Ka-Bar has come out with another United States Space Force themed knife, this time with a TDI-style design. The new knife follows the introduction of a larger series of Ka-Bar USSF tools and knives that inspired by the real US military branch tasked with protecting US and allied interests in space.
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This TDI knife features a tactical-oriented design, with the shape of the knife giving it a very compact and ergonomic form factor.
Ka-Bar says that the knife is ideal for opening freeze-dried food, mail from home, repairs to the ship, and self-defense.
The original TDI knife, by John Benner of the Tactical Defense Institute, was designed as a “last option” knife for close quarters and concealed carry.
This version has a 2.313″ blade length, hollow ground AUS8A drop point blade, and curved Zytel handle.
The knife comes with a molded gray plastic sheath.
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Price: $40-50
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If you like this style of knife, Ka-Bar offers a couple of different versions.
See Also: Ka-Bar TDI via Amazon
Discussion
While originally designed for tactical purposes – concealed carry and close quarters last resort personal defense – the Ka-Bar USSF version of the TDI knife is tongue-in-cheek described as you would expected for futuristic space station EDC.
Can you use this to open mail, packages, and “spaceship repairs?” Possibly.
I have not yet tested any knives quite like this one, and so maybe it might serve well as an EDC knife. Would you use this knife in place of a pocket knife, multi-tool, utility knife, or other work-focused type of knife?
See Also:
New KA-BAR USSF (United States Space Force) Tools and Knives
TMedina
In short, no.
The design is too specialized for me to be bothered with – it’s a cute gimmick, but beyond that, I have regular pocket knives that will suffice in every role I’ve ever needed.
On the off-chance I want/need a short fixed blade knife, I’ll use a paring knife or a Mora.
Adam
Had to check my calendar and make sure this wasn’t April 1st
Yadda
I can see these becoming a Woot special at half price in a year or two.
Jim Felt
Or a month or so…
fred
Knives – perhaps more than any other tool – seem to have aficionado-collectors. So maybe slightly odd designs have an appeal beyond utility.
I for one, have many more planes than I have knives in my shop – but I guess if I add in kitchen knives and tableware at 3 domiciles – then knives win out. While I’m a bit of a vintage plane collector – I can see the appeal for collecting smaller items that take up less room
JoeM
I think, in this case, it’s just to expand the USSF commemorative line from Ka-Bar. For those who have a Ka-Bar display within a knife collection, the Military-Branch variants tend to be kept separate for one sentiment or another. Perhaps it’s for patriotic reasons, perhaps it’s for completion, or who knows? Perhaps it’s designed as an educational tool to help teach kids about the different Military branches?
Ka-Bar the brand is often sought after for knife displays. I had a Green Beret from one of the Carolinas as a Scout Leader once, and when time came for the program to teach Knife Safety, he brought in his glass framed displays of his knives. He kinda had me collecting knives myself for a while, so he and I had a lot of talks about collecting.
In this case, though… I genuinely do not believe Ka-Bar is intending these for practical use, only as display items. It may even be to cash in, or attempt to cash in, on the declaration that the USSF was to be commissioned. It’s still Ka-Bar, so theoretically, here on Earth, the blade would still cut, the grip would still hold, and the sheath would still fit. But in the rest of the capacity as a product for sale, it’s closer to one of those 9/11 commemorative coins with the pull-out twin towers that stand up on the coin… though I would argue this is far less tacky than the coin… Probably should have compared it to commemorative plates, or mugs. But, I think you all get the point.
Jared
I like the handle color. I don’t know why they insist on using it on knives no reasonable person will want to own.
Jp
Awkward angle for the inexperienced but especially good design for fighting in styles favoring limb control/dismemberment.
Koko The Talking Ape
Wow! Just the thing for slashing off alien tentacles as they reach for the girl in the space bikini! Too bad you can’t stab eye clusters with it.
And it might be good for opening the boxes that replacement spaceship parts come in. (For freeze-dried food, they’d use scissors or just rip off the edge of the bag. And spaceships get email.) But otherwise, ridiculous.
