A shot of the Bob Dozier K2 :
The review consists of :
The K2 general purpose hunting knife from Bob Dozier is made by stock removal out of 0.135" thick D2 tool steel, through hardened to 60/61 HRC. The maximum blade width is one inch, the overall length is 8 inches, and the blade is 3.6" long with 3.2" of sharpened edge. It weighs 140 g, 180 g in the Kydex sheath. It is handle heavy, balanced 1.4" behind the blade, one inch behind the center of the index finger in a hammer grip.
The K2 has a primary hollow grind (one inch high) tapering to a thin (0.010-0.020") and decently acute edge, 33 +/- 1 degrees included. The tip tapers over 1.3" from full thickness and is one inch wide at the start of the taper. The fit and finish is high, the tang is flush with the Micarta slabs as are the pins the sheath holds the knife smoothly with no rattle. The blade finish is uniform, no scratches, but has a low grit belt finish.
Push cutting 3/8" hemp required 21 +/- 1 lbs with the force much reduced to 13.2 +/ 0.7 lbs on a two inch draw showing a very high aggression due to the somewhat coarse edge which was still aligned enough to push cut well. This has one of the best push cutting performances seen on such a very aggressive slicing edge. The K2 cut hardwoods well, pointing a section of birch flooring in 16.0 (8) slices.
With a 50 lbs push the K2 sank 164 (6) pages into a phone book and with a hard vertical stab reached 645 (18) pages. The grip was comfortable in the stabbing, there would be no issues with repeated work due to lack of comfort, however there were security issues. The stabs were in reverse grip, in a hammer grip security was problematic due to smooth handle texture and lack of a prominent guard. The thumb was also looped over the butt for safety, this would not be functional with a compromised grip (lubricated with blood, oils or grease), as shown by light hammering with the butt of the grip on a 2x4 with the handle greased.
The K2 works well for a knife of its class as a paring knife peeling fruits and vegetables. It is comfortable in a side grip :
though a bit too wide to be optimal for such work but it would take a lot of vegetables for this to be an issue ergonomically :
Dozier makes a specific paring type blade called the "Dozier Whittler" which would be more optimal for this work. As a general kitchen utility knife, the K2 is a bit short and the edge curvature also isn't optimal for work on a cutting board, as it can't make direct full slices but instead the main curvature of the belly has to be drawn though the foods :
Though still for short stints it does ok :
and it has no problems with making even thin cuts with no cracking issues :
It does take significantly more force than an actual kitchen knife, where a japanese utility knife takes less than a pound to slice up potatoes, the K2 takes 2-3 lbs, and where the utility knife takes 1-2 lbs to slice up some small carrots, the K2 knife takes about six pounds. The difference is more extreme on larger vegetables and it can't readily do much besides break up turnips and such.
As a meat knife, it works very well, trimming roasts, slicing up and breaking down chickens and such cutting through bones when necessary for stock. The edge curvature allows full sweeping cuts and the handle is very versatile allowing hammer grips, icepick for boning, and side grips for skinning. However the handle is smooth and gets insecure when covered in blood and or oils so care has to be taken in regards to retention. A shot of some trimmed pork :
D2 also has low corrosion resistance compared to stainless steels which can be a problem on acidic fruits or vegetables. For example the K2 and Catcherman were both freshly sharpened and used to cut up tomatoes for a stew. The blades were not rinsed during the cutting which lasted for about half an hour as at the same time other cooking and food preperation was in progress. Both initially made the cuts with no slipping, however midway through the dicing which was done on a soft plastic cutting board, the Dozier started to slip. The steel in the Catcherman is MBS-26 which has a high level of corrosion resistance and it continued to cut aggressivly to the finish.
Gathering grasses and shrubs for tinder and/or construction material the K2 cuts well when sharp however a longer blade would be more effective. This can be addressed by attaching the K2 to a small stick making a small bill-hook however the handle contouring makes the attachment tricky. Caution is also required as the combination of steel and grind isn't designed to take impacts well such as an accidental chop into a rock hidden by grasses or brush.
