Is the BK5 discontinued?

Those here, particularly on the Becker sub-forum and most especially the Beckerheads, actually use knives and appreciate design criteria that advances performance; this, unfortunately, is not the mindset of the masses and hence does not drives sales.

Marketing of knives sometimes involves company aura of the bad-ass Super-Secret, High Speed - Low Drag "Operators" that took out an ISIS battalion with a ___[fill in the blank] ___ knife and or knives that have the latest and greatest alphabet soup Super Steel or high priced knives that look "tacticool."

To those of us who actually cut, slice, dice, chop and lop stuff with knives - we appreciate the design, materials and execution of Becker Knives. Shame that there's not enough of us to provide the sales numbers to keep great models like the BK5 alive.

Cheers to us - and those like us!
 
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The BK-7 and 9 may have the name combat in them , but I would say the BK-5 is actually better for that stuff. Penetration is much more efficient with the 5.
Try getting the 7 and 9 through layers of tough cloths. The 5 does that with ease.

And why the BK-2 is being so popular is beyond me.
The 5 is in my opinion much more of a knife than the BK-2.


The 5 probably didn't sell that good.
Pity to see it go out of production.
 
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Yea... don't rub it in.

I had to choose between an additional 5 and an additional belt grinder.
Took the machine.
 
91bravo said:
It seems all of my favorite Becker models are either disco'd or hard to find.
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Haha.
Yeah, and the thing is..
Knives that are discontinued can be really good ones too.
If the 5 would be without choil I would like it even better.
But I dislike choils in general ...
An edge near the handle has no need for a choil in my opinion. I rather have the handle as a grip than the thin choil when cutting.

eon blue apocalypse said:
So then does anyone know why it's still listed on the 2017 kabar catalogue?
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I cannot find one website saying the BK5 is being discontinued.
Ka-bar.com included.
 
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noviomagus said:
The BK-7 and 9 may have the name combat in them , but I would say the BK-5 is actually better for that stuff.
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:thumbup:

Here, try mine ... ;)

BK5_zpseibwgxqs.jpg
 
TravisH said:
:thumbup:

Here, try mine ... ;)

BK5_zpseibwgxqs.jpg
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Beautiful.
I have done some stab tests with the BK5, 7 and 9.
And I can say that the 5 is by far the best of the three knives. Head and shoulders above, difference.
This test was to stab through layers of tough cloths/carpet.
For a soldier, and self defence, I would pick the 5.
The 9 had the worst penetration.
The 5, 7 and 9 had no sharpened swedge.

The CRKT Hissatsu, not a Becker :eek:, was by far the best in this test.
Not a knife to do daily tasks with though. Not that it's made for it anyway :D
 
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Why doubt that it was discontinued? Even when they were being given away with the BK20, Ka-bar was still shipping stamped/smooth coated 5s. That suggests - to me, at least - that there's still a bunch of new old stock.
 
hhmoore said:
Why doubt that it was discontinued? Even when they were being given away with the BK20, Ka-bar was still shipping stamped/smooth coated 5s. That suggests - to me, at least - that there's still a bunch of new old stock.
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I did see a couple of sites where the BK5 had the new laser etched logo.
Like this one
http://www.blades.co.uk/store/Becker-Magnum-Camp-KB_BK5.html
https://www.coyleoutdoors.com/bk-5/

Mine were with the stamped logo and smooth coating also. And I ordered a few two months ago...
 
I like the stamped look on my bk5 myself. But my bk4 and bk20 are laser etched, so I ended up etching them with etchant solution to deepen the logos a bit. When I strip, the logo looks stamped!
 
Thanks to this thread I picked up another BK5 for 55 bucks on Amazon. Awesome blades. Maybe another next month. :rolleyes:
 
noviomagus said:
I did see a couple of sites where the BK5 had the new laser etched logo.
Like this one
http://www.blades.co.uk/store/Becker-Magnum-Camp-KB_BK5.html
https://www.coyleoutdoors.com/bk-5/

Mine were with the stamped logo and smooth coating also. And I ordered a few two months ago...
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And I remember when coyleoutdoors (Dexwithers) encountered his first "modern" BK5 - but most people were still receiving the older style well after. As I said, it seems to suggest that there is stock available despite the model being discontinued. (My point before was that Kabar likely didn't keep making the old style BK5 for years after they switched the rest of the Becker line to the be style)
 
I see that there are BK5s still available for a good price. I like the looks of it but have just never pulled the trigger and bought one. What do you commonly use the BK5 for? I wouldn't mind adding one to my collection but I can never figure out where or what I would use this knife for.
 
TP9 said:
I see that there are BK5s still available for a good price. I like the looks of it but have just never pulled the trigger and bought one. What do you commonly use the BK5 for? I wouldn't mind adding one to my collection but I can never figure out where or what I would use this knife for.
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The BK5 is such an excellent knife and since you can still pick one up for under $60, I fully recommend just, as you say, pulling the trigger and scooping it up. I gifted one to a buddy a couple years ago and I think he has used it maybe once to clean a fish but I liked his so much though, that I grabbed up one for myself.

Though mine has not seen any woods use yet (sure to change soon with the weather getting better), I have been using it in my kitchen on pretty much a daily basis. It is just a superb cutting tool, feels great in the hand, you can choke up on it nicely to do finer work. Though I love all my Becker knives and cannot wait to add to the lineup again, the BK5 finds itself getting played with more often than the others, it is that fun to handle.

There was a blog post/review that I read awhile back and I cannot remember where I saw the link. Perhaps someone here posted it. In any case, the author discussed using his BK5 at his (homestead?) and he gave progress reports on it regarding the uses he put it to and how well it performed, etc. I think he even stated in the beginning that he had some reservations due to it being a thinner blade than something like the BK2 or even BK9 as he was expecting the knife to pretty much do everything one would expect a large knife to do on a homestead. However, the more he used it, the more he liked it, and it never failed him.

It was a great review, I will see if I can find it and post it for you.

All in all though, pick a BK5 up, you won't regret it. But if you do, I am sure there are many of us here who would be happy to take it off your hands ;)

Edit: Found the review: https://sailingradmode.com/2015/07/09/3-year-knife-review-the-becker-bk-5-magnum-camp/
 
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