Attention PUMA Bowie fans...need help

gundy

gundy

Joined
Apr 6, 2001
Messages
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Okay, I have always had a thing for old style knives and stag...Of late, the Puma bowies and hunters have started to send their little voices to talk to me...

Q 1. What do I look for in steel, s/s, carbon, pumaster steel?
Q 2. Were they built okay? What is the best year to nab one at?

I am looking for both usability and collectability...

Thanks in advance guru's...
 
The original puma bowie is nice knife but there are better user's out there. They have small handles and blades are to light for chopping but this is a good time to be looking on ebay because these knives are going for lower than normal.

A good user knife that's also nice to handle as well as look at is the Marbles Ideal from A.G. Russell. They now come in 1070-6 carbon steel which has excellent edge holding, easy to sharpen and can take a lot of abuse. They have three sizes 6", 7" and 8" blades. The 7" is my favorite in this knife. Prices are the same as you would be paying for an original puma bowie at approx. $150. Since this a Marbles it will have good collector value.

Also, the OVB bowie's by Camillus Cutlery are very nice. Check their webside for information. They are currently out of stock but a lot of retailers still have them. These blades are lighter weight and have very nice balance. These knife is designed by Fisk and also have good collector value.

Most people use their bowies for chopping and they tend to be a little to large for other outdoor uses. My experience is that a 7" blade is minimum for half decent chopping ability.

If you are not sure about the size that best suits your needs, a good starting point is a Camillus USMC knife for approx. $30. Cut & file the top of the guard off and you will have a good using bowie knife. They chop well, cut well, are easy to sharpen and are disposable when you consider the low price. They use 1095 steel which is a 'notch' better than the 1070-6 as currently being used by Marbles Outdoors.

The 7" Ideal from AG Russell has a thicker blade than the USMC knives and is slighty better for chopping due to it's heavier weight.

The new Puma bowies use regular quality stainless steel but are nicely made for approx. $70, if you shop around.

Good luck with your search,
Collecter
 
Gundy,
I've never had a Puma Bowie, but a bunch of other Puma knives. The Bowie's I have seen from the mid '80's to mid 90's were in Pumaster Steel (said to be 440B, but not sure) and very well made.
Very nice to look at, but not terribly practical IMO. Agree with Collecter!
I don't know the new ones very well.

Bo Hansen
 
The Pumaster steel is a carbon steel, not stainless, and was done very well back in the 80s. The Puma stainless steel from that era also was heat treated very well (the stainless would outperform a good 440C). I don't know how the current production steel compares.
 
I was a Puma dealer for several years. Puma knives used to be well made but resent times show quality is somewhat sliping. I would suggest trying to locate an older one if possible. The Pumaster steel you refer to is carbon steel. Try to find any made in the sixties, seventies, up to the mid eighties. My under standing is they switched to stainless about that time. I have a White Hunter from the mid ninties and the stainless steel used is pretty good. They use German steel equal to our 440c, that is rockwell marked on the blade with a small dent, to about 60 rockwell. There is a way to date Puma's. On the fixed blades there is a series of numbers on the guard which indicates the quarter and the year the knife was made. It difficult to explain as they changed the sequence of the numbers for different years. My Puma reads 52962 The 5 & 2 are control numbers, the 96 is the year ( 1996 ) and the 2 is the second quarter of the year. With the early Puma's sometimes the numbers for the year were reversed example instead of 96 it would be 69. Like I said it is confusing. I have a pamplet put out by Guttman Cutlery from the eighties that shows you how to date them. If you find a Puma with no numbers on the guard, it is what is called a pre-64 Puma as they did not start to date them until the last quarter of 1964. Hope this helps.
.
 
Thanks for all of the info guys, very much appreciated. I have always liked the look fo them and might grab a couple one day 'just to have a play'... :)

I will try and go for a carbon late 70's early 80's by the sounds...

Thanks again!
 
Gundy, keep in mind that those older Pumas are considered "Collectable", and you might have to pay a premium price for a good one. My advice is to try to find a way to hand pick one off of a table at a show. Even the older ones could be kind of crude in their grinding, and fit of the guard. The guards were never soldered on, and a lot of them are kinda loose. Also, matching stag is always a problem. What I'm saying is, I wouldn't buy one sight unseen off Ebay myself.
 
Lots of folks offered great advice. I'd offer up that the best one's were pre mid 90's. I go by the boxes.

The earliest models were the wood boxed models, then they came in a green/yellow plastic box, these were great. Then they switched to a black cardboard box, and the quality became a bit hit or miss.

The date code sheet for the Puma was posted in Bernard Levine's forum. A search should bring it up. As mentioned, it's a bit hard to explain, but once you see the chart, all becomes clear.
 
Bob,
Thanks for the link! Man, that brought back a lot of memories! :) You'r right about the guard often not being fitted too well! Apart from that, the yellow/green boxed knives were great!
 
I don't know what the current production is like, but the older stainless is good stuff - I did a direct comparison with an older Benchmade ATS-34 blade, and the Puma stainless came out on top (mid-90s production). Their older carbon steel is much better, and makes a great blade. And the older ones usually had great stag, too bad that isn't the case any more.
 
Bob bowie, thanks for the pumaonly website.

I just used it to check the date of my Hunter's Friend...Oct. 1978.

It's one of my sharpest knives.

Collecter
 
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