The BK16 is a true classic, a great knife, and likely a timeless design. No, its not a perfect knife and no, it will not get a perfect score, but if you like knives you need to own a BK16. Its greatness comes, like all true greatness, from its accessibility. This is a knife that anyone can pick up and appreciate. It has elegantly shaped handles and a exactly right blade shape and blade size. It is also a veritable cottage industry in and of itself in terms of mods. You can do the mods yourself (I am in the process of modding my BK16, more on this later), or you can tap into the creativity of the knife community and find custom sheathes, coating stripped versions, custom ground versions, and an array of handles so colorful that would make butterflies blush. Finally, in a true mark of accessibility, this knife is cheap. At $67 it, like a lot of the gear I have reviewed since Covid emerged, is part of a wave of inexpensive kit that I have examined. And while a lot of that stuff is good, the BK16 is great. Later in the review I will share my theory about the BK16 becoming a pattern, but I want to lay the foundation for such a lofty claim as we go through the scoring system.

Let me be clear though—this knife scores terribly. It scores right around the average for the site (16 out of 20, note that the average is higher than it should be on a 20 point scale because I am filtering out the true crap because I don’t even bother buying it). There are real problems with the knife too, these aren’t knicks and dings in a score caused by an imprecise 20 point scale. No, the BK16 is a troubled knife. But like the film Apocalypse Now, out of this trouble emerges fire-forged brilliance.

Here is a product page. The knife has an MSRP of $116 but is readily available for between $67-80 online. The review of the BK16 is spotty and sometimes it is not available. I don’t know if this is because they are phasing it out or because its just hard to keep in stock. Either way, if you let this knife go out of stock without buying one, you will kick yourself, pay $300 for one on BladeForums, and then kick yourself again. There are no variants, though Kabar would be wise to make a high end version with 3V and red felt lined green micarta handles, just sayin’. There are factory scales, but buying factory scales for a knife this supported by the mod community is like buying a NES and being content with only Super Mario (who turned 35 this month, Jesus I am old). Here is a written review. Here is a video review from Gideon’s Tactical. Here is my review sample (purchased with my own money and mine to keep):

Twitter Review Summary: One of the best knives on the market, warts and all.

Design: 2

NOTE: This image is of the BK16 after I stripped off the blade coating.

Becker’s part of the Kabar Becker collab here is indicative of his superb eye for good design. A master chef, prolific inventor, general tinkerer, and great outdoorsman, Ethan Becker knows how to design a great knife. Many of his designs are fan favorites, the BK2, the BK9, for example, but none are the all around masterpiece that the BK16 is. In fact, I will go further—there is no knife on the market today FOR ANY PRICE that has lines that are better than the BK16. There are a few that I think are as good, but I can tell you this—having handled Randalls, a few Kreins, and three different Loveless’s, the BK16 is right up there in terms of pure design. The fit and finish and materials leave a lot to be desired, but there is true brilliance here. Imagine if Tom Krein took a swing at this exact design and used better materials. That might be the end all be all of fixed blades. The BK16 design is really elite. Don’t believe me? Handle one, use it, and you will know—this is what a knife should feel like.

Fit and Finish: 1

Yikes! The blade coating on these BK series Kabars is pretty awful. They make these rustic knives feel downright primitive. The result is a knife that doesn’t slice well, that has some problems with the handle fitment, and looks damaged the instant you use it. Coatings are trash in general. This coating is the really smelly trash they bury under all of the yard waste at the city dump. You could remove it naturally through use, but why wait? Peel that crap off (my Gear Junkie tutorial can be found here) and be rewarded.

Handle Design: 2

Again, this is Becker’s part of the knife and again, it is brilliant. In fact, this might be the only handle design that rivals the handle on the Krein Whitetail. And remember that knife was $400. This is $67. With its good palm swell and nice Coke bottling, this is a handle that speaks to the hand its native tongue (how is that for mixed metaphors?).

Steel: 1

Cro-Van 1095 is a very decent steel. Its not bad at all. But is not good either. It does not hold an edge like 3V nor is it as impact resistant as 3V. Basically, I want this knife in 3V. Kabar could drop a 3V version with better fit and finish and people would beat down their door to give them $300. Did you read that Kabar? Zombie hordes full of knife knuts with cash just for you. Make an upscale BK16.

As a quick note, while it is a meh performer, Cro-Van 1095 is an excellent steel to learn on, both in terms of how to cut and how to sharpen. So if you are new to fixed blades and you want to get some quick skills or you want to learn how to sharpen, this is a great place to start. And since the knife it so good in general, it is also a great place to end up, hence the claim at the top of this review.

Blade Shape: 2

Becker side of the equation=awesome and there is no doubt here. This is a drop point that both looks great and performs great. Is there anyone out there that likes knives but truly dislikes drop points? I mean I know there are a few hood stabbing mall ninjas that will tell you, incorrectly, that tantos are the end all and be all (though ironically the knife shape they prefer is not a true tanto…you can’t expect mall ninjas to be knowledgeable can you?), but even they can’t truly hate on the drop point. And among the drop points out there, this is a great one.

Grind: 2

Surprisingly, Kabar did a great job there. The knife has a 3/16” stock reduced to a real cutting edge thanks to a full flat grind. But out of the box that grind is slathered under a thick coat of black oatmeal that really does its best at preventing you from truly top shelf performance. As it is, the knife is quite the slicer, but removing the oatmeal makes the knife a true laser. Strip it off and go.

