I received the "loaner" HI Bowie that I was to use for making a sheath last Wednesday morning. Within a few minutes of holding it I knew I would have a real hard time sending it back & by noon, I had written to Bill & it was mine!
It is that good!
The pictures that have been posted of it simply do not do it justice. I am very impressed with its overall execution. It is 15 3/4" OAL with its balance point approximately 1 1/4 in front of scales. The deep fullers are very nicely done & help greatly to keep both the weight down & the balance just right. Unfortunately, they also contribute to the difficulty of taking decent pictures of the piece -- with the beautiful mirror finish, they make for an extremely reflective surface.
First, the review... I'll spare you details on the original scabbard. Suffice it to say that fit, function, & choice of materials were not up to HI standards.
Handle
Blade
Performance
In addition to scale screws, I would ask that the kamis just take a little more care in final finish. IMO, the customer should not have to remove burrs & put an acceptable edge on a piece.
On to the sheath When Bill called for prototypes, he and others expressed a preference for a traditional wood covered scabbard. While I can understand these feelings, I disagree that it is necessary for safety reasons. I've been making sheaths & holsters as a hobby for 20+ years & I'm confident that a properly constructed all leather sheath with a thick welt will work just fine. Anyway, that's what I said when I wrote to Bill and offered to make an all-leather prototype. Here's the result which is currently winging it's way to Reno right now:
I choose swivel construction for the belt loop to give the wearer more freedom of movement than a rigid sheath would have provided with a knife of this size. (By using a leg tie-down & unfastening the top snap, the user could sit, squat, etc. without the butt digging into his side.) Here's a pic showing a rear view of the belt loop attachment:
Finally, here is a view of the sheath's thick welt:
I included a few other pics in the album that I set up for this project. All work was done using non-power hand tools, with the exception of a Dremel used to help burnish the welt & a hair dryer to warm the leather to accept the final wax finish.
Cheers,
Brian
[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 06-16-2000).]
The pictures that have been posted of it simply do not do it justice. I am very impressed with its overall execution. It is 15 3/4" OAL with its balance point approximately 1 1/4 in front of scales. The deep fullers are very nicely done & help greatly to keep both the weight down & the balance just right. Unfortunately, they also contribute to the difficulty of taking decent pictures of the piece -- with the beautiful mirror finish, they make for an extremely reflective surface.
First, the review... I'll spare you details on the original scabbard. Suffice it to say that fit, function, & choice of materials were not up to HI standards.
Handle
- Buffalo horn scales are very nicely polished & shaped but not totally flush with the top & bottom of tang. It's very close but a fingernail can ride along the slight ridge. The handle is very comfortable & the fit of the scales to the tang should not be a problem if the horn was properly cured. However, if shrinkage does occur, "hot spots" could develop. (I spent some time about a week ago smoothing the tang & pin fit on my Chiruwa AK since it's scales did shrink a bit since last year.
- Aluminum pins were used to secure the scales. The one design change I would like to see in version "D" is use of screws, as originally specified, for this purpose.
- Scales are fairly symmetrical but the left scale extends ever so slightly further toward the blade.
- Lanyard hole originally had a sharp burr that would cut a lanyard if not removed. About 1 minute with my Dremel & it was gone.
Blade
- Beautifully shaped & finished but rather dull along its entire length. It was close enough to sharp though since less than 1/2 hour with a diamond steel & DMT diamond stone had it popping hairs.
- 10" long; almost 2 3/4" wide at widest spot; about 9/16" thick spine
Performance
- I gave it a workout splitting some wood for kindling last weekend at our camp. It was easily controlled & did a great job of splitting 15" pieces of seasoned mixed hardwoods, imbedding it's edge in my chopping block almost every time. In fact, it hung up in only one piece, cherry with a partial knot.
I forgot to mention when I first posted this that the blade came through w/o any perceptible change in sharpness. I'll bring it along again this weekend for some more kindling production work. I'll also give it a chance to show what it can do chopping through a collection of wrist sized branches I've acculumated. Stay tuned. - While it is certainly not a lightweight fighting Bowie, it is not an unwieldy sledgehammer either. Since the balance point is so close to the handle, I never had the impression that it was trying to get away from me. It provided good control, allowing me to stop & change direction in mid-swings.
In addition to scale screws, I would ask that the kamis just take a little more care in final finish. IMO, the customer should not have to remove burrs & put an acceptable edge on a piece.
On to the sheath When Bill called for prototypes, he and others expressed a preference for a traditional wood covered scabbard. While I can understand these feelings, I disagree that it is necessary for safety reasons. I've been making sheaths & holsters as a hobby for 20+ years & I'm confident that a properly constructed all leather sheath with a thick welt will work just fine. Anyway, that's what I said when I wrote to Bill and offered to make an all-leather prototype. Here's the result which is currently winging it's way to Reno right now:
I choose swivel construction for the belt loop to give the wearer more freedom of movement than a rigid sheath would have provided with a knife of this size. (By using a leg tie-down & unfastening the top snap, the user could sit, squat, etc. without the butt digging into his side.) Here's a pic showing a rear view of the belt loop attachment:
Finally, here is a view of the sheath's thick welt:
I included a few other pics in the album that I set up for this project. All work was done using non-power hand tools, with the exception of a Dremel used to help burnish the welt & a hair dryer to warm the leather to accept the final wax finish.
Cheers,
Brian
[This message has been edited by bcaffrey (edited 06-16-2000).]
