Ed Fowler sheep stuff!

When I saw the rest of the collection,all I can say is SHAZAM !!! Without a doubt the nicest collection that I have seen of Mr.Fowlers work.
 
2knife this collection is one of the two most extensive i've ever seen. most formites probably do'nt realize how complicated fowlers heat treatment of 52100 is. the 1st time i read of this treatment i took it to my brother whom after researching these knives began ordering from ed. since that time they have become close friends & visited each other personally.ed is a very ethical person with a great personality. members are advised to read his books, When The Revenoors Came is one of the most humorous accounts in recent knife history.his knifes will chop old dry elk bones w/o chipping. hundreds of cuts on sisal rope is standard performance. if one only had one knife to depend on for survival, this should be their choice. please understand this is not a fowler vs. busse post.thans for all the great pics.
 
Dennis,
I'm sure Ed appreciates the endorsement! :) I've been using one of the bowies (yard stuff) and love it completely! Though, mostly I have been aiming to put together this collection, as a representation of his work, hopefully which would make him proud. (And I enjoy them too!)

Av8r,
You might not know this , but you are one who inspired the "monster", collecting Ed's knives:
AV8R said:
I'll start out by stating that, for my purposes, there are fixed blades that will drastically outperform a Dozier in the role of a hunter/skinner/utility/general outdoors knife. A Dozier is a fine knife. I've had a few and like them a lot. A nicely designed D2 blade, properly heat treated, is a great tool. A superbly designed, forged, differentially heat treated, convex or flat ground 52100 blade is a much better tool. VERY easy to sharpen, holds a great edge for a long time, it'll bend before it breaks, goes through material easily due to it's shape. Also, in the case of a Fowler and some others, easy and really comfortable to "choke up on" and almost impossible to cut yourself with. I know I'll generate some comments or arguements over these statements. I welcome that. I've used many different fixed blades over the past 30+ years and will respond based on my personal experience and opinions.

Here's my "using expensive knives" story. One of them, anyway. For me, it's kind of a sad one. For years now, I've been embarrassed to tell this story, but here it goes. A few years ago, during a "hiking/fishing/looking for grizzly bear" trip with my wife to Yellowstone, I stumbled into the local Jackson Hole knife shop. The owner is a real nice guy and we have become friends since then. Anyway, what did I see in the case? An Ed Fowler bowie! The shop owner was selling it for a friend. I looked at it, held it, held it some more, put on the sheath, put the knife in it and refused to take it off. I finally took it off, but when my wife said, "let's go now", I said "no, I can't do that". She reminded me that I didn't have near enough money on me for the knife and that we weren't "credit card people". She said that I already had "nicer knives than that", anyway. Turns out that the owner of the bowie is a big knife collector from Denver and that he was in Jackson Hole at the time. I pulled my new Busfield folder from my pocket. Gorgeous knife that I'd waited 6 months for and paid dearly for and said, "call John, see if he'd take a trade". John did. After a week of hearing how great my new Busfield was (and it was), my wife was uttlerly perplexed. She also knows that I'm a person who knows what he likes and when I like something, the "novelty" never wears off. There is no "novelty" with me when it comes to something I really like. Why would I trade my new folder, that I was SO happy with and paid SO much for, for this rather plain (in comparison to some of my others) looking bowie?

Well, it further blew her away when I strapped it on for our next day in the woods. I had other knives that I paid a lot less for that I would never use. Over the next 6 months or so and well into a cold, snowy Sierra Nevada winter, I carried and used that bowie every time I went off into the mountains to look for my bears (mother and cubs that I'd sit and watch from the next hillside), carried it on my snowshoe treks that I'd take whenever a good storm kicked up and visibility dropped low enough to make it "interesting", etc... Used the knife for everything that you can think of, mostly food prep and cutting rope, fashioning sticks into useful tools. Sometimes I'd forget to take some essential piece of equipment (like the cellphone I promised my wife I'd always carry), but never left without that knife. At the time, I owned probably 10 or 12 nice fixed blades, but no other knife would do. I'd hone the edge on some flat stones that I bought as part of a kit 15 years earlier. Worked fine, nice edge.

Then came the fateful day. I had been waiting for my new Edgepro professional sharpener and it finally arrived. I've always been good at sharpening. After many years, I felt very confident that I could get the desired result, not ruin a knife. I just used my old stones, wet/dry paper over a block of wood, I'd hone a fine edge on the side of a toilet, whatever. Pretty good at it. BUT, like I said, I was using old stones, sandpaper, toilets! Time for a real sharpening tool. I read the book, watched the video, grabbed my wife's kitchen knives and headed for the garage. It did a fantastic job on those skinny, flat ground knives. Made sharpening easy and produced beautiful 3000 grit polished edges, hair popping sharp! Now, I knew that the Fowler had a convex edge, but what the heck, I'd put a nice thin, hair popping V bevel on it for starters and then over time "turn" it convex with my old stones. Well, I adjusted that Edgepro to produce a very small bevel along the bottom of the blade and then proceded to grind it in. I noticed that out near the tip, the bevel was widening a little bit. That's okay, it would produce a burr soon and I could stop, no big deal. As I proceded, I noticed that it was widening more than expected and I still wasn't producing a burr, even on the bottom edge! What I should have done, was STOP, ship the knife to Ed, confess to being an idiot and ask him to fix it. What I DID do was mess it up more, trying to fix it myself. I wound up with a razor sharp edge, very wide "V" bevel out near the tip and had basically ruined the convex blade shape.

