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View Full Version : Something Sharp This Way Cometh: The blades of K12 Forge



Urban Tactical Gear
26 October 2009, 00:12
A buddy of mine just wrote an article that I thought was worth posting here as he doesn't have an account here. this is done with his blessing.

The original can be found here (http://www.urbantacticalgearreview.com)

OP by Eli Miller:

K12 Forge is the hobby and passion turned small bussiness of a full time law enforcement officer in Kentucky. Being in the the occupation that he is, Gabe the owner and artisan of K12 knows the serious demand that there is for quality tools of the trade. Whether you are a carpenter, police officer, lawyer, or soldier, every job demands you have the best equipment. Gabe is the man when it comes to muscle meeting metal. K12 does not know what the word quantity means, only quality as every single piece of steel he sends out is a 100% custom piece of bomb proof, hammer proof, tree chopping, art.

I had the privilage of meeting Gabe at the Tactical Response Alumni Training Weekend 09 and from then on it become a what about this design, what about this steel, what do people use a knife for, weekly conversation. The first K12 pieces I saw made one word come to mind: Brute. If you check out brute in the dictionary, it shows you : beast, animal like, irrational, and savage. The 2 knives he had with him where beasts in all likeness. Big, chopping style blades that carried weight with them, spines so robust you could use the knife and a large log to split a cord of hickory. The other tool he had with him was a tomahawk, yes, the fierce and savage tool used ever so skillfully for hundreds of years around the world in battle.
Very quickly you notice something that all people want when it comes to cutlery, the edge. Bevels so even that Olympic ice skaters would be jealous. The edge on both sides is sharpened or almost polished to a mirror finish. Its amazing to see a knife so hefty that has a scalpels edge. The shiny, sharp area nearly jumps out as the Dura- Coat finish ends. Dura Coat adds to the resilience of the steel and protects it not only from the elements, but whatever comes in contact with the blade. The coating also makes it just a simple wipe cleaning procedure when getting off oils, fats, blood, or any number of substances that get on our knives. Dura Coat has a curing period it should go through to better adhere to the surface its put on. As soon as I recieved these knives though, do you think I waited to use them? No!
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The smaller of the two knives is a utility knife that Gabe made me for a daily use knife at work. I have been carrying the same Emerson SpecWar B for nearly 5 years including 2 deployments and in that time of using it as a carbon scraper, mre opener, screw driver, skinning knife, and pry bar, its time to give it a rest. This knife was made out of 1075 which is a carbon steel. The handles are a softer micarta in a pattern aptly named road kill. The handle design is is the K12 signature make with lanyard loop ,glass breaker, and single finger loop. The greatest part of the glass breaker is that it does what it needs to but is not angled so high and sharp that it gets caught on everything or tears up your clothing.The sheath is a kydex one which he formed to the knife and set it up for inside the waistband carry by using a a soft rubber loop. Beginnig on day 1 of carrying this knife it started getting a work out. From the normal cutting of nylon and plastic banding to me saying "lets see what it can really do", and prying open a sealed wooden crate.
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I noticed very quickly that the fresh coating on the knife was smearing some but I knew it would do this since I was using it within 3 days of it being coated. It mattered not, my intent was to use this knife as a tool just as the maker intened it to be used. As the days went on, it took on enough cardboard to dull any box cutter I have ever used, and even then it was still sharp enough to easily shave the hair from my arm. As I was pulling a box from a pallet, the box was snagging on a nail. Not wanting anyone to get hung up on it, I carefully held the knife by the handle with the blade sideways and commenced to pound a nail back in to the pallet. In reality, its tougher then nails. This is like carrying a scalpel, a hammer, and a pry bar all in one. The final proof to me that this was a no nonsense knife came when I decided I was going to use it to open a pallet that was strapped down with metal banding. A knife on metal, I know what your thinking. I was too kind of, but I was trying to abuse this knife. I placed the knife between the metal band and the side of the pallet with the blade towards the banding, turned my head, and began to use it as a lever. Pop, scratch, ting as the band snapped, whipped, and hit the ground. The knife was still the rock solid take no prisoners blade that it was before the task.
Here the utility knife is shown with a basic vehicle or grab and go load out of AK 74 with modified ChiCom chest rig, Tactical Tailor dual pistol mag pouch, Maxpedition pouch with basic survival kit, and Endom B.O.M.B medical pouch.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x110/emills7/DSCN2382.jpg

Ah, the black handled one you say? Well the black handled one has a purpose yet its still a utility blade. Its purpose is to be the one, the one blade to have at all time no matter what the situation is. An all purpose cutting, chopping, slashing, stabbing, prying blade to serve the soldier humping up the mountain side in who knows where,to the carpenter prying up old wood flooring or digging around pipes. Gabe and I sat down with a well known defensive tactics instructor and an "outlive the cockroaches" survival guru and we got to work. We had a blade profile, but we needed a more user friendly handle for any size hands, and we needed the correct size. I can say that Gabe incorporated each perons thought into this piece of steel and created something awesome. I tortured this one in similar ways to the utility knife. From cutting down sapplings in single chops to hitting the spine of it with a 5lb sledge to split logs. It even filled the void of my E-tool one day while digging up tree roots one day at the farm. Guess what, it still shaves.
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This knife is constructed from 01 tool steel and wears semi-rough black micarta handles. They have just the right amount of texture so as to not slip when wearing gloves or to not sand off the first layer of skin on your hand. The handle design again is K12's signature type with the glass breaker, lanyard loop, and it has a single finger groove. You will also notice that the back of the spine has a no slip thumb rest for when using the knife as a utility tool. This knife fits comfortably in any type of gripping and use position. The sheath is kydex which was fitted to this blade and has open rivets to allow endless mounting options.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x110/emills7/DSCF0458.jpg

For size comparision, here is a pic of both knives with a Gerber LMF 2 and an Ontario RAT 3 D2.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x110/emills7/DSCN2564.jpg

Both knives have some similarities. If you look at the handles, you will see that the fittings that are pressed to keep the handles on are hollow. The purpose of these are so that if a situation called for it, you can run 550 cord through to lash this to a length of wood to make a spear. The kydex sheaths for each are 100% snug and fitted for each knife. The spacing of the rivets are 1" so that you can ad different mounting attachments such as Tek-Loks or soft rubber loops. Both of these knives were what would be considered prototypes or pre-production. Current and future produced K12 blades will have the new K12 logo emblazoned on them and will be able to be had in quite a few different finish options. No matter what you get from K12, you will be beyond pleased.</div>
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Now, the only question there really is, "Does it get the bet your life on it stamp of approval?" Yes!
Contact information for K12 Forge:
Gabe has asked that he be contacted via private message to his username Gabe on www.getoffthex.com (a href=http://www.getoffthex.com) as he does not have a functional site or email set up just yet.

Disclosure:I am not an employee, nor have ever been an employee of K12 Forge. The cost of the items reviewed was paid in full by me in monetary form to K12 Forge. The items pictured and reviewed are my personal property. The opinions and views expressed in the posting are that of my own and are not influenced by any outside sources.</div>