Favorite guard style on massive Bowies ?

Mark Williams

Mark Williams

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What's your favorite style guard on a big honking Bowie knife ? I've got a hankering to make a monster. It may sound strange, but the reason I want to make something big is to go with a set of presentation grade Ironwood burl scales that are whispering to me at night when I'm trying to sleep.
 
Lately I have taken a real hankerin' to C-guards. Kinda like this one from Burt Foster.

bowie6a.jpg
 
Keith Montgomery said:
Lately I have taken a real hankerin' to C-guards. Kinda like this one from Burt Foster.

bowie6a.jpg
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Umm, Keith. Wouldnt that be an "S" guard also? Looks kinda "S" ish to me. ;)
 
Danbo said:
Umm, Keith. Wouldnt that be an "S" guard also? Looks kinda "S" ish to me. ;)
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It may be an exercise in pointless semantics, but I tend to agree with you. I always regarded a C-guard as one which extended almost the length of the handle on the blade-side. Essentially an open-ended D-guard, if you will. 'Course, I could be wrong.

Roger
 
I saw this and kinda concurred w/Danbo... however, I don't think I've seen actual definitions of "D", "C" or "S" guards and their differences... And, at least one well known purveyor has a beautiful Ed Caffery bowie on display with a similar guard and he refers to it as a "D" guard...

Either way, that is a neat idea and prodives another means to the artist's expression ... :)
 
On big Bowies I also agree on the S guard.
Like this one on my Winkler. :)

site1043.jpg
 
Danbo said:
Umm, Keith. Wouldnt that be an "S" guard also? Looks kinda "S" ish to me. ;)
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Your right, it is an S-guard. I guess it could be called an asymmetrical S-guard, because the lower arm doesn't extend as far as what is normally called a C-guard. I like the actual C-guards just as much.

What would you call this guard. It is not an S-guard, but it doesn't extend all the way to the butt of the knife.

knife01.jpg
 
Keith Montgomery said:
What would you call this guard. It is not an S-guard, but it doesn't extend all the way to the butt of the knife.
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Damned if I know. :rolleyes: Certainly closer to what I think of as a C-guard, but not quite there.

That particular Bradshaw bowie is a long-time favorite of mine. It won the award for best knife submitted by a Master Smith applicant the year Bailey got his stamp. It was the inspiration for my avatar knife.

Roger
 
I like D-guards, but whenever I check with a maker about getting a knife with one, it has really added to the price. There must be a lot of work involved in making and attaching a D-guard.
 
Makes my head hurt just looking at the photos you guys are showing.

When it comes to "big honkin" what do you think is a good length range for the WOW factor, but still within reasonable use size? I'm thinking a 14" blade is at the limit.

Feel free just to go ahead and design the whole thing and I'll make it. :)
 
RWS said:
Here's a D-Guard by Dean I'm fond of, also.

site1036.jpg
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Hey, I OWN that knife! But, my Wife, Morgan Fairchild, is telling me that I have to sell it. Yeah, that's the ticket! :D
 
I'm pretty much a big fan of big bowies, but for me, a blade length of 12 1/2" is as big as I want or need. Not that I haven't seen some nice bowies that were a bigger, but it requires a really well thought out design to pull it off both aesthetically and functionally. Sometimes bigger is just bigger, not better.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Just to add an unneeded $0.02.

I think that S-guards are awesome and I love the flow they add to a knife. However, some folks make them with very square bends, and I think this very quickly kills the flow of the knife.

A nice, gentle sweeping S-guard is the way to go (IMVHO) like the ones pictured here, done by Bailey.

And yes, a D-guard throws a huge loop into the handle construction process. Not only do you have to fit the guard at the front and then have your handle material come up tightly to the guard...you have to then fit the material into the "D" and have it all go together without flaw. I don't have an exact figure for just how much more difficult that is to do, but I will simply say it is exponential.

Some gorgeous knives in this thread. That D-guard by Dean is one of my all-time favorite knives! :D

Nick
 
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