Favorite: Bowie/Ka-Bar fixed blade or Serpentine Jack (including Peanut)?

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pinnah

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What is your favorite style of knife and why: the *Bowie/Ka-Bar fixed blade (particularly with 5"-9" blades) or the Serpentine Jack (includes the peanut for the purpose of this discussion)?

The criteria for "favorite" is entirely up to you. All I ask beyond telling us which is your favorite is that you explain your own thinking.*

This question is a part of a summer "bracket" discussion series. I took nominations for patterns in a related thread but in the end, I selected 8 finalist based on whim and bias. Sort of like the NCAA tournament.*

Below is the bracket for the final eight. Make your "vote" clear and I'll work to tally the results. Voting on this round will end in about a week. It's summer and I'm not going to be punctual.*

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 1. <--- vote on this one
Bowie/Ka-Bar fixed blade (particularly with 5"-9" blades)
Serpentine Jack (includes the peanut)

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 2 <--- don't vote on this one
Lockback folding hunter (e.g. Buck 110)
Scout/Camper/Swiss Army Knife (particularly the 3-5 blade versions)

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 3 <--- don't vote on this one
Stockman
Finnish/Swedish Puukko (includes the Mora)

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 4 <--- don't vote on this one
Friction folding peasants knife (includes the Opinel)
German Hippekniep (aka Sod Buster)
 
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It's a toss up between the stockman and cattleknife. I grew up in a time when most of my uncles, my dad and granddad carried one and I found an old dulled out Imperial Stockman in my backyard while playing as a yonker(7 yrs. old) and my mom let me keep it. Kind'uv late to the cattleknife but it does the same, plus I'm a cowboy at heart!
 
QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 1
Bowie/Ka-Bar fixed blade (particularly with 5"-9" blades)
Serpentine Jack (includes the peanut) <--- My choice. I ordinarily have no use for large, heavy fixed blades (do think they're pretty cool, though), so virtually any folder would be my choice here, for more practical reasons.

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 2
Lockback folding hunter (e.g. Buck 110)
Scout/Camper/Swiss Army Knife (particularly the 3-5 blade versions) <--- My choice. I like both of these selections, but would more likely carry & use the smaller of the two.

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 3
Stockman <--- My choice. My bias is heavily in favor of any stockman, though I haven't yet tried one of the Finnish-style knives (I'd like to).
Finnish/Swedish Puukko (includes the Mora)

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 4
Friction folding peasants knife (includes the Opinel) <--- My choice. Tough call. I very much like the Opinels, and choose this only because I haven't yet tried the Hippekniep specifically (though I've been carrying a Case soddie daily).
German Hippekniep (aka Sod Buster)
 
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Guys, choice for this round is between the bowie/kabar and serpentine/peanut jack only. We'll get to the others in following weeks.

Sorry for the confusion
 
Hi pinnah!

Thank you for clearing it up ... Then for me definitelly the Serpentine Jack!

Kind regards
Andi
 
pinnah said:
Guys, choice for this round is between the bowie/kabar and serpentine/peanut jack only. We'll get to the others in following weeks.

Sorry for the confusion
Click to expand...

Oops. Looks like I jumped the gun a bit. Sort of like 'early absentee voting' for me, I guess. Guess that'll give me some more time to reflect on my choices. :)
 
Tally so far is:

Serpentine Jack: 2
Bowie/KaBar:0


@OWE, I'm counting your "vote" for the serpentine jack, unless you want to change it.

This bracket idea might not make it through the summer. Overwhelming sound of crickets....
 
pinnah said:
Tally so far is:

Serpentine Jack: 2
Bowie/KaBar:0


@OWE, I'm counting your "vote" for the serpentine jack, unless you want to change it.

This bracket idea might not make it through the summer. Overwhelming sound of crickets....
Click to expand...

That's fine, as is. :thumbup:
 
Here is my vote:

QUARTER FINALS - MATCH 1. <--- vote on this one
Bowie/Ka-Bar fixed blade (particularly with 5"-9" blades)
Serpentine Jack (includes the peanut)

I'm not a fan of the peanut, it's just too small for my large hands.
But the serpentine in 3-1/2 to 4 inch size is terrific, especially with the long pivot bolster.

Serp2.jpg
 
Ok, I'll toss in my vote on this one (even though I started the poll).

For me, it's the Ka-Bar type knife.

I want one in the camping kit if I can. Just do.

Here's the one I "inherited" from my Grandfather.

grandpas-hunter by Pinnah, on Flickr

I put "inherited" in quotes as it didn't come from a will or anything. He had already given me his deer gun when he got too old to walk in the woods and after he died, I was the only grand kid who had hunted with him really and definitely the only family member who a) knew the knife still existed and b) knew where to look in the family homestead to find it. I did tell my uncles after I "inherited" it from the house but I told them. Didn't ask them, if you know what I mean.

This one is a cheap knife. I'm told it's probably a Japanese import from the 50s or 60s. He bought a lot of his camping stuff from Army/Navy stores and there's a good chance this one came from a store like that. It has 3 grooves in the pommel that he filed into it.

I have a small and nice looking Camillus serpentine jack that I've never taken to. Don't like small clip blades on pocket knives. I think that's the core of it. My young son covets it and he'll get it as soon as he can show me he can reliably open and close it. (He has the Opinel #6 I gave him. Much safer knife for a kid imo).
 
I'll go with the serpentine jack on this one, even if i think that about two years ago, my choice would have been the big fixed bowie.
 
I'll go with the jack knife also. I have several, and they all get used at one time or another, with the peanut being the most frequently used. I only have two fixed blade bowie type knives, and since I am not a hunter they rarely see action.
 
Ok, I'm in!!
Serpentine jack for me as well.
I will be brutally honest: although I recognize it as an icon of the American knife history, I never had (and probably never will have) any use for that style of fixed blade knife. As for the serpentine jack...it's all another story :D

Fausto
:cool:
 
I'll have to go along with the serpentine jack as well.

The Ka-Bar is an iconic knife. Storied history, lots of street cred... but when it comes to traditional American made knives the medium serpentine jack is probably the most recognized and carried knife of all time. It is THE knife to many of us who grew up in knife country.

Will
 
Tally so far is:

Serpentine Jack/Peanut: 8
Bowie/Ka-Bar:1


This round is starting to smell like a rout.

@Fausto & S-K, would be interesting to hear from more Europeans on why the Ka-Bar (ahem) doesn't cut it. S-K, does Britain have a ban on fixed blade?

@Will, wonder if you're right about the Serpentine Jack's status. Wonder if it will go all the way?
 
Though I'm more apt to carry and use a Jack, I have several Bowie knives that I will never get rid of...Bowie on this round
 
I vote for the Jack also, I carried an Old Timer Jack exclusively for about 10 years and never needed anything more than it for anything.
 
pinnah said:
@Fausto & S-K, would be interesting to hear from more Europeans on why the Ka-Bar (ahem) doesn't cut it. S-K, does Britain have a ban on fixed blade?
Click to expand...

I don't have an extensive answer for that actually, but I share the feeling that they don't cut it much on this side of the Atlantic.
Personally, the Ka-Bar / Bowie style knife looks a bit too "military" to me. Most fixed blades I've seen in my life were either Scandinavian style knives (puukko and such), or chopper blades (machetes and their shorter brothers). Plain outdoors knives. The bowie never really caught my attention.

Fausto
:cool:
 
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