Becker BK62! *UPDATED*

UPDATE!

Ok so we now know this not a limited release it will be a standard production model and the scales are indeed walnut.

Also, pre-order is available now from several dealers. (I recommend Tomars). If you dont get one from the first batch the next batch wont be coming until after the new year. So get on it if its going to be a Christmas gift!

Here are some threads from Bladeforums you should check out.

The Kephart is here!

First Run of BK62's

Beckerhead Camping and Woodcraft Reviews....

Here is the BK62 video Kabar made at Ethan's

Finally the cat is out of the bag at Blade Show West! Ethan has had me sworn to secrecy for too long now! The long awaited Becker-Kephart is now confirmed!

Photos thanks to Bladeforums member Jonny1280! Here is the link to Jonny's thread on BF


Still not sure if this will be a limited release from the Kabar custom shop State & Union like the bk98 was. Hopefully this is a full production model. Or perhaps this version with the woods scales, clear coated 1095, and leather sheath will be the custom shop version followed by a standard black coated, laser etch, with ultrimid handle scales as the regular model?

If I remember what Ethan told me correctly, these wood scales on the bk62 should be walnut. The original Kephart scales were walnut and he wanted it to be the same on the Kabar model.


No official release date yet, but please don't bug Kabar about it.

September updates.

Just a quick post to let you know whats changed. 

TONS of new stuff in the ads-reviews-info-history page and all the images are larger!

New Blackjack dive knife photos.

New Camillus helicopter egress photo with handle.

New Camillus bk91 photo.

New Kabar bk11az photo.

New Kabar signature tweeners photo. 

New Kabar bk3sg photo.

and of course the new CAM1A1 and Dogwood Firefly post.

Dogwood Firefly

Just wanted to throw out a quick post on an amazing product for your Becker knives. The Dogwood Knives Firefly.

Dogwood makes aftermarket scales for both the full size Beckers and Tweeners. 30 minutes of sunlight can equal 8+ hours of glow.

They come in a variety of colors, liners, and glow stones. Green glow will be the brightest.

The full size feel just like the stock Kabar handles, while the Tweener handles have some very nice subtle texturing.

Click here for the Tweeners

Click here for the full size

So let me talk about why I like these.

1. They glow. Seriously I think this has happened to everyone at some point. You are sitting by a fire whittling a stick and night begins to fall. You put your blade down for just one second to maybe throw another log on. The blade disappears, now you're feeling around looking for it hoping to find the handle before you find the blade. This has even happened to me with large blades in daylight! I will be limbing a branch with my bk4 and then put it down on the ground for just a minute to gather up the cut off branches. I spend at least three minutes walking around in a grid looking for it. These handles really help with the visibility day or night.

2. Ever since I got married most of my camping has been car camping. Usually in one of the paved drive-in spots next to all of the nice RVs. Well when I'm out swinging blades and making noise I get the sense it makes everyone else feel uneasy. The full size grips give the bk4 a less threatening look. Probably a good thing. Definitely looks less threatening hanging out of the sheath on a pack.

Just by themselves.

Add some light.

SUPER GLOW.

Full size in green with green glow.

White liners, orange handle, with green glow.

Family photo.

Blue with blue glow.

Cam1A1

Hello my nonexistent readers, it's been a while. Quick post for you here: something I've been trying to knock out for a while.

The Camillus Cam1a1 Bayonet is not a Becker design. In fact it was designed by Bob Terzuola. Why am I telling you this? Because to this day due to some oversight, people think the Cam1a1 is a Becker blade. No joke go check eBay right now, I bet you find at least one that says it's made by Becker Knife & Tool. So the apparent story here is Camillus accidentally shipped all of them in their Becker boxes. The label on the box only said Cam1a1. So for all these years after Camillus closed their doors, people still think Ethan Becker designed a bayonet.

So I cant find a 100% confirmed story about why they ended up in the Becker boxes. I've heard they never actually sold these to the public or even issued them. So one theory, they had a large stock left when they were going under and they just stuck them in what ever box they could find or had extras of. I've also heard they sold most all of them in one large lot to Smokey Mountain Knife Works (SMKW) during the closing action. Rumor has it SMKW also bought up all the extra Camillus boxes. So another theory is that they purposely put them in the Becker boxes just to move them. However if this was the case I don't think they would have taken the time to put the labels on all the boxes, but still a possibility. I do know for a fact that all those cleaning cloths Camillus sent out with with these and the other blades that went to government/military are currently residing in a massive barrel on the bottom floor of SMKW. I think they are selling them for $1 each. So SMKW defiantly bought up a bunch of junk from Camillus at the closing auction.

