Honest opinion about a Bowie

[Gearjammer95]

After seeing all these comments, and actually seeing what is out there, I believe after Christmas I'm going to order a Ka-Bar Becker BK9. I'd like to find a sheath that will set horizontally.
If I decide that I like it, I believe I'm going to wait until my wife is out of school and find a nice custom with a stag handle, some of those pictures here are incredibly beautiful!

 

[Mikael W]

If I decide that I like it, I believe I'm going to wait until my wife is out of school and find a nice custom with a stag handle, some of those pictures here are incredibly beautiful!

Now You're talking!
I'm a fan of Stag Bowie's, but they are hard to get these days as the shortage of good India Stag is an increasing problem.
These are the results of a 10 years search:

Bark River 2016 Custom #A, 7" bladelenght


Mitch Edwards handforged & Fällkniven A2 in Moose antler, Both 8,5" bladelenght


The FK in a Custom Kenny Rowe sheath


Bark River 8,5"


Fällkniven Tor with Custom Stag Crown, 10"


Scagel Large Bowie, 8"


Solingen 8" in Red Deer Stag


The Solingen Bowie came from ebay and good ones can be found around $150 with a little bit of luck. They are great to start with as they are tough when used in the Outdoors and of fairly low collectors interest.

Regards
Mikael

 

[d762nato]

That Scagel large bowie is sweet! Nice collection of stag handled knives as well.

 

[Mikael W]

That Scagel large bowie is sweet! Nice collection of stag handled knives as well.

Thanks, for me Staghandles are fun to collect and sometimes they see use.

The Scagel Large Bowie has been tested very hard on a frozen 5" Maplelog and it came out of it with flying colors.
It handles chopping, splitting and batoning without any trouble at all + it is sharp enough also for detailed work.
The curve of the handle works in perfect balance with the blade, so this knife is more or less perfect in the 8" size range.
The sheath is very wellmade, but is for a 9" blade and this makes it harder to pack in my compact fishing bag.
So, if I need a big knife in the Outdoors (not too likely), I tend to pick the smaller 7" Bowie.

Regards
Mikael

 

[Gearjammer95]

Doing a bit more research, and for those of you that use large knives for actual work, what steel do you prefer.
For a knife between 3/16 and 1/4 inch, would you prefer 5160 or 1095?
Or would you look for something in one of the stainless or new "super steels"?
I've got a fairly large piece of property, and I like to pack a knife, not for protection, but you never know when you might need to cut a sapling to fix a fence, and I hardly ever have an axe. (Long shot, just justifying to myself)
I've decided to just wait and go for a nicer knife because, ya know what they say, Buy once, Cry once! Thank you guys so much in advance.

 

[Charlie Mike]

Out of 1095 and 5160, I'd pick 52100.

 

[Mikael W]

Doing a bit more research, and for those of you that use large knives for actual work, what steel do you prefer.
For a knife between 3/16 and 1/4 inch, would you prefer 5160 or 1095?
Or would you look for something in one of the stainless or new "super steels"?
I've got a fairly large piece of property, and I like to pack a knife, not for protection, but you never know when you might need to cut a sapling to fix a fence, and I hardly ever have an axe. (Long shot, just justifying to myself)
I've decided to just wait and go for a nicer knife because, ya know what they say, Buy once, Cry once! Thank you guys so much in advance.

Of more importance than the steeltype are the heat-treatment and the cross sectional bladegeometry.
A convex edge works great in chopping down a sapling.

For production models in stainless, I have found Fällkniven NL1, NL2 and A2 to do the job to my satisfaction.
NL2

In carbonsteel I have had good results from A2 toolsteel.
If You go full custom and order a knife from a maker, it's wise to follow the makers preferences in choice of steel.


Regards
Mikael

 

[jux t]

For those interested, it looks like cold steel is releasing a remake of the classic Western W49. It's called the Wild West Bowie. 1090 steel, leather sheath, inexpensive.

https://www.coldsteel.com/products/2019-products/wild-west-bowie.html

 

[NapalmCheese]

Or a chef's knife...
For true, "Original Bowie" feel.

True story. I started shopping around for a 12 inch breaking/steaking knife (I butcher my own meat) and come across the Bark River Edwin Forrest Bowie...

Suffice to say, I was going to pick up a 12 inch F. Dick butcher knife but now, I'm going to get something cooler.