Ka-Bar Knifes

TDI Law Enforcement Series

The Ka-Bar knife manufacture is very well known due to their US Marine Corps Fighting Knife. Everyone knows this big knife with a bowie-type blade and a leather handle. But this type it different. Ka-Bar is producing a design by John Benner. John Benner is the founder and president of the Tactical Defense Institute, a tactical training facility in Ohio, USA.

With the TDI-Knifes Brenner had the Law Enforcement Officer and the armed citizen in mind. The purpose of first knife in this series, the TDI-LE-Knife is to give the officer a weapon to defend his sidearm. In a situation, were the opponent is going for the officers gun, the typical gun-retention-training kicks in. But in some cases the opponent is may be intoxicated, in a better physical condition or better trained then the officer. The idea now is to go for the LE-Knife, carried on the support hand side, with a beltclip between the pants belt and the duty belt, right behind a mag- or light-pouch. It can be carried forward or reverse grip, straight or up-side-down. But the up-side-down carry would not make so much sense for this task. I started carrying a folder in my right pocked. But the knife was always blocked by my holster so I switched it over to the weak side. That is quiet nice since I have access to it under most conditions. It works fine if I have to cut a rope or an apple and fear and stress is far away. But I doubt, that I get my folder out of my off side pant pocket, with my weak hand, when some wacko is yanking on my handgun, my pulse is up and stress is high. That is why I carried my old KISS knife since years just the way Benner is explaining it.

Carrying the LE-Knife is a little more comfortable, then the straight blade I used to carry before. The blade is not disturbing while sitting and the grip will not poke into my side. My LE-Knife is 5-5/8” over all with the blade measuring 2-5/16”. The grip has an angle of 20 degrees to the blade. The grip fits my hand quiet well. But rare end of the edge is poking a little against my index finger. There are serrations on top of the blade which support the thumb, when pushing the grip further down into the hand.

I really liked the idea of the TDI-LE-Knife and since they are affordable I ordered two more of them. One was the large LE-Knife and the other one the LE-Ankle-Knife. The large LE is not for uniform duty since its 7-9/16” over all with a 3-11/16” blade. That is not small anymore and the blade is thick enough for working. But it was designed for use with a plate-carrier or a battle-belt anyway. The grove for the index finger is bigger on this one, so I will not knock my knuckles on the end of the edge. The grip is also larger and it will stick out of most fists at the bottom. This could be used as a less-than-lethal device. There are loops and Velcro-band on the sheath to mount it on a wider belt or PALS. The loops and bands can be switched to the other side of the sheath by some screws. Unfortunately the large LE-Knife can just be carried in a vertical position. The holes for the screws will not allow you a horizontal carry position. But this is what I would prefer with this knife, when wearing plates and ammo. In my opinion it would also make up a good back-up-weapon for the common soldier who won’t get a secondary gun. Or you have to work in an area, where you can´t carry a firearm but a knife would be ok. You can carry the large LE like a pistol on your right hip. The draw-motion is the same.

Then there is the LE-Ankle-Knife. I always wanted to have an ankle gun, but since I can´t carry one I tried this ankle-knife. The size is almost the same as the large LE-Knife. The blade is 3.7” and the overall length is 7”. But compared to the 0.18# of the regular LE, the Ankle-Knife is even lighter with it s 0.15#. The grip is slimmer, but it has about the same length as the regular one. And yes, my knuckles hit the end of the edge. But just a little. Here is the angel just 15 degrees between blade and grip. That is necessary to carry it better undetected. But the angel of the grip helps a lot when grapping the knife. A straight grip would be worse to snatch in a hurry.

The Ankle-Holster is very solid and padded. On the inside is a mash-material to help the cooling. But to be honest, there is no cooling when wearing a cordura ankle holster. Therefore it helps the holster to stay in place while running. If you want to do that, you have to tight up the 2” Velcrostrap enough. If you wear it with a suit and with high quality socks, the holster will move when you start up to be hyperactive. If you wear some cheap cotton-socks it will rather stay put. And it will work the best with boots, if you put it over the bootleg. Wearing typical half cut LE-boots are making it even easier if you place the holster above the bootleg. But make sure that you can pull your pants-leg up far enough.

Oh, by the way, the LE-Knifes are all razor sharp!

I hope my review on the Ka-Bar /TDI Knifes was useful for you.

Cheers,

Gunner