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Ethan Becker Folder Headlines 2021 KA-BAR Lineup

January 22, 2021

KA-BAR‘s 2021 offerings have been revealed in their 2021 catalog. It’s a modest selection of new blades, but the flashiest addition is easily the BK40. This is the first folding knife from KA-BAR collaborator Ethan Becker, and it brings some of his well-loved fixed blade principles into a modern and affordable folding design.

Becker made his name in the outdoors knife genre, so it comes as no surprise that the BK40 seems designed for work in the wild. Its blade measures 3.56 inches long, and has been done up with a Beckerian drop point – which is to say it’s a wide, durable worker, done up with a big swedge to strengthen the tip. KA-BAR sticks to a fairly small corral of reliable steels for its products, and for the BK40 they’re implementing AUS-8 – an entry-level stainless that we see less of these days than in years past, but one that does offer decent edge retention and sharpens quite easily.

Another Becker hallmark are comfortable, handfilling, refined ergonomics. The BK40 shows an obvious awareness of the maker’s preferred handle profiles: just like its fixed blade relations, it has a pronounced middle palm swell, and bracketing both fore and aft. The handle material is GFN in a default black coloration; and underneath the off-side scale it is outfitted with a liner lock mechanism. Even with its burly build and notable length, the BK40’s weight is a reasonable 4.8 oz., and the deep carry wire pocket clip is repositionable in all four configurations.

IFB Fixed Blades

A new budget fixed blade line called the IFB series also debuted in the 2021 catalog. Two models are in the inaugural class: they both have 8Cr13MoV steel, black G-10 handles, and Kydex sheathes. The IFB Drop Point is just that: a simple, 4.84-inch outdoors companion; if you want something larger or a little more exotic, the IFB Trailing Point has an upswept, 6.11-inch blade.

TDI Ladyfinger

KA-BAR’s TDI series, which features knives designed in collaboration with the Tactical Defense Institute, is getting a new self defense-oriented model this year, the Ladyfinger. This one is even smaller and more pocketable than the recently-released Pocket Strike, with a tiny but acutely-pointed 1.88-inch leaf blade.

USSF TDI Astro MP

The Ladyfinger isn’t the only addition to the TDI series. The original TDI knife is getting a special “Astro” variant. This one is part of KA-BAR’s USSF series and has the same blue handle scales and coated blade as the other knives in that line.

KA-BAR says that all of these knives are slated for release by the end of the spring.

Knife in Featured Image: KA-BAR BK40

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