Just received this knife from SMKW and was initially elated with the knife out of the box. The finish was fantastic, the edge grind was consistently even and it had arguably the sharpest edge of a Ka-bar out of the box I have ever experienced. It did not just shave hairs, it popped hairs and even sliced through a piece of receipt paper with precision. I was impressed.
The sheath held the knife very secure as all the reviews for the smaller Turok had confirmed. The sheath was a huge factor for me getting this knife. The only thing I did not like about the sheath was the retention snap for the handle. It seemed unnecessary as the sheath has excellent retention and it did not fold out of the way causing the edge to contact it when drawing out of the sheath and it made re-holstering the knife tedious.
Now that I had given the knife a good look all around, and decided it was a keeper, I quickly and easily removed the retention strap with no issue.
So now I started getting a feel for the knife and how it carried in the holster. The sheath worked great, I had no issues using the thumb ramp to remove the knife and it carried lighter than thought it would. Again, very happy.
As probably most others are when they get a knew knife I did not want to put it down. However, I started to notice something that had not immediately jumped out at me. I noted my right hand had a burning sensation on my palm just below my thumb. I quickly saw that the top bolt for the handle scale was protruding out past the scale and the threads were digging into my hand.
My first thought was the bolt was overtightened, but that was not the case, loosening the screw just a little caused the screw to become very loose and it still was not recessed with the handle scale. Even with thread fastener, I would not be comfortable loosening the screw. I'll admit, this was frustrating, but not a dealbreaker. I could maybe obtain a slightly shorter screw of file this one down, although I was worried about damaging the threads. Nonetheless, I would figure something out since I was otherwise so happy with the knife.
At this point, my neighbor who is a huge collector of knives and bushcrafts and camps with me, was waiting to see the knife when I got it. He was impressed when he first removed it from the holster. I then said you won't believe the edge on this thing. Again, he is an avid knife guy and he ran his finger across the blade and said, that's not that great to be honest. I immediately said try your arm hair, as I showed him two freshly missing patches on my arm from just a half hour earlier when Fed Ex dropped off the knife.
My buddy tried to shave his arm and not a single hair came off, absolutely no exaggeration. He said, yup it's a butter knife. I then grabbed the knife and ran it up against some hairs and nothing. We then tried a piece of printer paper and could not angle our way in to even get the blade started on any section of the blade. The knife was so dull I was shocked.
I quickly realized the only thing that could have done this was the sheath, as I had not used the knife at all other than shaving my arm hair. We looked closely at the sheath and the tight fit and it was near impossible to keep the edge from going hard against the inside of the sheath. The first thing that popped into my head was that this was almost like my old BK2 that had the dulling issues with the sheath, but this was even worse!
Now I was upset. This knife was not going to work for me. This type of dulling was unacceptable and it appeared the issue is inherent to the sheath design.
So today I called Ka-bar and spoke to a lady named Beth. I explained the issues and said I was very unhappy with this knife and was looking for the best way to resolve it. Beth did not offer any insight as to the issues I was having. She was nice in her tone, but not helpful to me to the point I just said I would like to return this knife back to SMKW. However, as I had explained to her, she knew I removed the retention strap from the knife so I asked if I could just get a replacement belt loop which just consists of the ballistic nylon and velcro section.
She put me on hold and came back and said I would have to purchase a new sheath for $17 something and $8.00 for shipping. Normally outside of these circumstances I would pay that with no issue. But I'm going to pay $24.00 for the new sheath and 10.00 or more to send the knife back to SMKW, this is now becoming my worst knife buying experience.
I then asked Beth if there was any way they could work with me, only because I would be keeping this knife, if it weren't for the defects, including the grip screw and I was told she could not do anything else on that and I should return the knife to SMKW.
I expressed I was a long time Ka-bar owner and I was not happy and ended the call. (I own nearly half of the Ka-bar Becker line and three versions of the fighting knife) These defects are not my fault!
So I then called SMKW and spoke to a customer service rep named Chase and explained the situation. His first statement was he thought Ka-bar should have been far more receptive to this situation and stated he would see what he could do. He said he would go ahead and set up a return authorization number for the knife and would put specific instructions for the return department that Ka-bar was contacted by the customer, was no help and advised to send the knife back to SMKW.
So, I guess, I am just sort of venting, but also expected more as a long time Ka-bar customer. I would love to hear from others on their perspective on this situation. My next knife purchase that was on my radar was going to be the Becker Bk 18 with the harpoon shaped blade, but I'm believe I'm done with giving Ka-bar any more business at this point.