For precision carving and shaping, the Agent is more suitable size wise and more efficient to control especially for point work, however the K2 has a much higher cutting ability with both knives with the initial profiles and thus it is overall the more efficent tool for that type of work. It easily cuts notches in wood for things like toggle pin triggers :
A small saw is nice for making the perpendicular cuts however a blade with an efficent edge does this well. It is easier to make the cuts initially at an angle and then square them up later with some detail carving. With a larger blade they can just be chopped, a baton will do this as well with a smaller blade and depending on skill can be faster than carving. These pieces of wood are used to set a spring snare :
the upper piece of wood has a snare attached and is hung from a small sapling. See Simply Survival by Greg Davenport for more information on such traps.
One of the areas where the K2 stands out in in edge retention on working with barks which are the dirtiest part of the wood. Bark makes a nice material for a shelter roof shingles and small pieces make excellent tinder. Fresh wood also dries out a lot faster with the bark removed. Just removing the bark from a couple of rounds is enough to show the difference in edge retention between the K2 and another knife like the Cara Cara. The Dozier does this easily :
and the edge still shaves well. However doing the same work with the Cara Cara leave the edge still sharp, but the shaving ability has been lost. D2 is one of the better steels for edge retention on abrasive material as long as the edge angle isn't too acute as D2's grain structure is too coarse for very fine edge angles. Beyond edge retention, the K2 handles bark well as the edge had a nice balance of cutting ability and durability which easily cut off the thin bark, leveraged off the thicker barks, and could also pop off with some wrist chops, the smaller limb stubs which were a fraction of an inch thick. The handle was also very comfortable and secure both with a hammer and reverse hammer grip for use as a drawknife.
However for chopping, the K2 started to fall short as it has little chopping ability and had trouble with stubs more than a 1/4" or so thick. Even with a rear grip, it just doesn't have the necessary heft, it also isn't very secure in a partial rear grip due to the lack of an end hook to the grip and fairly smooth surface. This reduces the efficiency as any movement makes it difficult to get the chops to line up. Even a Mora 2000 is a more effective chopper as it could be gripped securely around the end of the handle which kept the hits more focused and reduced the need for constant regripping. With the K2 it was much more effective to use a baton than try to cut larger woods. For example on a small stick about two inches across on fairly soft wood (this would be cut in one chop with a bolo) it takes about 100 chops for the K2 to make a notch halfway through the wood. With a baton it is much faster and only about 25 hits are necessary to complete the cut :
Care needs to be taken when working with a baton to avoid working around a knot as the edge is thin and hollow ground. The K2 did however have enough chopping ability to pop off the branches of sticks of that size, the larger ones requring under a half a dozen chops. In regards to cutting to length, it can be bent and broken if small enough, a shot of this through the tip of the stick in the above :
This tends to make a ragged end though, a much cleaner cut can be made if the K2 is used to cut notches around the wood and then when it breaks it won't splinter nearly as much :
This stick was cut to length to make a throwing club / hammer :
The K2 was batoned into the top of the stick to split it and once a cut was made another stick was wedged in to open it, then a tapered rock was inserted and then wrapped to secure it in place (using a discarded shirt cut to strips by the K2). Note the knot in the stick which prevents the split from cracking the entire piece of wood in two pieces. The rock can also be lashed to the side of the stick directly, but the compression of the split helps secure it.
For firemaking, as the K2 doesn't have a lot of chopping ability, it doesn't work well to gather thick woods, or split heavy wood, it does however cut very well and thus efficiently trims off the outer layer of barks as well as makes thin shavings to get the fire started :
To get fuel to the fire, often dead and dried wood can be found with a bit of scouting, either directly in patches of live woods :
or on the ground :
This dead wood also has other uses, this piece :
was used to make this :
The K2 was batoned through the sections to cut them square, it took about 50 hits to cut off the arms and 100 to cut off the bottom. The K2 then split the tops and the end hooks of the bungee cords were wedged in and then tied off. The pouch was made from a discarded shirt and the hooks bent down after inserted. This is a fairly weak slingshot, it can shoot a standard marble about 50 feet. Bungee cords don't stretch that much, string them together to allow a more powerful shot, but in general it is far simpler to make a simple sling which is however much harder to be accurate.
