Very unhappy Ka-bar Turok Camp Owner

[Against_The_Wind]

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 really offer any insight as to the issues I was having. She was nice in her tone, but I felt not helpful 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 around $17.00 and $8.00 for shipping. Normally outside of these circumstances I would pay that with no issue at all. But I'm going to pay $24.00 for the new sheath and $10.00 or more to send the knife back to SMKW, due to defects I did not cause.

I then asked Beth if there was any way they could work with me, because I would be keeping this knife, if it weren't for the defects, including the protruding grip screw and but she did not offer any other remedy and advised I should return the knife to SMKW, since that is where I purchased it..

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) I felt Ka-bar would want to know why the knife was having these issues.

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

 

[argyle1812]

Wow that is sad to hear. Nothing is worse than customer service that doesn't work with it's customers.

 

[shane45-1911]

OK, let me paraphrase....

You own LOTS of Beckers. With no issue? OK, so chalk this one up to one that got away. People make mistakes. Mass production multiplies the chances of a sub-par one slipping through. Although a protruding bolt is hardly the end of the world, and could be easily fixed - most likely by you.

You have written off Kabar/Becker because of one (minor) issue.

The knife will shave your arm hair, but not your buddy's. That makes zero sense. Unless you friend is a gorilla with extra course hair. Do you know how to sharpen a knife? It's going to get dull sooner or later. They just sped up the process a bit for you. I can somewhat empathize that you would expect a new knife to be sharp out of the box, but again - hardly an issue to get bent over.

You modified/removed the strap and thought you should get something for free to replace it.

You should have just contacted SMKW and sent the knife back. They are usually pretty good with their return policies, no matter how petty.

Just my 0.02 cents.

 

[Against_The_Wind]

OK, let me paraphrase....

You own LOTS of Beckers. With no issue? OK, so chalk this one up to one that got away. People make mistakes. Mass production multiplies the chances of a sub-par one slipping through. Although a protruding bolt is hardly the end of the world, and could be easily fixed - most likely by you.

You have written off Kabar/Becker because of one (minor) issue.

The knife will shave your arm hair, but not your buddy's. That makes zero sense. Unless you friend is a gorilla with extra course hair. Do you know how to sharpen a knife? It's going to get dull sooner or later. They just sped up the process a bit for you. I can somewhat empathize that you would expect a new knife to be sharp out of the box, but again - hardly an issue to get bent over.

You modified/removed the strap and thought you should get something for free to replace it.

You should have just contacted SMKW and sent the knife back. They are usually pretty good with their return policies, no matter how petty.

Just my 0.02 cents.

There is no way you read my whole post.

The knife shaved right when I took it out of the box. I did not check it again till my friend checked and he pointed out that knife was very dull. So I thought that can't be right since it was sharp as a scalpel 30 minutes earlier and I had not cut anything. So I then attempted to shave arm hair, cut paper, etc., and it was now as dull as a butter knife.

The ONLY thing that could have done this is the sheath.

And yes, I have had many beckers with nary an issue. I'm NOT upset due to finally encountering a Ka-bar with issues. It was the nature of the phone call that made me upset.

I have a right to modify my knives, but unknown defects that surface after those modifications are not my fault and in my opinion I thought Ka-bar who have put forth some more effort to try to make this right.

I DID CONTACT SMKW as mentioned in my post.

I own Tops, Esee, Spyderco, Kerswaw knives and have ran into issues less significant that this and all of those companies tried to move mountains to make the situation right. I'm not happy with Ka-bar customer service, end of story.

 

[Boru13]

A Against_The_Wind
Continue the conversation in the thread you started earlier.

Very unhappy with my new Ka-bar Camp Turok and customer service!

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...

www.bladeforums.com