KA-BAR 2-1249-9 Kukri,Black

NOW THIS IS A KNIFE!!!! Made to hack and slash! Thrusting with the point is also most impressive.Never mind the RAMBO knife! If I had to take a knife with me for survival! This would be it. A must have for your survival, camping, or hunting equipment.The blade is thick... about 3/16" at the spine. It tapers off with the bent part of the Kukri to about 1/8". The sheath is okay, but would have been nicer if it was all leather, not cordura with leather backing. The Kukri fits snugly in the sheath, no problems found. Hangs okay on the belt. Remember it is a BIG KNIFE, so it is heavier than survival knives, and you may not be used to the weight on your hip.The first thing I did was wave it around, and cut air, to get the feel of this knife (machete). Its a good size, not as long as machetes ... so i still consider it a knife. Really nice feel when slicing air, balanced, I'm sure it will throw well too, if you really need to. If I had to throw blades, I would throw Shurikens (aka. Ninja Stars).My first cut was through a gallon milk container filled with water. Clean cut, right through. Water flew all over the deck, but the base of the milk container still stayed filled with the water. Very nice.My next test was to split coconuts. Sweet! One stroke and the coconut was split in half, a very clean cut. However, half the Coconut went flying and the coconut milk went splattering. LOL! So much for the movies where the coconut shells spin after it gets cut and wobbles to a standstill like a top.This Ka-bar Kukri is sharp, slices tomatoes better than the turbo Ginsu... not really, not as thin, but still does the job.I was going to roast a chicken this weekend, so just for fun... I held the chicken up and thrusted the Kukri into the chicken. The blade skewered the chicken and the tip went right through... about 2" of the blade was exposed with the rest of it through the chicken. After I pulled the Kukri out, I noticed that the chicken bones were cut (split) as the blade went through. Most impressive! I LOVE THIS Ka-bar KUKRI Knife!!!By the way, this Kukri is most excellent for chopping meat. LOL, I got yelled at for using this Kukri knife to cut and slice up the Roasted Chicken. Although I'm more used to (quicker and accurate chopping by) the Chinese Cleaver for chopping, I had fun using this Kukri to slice up the chicken.This Kukri is well made, very sturdy, takes a licking and keeps on hacking. Too bad it rained all weekend... so i couldn't clear out some weeds and brush in my back yard. But i'm sure it will do the job. No visible damage to the blade after all my initial testing. I did coat it a little dabble of olive oil using a paper towel onto the blade edge. Remember it is carbon steel, which means it can rust. The Kukri blade is coated with black teflon material, so it will deter rusting, but the blade edge is exposed, so i washed it, and dried it, after my testing and coated it very lightly.By the way, the edge that is factory provided is sufficient, it can shave the hair on your arm.I'm most impressed and am happy with this Ka-bar Kukri Knife (machete).Added the following paragraph after my initial review:After the March storm of 2010, I had downed trees in my yard. I couldn't find my SOG hatchet, so I used this kabar kukri and used it to chop off tree branches and limbs, to shorten them into 4' sections so that the Garbage Truck would take them. This kukri did the job most efficiently. I was able to chop one inch diameter branches with one stroke, Three inch diameter limbs took a few hacks. The blade is awesome, no damage to it. Lots of residual sap left on the blade, but with the Remington oil wipes (which I use to clean my guns), the blade cleaned nicely. No damage on the Kukri, no knicks, chips or bends. Blade is tough. This kabar kukri machette chops even better and more accurate than a hatchet.

I will keep this short simply because of all the other reviews written even though I usually write huge long reviews for blades! Goes to say that I don't need to repeat anything- exactly as expected as said from other reviewers! To start, I'm a teenager male survivalist. Ever since I got my first knife when I was 9 years old, I have been fascinated in studying knives and their Rc, Heat treatment, Handle materials, knife making( yep this is a fun but patient-requiring thing to do!- although I don't know how to forge a kukri yet) , and much more. However, my biggest teacher was the one of trial and error. I have learned which knives are good- full tangs, locks, etc. I used to get a knife and get upset after a few days simply because I didn't think it was ' good enough'. A lot of knives broke. A lot of money was wasted on junk knives that had hypocritical good looks about them at the flea market. But ALL THOSE HARD SHIPS WERE WORTH IT!! - even for just this one knife!What I am trying to say is that all that was worth it just for this knife. This is the best knife I have ever owned. Ok, yeah I have 100$ knives in my drawer too but those are large lock blades and bushcraft knives. Even though I am still in my high school years, I try to make money off ebay by selling things. With the money I got recently, I wanted to get 'the best "chopper" I could get'for the money. Hopefully a kukri. Then I found this one. I usually don't like kraton handled knives, simply because of the bad experience I had with Cold Steel. They make my favorite folding knives, but when I tried out one of their kraton handled knives, after a few months of use the rubber started to separate from the tang, making it a very loose handled knife. Turns out I am not the only one who had this problem- look it up online. However, I think this is a thing with Cold Steel because I have a Sog field pup and it has gone through tons of abuse; the kraton handle is just as firm as day one. Any way, back to the Ka-Bar kukri. I didn't notice it at first, but when I was using it I noticed that there were two notches in the front and back of the handle, where the blade meets the handle- assume the knife is edge down. There is a notch right between the handle, exposing the tang a little. This is on the front too. ( see pictures by product picture) Then it hit me- this is to allow flexibility of the blade when swinging. Cold Steel doesn't do this, so when their kukri's hit a branch or log, it stretches the rubber a little. Ka-Bar on the other hand has these life saving notches, which will protect the rubber handle from any threat of dislodging. BRILLIANT!!!! I would give the genius who thought this up a beer if I only knew who :) The sheath is great- what's all this hype about a bad sheath?? It is a good sheath. Besides, consider it a bonus. The knife beats its price range by a long shot; I would take this kukri over the CS kukri(even though it is like 190$) any day.Onto the performance. This knife does not come literally 'razor sharp' as some said. The term 'razor sharp' has come to mean that it is extremely sharp nowadays, but it isn't. It came VERY sharp, almost razor sharp. Any way I went out and chopped down a tree about 4" in width. Then I chopped it into sections, maybe 5 logs. WOW!! It bites really deep and is comfortable when chopping. Ontop of it all, it was almost just as sharp as when I got it through ALL that!! But here's the best part- It took just about a few swipes on a kitchen rod and strop and it was razor sharp (yes literally)!!! I am amazed how long it holds its edge, and its sharpen ability. I was also able to chop a coconut in 1 blow!! This is where the ridge on the back of the blade comes in handy- great for smashing. Amazing blade. The steel is 1085, which is about the equivalent of sk-5(what CS uses). Love it. The coating on the blade is fairly tough too. It had a few blotches when held up to the light (there when it came or me?) but that doesn't matter. GREAT KUKRI!!!! You won't be disappointed. I am a survivalist too- and believe me, if ever you need one blade to take with you, this is the one, even though I always take 3 ;)*UPDATE* Well, it had to happen...the coating started to look ugly from use. I decided to strip the coating out, and make a nice satin finish. Turned out pretty well! Not a perfect strip, but it looks way better than the ugly coating that I had messed up. What I did was start from 50 grit all the way up to 220 grit, which gives it a good look. You can still see some small scratches in the picture, and that is simply because I don't want to go any higher(the shinier the blade the more likely it is to get dirty faster..)but it still shines like a mirror and looks like a CS gurkha sk-5 model! See pics and video-I hope this may have helped!! Check out my other reviews too,Joe