Our Philosophy on Knives

Anyone can own a mass-produced "factory" knife. But such knives are made on production lines to "price points", and a bevy of cost accountants are always looking for ways to save a nickel here, a dime there. With such knives, the heart and soul have been cut out, so these knives do not provide a deep satisfaction of ownership.

At Ek, we appreciate the process of good knife-making and embrace it for the reward that comes from doing something we can be proud of – providing tools of war that can save the lives of U.S. military men, special operators, law enforcement officers and professional adventurers. This is not a big corporation that must answer to thousands of stockholders. We don't have assembly lines or bean counters. The company is owned by one man, and he made his money decades ago in other fields of weaponry, military history and military knives and by writing respected books and magazine articles about military knives, over a period of 30 years. This is a labor of love and a source of pride for all who work here – a tradition that stretches back in time to 1941 and the days of John Ek, himself.

Each Ek Commando Knife is imbued with a spirit – the spirit of combat that lives in each knife and which you sense when you hold one. As a newspaper writer described it forty years ago in an article about our knives, it is a confidence that gives the owner "a feeling of invincibility". As a recent test by Knife World magazine put it, Ek Commando Knives are "lively in the hand and extraordinarily quick...designed to leap into the hand and spring into action...in the grimmest of circumstances." In contrast, factory knives just feel mass produced.

Our motto is "Constant Improvement", which you can see in the gradual evolution and perfection of our knives over time. This results in periodic variations in design, which adds greatly to the interest in collecting Ek Knives.

All our knives are the strongest design – full tang. And all – as advocated by John Ek and Col. William E. Fairbairn – are designed hilt heavy to fall into the hand, not out of it. The long grip, full tang and solid brass "X-Head Fasteners"™ achieve this.

It is interesting – and significant – to note that more than half of our orders come from men who have owned, or who currently own, an Ek Commando Knife. Indeed, a Marine combat veteran (an Ek owner for 40 years) recently told us, "I am going to call the President and tell him all of our troops going to the desert should have an Ek – they're the best out there!"

If you don't already own an Ek, join the ranks of combat troops and veterans who do. We constantly look back and remember, "Continue the mission." Simultaneously, we look forward saying, "Press the attack!", bolstered by the confidence that comes from owning a knife that has been, as our motto proudly declares, "Battle Proven in Six Wars." There are plenty of new, wanna-be knives out there that have been around for only a few years (the FNG's). But when you get an Ek, you own The Real Thing. Why settle for less? One day, your life might depend on it. When your life depends on a knife, make sure its an Ek!

Note To Military Personnel On Knife Selection

If you are deploying overseas, selecting the right knife could mean life or death. If you run out of ammo or if your weapon jams, the fighting might quickly become, for you, hand-to-hand. At that point, you want a military fighting knife. You don't want a multi-purpose, open this-and-that-and-the-other knife.

In knife fighting, the decisive move (that ends the fight the quickest) is the thrust. Ek Commando Knives are the best knives in the world in the thrust. The spearpoint design (of the Models 1, 2, 3, and 4) concentrates 100% of the power of the thrust force vector directly along the exact center of the knife (a design that places the point off center, does not take advantage of basic physics). Our Bowie blade (Model 5) is one of the few in the world that features a sharpened false edge and a significant taper in the thicknes from the shoulder of the blade to the point; both of these features enhance its performance in the thrust.

The Ek blade is exactly the right thickness – not so thin as to be brittle, but not so thick that this thickness, itself, would reduce the effectiveness of the all-important thrust. To wit, if you place a quarter on a table, you can jam the point of an Ek Commando Knife through it. Try that (at your own risk) with a multi-purpose knife!

Even the ergonomic "Handprint"™ grips are designed to maximize purchase in the thrust. As with a fencing foil, and as taught by Col. William E. Fairbairn (of the British Commandos and Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife fame), a true fighting knife should be held in the diagonal, cross-palm "fencing grip" position. The eight scallops of the Ek grips provide an ergonomic position for (1) the ball of the hand, (2) the thumb, (3) the index finger and (4) the last two fingers. The "Gripping Grooves"™ in each grip are deeply cut perpendicular to the central thrust axis to maximize the force of the thrust.

Having said this, military men with experience in combat also extol the many other virtues – and uses – of the Ek Commando Knife. And the unbeatable strength of the full-tang design adds to their confidence.

So, even if you are rear echelon, with the type of combat these days you might suddenly find yourself ambushed and in the thick of it. At that time, be sure you are well prepared with a military fighting knife, designed to give you the maximum advantage and the best chance of coming home – as General Patton said, to "give the other poor bastard the chance to die for his country!"

Continue the mission...