brass spines on knives

L

leonc

Joined
Mar 6, 2001
Messages
43
Hello everyone,
i was reading "modesty blaise" by peter o'donnell the other day, and in describing willie garvin's knives, it said the spines of the blades had brass or bronze (can't remember.) strip bonded to them, so when blocking another knife, the opponents blade will not skid off steel, but nick into the softer metal and stick enough to be blocked.

has anyone seen or heard of this being done?
i wouldn't want to entrust my life to a technique which relies on blade to blade blocking, let alone blocking and relying on a strip of brass to keep the other guy's blade from me.
What are the opinions of my esteemed fellow forumites?
leonc
 
I beleive there is some historical fact behind this, but the final word is that you don't see it as a feature on modern fighting bowies.

I know a couple of great sources of info on bowies. If no experts find this thread, I will try and contact them.
 
The book was a bit better than the movie, although there was this one, luscious young thing w/Terence stamp . . . too many years ago.


------------------
Asi es la vida

Bugs
 
I can't help with the pragmatic side at all, but I do know that O'Donnell specified brass and not bronze.
smile.gif


--Bob Q
 
I have a Case Bowie made about 1982 which has a brass channel that snaps over the spine behind the start of the clip point. Two matching dimples in blade and brass on each side hold it on. Don't know how well it would work, but the author of the book has some basis for saying such a thing is possible.
 
The brass back is almost exclusively a 20th century gimmick intended to sell fancy "bowie" knives to the unsuspecting. It does not work, and was seldom found on 19th century (real) Bowie knives.

[This message has been edited by not2sharp (edited 03-24-2001).]
 
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