I'm really warming up to this subspecies of the bowie and its "intermediate" functional niche. I think your knife is a worthy representative of the genotype. From the ferrule forward I can't see how it requires significantly improvement.
I also applaud the risk you took with the contoured handle. The greater the animation with contours the more one can run amuck, hence, the risk. The safe way is a straight handle with a truncated butt. With some notable exceptions, I may put my hands together for such a knife but most bowies sending me to handsprings these days are those with "Anna Nicole Smith" (aka Jason Knight) handles, seducing and indulging the fondling hand with curvaceous splendor and providing it with something to hang onto, lest the g-forces needed to detach a 3" sapling from its ankles in a single whoosh wrench it from the grip. Yes, those big, audacious bowie blades need voluptuous counterbalancing on the other end, in stark contrast to smaller knives, where simple elegance is often enough if not preferred, at least to my liking.
The rub, of course, is in the curves, and many would be Anna Nicoles end up like Mona Munchie, the pear-shaped, 400 pounder liven on cheeseburgers and fries. While Mona has plenty of anti-curves to grasp, who wants to?
Your curves pass my full-bodied, sexy test posterior to the pin, but forward of it the handle changes character a little awkwardly to my eyes into something stiff and slabby. Improve that transition and this nice bowie becomes pretty special in my book.
Don't fret, though, because Mona still visits Jason's shop occasionally, especially when handle billets are too small at the onset.
ken
