Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

So I likes me some Glock knives. For sheath knives they are cheap, great quality, well-built and take abuse like a Clinton wedding vow. They’re only drawback, to me, is that they are a bit light…they don’t have a lot of weight behind them. When it comes to chopping and cleaving they might leave a little to be desired.

After the Glock knives, I really like the BK&T line of knives. They were eventually picked up by Ka-Bar and that who currently offers them. Designs are the same and theyre still made in America. My biggest complaint about the particular BK&T (“Becker”) knives that I like (the Ka-Bar Becker BK7) is that the sheaths are utter nylon crap. I used to harp on this until someone explained to me that the reason the sheaths were crap was because BK&T knew that you were just going to go get some kydex number for a sheath anyway, so they sank all the money into the knife itself and threw on the cheesiest sheath that would still protect the knife (and user). It’s kinda like those lame-ass plastic gunlocks that come with some gun purchases – purely disposable.

For the longest time I’ve been wanting to get the sheaths offered by Spec-Ops. These sheaths seemed to have many of the features I was looking for in a sheath – multiple attachment points, pocket for a stone/sharpened, subdued color, made in USA, etc, etc. Well, I had a few bucks sitting around in an Amazon gift card and decided I’d pick up a spare BK-7 and see how they differ under Ka-Bar, and also a Spec-Ops sheath. Both arrived today.

First and most obvious difference is that Ka-Bar sure likes their packaging. A sleeved box with lotsa shiny graphics. My older, original, BK&T came in a simple cardboard lift-top box.

The knives themselves are virtually identical . Small differences in the stampings on the blade, and the finish is a bit duller on the Ka-Bar…otherwise they appear identical. The big difference, however, is the sheaths.

The original sheath from BK&T was just plain embarrassing. It was a cheesy nylon job that looked like it came out of Peoples Revolutionary Factory #29 – flimsy and about as stylish as a leisure suit. The sheath from Ka-Bar isn’t anything to jump up and down about but it is a distinct improvement with no-need-to-undo-your-belt belt hangar, MOLLE attachments, black color, etc, etc. But while it was an improvement it wasnt as nice as the Spec-Ops.

The Spec-Ops sheath, like most Spec-Ops products I’ve had, was a good solid piece of kit. However, there were some problems not related to the Spec-Ops sheath but rather to it’s interaction with the BK-7.

First problem is that the sheaths come in 6″ or 8″ blade lengths. Beckers come in odd lengths – 5″, 7″, 9″. So, right off the bat, the sheath is an inch longer for this knife than it needs to be. Niggling detail but there it is.

The big problems was that the plastic liner in the sheath was wide enough to accommodate the blade…up to a point. The BK-7, and a few other BK models, have a raised thumb rest atop the spine of the blade. That means that section of the blade is wider than the rest…that wide section was too wide for the plastic liner in the sheath.

The simple solution was to remove a short length of the spine of the liner. Once that was done we were good to go.

There’s a pocket on the front of the sheath for holding various ‘survival’ items but realistically it would be best served with a sharpening stone of some type. I need to measure the pouch and see what stones are available in that size.

All in all, I like this sheath with this knife. I get scads of attachment/mounting options and the quality seems up to the challenges of the zombie apocalypse. While I still love the Glock knives, I like this setup for when I need something with a bit more heft and chopping ability.