So lets talk about the price. Holy cow these thing sell for so much money! If you get the complete set (as pictured above) it can really cost you. I'm personally not into bayonets. However, knowing the knife industry I'm sure there a massive amount of bayonet collectors. It fits the categories for both blade collectors and militaria collectors. I suppose if they really were never issued or sold they might have some extra value, but honestly I know nothing about the bayonet market. I would need a real expert or collector to chime in.

Side note: the MOLLE backer currently on the one above was not originally included. I got that from a guy on eBay who claims to be the only one to have them. He says he bought the only box of them at the auction. He said something like Camillus was making them so the troops could attach them to their vests. Again I don't even know if these left the factory and saw any action, but still... a cool find.

Random Updates

Just thought Id pass along some updates that have been made. 

The BK98 and BK2FDE have been added to the KaBar page.

New and updated prototype photos in the KaBar page. 

New prototype added to the Blackjack page. 

Photos of the Cincinnati Divtul/Tactul added.

Database chart updated to included new models. 

Larry Harley Machax

A little while ago this Machax listed on Ebay.

It was made by the late Larry Harley. It had the same logo as another Machax I had seen before in Ethan's shop. I asked Ethan about it, he told me he was at a gun show way back when selling his knives and thats when he meet Larry. Larry liked the machax a lot. He said he literally pulled out a pen and paper and traced out the shape right in front of him. At first he was like what the hell? Larry said don't worry I'll only make a few and it will only make it more popular for you. Ethan said he reluctantly agreed. Later Ethan said he and a bunch of other knife makers tried to help him out when he was down on his luck. He mailed him a whole crate of Cincinnati machax blanks to finish.The one in Ethan's shop is a true custom made by Larry. It's slightly smaller and .25" thick. It's very wobbly compared to a regular Machax. 

The one in the photo from Ebay is Identical to a cincin, so that one was made from a blank.

If I remember correctly Ethan told me the the the top one in the photo bellow was re-handled by Larry and he also smoothed out the nub next to the plunge line, similar to the others above. The bottom one was another one of Larry's full customs. The customs seem to have the sharpening choil on them. I've always wanted a smaller Machax, but holding the one bellow changed my mind. 

As said above, Ethan sent Larry a whole crate of blanks: probably 50 or so. There should only be a very few number of customs: maybe around 5 total, but who knows how many blanks Larry finished. Keep an eye out. 

Bush Hog

While I was taking photos of some blades in Ethan's shop I came across this bk6. I was originally  looking at the early prototype Camillus micarta handles on this bk6 when I saw the name "BUSH HOG" where the normal logo would have been. I then looked at the other two bk6's Ethan has in his shop and they all said "BUSH HOG." I asked Ethan about it and he said that was the original name. He says some company called up Camillus because they had a trademark on that name for some other product. Ethan said Camillus almost scrapped making the bk6 until he said "Why don't we just change the name." So Ethan renamed it the Patrol Machete. Ethan said he's unsure if any actually shipped out with the Bush Hog name on it. I've never seen any. From what I've gathered it may have been called the bush hog on some early catalogs or ads. They might be out there, so collectors keep an eye out.

Ads - Reviews - Info - History

Ads - Reviews - Info - History

This is the post I've been waiting for. It has been impossible to finish this and my Machax post for lets just call it copyright reasons. Thanks to the boss man himself, Ethan Becker, I can finally post all of this golden history. I'm constantly finding "new" old history to post so I'm hoping to add to this as time goes on. 

I have enlarge these imaged as much as possible so the page might be formatted a bit off. Keep in mind you should be able to click on all of these to allow a better scroll view. 

Last update 8/6/19********** NEW STUFF IS HERE!

 First up is a Warrior ad, looks like Ethan just started up business with Blackjack because its blackjack info at the bottom even though this is a Cincinnati blade.

This old BRK was part of an American Survival Guide magazine giveaway. 

Old two page ad in ASG from the Cincinnati days. Note it says you can get the Camp-panion in 3/16" thickness?!?!? I have never seen one, nor have a seen any other Cincinnati ads say that they can come in 3/16". 

UPDATE 1/8/22 I have found a Cincinnati blank in 3/16 so it is confirmed. 

