Personalizing a Ka-Bar Phat Bob

Seen here are two of the new Bob Dozier designed Phat Bob folders. I bought one of these recently because when I first saw it I thought it sure reminded me a lot of the actual Bob custom that I have drooled over for some time. I liked it so much that after that I immediately ordered a second one for a back up. I'd love to have the real thing but I just don't have several hundred bucks laying around to spare at the moment so this inexpensive alternative will have to do. The blade steel is AUS8 and the knife is made in Taiwan. Don't let that sway you though because these are actually built quite well.

Some of the nicest knives in the world are coming out of Taiwan these days. I've seen and handled several and even some recently from China in that little Sanrenmu 710 that have absolutely blown me away for the quality of the work, fit and finish, and overall feel.

Anyway, I did find some things I wanted to improve on with this model with the main issue for me being the weight. It came to me weighing in at 5.3 ounces from the Cheaper Than Dirt web site where I bought it. My second one weighs in at exactly the same weight as the first. First thing I noted after the weight issue was the thumb stud being a bit hard to grab with my thumb as I kept missing it feeling like the handle scale was blocking my access to it or that the stud was just a little on the short side. So, as shown I cleaned out a better thumb ramp on the green micarta scale.

That helped but not as much as I had hoped so I ended up replacing the thumb stud with one easier to get a good hold of when I wanted to use the knife. Being that I was a long time Kabar repairman doing some contract work for them when needed I had some spare parts from other Kabar knives laying around. So, I simply grabbed up one of the spares from another busted Kabar knife and installed that one on my Phat Bob user.

Now moving on I had to figure how I was going to handle the weight issue. Little by little I got all my measurements together and finally figured I'd have to remove the original phosphorus bronze washers and replace those with my own in a thicker washer. This way I could bump up the pivot measurement to the same height as the new fancy stand offs in the rear to allow me to rid the knife of a lot of the weight problem in the way of that solid metal spacer.

The alternative was to simply drill holes in the spacer. I like this better. I reduced the weight from the 5.3 ounces from the factory to a nice 4.6 ounce weight that is noticed quite easily in the hand. I could easily reduce the weight even more by drilling some holes in the solid liners in selected spots and I may do that later on at least on the non lock side liner just to see if I can get it down closer to 4 ounces. With some properly placed lightening holes in a good size I may actually be able to get it there. Time will tell.

Next step for me was ridding the knife of the tip down carry. Being a tip up fan myself I prompty made a custom titanium clip for it and flipped that after drilling and threading some holes right quick. Two of the 2-56 size screws fit right in and now I have me a lighter weight easier to open, properly equipped Phat Bob to suit me personally for use and another for the safe as a back up. I always buy two when I find something I really like. One is none and two is one as they say. :-)

Being that these are just under $50 each from Cheaper than Dirt and thats after shipping, I figured I could afford it. Anyway, the folder is much more to my liking now. Just one of these things would have made a difference for me but at this point its a real nice user. The spacers gave it just a bit more of a wider stance but I rather like that trade off for a few tenths of an ounce weight loss. I don't mind a meaty folder in the hand and that ample handle gives you plenty to hold on to for some serious work. The blade so far seems quite capable and although I have not had the opportunity to really run it through the paces just yet I've had plenty of experience with AUS8 steel and can kind of figure that it will more than handle anything I want to use it for. Thanks for looking.

STR