Hello all, last week i recieved my new Bowie, no pics cause im having problems with my camera but specs are as follows:
11" Blade 17" OAL Full tang construction With a Thick clip/bowie blade design, no recurve.
Full Flat Grind with about a 30-40 degree V edge angle(inclusive, so 15-20 per side)
S30V steel 3/16" stock with HT by Bos to 59RC
SS Guard
Red/Black G10 handles with some chekering filed in and beadblasted for grip.
Made by Tim Johnson
I went camping last weekend and put it through its paces just to see what it could do and was amazed by the knife. First i stuck it into a tree stump to do a few bend tests, the point was pretty thick as this was designed to be a hard use/abuse knife so i figured i didnt have to worry about breaking the tip. I bent it 30-45 degrees which was not easy BTW but did not go any further, it did not have any problems and always bent back perfectly strait. Now onto chopping, i usualy use a BK&T Patrol Machete for my chopping needs(I HATE AX's) and i would say that the bowie chops about %70-80 as fast as the BK&T but it felt alot better to chop with. More easy to hold, less vibration, just all around felt better on my hands for extended use. If i had to do some serious chopping and had both available i would reach for the bowie, i would only use the BK&T if i needed to chop as fast as possible. When i was finished with cutting the tree down it made short work of cutting all the limbs off. It seems to handle limbs up to about 2-3" Thick no problems. It was easy to do since the knife had a fair bit of weight to it. I then shaved the bark off because the wood was wet as it had been raining. This was very easy, its a great knife for shaving i love the strait edge(no recurve). I made myself some hotdog sticks for the fire and was able to get them very thin, the knife worked if needed for more upclose precision cutting. I should mention i was using the knife for everything, anything that needed cutting got cut with the Bowie. This was done because i was looking for one knife that could do everyhting from heavy chopping or clearing a trail/campsight to shaving wood for a fire or cutting threads off your clothes. I did however also have with me a PCKS Buck 110, Custom neck knife 6" OAL, BK&T PM, Custom FB 9" OAL Clip pint. They were just for backup if new bowie was detroyed while testing. Anyways it also split wood fine, just wedge it in and hit it with the spine of the BK&T or a branch and it split no problem
It also worked for digging, i used it to dig part of a hole for the fire. Next time i go to the woods all im going to bring is the bowie and maybe my PCKS 110 just in case. But the Bowie seems to be all i need and seems like it can take the punishment. The Edgeholding of S30V is truely amazing compared to more the more common carbon steels that tend to be used in large survival knives such as 1095, 1084, Carbon V, 5160 etc. The edgeholding was not why i picked it however, i wanted the toughest stainless steel, as this knife may see use around saltwater i wanted it stainless, and most would agree the best SS out there right now that is still very tough would be S30V, S90V or BG42 have better edgeholding but they are also a real pain to sharpen and are not as tough and tend to chip under hard use. Anyways After a weekend of hard use and abuse that included hitting more than a few rocks(digging is bad on knives), the edge was in really good shape, a few small edge rolls but no chiping at all, which was one thing i was worried about. I havent sharpened it yet because it is still very sharp and will slice clean through paper. But i would think the damage would take under 15 min to sharpen out freehand and restore the edge that it came with, I have other S30V knives and they are not that hard to sharpen(compared to say S90V or BG42) as long as you use diamond stones, you could do it with ceramics but i would estimate it would take you 3 times longer. All told it does what i had it made to do, everyhting. Tim, you did a amazing job on this one.
11" Blade 17" OAL Full tang construction With a Thick clip/bowie blade design, no recurve.
Full Flat Grind with about a 30-40 degree V edge angle(inclusive, so 15-20 per side)
S30V steel 3/16" stock with HT by Bos to 59RC
SS Guard
Red/Black G10 handles with some chekering filed in and beadblasted for grip.
Made by Tim Johnson
I went camping last weekend and put it through its paces just to see what it could do and was amazed by the knife. First i stuck it into a tree stump to do a few bend tests, the point was pretty thick as this was designed to be a hard use/abuse knife so i figured i didnt have to worry about breaking the tip. I bent it 30-45 degrees which was not easy BTW but did not go any further, it did not have any problems and always bent back perfectly strait. Now onto chopping, i usualy use a BK&T Patrol Machete for my chopping needs(I HATE AX's) and i would say that the bowie chops about %70-80 as fast as the BK&T but it felt alot better to chop with. More easy to hold, less vibration, just all around felt better on my hands for extended use. If i had to do some serious chopping and had both available i would reach for the bowie, i would only use the BK&T if i needed to chop as fast as possible. When i was finished with cutting the tree down it made short work of cutting all the limbs off. It seems to handle limbs up to about 2-3" Thick no problems. It was easy to do since the knife had a fair bit of weight to it. I then shaved the bark off because the wood was wet as it had been raining. This was very easy, its a great knife for shaving i love the strait edge(no recurve). I made myself some hotdog sticks for the fire and was able to get them very thin, the knife worked if needed for more upclose precision cutting. I should mention i was using the knife for everything, anything that needed cutting got cut with the Bowie. This was done because i was looking for one knife that could do everyhting from heavy chopping or clearing a trail/campsight to shaving wood for a fire or cutting threads off your clothes. I did however also have with me a PCKS Buck 110, Custom neck knife 6" OAL, BK&T PM, Custom FB 9" OAL Clip pint. They were just for backup if new bowie was detroyed while testing. Anyways it also split wood fine, just wedge it in and hit it with the spine of the BK&T or a branch and it split no problem
It also worked for digging, i used it to dig part of a hole for the fire. Next time i go to the woods all im going to bring is the bowie and maybe my PCKS 110 just in case. But the Bowie seems to be all i need and seems like it can take the punishment. The Edgeholding of S30V is truely amazing compared to more the more common carbon steels that tend to be used in large survival knives such as 1095, 1084, Carbon V, 5160 etc. The edgeholding was not why i picked it however, i wanted the toughest stainless steel, as this knife may see use around saltwater i wanted it stainless, and most would agree the best SS out there right now that is still very tough would be S30V, S90V or BG42 have better edgeholding but they are also a real pain to sharpen and are not as tough and tend to chip under hard use. Anyways After a weekend of hard use and abuse that included hitting more than a few rocks(digging is bad on knives), the edge was in really good shape, a few small edge rolls but no chiping at all, which was one thing i was worried about. I havent sharpened it yet because it is still very sharp and will slice clean through paper. But i would think the damage would take under 15 min to sharpen out freehand and restore the edge that it came with, I have other S30V knives and they are not that hard to sharpen(compared to say S90V or BG42) as long as you use diamond stones, you could do it with ceramics but i would estimate it would take you 3 times longer. All told it does what i had it made to do, everyhting. Tim, you did a amazing job on this one.