Photo from Cackalacky.

One day in the early 1900s, a fur trapper was attacked by a wounded bear while out trapping. The trapper’s gun jammed as the bear approached, leaving him with only his knife to defend himself. The knife, made by the Union Cutlery Company, proved up to the task, and the trapper wrote to the company to thank them for making such a worthy knife. In his letter he expressed that the knife enabled him to kill a bear, but all that could be read was “K a bar.” The Union Cutlery Company took on “KA-BAR” as one of its brands, and later became the company’s name.

Shortly after the start of World War II, Union Cutlery submitted a KA-BAR knife to the U.S. Marine Corps: a combat knife that could not only cut through different materials with good edge-retention but also drive tent stakes and nails, open ration cans and dig trenches. The Marine Corps took the blade on. It became the standard issue fighting and utility knife of the Corps, and to this day it remains the knife of choice for active duty Marines. As a testament to the knives’ toughness, many veterans still commonly use the KA-BAR they carried into combat in World War II, Vietnam, or the Gulf Wars.

KA-BAR knives are made of hardy 1095CV steel, a high carbon steel with chromium and vanadium added for strength, and the “through tang” design, in which the metal of the blade extends through the handle, discourages breakage — ready for camping, fending off bears, and anything else you might encounter in the wilds.