my three purchases from knife center finally arrived today
let me do brief out-of-the-box reviews of them.
First is the Ka-Bar Dozier. The Ka-Bar Mule in the pics was a much earlier purchase. The first knife i ever bought (not including MT's and SAK's), and it was a mistake because being a noob i had no concept of size
Other than the funky fluorescent (zombie) green colour, to be honest theres nothing 'collectible' about these knives. they're built to be used and abused (within reason). it seems ka-bar tried building the best quality they could while keeping the final price affordable, with no fancy add-ons.
The Mule is not suitable for edc - its just way too big. its more of a foldable survival/hunting knife. it feels sturdy in your hand and heavy in a reassuring rather than annoying way, like its rugged enough for any outdoor work. short of batoning and the like; leave those to fixed blades.
the weight distribution is biased to the handle. the thumb stud travels too far for my thumb to follow through fully. i prefer to do a wrist flick to open the blade in a single motion, where the weight helps the swing and it locks in a solid 'thunk'. definitely not to do in the office.
the mule also comes in plain edge, in black or desert tan.
the Dozier is definitely an edc size and weight. it really feels like a smaller sibling to the mule when you open and close the blade. the handles feel good and grippy, i believe it wont slip in wet/sweaty hands. surprisingly, despite being small the thumb stud also travels too far for my thumb to follow through in a single motion. flicking it is easy though.
the dozier also comes in desert tan, coyote brown, orange and pink.
in my final assessment, these are knives to buy if your main intention is for using them, especially if you're on a budget (Mule <SGD100, Dozier <SGD50) or you deliberately don't want a high end knife to be scuffed from regular/hard use, but you still want a quality american brand name with reasonable steel (they're both AUS8). buy the dozier for an edc or if your work requires regular cutting. buy the mule to strap on to your pack for outdoors hiking/camping, and the dozier in your pocket for easy access.