KaBar's Laser Etch and Coatings

Note on the laser etching. I have talked to Ethan about this a few times. A lot of people see the laser etching in lieu of stamping as a lazy cheap move on KaBar's part. This is far from the truth. The KaBar Becker knives have an extremely low break count. Ethan attributes this to the laser etching. He said laser etching is actually more expensive and has proven to prevent stress fractures in the blades. Ethan said before they laser etched them, the small number they got back from breaking always had the breaks occurring in the logo stamp. Personally, I liked the look of stamped blades better, but that's only because I usually strip the coating off my blades. With the laser, if you strip the coating off the blades it takes the logos with it. Unless you electro etch or gun blue and bleach them, they sand right off.

The coating on the KaBar blades was originally a smooth black finish. When they started laser etching the blades KaBar (not Ethan) switched to a very rough textured coating. The bk5 was the only blade to keep the original smooth coating. The general consensus was we all prefer the smooth coating. Ethan has noted and has had KaBar slowly start to bring it back. It made its come back on the bk21, then the bk20/29, and the latest version of the bk13. Most every KaBar Becker has come in both the smooth and rough coating. The rare ones are the smooth coated tweeners (not first production run marked) and the PROMO bk4. Smooth bk2, bk3, bk7, and bk9s pop up on eBay all the time. The ultimate unicorn is the rough coated bk5, I have seen photos of one. Super super super low quantities were made and then they decided to keep it smooth coated and stamped.