Workin' my Becker Necker (pics)

[VUPDblue]

Joe, you have aaaay too much time on your hands

 

[danielocean03]

Hey! Wasn't someone on here talking about Becker Neckers last year and about how awesome they are?

My Necker (the first Ka-Bar version I owned) did in fact get cut in half! I had some questions about the specimen I had because of some unusual results with sharpening and after some discussion with Ethan Becker about it, I sent it to Paul Tsujimoto, who is a senior engineer at Ka-Bar. He tested the knife and in doing so destroyed it (which was necessary). The conclusion was that the knife with "in spec."

And . . . Paul sent a brand new one to me. After my communications with him and Ethan, I have different expectations about the kind of edge I can get on the knife.

I couldn't ask for better customer service, and as noted, Ethan Becker knows his stuff. Paul Tsujimoto is also on the ball as well! Even if I didn't like their products as much as I do, I'd still recommend them because the people behind them are so cool.

I do wish they'd chosen to go with standard 1095 for the blade material, though. Those of you who have worked with 1095 know that with a proper heat treatment, you can get a wickedly sharp edge. Edge holding may not be on a par with some of the wondersteels or tool steels, but I'm more interested in how sharp I can get it. I don't mind sharpening or touching-up the edge frequently if the thing will slice the way I want it to slice.

Instead, they use a modified 1095 that has some vanadium added. If I asked about why, I don't recall the answer, but I would expect the vanadium to add some toughness, some wear resistance (related to edge holding) and maybe enhance some other qualities as well. The Becker tools need to be tough to withstand shock loads. Sometimes 1095 can be a little on the brittle side when make them really hard (the way I like it on small, thin-bladed pocket knives).

The downside (for me) is that I can get quite the edge I want with my chosen techniques. I'm not a stropper and I understand the Becker products respond very well to stropping after sharpeing with a medium grit abrasive. Paul and Ethan suggested that I not go too fine with the abrasives, then strop. Someday I'll give that a try because I don't doubt that they are correct. Given that, I prefer to use my diamond rods to get an edge that is thin enough to pop hair, but still toothy enough to slice well.

I suspect, and I could be wrong, that the vanadium affects the size of the carbides that are formed when the steel is hardened (larger than with straight 1095). I think that's why I'm not having much luck getting a thin enough edge that is strong enough to be useful. It's kind of like 440C. The carbides are too coarse to allow a really thing edge. That's why I'm not a fan of 440C for knife blades. It works great for thicker edge profiles and wear resistance/edge holding is good, but it's just not my thing. In that regard, I'd rather have 440A or 420HC (assuming good head treatments like Paul Bos would do) than 440C.

Sheesh! How did I get to here by just wanting to add a comment about the Becker Necker??

Glad to hear from you again! You have been missed!

 

[Indecision]

Nice looking knife.

 

[rhino]

Joe, you have aaaay too much time on your hands

That used to be true (oh so true), but not so much anymore. When I posted that message, I was making a choice to catch-up on email and INGO instead of sleeping. I was sorry afterward!

 

[paddling_man]

The Becker Neckers are great little knives and Ethan Becker is a class act. I glad things pulled together for the Becker line after the Camillus debacle.

Good stuff, Evan!