Knives of Alaska Cub Bear Caping Knife – Review

If you're in the market for a caping knife, look no further. Check out the Knives of Alaska Cub Bear.
If you’re in the market for a caping knife, look no further. Check out the Knives of Alaska Cub Bear.

U.S.A.-(AmmoLand.com)- If you asked me what design I like on a caping knife, I’d tell you to look at the Knives of Alaska Cub Bear. It is the perfect caping knife. It is the standard by which I judge all other caping knives. Realize, that is because it fits my hand perfectly. If your hand is smaller/larger then you may favor a slightly different variation.

Knives of Alaska Cub Bear Caping Knife

But regardless of your size preference, the Knives of Alaska Cub Bear has the perfect design. For the blade you want your caping knife to be narrow and come to a sharp point. The blade needs to be 2 ¼ to 2 ½ -inches long. This blade shape is perfect to skin out the feet and toes on bears and to cape out your trophy buck, bear, elk or moose.

Another thing to look for in a caping knife is the handle size and grip. This is where many companies mess up. Just because a caping knife needs to have a short blade, that doesn’t mean that your hand suddenly shrinks so now you need a shorter handle does it?

No! You are doing intricate cutting and need total control of the blade. Plus, you’ll likely be caping out an animal in the dark, your hands are wet, cold and maybe snowy and numb. That’s the perfect recipe to get cut.

The KOA Cub Bear has double choils at the first of the blade so you can choke down on the knife and have total control while working. And the handle is textured to enhance your grip.

Let me digress for a moment and cover outdoor knife designs in particular. It constantly puzzles me when I see weird knife designs. If the manufacturer doesn’t have a clue as to what design works for what tasks wouldn’t you think he’d have enough sense to at least consult with a few outdoorsmen. I see this problem constantly with many of the major knife companies. Puzzling.

So why are the knife designs on KOA knives functional as compared to lot of the other manufacturers? I can tell you exactly why. I personally know Charles Allen. He is an actual outdoorsman just you and me and has field tested all of his knives at his lodge in Alaska before he puts a new knife on the market. If they don’t work, he makes adjustments.

So is there one perfect design for every task that we perform as outdoorsmen? Ha, according to who you ask. My point is, knife experts may agree together 90% of the times but even among the experts, they’re going to have their own little preferences. But what irks me are the designs that are so far out there that no rational knife user would favor them. Make sense?

The KOA Cub Bear comes with a nice leather sheath and a top that folds over the top of the handle and snaps tight.

The MSRP on the KOA Cub Bear is $69.99 and as is usual, we will close with the specs.

SPECIFICATIONS:

  • BLADE STEEL D2
  • BEVEL 18-20
  • BLADE LENGTH 2 ¾”
  • ROCKWELL HARDNESS 57-59
  • KNIFE LENGTH 6 ½”
  • WT. 2.2 OZS.
  • The Cub Bear Caping Knife is lightweight and designed for fine detail work. Field-tested alongside the Skinner/Cleavers in the Alaskan bush, the Cub Bear’s overall length is 6-1/2″ with a cutting edge of 2-3/4″. This blade is ideal for fine caping.
  • Leather sheath Included

Tom ClaycombAbout Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoor writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal, you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening #ad for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”

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Tom Claycomb
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Heed the Call-up

A choil is not a finger groove. The choil is a cut-out at the end of the knife, nearest the hilt/guard/tang, at the bottom of the blade section, for the purpose of ease the sharping of the entire blade edge. The cut-outs for fingers are called finger grooves. A finger groove could also be called a ricasso, which is an unsharpened section of the blade closest to the hilt/guard/tang. Ricassos also allow one’s fingers to be in front of the hilt/guard/tang, while not being against the sharpened blade. Though ricassos do not have finger grooves, they are just fairly straight… Read more »

Whitesheep

Thank you “member” for the definition of choil. I had this wrong as well.

I have owned this knife for years. Broke the tip off cutting out elk ivory years ago. D2 is not for prying. My hunting buddy ground in a new rounded tip using a Lansky. I actually like the new tip better as it doesn’t puncture hide so easily.
Great knife. Used it for years. Check out the companion Muskrat. This has a completely rounded blunt edge and is the bomb for skinning out large animals like Elk.

Buster

Made where??

Heed the Call-up

Buster, you will need to contact the company. I searched their site and nothing specifically states their knifes are USA made – unfortunately. I do know D2 steel is of USA origin, and the only reference to the USA is this: “Alaska is where we finalize our prototype designs under the most rugged field tests possible.” I find that companies that make their products in the USA typically state such, whereas those that do not, try to hide that fact, or not even mention it. I, too, try to buy USA as much as possible, and *will not* buy Chinese… Read more »