KABAR Marine Combat Pt 1: Enduring Combat Classic

Part 1 of 3: The excellent KABAR Marine Combat knife has thrived as favorite combat and survival knife choice since WWII. The reasons are clear: it's a design that just works and works well. In WWII the Marine Corps re-designed a well-established hunting design to fulfill the combat role and various manufacturers filled their large war time orders. The KABAR Company in Olean, NY was the biggest supplier of these knives and grew to own the design. The blade quickly established itself as very effective in all respects and to this day the blade design has remained relatively unchanged. The KABAR is good to excellent (if not outstanding) in most cutting, splitting, stabbing, or splitting tasks. But its design strikes the perfect middle ground in a larger blade and does so at a reasonable carry weight. At 15.5 oz it's usually not too heavy and that weight provides a lot of capability for the price: good strength, adequate edge retention,comfortable and durable Kraton grip, excellent hammering capability, and a great sheath. It's actually a better knife than the heavier M9 bayonet. There are many variations by KABAR (and this featured and now-gone Camillus version) on the Marine Combat knife with various steels (1095, 440A, and D2) and various finishes and colorations. All represent superb value of such a capable blade. Mine have been proven in the great outdoors and in duty use for over 12 years and I remain a huge KABAR fan.