Sheath Carry: 2

The sheath here is a Tale of Two Cities. In one instance, in terms of how it rides on your hip, it is exceptionally good. It is tight, compact, and light. It doesn’t impede you when walking, lifting, bending, and running. Its great once the knife is in the sheath and the sheath is on your belt. At all other times, it is pretty barftacular.

Sheath Accessibility: 0

The knife is hard to get into the sheath, the snaps are hard to snap when the knife is in the pocket, it is hard to strap the knife on to bags with MOLLE. Even the little pocket on the front is crappy. I am going to make my own kydex sheath (cross fingers), but even if that thing a disaster it will be better than this sheath. These nylon socks have just got to go away. They SUCK. If this is the bar for sheathes in fixed blades I can understand why Busse refuses to sell his knives with sheathes. About half the performance of a fixed blade is the sheath and here, the sheath, other than when it is on your hip, is awful.

Usability: 2

Despite some gaps and rough textures, the BK16’s uber comfortable handle, makes this a knife that never offends your hands. I have used it for two separate all-day cut-a-thons after various branches came down in our yard and it never pinched or wore into my hands.

Durability: 2

Thump, thump, thump. This knife can take a bump. Smack, smack, smack. Give some wood a whack. Crash, crash, crash. The BK16 is great to smash. Despite a thinish edge, this knife absorbs punishment incredibly well. Cro-Van does well taking a beating and the handles are equally tough.

Other Considerations

Fett Effect:

With a truly terrible paint as coating, the BK16 will look like a well worn Mandalorian weapon almost instantly.

Fidget Factor: Low

Its a fixed blade with no moving parts and a crappy, none snapping sheath.

Value: Exceptionally High

There is no better value in terms of edged tools than the BK16. For $67 you won’t find anything that will last as long, work as well, or be as easy to mod as the BK16.

Overall Score: 16 out of 20

I am a huge a David Lynch fan, but even I can admit that Lost Highway was a cacophony of parts. Its still a great movie, but there is something jarring (and not in the way intended) about the film. There are the dream/nightmare like sequences (the initial scene in the house, Patricia Arquette’s arrival at the garage with Lou Reed’s Magic Moment blairing, and the sex scene in the desert) that displays film making skill almost unparalleled in modern cinema. But there are scenes that are doofy (basically any scene with the horrendous Balthazar Getty, other than the garage scene, and the car chase scene). It is a mix of sublime and suboptimal. If you want pure sublime in the Lynch oeuvre I would suggest any of the following: Eraserhead (my favorite movie ever), Mulholland Drive, Straight Story, and Elephant Man. Blue Velvet is pretty incredible, too.

This is a perfect analogy for the BK16. Kabar has an all time classic here and yet, they can’t seem to get out of their own way. Don’t get me wrong—the knife out of the box is pretty darn good. But the bones of the knife, those things that are contributions from Ethan Becker, are astounding.

This leads me to the pattern argument. Patterns arise when the bones of knives are good and widely useful. The BK16 has that in spades. But the next part of a knife becoming a pattern is the existence of a market need for either higher or lower end versions. Here, again, the BK16 exhibits pattern knife traits. Finally, a knife becomes a pattern when it is not owned exclusively by one entity (in the past, companies had gentleman’s agreements on patterns, not only would they let other companies make patterns, they would even agree not to produce the same patterns in the same year). Here there is one entity that makes the knife and another that designed it. Thus, the BK16 fits the “pattern” for a pattern knife. In the end, I could see a version of this knife in production for the next century—its bones are that good. I hope that Kabar releases a high end version in that 100 year time span, but if they lose the rights to the design or go out of business, I can easily see someone revisiting the BK16.

Competition

Well, there is a really obvious competitor: the Bark River Bravo 1 (note that this the LT 3V version). Here they are side by side.

These two knives are incredibly similar in the size, shape, and intended purpose. I like the handle on the BK16 better but I like the grind, the steel, and the fit and finish on the Bravo 1 better. But this comparison is not exactly apples to apples. The Bravo 1 in the configuration I purchased is a $230 knife, more than three times the cost of the BK16. Additionally, once the BK16 is stripped of its coating, the distinction between the knives’ performances vis-a-vis grind all but vanishes. Given if the price difference this is a really close call.

The Fallkniven F1z is a very good knife and a true competitor. I like this knife a lot, but the rubbery handles are out of step with trends and off putting. With the new versions having non-rubber handles the comparison might be very, very close, though, as is usually the case, the BK16 is much cheaper.

There are a few other knives that I like a lot that are priced similarly. The Mora Garberg is a very good knife and my favorite Mora, but its scandi grind is hard to get back into shape once a secondary bevel appears. I like the BK2, another Kabar Becker collab, but its nowhere near as good in the hand or as slicey. The Schrade SCH36 is another similarly sized knife with the same materials and an even lower price tag, but it fares much like the BK2—beefier and slabbier for no real reason. But at around $35, its a worthy purchase if you are in this market.

One knife that the BK16 decimates is the ESEE 4. They are roughly the same size with the same materials, but the ESEE 4 costs $106. You get a micarta handle and a kydex sheath for the price increase, but the overall design of the BK16 is just better—better blade and better handle. The ESEE 4HM is much closer, but that knife has a similar price to the ESEE 4 and loses the kydex sheath (most of the time). I don’t see why you’d buy an ESEE unless you have no ability or desire to mod your BK16. In that case the 4HM is probably your knife.

Overall, the BK16 compares favorably to a whole host of knives, many that are significantly more money. Once fully modded out, it crushes everything until you hit the Fallkniven and the Bravo 1.

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