Is the Bowie I want in production?

Happy Camper

Happy Camper

Joined
Jan 8, 2000
Messages
311
The knife hunger is gnawing at me again, and in a big way!

This time, it's taking the form of a big Bowie craving. I'm trying to find a large bladed (9 inches or more), flat grind or convex grind bowie. Cold steel Trail Master would work nicely, however, I want a classic look (leather or wood handle), and I want the blade to be on the "stainless" side. That's easy, you say; Bagwell Bowie! Well, here's the kicker; I want it to be more of a worker than a fighter...

The new Fallkniven would have worked but it is going to be a low quantity, hand made, laminated pink elephant that certainly won't qualify as a production knife.

Help me! Where do I turn? Who am I gonna call?
 
Lets look at the qualifications again...

Big A** Knife - YES
Around 9" Blade - YES
Classic Look - YES
Natural Handle - NO, do ya really want this? :)
Worker Not Fighter - YES

Total: 4 YES - 1 NO

Sounds like you want a Busse Battle Mistress :D
http://www.bussecombat.com/
 
Dark Nemesis, I love the blade on that knife, but I really want a classic look - natural handle and all! I'm getting into blackpowder shooting, and a traditional Bowie would be such a nice belt neighbor to a Colt Army.

I read with much interest an earlier thread about the possibility of re-handling an existing knife. However, the consensus seemed to be that most custom knifemakers would rather not spend their time and skill on such a venture, and the labor cost would be prohibitive.
 
Happy camper,

What about the CS Stag handled Trailmaster?
 
Hi Happy Camper!

If you're willing to wait a little bit for the things you want, try this one from Newt Livesay:

http://members.tripod.com/~Newt_Livesay/SANDBAR-BOWIE.html

I've got #17 that's Parkerized 1095 (you never know when you gotta strike a spark!) with micarta handle, and I love it. I'm waiting for a satin version of the same thing. D2, ats-34 and 440C are available as well as a host of handle materials.

Hank:cool:
 
We're getting colder here. The stag handled CS Trailmaster only comes with a carbon V blade. The Bagwell Bowie is not a user as much as a fighter with its lower temper. It was interesting to note, however, that someone did take the time to rehandle a production knife - and very nicely at that. The engraved, big bellied beuty of a Bowie is a saber grind.

Now that Livesay does look like it would fit the bill, but is it really a production knife?
 
Hi Happy Camper,

You might want to try and find the stag handled Bowie Gerber put out a few years back. These show up frequently in new shape, as they were produced a few years back. It fits all of your wants. The only other Bowie I can think of that might is the Case stag Bowie, which is like the Western Bowie.

Hope this helps :)!!!
 
Hello again!

If by production you mean, "I can go down to Walmart or call up 1SKS and they'll have it on the shelf", no. Newt's WKC is a small operation that as far as I know does not sell through distribution. He inventories a number of production models that if you look at his Special inventory sale items list, you'll get an idea of his hot selling items. These include the Air Assault, RTAK and a bunch of others. The Sandbar Bowie just went into production early this year, with a serialized run of twenty five and an additional twenty five that all sold out immediately. He announced a second run this August that we're waiting on. 9-11 produced a number of Military and other orders that have been prioritized above the Sandbar run (quite appropriately I might add!). Give Newt a call on Monday. You'll be pleasantly suprised!

Hank
 
How about the Fallkniven Bowie?

tor-web.jpg


Here is a link to their page about it:

http://www.fallkniven.com/nothern/tor.htm
 
Not to be condescending, but perhaps I should define a few of the terms I've been using:

A knife with a flat grind has a gradual taper that starts at the cutting edge and continues all the way to the spine of the knife, as seen in the Fallkniven picture above. This is NOT a saber grind which, although it is flat, has a much steeper angle that only goes part way up the width of the blade, as with the Western Bowie.

By "in production," I mean a knife that a company has tooled up their machinery to produce for a period of time in order to make a knife that is inexpensive enough that I wouldn't feel bad abusing it (around $200 or less).