I was very upset with myself and couldn't believe what I had done. Other people mess up their knives, NOT ME! Every time I'd look at that knife, I'd be disgusted with myself for not respecting it as I should have. No fault of the Edgepro, by the way. It's the best sharpening system available. Just not for certain blade shapes, such as a Fowler bowie. As the edge thickens out near the tip, you'll get a wider grind. Over the years, I've become proficient with the Edgepro and have learned how to overcome this to a certain extent. I love the tool, but it is not the tool for certain knives. Anyway, I came across a fellow who wanted to trade a beautiful, new Fisk bowie for that Fowler and I did the trade, figuring that I could all the feelings of guilt and incompetence behind me. At that point, I was WAY too embarrassed to send that knife to Ed. I still should have, though. I MISS THAT KNIFE! I made a big mistake in my garage that day, but made a bigger mistake selling it. I didn't realize the bond I had with that knife until it was gone.

Here's where this story relates to the topic at hand. What I do realize is that I would love to have that kind of bond with a knife again and whether the knife set me back $200 or $1500 would be irrelevant. I'm not a monetarily wealthy person, but it would be worth it.

The moral of the story is that "it's the knife, not the price". You don't have to spend big bucks, but if the knife you fall in love with and you KNOW is the perfect carry/using knife for you above all others happens to cost a pretty penny, find a way to buy it and then CARRY IT AND USE IT. Just don't do what I did. The right knife can be your best friend. How can you put a price on that?
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2knife that was a fantastic story with a great ring of truth.i'm sure you know this but newbies to the fowler blades might not be aware of the complex 'zones' that traverse thru his steel. the best way i've found to really study the fowler phrenomea is to stand on a shaded deck on a sunny day & turn the knife slowly & one will see a multitude of zones that really make one appreciate what a great forger can accomplish. i saw one customer plunk down 6000$ at the central texas knife show about 8 or 9 years ago.this was a larger fowler shaped rather like a slim camp knife.thanks for your post, i normally do'nt come into this section but was fortunate to see the name fowler & followed up.you could'nt have chosen a better product to collect.
 
DennisStrickland said:
... but newbies to the fowler blades might not be aware of the complex 'zones' that traverse thru his steel. the best way i've found to really study the fowler phrenomea is to stand on a shaded deck on a sunny day & turn the knife slowly & one will see a multitude of zones that really make one appreciate what a great forger can accomplish. .
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yes, absolutely. Difficult to photograph, the zones indicating different hardness throughout the blade. I don't pretend to understand the chemistry of it, but it's there.
David
 
DennisStrickland said:
if one only had one knife to depend on for survival, this should be their choice.
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I'm not an outdoorsman, and don't expect to be in a survival situation, but I think Ed builds every one of his knives to be that one knife.

David once again that is just an outstanding collection.
Thanks for sharing.
 
A Fowler blade is the holy grail of knife collecting for me.

I can't afford one right now, but I hope someday to have one.

Thanks for the thread.
 
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Heavy duty waxed harness leather, scabbards.
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You guys welcome! Howdy Phil! :) Thanks for looking. Last few are phone pictures- pardon the blur.
David
 
I didn't know that you still had that story saved, I'm glad you posted it. I haven't read it in in quite a while. It's a reminder of what I learned from that knife. I later met Ed Fowler at a show and he was gracious enough to make a deal with me, sealed with a handshake. I later backed out of that deal. I can't say that I haven't backed out of agreements or even agreements sealed with a handshake before then. But I can say that I never have since then. I learned some life lessons from the knife and from the man. David, I want to say and I'm sure you realize that your collection is much more than just steel and sheep horn.

Pete
 
I have always liked the look of the Pronghorn but never held one. Are the handles as "directional" as they appear? They seem to be preferentially shaped for a right-handed user.
 
rbmcmjr said:
I have always liked the look of the Pronghorn but never held one. Are the handles as "directional" as they appear? They seem to be preferentially shaped for a right-handed user.
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Yes. Each knife will be different in feel, but majority are intentionally right handed. And this because it is more orthopaedic for the wrist. On a straight knife, no "direction" handle the wrist will be slightly bent if using the knife in forward cutting. A "directional" knife allows for maximum ease, less stress on the wrist. At least that's the theory behind it..

Ed does make a left-handed version too. I've seen about a dozen of them.
 
Thanks Lew. Way to throw the wet blanket! ;)

Maybe a valid critique.. However there is more variation in a Fowler, knife to knife than anything Loveless, repeating patterns - I would argue.

Yes, the materials Do Not change. Already been discussed..
David
 
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David, most of the responses in this thread have been courteous and positive, but when an honest difference of opinion is voiced as was the case with Louisblades, it should be taken in stride with the understanding that everyone is not going to be as solidly in the Fowler camp as are you.

The comparison of similarities within a Loveless model might be very true, and also to a casual observer such as me the similarities in the Fowler pieces is also true. The consistency of materials used is probably the biggest reason for this. I would think it would take a real devotee with many examples in his collection such as you, to discern the subtle differences from one Fowler to the next other than size, or shape of the horn.

I take the opinion by Louisblades as valid, personal, and non-confrontational as expressed, and on a second reading I bet you do too.

Just an observation.

Paul
 
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