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KA-BAR traces to 1898 and the Tidioute Cutlery Company in Pennsylvania, reaching Olean, New York in December 1911 as Union Cutlery. The KA-BAR trademark arrived in the 1920s, reportedly from a barely legible letter by a fur trapper who described killing a wounded bear with one of the company's knives after his rifle jammed. The surviving fragment read as ka bar. The company took the name outright in 1952 on the strength of what the knife had done in the war.
Union Cutlery submitted a KA-BAR branded design to the Marine Corps early in the Second World War, and the Corps adopted a reworked version in 1942 as its standard fighting and utility knife. Camillus, Robeson, and PAL built the pattern alongside Union Cutlery, but the KA-BAR mark was recognizable enough that Marines called every version a Kabar regardless of who made it. The seven inch clip point runs a flat grind at a twenty degree edge, built to do camp work and fighting without being optimized for either.
The traditional models run 1095 Cro-Van at 56 to 58 HRC, which is 1095 with chromium, vanadium, nickel, and molybdenum added. The result holds a slightly toothier edge and resists corrosion a little better than straight 1095 without giving up the easy field sharpening carbon steel is chosen for. Guards and pommels are sintered 1095. Stacked leather washer handles swell slightly when wet, which is why they still grip when a synthetic would turn slick. Current production also covers D2, Kraton G, Grivory, and Ultramid across the line.
The Becker Knife and Tool line, designed by Ethan Becker, covers bushcraft and hard use in the same 1095 Cro-Van under epoxy powder coat. The BK2 Campanion is the thick one built for batoning, the BK7 splits the difference, and the BK9 chops. Master Series collaborations bring in Bob Dozier, John Benner, Jesse Jarosz, and Les George. Handle and sheath options across the catalog run from stacked leather and Celcon to Kydex and MOLLE compatible carriers, with more on materials in our handle guide.
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