sheath begins to wear away. I'm estimating a year of good use would justify a purchase of a new sheath. However, there is a button snap which also holds the knife in place, even if the plastic wore down around the finger guards. The snap is located near the belt loop, and wraps around the handle/butt section. So, due to this secondary precaution, I still give it a 5 star review.Overall:Great blade, great steel, great handle, great sheath (considering it has the button snap lock). I feel as though every penny I spent on this product was worth it. I plan to have it for a long time.Thanks Ka-Bar. Or should I say, "kill ab'ar" :)

This is my second purchase of the same, so obviously I'm happy with it. (I still have the first and it's holding up fine). It's a US made Kabar, the fit and finish is utter perfection with perfect consistency between the two samples I bought two years apart. They're just very "tight" and confidence inspiring in their assembly and seem to say "high quality!" as soon as you hold it.Out of the box it's hair-popping sharp so be careful, unlike some Ontario's I've bought, Kabars can draw blood immediately upon arrival. 1095 steels are not all created equal, and Kabar heat treats theirs nicely. It holds an edge and unlike so many other knives, seems to take to sharpening again so easily that even a ham handed dolt (me, when I first started sharpening) can restore it to it's scary sharp 20° edge.The clip point has a false edge that kind of winks at you and says, "psst, hey.. wanna sharpen me? I've already almost got you there ;)" Five minutes later you'll have a formidable weapon, even though it already is without it being sharpened. I'd leave it be if you plan on batonning with it, and only sharpen it if you're taking it with you as part of your load out to the sandbox.The sheath is awesome. A reasonably low profile, ambidextrous and non-bulky smart design with a drain hole. It's adaptable to any carry option including molle of course and locks the blade in without the snap, but not too strongly so I always use the snap for insurance.Complaints? Well, maybe just one: the color. It's called "foliage green", but if you drop it in green foliage, it will stand out like a gray battleship parked in a bush. I really don't get this business about calling something that is basically 70% gray/30% green, "foliage green". Regardless, it matches all my other foliage green stuff including the digital ACU (obviously this was Kabar's intent) and still looks pretty cool, especially since the only other option Kabar makes with the kraton grip (far superior to the stacked leather) is black.PS. Hey Kabar, can you make additional options of these in olive drab green, tan and coyote brown, but have them actually BE those colors? Do that and you might score an actual military contract with the US military again and get an NSN# assigned to them :)

first off it is my first kabar and my first plain edge knife. i got this knife on time which was great. i havent really been able to put it through a lot but i have been able to do some light chopping and some carving but already you can see kinda large marks on the finish which is going to happen sooner or later but i would not think after a half day of lite use it would happen. other than that the knife is good it slices great holds its edge good as well and the handle has a nice grip to it. after i use it more i will do another review. i am happy with this product and i would recamend it to anyone that is willing to buy a good quality knife made in the USA.ok here is my follow up review this is a great knife it splits wood great but sadly i somehow bent one of the hand guards but i was able to bend it back kinda flat but that does not change the knifes great abillitys to do almost every thing. im a huge fan of gerber and the knifes i have from them are great knifes just it seems like they try to make a knife that can do every thing but the problem is that alot of times they make the blade to thick which gives the knife more like a axe blade than a more useable blade. this knife can do smaller jobs and it can do large jobs with out hassel. there is also not a lot of things that can go wrong with this knife it is just perfect in every way. If you treat this knife like a tool and take care of it by doing needed matnince such as oling the blade every once in a while it will last you forever!