Once we get into limited run knives made by artisans instead of assembly lines (such as the new Fallkniven Bowie or the Newt Livesay Sandbar Bowie), we're at the price point of custom knives.


Now, that being said, as far as custom knives go, I absolutely LOVE Matt Lamey's style of Bowie blades! His recurve bowie is incredibly sexy. The whole problem with buying a $350+ custom knife is that I would baby it too much. If I paid $100 for a one out of a thousand factory knifes, I'd be more likely to use it hard.
 
You (and another forumite) mentioned the Western Bowie... What's wrong with that one as the knife that you are looking for? I have an older customized Coleman/Western W-49 Bowie, and I understand that the newer Camillus/Western Bowies are good ones as well.
...Wood handle, solid brass hand-guard, and a nice blade...:).
 
If you want to be a black powder era correct kinda guy, stainless is out ;)
Having said that...
I paid $100 for my Livesay Sandbar Bowie (#13:))
For a different handle material and a satin finish, I think you'll still come in under two bills. :) Newt's knives are affordable. You could probably polish a parkarized one too...
Also...
Bill Bagwell had nice things to say about the Western Bowie, while not stainless (see note above) it does have a rosewood handle and meets the rest of your criteria. Bagwell also wrote an article about modifying the western bowie in the mid to late 80's, he thought that much of it. Personally I would cut down the big brass guard.


Unless you live in an extremely humid area or are around saltwater alot you really don't "need" SS. I used a schrade sharpfinger (carbon steel) saltwater fishin' for years and never had rust problems, using minimal care. It did get that 'old hammer' patina...but hey, I like that. :)
Enjoy your search!
Ebbtide
 
this is a difficult search! There are very few production bowies in a decent stainless steel. There are traditional offerings from boker and wester in 420. If you would take a carbon steel there are many more options, i like the Camillus fisk bowie.

The Cold steel randall knock off the military classic maybe something that you would like, its "bowie style" has a saber grind, AUS8 steel, but it has a black linen micarta handle.

linder (a company i haddnt heard of untill i did a bowie search at the knife center) has some bowies

linder

but they might be junk.

there is nothing at blade art in your range.

i think the problem is that traditional bowies have traditional steels and non-traditional bowies have the modern steels we all know and somewhat love.
 
Lizard King, you've summed it up perfectly! Traditional production Bowies are mostly made from traditional steel, and the stainless production Bowies utilize mostly modern materials and designs.

There are some very nice traditional looking stainless production Bowies but they are of the saber grind design which is NOT what I'm looking for at this time. These saber grind Bowies are made by:

Western, Linder, Traditions, Muela, Case, Aitor, Smith & Wesson, Bocker, Puma, United, and several others that I've found.

Believe me, if I wanted a saber grind Bowie, I'd be moaning over which one to choose out of the nice selection.

Ebbtide, I didn't know Newt's knives were so inexpensive. They're limited production, which does hamper my "beat it up hard" tendancies, but perhaps I might look more closely at what he has to offer.

Thanks to everybody for trying to help out; it's been a long and frustrating search for me. At this point, my choices are to:

A) Go custom and flinch every time I abuse the work of art in my hand (Perhaps Newt's knife bridges the gap between custom and production)

B) Buy two different Bowies; one for work and one for play. That means more knives. Not too bad...

C) Go on a mad buying spree and amass so many custom knives that I won't be afraid to use one of my Matt Lameys really hard.
 
Perhaps the Marbles Trailmaker may be of interest to you. The sheath is dangerously thin. In fact the one I looked at was ruined when the owner of the knife inserted the knife gently back into the sheath and just missed nastily cutting all four of the fingers on his left hand. He was asking $185 for it, new, in the box, in his store.

http://www.marblesoutdoors.com/knives/trailmaker.html
 
I'll put in a vote for the Busse Battle Mistress. That is one heck of a well made knife and one that is meant to work hard.
 
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