Coincident with a new wave of demand for chopper knives, KA-BAR’s Parangatang is finding its way back into production after a brief hiatus. The design is the brainchild of Steve Johnson of Johnson Adventure Blades, who set out to make a sturdy, powerful, and balanced tool capable of a wide variety of cutting tasks.
This unusual blade may look like it comes from some far-flung corner of the world, and as the name implies it does draw on the Malaysian Parang knife. But Nebraska native Johnson’s primary inspiration for the design came from the hardworking farm tools of his youth, called corn knives. “They were the right tool for cutting down green cornstalks and weeds, and the front third of the blade spent a lot of time hitting the dirt,” Johnson explains. On the other hand, Johnson found these knives were less useful away from the farm and struggled with tougher jobs. “My goal with the Parangatang was to deliver a highly useful tool, but make it from the type of material that would chop hardwood just as well as the old corn knives cut soft corn stalks,” he says.
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