Are Ka-Bar any good anymore. I seen one at a local hardware store and the blade was as sharp as a butter knife. It was supposed to be a Marine Corps commemorative edition.I'm sitting next to my partner, a Marine guy, and he says that he was simply happy to see his family and spend the day prior to graduation with them. Everything else was just gravy... but I personally like the Ka-Bar idea.
I agree. We bought the USMC son in law a ZT0566. He's not a "knife guy" so we didn't want to go crazy. It has served him well over the years....So far as a graduation gift, a quality folding knife would be hard to beat. It would serve him well beyond his Marine years...
As a marine. The day he became a marine will be more important. The only reason marines know the day they enlisted is because it's the same a their eas. These are two very different dates.1st, congrates on raising a fine young man. I hope you can attend his graduation. When I went to my grandsons' graduation ceremony in the USAF years ago, the DI warned us that we all would be crying like babies by the end of it. Damned if he wasn't right.
So far as a graduation gift, a quality folding knife would be hard to beat. It would serve him well beyond his Marine years. But I would suggest that you have it simply engraved with his enlistment date, not his graduation date. He will be graduating from a number of schools in the next few years, but there will always be only 1 date that changed the course of his life.
While deployed on some bases you can't carry a firearm but you can carry a knife. All depends on where you get deployed.I don't remember getting any gift on graduation day, I was just happy that my dad showed up, it was really difficult for him to make that trip.
As for KA-BAR, he bought me one during leave before I deployed to Iraq in 2003. No one ever said a thing about carrying a knife even stateside as long as we were in the field, even took it on a trip to Japan. Outside of that, very little use for it. I would be wary of knock offs, ones sold in local hardware stores are rarely the real deal, especially dull ones. Its very popular knife for Chinese companies to copy and sell cheaply.
For everyday I purchased a couple CRKT knives that were great for opening MREs and other basic stuff, still have one. Currently I carry a Benchmade (it is much better steel than my CRKT, I believe it is a 595 Mini Boost) that was given to me before I went to Afghanistan. I was also given a Gerber, but I only carried it one time due to weight and size. I was just recently given a Benchmade Triage. I have not carried it yet, but looks like a good knife.
As for tomahawks, the guys I know carrying them aren't doing it as a joke, really useful tool as long as your in a job that it would be useful such as popping locks of doors/gates or knocking a hole in a mud wall. If it had a spike, might be good for silently disabling a vehicle before heading into a compound, can't count how many knives I had to sharpen because guys were trying to stab the tires with their knives. They all said the same thing, its not easy like it shows on TV, lol. Throwing knives though, those are useless and really just for fun during down time.
The above advice on money, cars, and girls is priceless. If he is into hunting or fishing might be worth getting a knife with something etched that would be good for his hobbies.