And it has one of my pet peeves. Why doesn’t the edge grind continue all the way to the heel of the blade? That way a sharpening stone or rod can reach the entire edge, instead of trying to reach into that tight corner where the grind stops. Your fingers would still have plenty of protection.
This is just a tiny improvement over the mall ninja knives with all the blades sticking out everywhere, in that it won’t break when you use it. But you’d never use it.
MM
I believe the reason for not extending the grind all the way back is to deliberately create a small safe section of blade so that it’s less likely for someone to cut themselves with the knife. But either way it’s lazy, they could have just put a choil on the edge and then it would be easily sharpened and still have a little “safe” edge to form a bit of a guard.
Koko The Talking Ape
Ah, but many other knives continue the grind, and fingers are perfectly safe. I have a few such myself, like my Japanese chef’s knife. What matters is whether there’s some kind of stop to keep your hand from sliding forward, and this knife would have it in spades, whether or not the blade were fully ground.
But yes, they were lazy, and they could’ve put a choil on it. Or they could’ve tapered that bolster, like on more and more chef’s knives.
I think they don’t believe this knife will actually ever be used.
928'er
“Space Force” ha. ha ha. Ha Ha Ha. HA HA HA HA!
(This from an Air Force Vet.)
JoeM
Sadly, it’s less “Ha Ha” funny, and more “Wait, Really?” funny.
Hasn’t got off the ground yet, but it was actually commissioned.
I agree it’s weird. I agree it’s impractical. I agree the Air Force (Especially Veterans like yourself.) should be mocking it openly.
That said… Eventually we’ll need it in some form or another. Not saying it’s to fight aliens, but if Elon Musk gets his way, and we become a Multi-Planet Species… it’ll only take a generation or two for some sort of squabbling over independence shows up, and we’ll probably need something to handle 0G combat and security issues. Even disputes over solar system mining operations may need a governing enforcement body to police asteroid mining rights. Enter the need of some kind of “Space Force” type entity to do what needs doing.
Will this knife have anything to do with it? Will any Ka-Bar USSF product? Not likely. But, yeah… sadly it is one of those “Wait, Really?” kinds of funny things that happened in the US. I can’t even blame this on politics, or politicians… this was… a very weird day in the world… but it happened.
IronWood
Can’t think of any reason I’d want this. Can’t think of anyone else that would either. Just looks really impractical for any actual knife tasks I run into. I guess if you’re a collector of weird knives, or buy into the Space Force kitsch for some reason. I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $50.
Jerry
The blade/handle shape of this type of knife is actually pretty useful for a small/compact knife for field dressing large game (or a Martian Moose). The bend lets you get more leverage than you might otherwise get with a small knife. That said, I’m sure it is meant for collectors, or someone who wants something different. Its a Ka-Bar so it might appeal both to collectors, as well as users.
AlohaJo
This knife design is very popular and is a trusted design for self defense. An easily accessible fixed blade knife is usually faster to deploy than a folding style knife. As for the Space Force part, well that seems very comedic.
Koko The Talking Ape
For self-defense, isn’t it good to have a knife that can stab or jab as well as slash?
JoeM
Depends on the kind of self defence. Both are true. For quick-strike styles, Ninjitsu for example, a curved blade like this could be drawn covertly, cover a slice to a major artery or tendon, with a fast move toward the opponent with a punch or grapple hold.
Street brawling… like drunken brawling everyone is used to seeing… Yeah… Open threats of harm by an open blade do a great deal of damage to de-escalate the tension as it often results in either withdrawal, or some sort of weird psychological bonding between the two people as they may pull out the same knife, and bond like they showed up wearing the same hat or something. The “bar brawl” scenario is a very weird situation, sometimes involving singing, so it’s not a great example.
Ultimately it’s best to not get into those fights at all, but… things happen regardless of our intentions.
Garrett
Covert Space Force Ninjas? Asteroid mining? Huh? Anyway, can’t be bothered with Space Force blue-handled knife shaped objects (kso’s) until I finish my collection of zombie green-handled kso’s.
John S.
Rumor is that Bezos took this up with him on the launch last week, Branson took the Fairbairn–Sykes Royal Space Force version.
Joking folks, joking!
Tim J
Is this for cutting open letters and other desk tasks?