favourite Bowie?

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The favorite one I own is my Allen Blade Combat Bowie.....sexy!

I like Lamey's, Griffith, Fowler and a ton of others.

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~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
JKM-Chai
 
You cannot go wrong with a bowie made by:

John M. Smith, Bill Bagwell, Jerry Fisk, Harvey Dean, Jim Crowell, Mike Connor, Joe Flournoy, or Roger Massey.

Some up-and-comer or lesser-known alternatives to those smiths are:

John Fitch, Mike Williams, JR Cook, Jarrel Lambert, Pete Peterson, or Jim Walker.

Matt Lamey makes a nice bowie for the dollar and he will make it your way, quickly and he understands what and how a bowie should be like.

My personal favorite -right now- dollar for dollar is John Fitch. I think Johns work gives you the best combination of quality, price, design, and availablity. He is testing for his mastersmith stamp next year.

Availability is important. Fisk, Dean, Crowell, and a few others are near impossible to get knives from. Connor comes to shows with 1 knife usually....

Bagwell is also a few years behind. Keep in mind with a Bagwell you get a more "rustic" knife, not nearly as crisp or clean as the current breed of master smith, but a fine knife nonetheless that is unmistakeable as a Bagwell and a true collectors item in its own right.

I collect Bagwells since I consider him the father of the modern bowie knife and like Moran "reviving" damascus, I feel Bagwell has more than done his share to popularize the bowie again for the last 20 years.

Collecting and using forged bowies in the classic style is fun. A real good one will last you forever, and unlike tactical folders, a great maker can only make a handful of forged bowies a year. They just take too long to make. No CNC'ed parts here
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My suggestion is to look at Knifeart.com and the edge equipment and see what they have available.

Good luck.

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"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"-Italian proverb
 
The number one Bowie among all pretenders is the Randall model 12, Smithsonian, with brass parry strip, double lugged hilt, scalloped collar and cap, and swamped antique ivory.

Cooper, Bone and Bagwell aren't too bad though.
 
While it may not be a traditional Bowie design, I like Jerry Hossom's Millenium series. Beautifully balanced and crafted.

Tom
 
A bowie is a fighting blade, and so the handling is the key characteristic for me, and the best handling big knife I've found so far is the Black Cloud Knives Fourth Generation Fighting Bowie, or FB4 for short. No damascus, no walrus ivory, just razorblade-lightening.

I've got a Matt Lamey Sunrise Fighter coming too, and I don't think there is a more focused maker of real fighting blades right now than Jerry Hossom. What I mean is, I haven't handled any of Jerry's blades yet, but what he says about their design, and what other knife players say about his blades, makes me expect they are among the very best.

My FB4
 
Charles Ochs Special Ops bowie!!! 7" of 52100 steel, micarta handle, cool guard! Nice blade. Of course, tomorrow I may say something different! Just too many good knives out there for us to pick from
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"Come What May..."
 
How in the heck would I pick a favorite from this bunch?
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Charlie

Oh yeah, from left to right they are made by:

The Jones Brothers, Jerry Hossom, MS Donald Lange, MS Jerry Fisk, Bruce Evans, Allen Blade

[This message has been edited by HDCharlie (edited 10-23-2000).]
 
My favorite bowies are my "Mountain Man Bowie" by Cleston Sinyard, it has a great feel and his damascus is unique, and a real hunk of steel from Cooper. Of course, there's the Ed Fowler bowie I use for hiking.
 
Alot of good choices mentioned. Anthony hit on a key, which is availability. Seems the ones i want are the hardest to get, i.e. Crowell, Connor, Fisk etc....

Charlie, IF you ever want to sell that Fisk, call me
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Matt.

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" The true way of the sword is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this" Ibid

www.lameyknives.com
 
I just picked up 2 new bowies from John Fitch this weekend. One is a trooper with a 14" blade of clay hardened 5160! The other is more normal sized at 8 and 3/4" blade of clay hardened 1084. Both have nickel silver double guards and green canvas micarta handles. No pics yet, sorry. I would be really hard pressed to name a favorite bowie, so I am not going to try. But, my new Massey is way up there at the top of the list.

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo
 
My Becker Knife and Tool Magnum Camp Knife, designed by the National Living Treasure, Jerry Fisk.....

And my Shipley Skeletal Bowis ain't bad either...

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Thank you,
Marion David Poff aka Eye, Cd'A ID, USA mdpoff@hotmail.com

>>--->Bill Siegle Custom Knives<---<<
-http://www.geocities.com/siegleknives-

Talonite Resource Page, nearly exhaustive!!

Fire Page, metal match sources and index of information.

"We will either find a way, or make one." Hannibal, 210 B.C.
 
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