Cold Steel 1917 Frontier Bowie arrives...

Hi Fellows,

WOW !! thats one helluva Bowie knife. Awesome. I like Cold Steel a lot.
(I got 3 Trailmasters, like them, and will always prefer the Trailmaster to the bizarre Tang design of the Laredo or Natchez).

Regarding the 1917 Frontier: somejow it reminds mea lot of the SVÖRD von Tempsy Bowie. To be honest, if i did not already got a Tempsky, then i woul go for the 1917.
Cheers Vincent
 
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
I am kinda curious why the 1917 designation was used
Click to expand...
Well, you see, in 1917 all the steel in the world turned coal-black, and the world's root beer supply was in dire straits.

Those two things were in no way related, but serve to illustrate the terrifying ordeal that was that year.
Anyway, clearly the name is a reference to that bizarre time when metal just up and had enough of all this silvery nonsense.

All of that is of course utter nonsense, but its as good a reason as any for the name, neh? lol

DAMN that is a pretty knife
 
What this looks like is the knives made in WWII by san Francisco ironworks out of old Patton and misc. swords. It looks to be a sturdy knife, but I would have to take a belt sander to the handle with some 2000 wet dry and Sno Seal personally to be happy with it.
 
I am revisiting this thread to discuss something about these knives that I had a question about, and now have the answer for (so I will share that here).
I have not dismounted the handle scales on my Frontier Bowies, so I did not know what the tang would look like underneith. Well, doing a recent YouTube search on this model, showed up a newer video where someone does the handle scale removal to expose the tang. It shows the tang to be fully blued, and having the three holes required for the attachment screws. The guard is secured by one weld on each side (2 welds total). Watching the video, I could not see any maker's markings placed onto it. Anyhow, the tang is the same thickness as the blade (quarter inch), and roughly about half the blades width.
He does mention having used it to hack up some two by fours, and the blade did receive a small nick from meeting with a nail, but otherwise seemed to get through the ordeal just fine. The welds may become a source of issue if it somehow hurts the heat treatment in that area, but again, this person seems to have put the blade through some real use, and it held up fine. I believe the Ontario SP10 Marine Raider also has it's guard welded to the blade with two weld spots... So maybe it will not be an issue afterall.

https://youtu.be/MfEm4fVNPOU

As for the issues with the sheath, they both should be fixable. The pivoting point system on the frog can pretty easily be redone, and may not actually be a problem that happens to every specimen. Then there is the metal cap falling off, it having been glued into place by the maker. That issue is happening because they relied only on glue, instead of maybe using the old school way of using a metal staple. More than one fix can be found for this as well, the simplest being to clean off the area and using a quality epoxy/glue to better install it.
 
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Just a note, if they annealed the blade/tang after welding, prior to heat treat, there should be no problems.
Are you sure it is welded and not silver soldered in place?
 
I am only going by the video, but it seems that the weld took the same blued finish as the blade/tang... So I am guessing it is steel they used for the welding. But, not sure.
 
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Depends on how the weld was done. A spot weld at the tang won't heat the entire blade. So the heat treat would only be changed right around the weld. It is not uncommon to clamp a heat sink just outside the weld spot to limit the area of heating.
 
I almost got one of those but was swayed by mixed reviews , glad to see another good one and it may sway me to pickup one .

I like the fact that this bowie looks great on the mantle im sure , but its made to be a user with the steel choice and large functional guard it could be a force to be reconed with in the right hands , haha.

I also like the 1917 cutlass by cold steel and its on my list as well , meanwhile i picked up a c.s cutlass machete which appears to have the same blade pattern as the fancier $157.00. Version and im very pleased with it. The machete version is made in South africa and the 1917 cutlass in india as your bowie is . Very nice !
 
Handled one at the shop and like it. Its a good looking bowie. I will pick one up to go along with my Natchez at some point. However I wish it had a less blocky handle, better steel and a "sharper cutting geometry. The primary bevel is quite quite short and steep. Not ideal for the cutting I do but I will give it a go.
 
The steel on the Frontier Bowie was said to have been switched by Cold Steel. They started with the 1055... But now are 1085. In any case, they have not caught up their catalogs and website with that info, and still have it as being 1055.

I do now also own the CS 1917 Cutlass, and as far as I know, it is still made out of the 1055 steel.
 
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Thanks for the info and pics! I can't wait! I just ordered one from Walmart.com for $114 after tax and free shipping!
 
Well, my curiosity to see exactly what the tang looked like on these bowie knives, finally got the best of me. (this is an early 1055 carbon steel model). I removed the screws and pulled off the one piece rosewood handle. On one side it has the number 593 stamped twice (maybe the serial number?). It looks like the first one was a bit blurred in it's striking, so it was done again, but done correctly on that strike.The other side has what was clearly supposed to be the words "COLD STEEL", but some is not legible (but it definitely is what was intended with this stamp/stamps). I had to use two flat screwdrivers to remove each screw so they wouldn't turn. The screws are male on one side, going into the female other side threading. There is a spot of weld on both sides of the guard, permanently attaching the guard to the tang. The tang itself is obviously a beefy affair, and even without the wood handle, the knife is very much usable (although a glove would be most handy under such a situation). Although the tang is blued throughout, it has a courser finish where not exposed. I do recommend removing the handle for a thorough cleaning. There was a touch of surface rust on some of the unexposed tang areas, which was no big deal to remove with 0000 steel wool and oil, but still a good idea to take care of that if one' specimen is hiding that under the handle. Also, the screw's threads had what looked like something to help keep them somewhat put. Don't know what it was, but I cleaned it all off prior to reinstalling them. I do appreciate this Bowie model having the screwed on handle, since it allows for inspection and/or maintenance of what would otherwise be an inaccessible area of the knife (if it was a riveted assembly).

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I had some relaxing time this morning, so I took the handle off of my third (and last) 1917 Frontier Bowie specimen. Now that I have done an inspection and cleaning under all three of their hidden tang/handle areas, I can comment on what I noticed about them.
For one, they were all stamped with the words "COLD STEEL' on their tangs. Some of this lettering on each one was diminished or slightly ground out (seems the markings were put in prior to all the final metal grinding, and hence some of the diminished lettering).
They all had different numbers stamped in. Two had three digit numbers, the other one had a two digit number (likely numbers for each in any given production run).
All three have a half inch long weld spot area on each side of the guard (securing the guard permanently to the tang/blade).
The two bowies made of 1085 steel had cleaner looking welds, with the 1055 version being a bit less so.
All three handles had slight cut-outs for the welds where the handle would butt up to the back of the guard (these cut-outs obviously there to allow room for the weld spots).
The two 1085 steel bowie tangs were bone dry under their handles, but not a spot of any sort of rust, none whatsoever. On the other hand, the 1055 steel version, while also bone dry, did have some minor surface rust that required a little bit of oil and steel wool to remove. The rosewood handles on all three were machined to fit snug onto the tang, all needing some taps with the palm of my hand to remove and re-install. All three have the same type of male into female threaded screws. They all had some glue on the threading (likely to do what loc-tite does). That said, none of these screws gave me too much trouble while removing them. I did clean them off before re-installation.
I would not worry too much about there being a need to remove the handles on these bowies, although it's an easy enough task if you feel like giving the hidden areas a once over for some preventative care.
My 1055 version definitely benefited by my doing so, having that slight surface rust that could have been less slight as time went on.

The more I get acquainted with these specimens, the more I like them. One can really see the little things that point to them being hand made items. In today's world, where production is advanced to require less and less human effort, these give an example of what used to be the norm in manufacturing of such things. I like having such representations in my collection :)
 
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