Back to fire starting, wood on the ground usually has a greater chance to be wet/frozen. Though a decent knife can help but cutting away the outside to get at the dry wood inside as well as make scraping and shavings to fuel the initial blaze. D2 works well here with solid edge retention. If a decent source of tinder is on hand, a tablespoon of candle wax and a few dozen strips of ridged cardboard make a starter which is enough to get a decent fire going even with green boughs :
As the cardboard and wax starter gets going it will ignite the boughs :
These flare up fast and only last a few minutes, but will burn hot enough to dry out fairly wet or frozen wood. Put it on in layers, wood then boughs and very shortly the wood will catch directly :
This also generates a lot of white smoke which can be of use to signal if it contrasts, it is useless if there is a lot of snow down and the sky is clear, you need to generate black smoke to be seen. Green boughs also burn very fast so they can not provide a long lasting heat, though they are useful to generate a lot of heat very fast.
The K2 works well as a utility knife on most materials, with solid cutting ability. It powers through the bottom of a 2L pepsi bottle with less than 75 lbs of applied force :
It has one of the best performances seen, thin enough to cut through almost immediately once force is applied, but not being so thin that there is a risk of edge failure on a twist. It also handles light metals easily :
It can also cut up the bottom of the can, but it takes a lot of force, about 50 lbs to start a cut, and the sharp edges make it fairly dangerous to hold onto. It also has solid cutting performance on on ropes, cardboards, and fabrics.
The K2 was compared against a small Sebenza in S30V stainless steel on 1/4" ridged cardboard where it fared favorably. It also did well alongside many other knives on used carpet.
D2 is a difficult to grind steel, the thin geometry compensates by minimizing the contact area. The hollow grind also increases edge stability because the rate of thickening with repeated sharpenings is lower than with flat or convex primary grinds. In general the K2 responded well to a variety of stones and was easily brought to a fine polished shaving edge or left rougher for more bite on a slice. The only downside was that the initial finish is left very rough with a coarse belt finish so the first sharpening requires more metal removal than is likely expected to grind out the coarse scratches and the bevel is slightly uneven so a Sharpmaker or other v-rod sharpener won't hit it evenly unless the base it tilted to compensate for the asymmetrical grind.
The handle is made from Micarta with a high polish. It is very versatile, easily held in a hammer grip :
reverse :
or icepick grip :
The index finger cutout isn't deep or sharp enough to be a problem when it faces the palm so it doesn't significant limit grip functionality. However there are some issues with choked up grips as the region in front of the handle isn't large enough for a finger without edge contact :
As well, with a heavy mitt, the handle was too small in general and it was difficult to use the knife and keep the edge away from the mitt :
In general the grip was very ergonomic, aside from the reservation with heavy gloves or mitts. However there were problems with security as there isn't a significant guard and the micarta had a smooth finish and thus it was difficult to maintain control of the grip when lubricated with fats or oils or when wearing a light cotton glove.
In general the handle worked well for precision work, being very versatile and the slim and narrow profile even allowed side pinch grips with great control. However for really heavy cutting when a lot of force was being applied, such as roughing out a large piece of wood to shape, a much more hand filling grip such as on the H1 was more ergonomic.
As an "extended" aspect of the grip, the unsharped region of blade in the choil allows full and smooth cuts without any possibly for catching on deep penetration. However unlike a finger cutout like on the Safari Skinner, it is somewhat difficult to sharpen right to the end of the edge on the K2.
The Kydex sheath is slim and fits the blade well, no rattle. To draw the knife it has to be pulled up slightly to split the sheath and relax the hold on the blade. The belt loop is even molded to the shape of the sheath and thus appears integral. It is attached only on one side which allows it to be placed on the belt, or removed, without taking off the belt. This does lower security of attachment somewhat obviously. The sheath doesn't have the compaction problem seen with the sheath on the Agent.
The K2 has a nice complement of cutting ability, edge retention, ease of sharpening and handle comfort with a quality sheath which is both secure and versatile in carrying options. The only concern is with handle security in extreme conditions (blood or fats/grease) because there isn't a prominent guard and the surface of the micarta is highly polished.
Comments can be emailed using cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or by posting in the following thread on Bladeforums :
More information can be obtained at the Bob Dozier website.
| Last updated : | 12 : 20 : 2005 |
| Originally written: | 05 : 14 : 2005 |