Something happened when I tried to post this. It may get posted twice. Sorry about that if it has........

Just received a Becker BK-10. There seems to be some interest in this knife so here are my first impressions.

The knife is as advertised. It is a heavy, sharp (It is sharp…… reallllllly sharp), strong and utilitarian knife. Its weight surprised me a bit. One of those things where reading the specs is not the same as the reality. It is a heavy knife. But of course, that is where the strength resides. I am from the sharpened pry-bar school. My knives take a terrible beating. I think this one will survive longer than any other I have owned. Hope it holds that edge well.

I am big, (6’2” 225 lbs) and it is uncommon for me to find a knife that feels good in my hand. Most are too small. The BK-10 is properly sized, fits like it was made for me. Others that have handled it say the grip is too big and the knife too heavy for them. Matter of choice, but consider it…

I like short knives and the length (5.5”) is perfect. The handle is big enough and the blade is small enough. An unusual combination in my experience. I am enamored of tanto blades because of their strength (the pry-bar syndrome again), but this point appear to strike a very nice balance between the strength of the tanto and the cutting ability of the curved blade. Although the tanto is strong, I find it not as good as a curved cutting edge for much work.

The blade is thick enough to provide a good wedge effect when splitting wood and top side of the blade will take the pounding without difficulty.

All in all, it will do just fine for me.

The sheath however is another matter altogether. Again a matter of preferences here.

I prefer a sheath that puts the handle above my belt which, with this knife, means that the end of the blade will not touch the chair when I am sitting. I like the knife tucked close to my body in a rather firm sheath. I want the sheath to be as small and thin as possible to reduce the snagging and such that something thick on the side of my body seems to encourage. The effect is much like the “high rider” pistol holster. I prefer this carry method as I am in/out of cars, chairs, slings and whatever.

The provided sheath allows the knife to dangle below my belt flopping around and getting tangled in seat belts and lifting lines. Guess I could tie it down, but somehow I just can’t do that. I have enough of an appearance problem as it is. The pouch on the sheath just adds thickness where I don’t want it. The kydex insert came out of the nylon liner the first time I withdrew the knife. And it is about 3/8” longer than it need be.

So my temporary fix for all of this is to fold the top of the sheath (the belt loop) down, with the fold just above the retaining snap. I stitched it in this position so the top of my belt is now at the top of the retaining snap. This makes for a lot of material in the new belt loop and I will modify that later if I stay with this sheath.

I glued a piece of Velcro (hooks) to the side of the kydex liner. I have used this before to hold liners in place. The liner can easily be removed when needed but stay in place otherwise. It does tend to chew up the inside of the nylon sheath a bit, but does no real damage.

I cut the kydex insert down a bit so the point of the blade is about 1/8” short of the end of the kydex. This works out to be just at the horizontal stitching for the front pocket bottom. I folded back all below this point and stitched it behind the sheath. I ended up with a sheath 19cm or 7.5 inches long. If I ever need to tie it down, the fold has a bit of a gap in it and I can snake a line through easily enough.

I put a piece of cord in the pocket so that I can quickly make a “thumb” loop when I need to use the knife in those situations where to drop it is to loose it (overboard or over the edge…whatever). I hate the “death grip” I seem to resort to when I don’t have a way of restraining the knife in those situations.

I think I will make a sheath out of a old pick-up bed liner. Very nice material which I have used in the past for many projects. Heat workable and strong. Mostly it is cheap. I find it along side of the interstate.

I paid $44.99 plus $8.00 (USD) shipping from OneStopKnifeShop.com No problems encountered with the transaction.

Only had it for about half a day now. I will let you all know how it survives……

Thanks for the very well done review.
Tom