Bladeforums - Best Bowie 2007

The Fisk Persian is one of the best pieces I have ever seen. The "other" integral Sfreddo is mine :)


834o64g.jpg


822ww86.jpg
 
Here's an Ed Schempp blade I picked up early this year. It's made using 1080-15n20 damascus over a 52100 core. Not as fancy as most of the entries so far but I thought it was worth a mention.

standard.jpg


Here's an older san mai blade of Ed's that he was kind enough to rehandle for me at the same time in ironwood with a mosaic buttcap.

standard.jpg


The images were done by PhilL.
 
Hi Riad,

Thanks! I was going to look for a pic of that double ground Fowler of yours but didn't want to be presumptuous and post someone else's knives.
 
Thanks Guys.
Feather and Fisk Dogstar are my favorite patterns. Seeing Steve Dunn draw and explain the process for making feather made me appreciate it even more.

You have a sharp eye Peter (as if we didn't already know that) the two are a slightly different. I like the damascus on #4 better but the overall fighter #31 better. You know me, I like the Bling. :eek: ;)
 
The damascus on both look great but the ivory on #31 really takes it over the top in my mind. And you picked all those up this year... :eek: :thumbup: :D
 
OK, this thread is absolutely filled with the best of the year, and pointed towards blades that made an appearance with our membership. (As it should be.)

Why the need to narrow it down to one Big Kahuna, and in the process diminishing, ever so subtly, all the other makers work? (Put yourself in a makers shoes watching the process. Don't say it won't.)

One winner at the expense of tens of others. It's not going to be anything but subjective anyway.

Elsewhere in the BF forums are riddled with 'holier than thou' mentality. It would be nice to have a forum where we are appreciation of equals and don't NEED to declare who's on top.

Disagreements are considered....

Coop
 
SharpByCoop said:
OK, this thread is absolutely filled with the best of the year, and pointed towards blades that made an appearance with our membership. (As it should be.)

Why the need to narrow it down to one Big Kahuna, and in the process diminishing, ever so subtly, all the other makers work? (Put yourself in a makers shoes watching the process. Don't say it won't.)

One winner at the expense of tens of others. It's not going to be anything but subjective anyway.

Elsewhere in the BF forums are riddled with 'holier than thou' mentality. It would be nice to have a forum where we are appreciation of equals and don't NEED to declare who's on top.

Disagreements are considered....

Coop
Click to expand...
I see your point Coop, even though my competitive nature drives me to always want to separate the "best" from the rest.

Generally speaking if there's not a designated "Best" does that eventually affect motivation, interest and/or performance?

What if there was NO Super Bowl, World Series or best in class for anything?

Opinions and preferences make the world go round.

I do think we should note here that this "Best Of" is selected entirely by viewing photos and first hand inspection of the beautiful pieces here could render very different results.
 
Hi Coop,

A warm and fuzzy hug goes out to you. :p

Seriously - I hear you - there is no need, per se, to declare a winner. But the process can be both interesting and informative - such as Peter's list of his 5 finalists - it's not just the knives he selected, but why he selected them.

I see this as similar to (but not the same as) the "best stag" and "best ivory" threads of the past. The dissimilarity is that the focus there was primarily on the handle material, whereas here, it's on the whole knife.

It is also similar to (but not the same as) awards given at knife shows. The dissimilarity is that - with the exception of the Peck and Hughes awards, the general public doesn't necessarily know which knives were entered.

I know makers take great pride in their work - but I'm not sure they are so fragile as to feel slighted by their knife not being selected as "the one". If that were the case, they would never enter any knife for judging at any show.

At least two makers have said that they feel honored to be included in this impressive line-up and I don't think they are being the least bit disingenuous in saying so. They don't speak for all makers, of course - but it does give me some comfort that makers will take it in the spirit it is intended: a celebration of the best bowies of the year.

But I have an open mind and open ears - I look forward to the views of others on this subject.

If we proceed, I'll also be interested in suggestions on how we deal with selecting the finalists. Could be that everyone posts up their top five as Peter did, then we add up the number of times each knife is mentioned and the top five total get voted on in a poll in a new thread.

Roger
 
Jose Reyes said:
The damascus on both look great but the ivory on #31 really takes it over the top in my mind. And you picked all those up this year... :eek: :thumbup: :D
Click to expand...

Yes Jose. It was a very good year for EL Diablo's :D

I got the stag handled one from Harvey @ '07 Reno and the ivory piece @ Jerry's recent Micro Show.
 
Kevin Jones said:
I do think we should note here that this "Best Of" is selected entirely by viewing photos and first hand inspection of the beautiful pieces here could render very different results.
Click to expand...

An excellent point - no knife can be fully appreciated in two dimensions alone. Such are the limitations of the virtual world. These knives can't be subject to the scrutiny of show judging. Then again, at how many shows would we see a line-up like this for best bowie? Blade, maybe? And no show selects the best of a given year - just the best of those presented at that particular show. Also - no awards that I know of are voted on by the walking public. Such are the benefits of the virtual world.

Roger
 
Coop,

I think you are exactly correct. :eek:

I found it almost impossible to narrow this to five knives, picking ONLY ONE? I would have to abstain, because I am afraid that my brain would short out in the attempt.

For those who are keen to try, I would say that you would have to have the actual knives in the same room with the actual voters, in order to have any credibility, imho. Otherwise it is more of a photography/beauty contest than a judgement on the actual merits of the knives.

P
 
ptgdvc said:
Coop,

I think you are exactly correct. :eek:

I found it almost impossible to narrow this to five knives, picking ONLY ONE? I would have to abstain, because I am afraid that my brain would short out in the attempt.

For those who are keen to try, I would say that you would have to have the actual knives in the same room with the actual voters, in order to have any credibility, imho. Otherwise it is more of a photography/beauty contest than a judgement on the actual merits of the knives.

P
Click to expand...

I'm with Coop and bugger chops on this one!

Stephen
 
All we are doing is trying to have a little fun here. IMO, as long as we keep that perspective, this is a good thing for all.

Roger, in order to get nominations, I would ask anyone who would like to list their favorites and give a brief reason, just as Peter did.

To make it a little easier however, I would ask for 7/8 nominations to put up on poll rather than just 5.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top