  I included a lot of this Moran Warner  bowie ads because its the blade that inspired the bk9

Here is a Cincin machax that was a prize in another one of ASG giveaways. It even made the cover! see below!

This is from an issue of BLADE Magazine where the Tactul was named 1990's knife of the year. 

An original Blade Magazine review of the Cincinnati Machax from 1987.

For as long as I've been into Becker blades I've always heard the line "A bk2 could field dress a car" or some version of that. It looks like this article is where the phrase was coined.

This Machax ad ran from the American survival magazine in 1989.

Here is one Ethan showed me. I have no idea where this piece originally came from but there are photos of the larger two in the Cincinnati post.

An old article on the Tactul.

An old Blackjack ad from a Cutlery Shoppe catalog. I found it in the stuff Ethan showed me. Included it in this because of the Combat Kukri, what the bk21 is based off of, and the Warner-Moran Bowie, which is what inspired the bk9.

Becker ad from Cutlery Shoppe. This is one of favorites, all hard chromed.

Here is a new one I had never seen before. Found it in a later Cutlery Shoppe catalog Ethan gave me to look through. $50 for the RBK! Only $50!

A Blackjack ad from American Survival Guide.

Another old Blackjack ad. Wheres the Machax?!?
Photo thanks to fighting knives

The next few photos are from an original pamphlet in the very early days. Before Ethan was kind enough to share the Tactul/Divtul photos I have in the Cincinnati post, this was the only place I had even seen an original.

Cool bk6 ad Ethan had. I've seen a lot of Camillus ads but never this one.

A review of the bk9HH.

bk9 review.

Camillus ad for the bk2SG and bk3SG with the NSN numbers. These were not available on the civilian market.

Some old Camillus lit.

This one is the crown jewel. Ethan would mail out these massive flyers back in the day. The photo is the actual size of the Machax. Ethan is a Marketing wiz.

Here we have three different ad pamphlets Camillus would throw in the box with the knife.

Old Brute ad.

Cool little side ad for the bk3 and bk7.

Old neck knife comparison article from Gun Magazine during the Camillus days.

This was was from 'a what knife to buy your mother' article, haha.

Here Ethan showed me the original photo sheets. You will recognize some of these from the pamphlets above.  

The original photos used for the Camillus pamphlets.

One of the original Machax drawings. Ethan has it pined up in his office. Note the title in the bottom photo. Becker Woods-Whacker.

Some new stuff I've recently acquired. 9/23/18

First up a dealer pricing catalog from 2006.

Next is this really off copy of a catalog. I've seen this exact one before online on the collectors of Camillus website. The physical copy I just got must be from an earlier year and they just copied the same cover and format. Let me post the original first and then show you why my copy is off.

Here is the two page ad from the original.

Some things to note. ALL of these beckers pictured (except the bk5) are Blackjack's painted in the Camillus black paint. The grind is higher on the brute and no sharpening choil. The bk2 has no sharpening choil. the bk3 is shorter like the divtul and has the old school serrations! The Machax is where this gets ever crazier. The handles are  from a cincinati model and if you can zoom in far enough its literally stamp with the Cincinnati marks! However the blade itself and the super fat edge look like a legit Camillus photoshopped on to the handle of a Cincinnati? Was photoshop even a thing back then?

Photo thanks to Collectors of Camillus.

So here is my slightly different catalog.

Cover

Looks at that Machax! it's straight! Same Cincinnati handle, with what looks to be a photoshopped Camillus blade on it. They don't label them like they did in the one above, but the writing has no mention of the machax. Instead it has the bk6, bk7, bk9, and bk10. The bk6 is basically a straighten elongated version of the machax so perhaps the marketing guys didn't get the memo? I don't know what to think. My only running idea is someone told the photo guy the bk6 is the same as the bk4 with a straight handle.

If you look close you can seen the stamp from Cincinnati. sorry this is just a photo, I don't have access to a scanner right now.

NEW 9/23/18
Some stuff thanks to: www.blackjack.0catch.com

Here is one from an old catalog. Check out that marked bk2! I have never seen a marked bk2 from blackjack!

 Dealer pricing from a few years.

This one calls the magnum camp the "magnum hunter"

Here and in the one above you can see they were selling the divtul in the S.S (Stainless Steel) and N.R.(Non-reflective)

Mailed out flyer, once again advertizing the divtul in both reflective and non-reflected finish. 

NEW 9/23/18 Update with some dealer price lists from Camillus.


These scans are thanks to Collectors of Camillus.