KA-BAR Drops First Special Release from State & Union Custom Shop
KA-BAR is opening the doors on its State & Union custom shop with the Tuko fixed blade. The new knife comes from stalwart collaborator Ethan Becker, and like the company’s recent documentary series it is intended to celebrate KA-BAR’s 120th year in the knifemaking business.
Ethan Becker’s Tuko takes its name and inspiration from the Japanese Santoku knife. KA-BAR’s Joseph Bradley points out that Becker’s mother and grandmother authored the world famous The Joy of Cooking, and he’s no slouch in the kitchen either. “Ethan is also a world-class chef,” Bradley says.
We see most KA-BAR fixed blades sporting their signature 1095 Cro-Van, but the Tuko’s 5.1-inch blade comes outfitted with premium S35VN steel. The handle scales are unusual bone linen Micarta, and the Holstex sheath features finger grooves to allow for easy extraction. The Tuko fills the role of camp kitchen knife for adventurers. “We envision this as a camp cooking knife, and camping and cooking align with everything that is Ethan Becker,” Bradley says.
In addition to celebrating KA-BAR’s 120th anniversary, the Tuko also marks the first full run from their State & Union custom shop. State & Union will operate as a platform for individual makers to hone their skills on small batch runs of high-end knives. “The goal is to create cutlers, much like in the early years of KA-BAR,” Bradley explains. “The biggest difference between State & Union and KA-BAR is the amount of work done by hand on the products.”
In 2017 State & Union had its test flight with the Pacific Theater knives, and since then KA-BAR has been growing and stabilizing the new operation. “The biggest challenge was obtaining the knowledge to get a shop up and running,” Bradley tells us. “KA-BAR is a factory of mass production. State & Union is a small, nimble shop that we hope will provide the flexibility mass production does not allow for.”
The first 120 piece run of the Tuko is available now, and Bradley says we can expect other State & Union projects to surface later this year. A standard production version of the Tuko isn’t out of the question, but KA-BAR will need to see how well this first batch performs. “We will have to wait and see. Once they sell out, we will see how folks like them.”
Knife featured in image: KA-BAR Becker Tuko
You may also like...
-
Advertisement
-
-
Sal Glesser Shares a Piece of Spyderco History on the Forum
The Spyderco Forums are a special place for many reasons, not least of all because members of the Spyderco crew often post and interact with fans on there –...
Kyle Chumchal Signs on with Microtech
Kyle Chumchal of KC Knives has joined the engineering team at Microtech. Chumchal has already worked on one new release and talked to us about what he’s learned so...
-
Böker Rolls Out Production Version of Caston/Moizis Collaboration
One of the newest knives from Böker is a tiny automatic knife called the Shamsher. This little blade features an unusual deployment mechanism and comes from the combined efforts...
Rafal Brzeski’s First 2020 Production Model Slated to Arrive Shortly
After more than half a year of waiting, the We Knife Co. Gava is finally on the cusp of releasing. The Gava is the first production knife this year...
Victorinox Turns Paring Knife into Portable Folder
Victorinox is expanding their kitchen cutlery lineup in a new way with the Swiss Classic Foldable Paring Knife. The name gives it away: this is a portable, folding version...
Latest Civivi Knives Keep the Cleaver Trend Rolling
We are seeing another new cleaver design from Civivi, the Mini Mastodon. This design follows in the footsteps of the Mini Bullmastiff, with some minor but noticeable changes from...
Poltergeist Works Emphasizes Compact Utility with New Model
After pushing the envelope with the one-off Phenomena 3, Jakub Wieczorkiewicz of Poltergeist Works is trying something totally different for the 2600, his latest custom model. This new knife...
0 comments