James McGowan Firefighters knife/prybar

M

Murray White

Joined
Feb 17, 1999
Messages
2,914
In an earlier thread, many knife knuts wanted info and discussion regarding Canadian knifemaker James McGowan. James is a Toronto Firefighter and has created a Firefighters tool available for order and purchase.

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The steel is 440C. The blade works fine for chopping. The butt tip is used to crack thru rolled up glass in an auto extracation and the U shaped area can be used to snap glass where the edge is accessible.

The bright orange can easily be seen via flashlight and the lanyard has mixed into the color, the gray reflective material that is also attached to the cloth/kydex sheath.

This particular piece was created for my son, Dean White who is also a Toronto Firefighter but in a different hall and shift from James.

Also, included in the package is a "shove knife" used to gain access to some doors and this knife is in a separate pouch part of the sheath.

This is a very useful tool and a good addition to any Firefighters bunker gear pocket
 
Sign me up! I want one!
 
That's a useful-looking tool all right. Seems to be very well thought out for its intended application. Nicely photographed as well.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Hi Murray,

Nice to see you getting some real tacticals ;)

I had the opportunity to handle the cord-wrapped (pictured below) and orange G10 (like yours) versions of that knife...I liked both of them! A LOT of thought went into the design and it has been field tested extensively. The execution is very good too! I'm sure Dean is very happy with it.

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RL
 
just got to my email today as I spent most of it working on digital images.

from James

"As for the MAK - 1 (Multi Access Kit) prybar it is 1/4" 440C with a carbide window punch and a cut out to twist a rolled down window for a controlled window break( the Tactical version will be bead blasted and only have the punch). The handles are hunter orange G-10 for Fire/EMS Rescue or black G-10 for the Police/Military Tactical .The sheath is Kydex with a nylon and Reflexite pouch . Depending on the use it will can have a belt loop or the Tactical will be set up to mount on a L.B.V. as I am doing some work in conjunction with Rogue D.S.I .who are suppling most of the Tactical teams in Canada ."
 
just got the following message in my email inbox

"Hi Dad. Got to use the pry knife / shove knife last Thursday. Had to help ten or so sorority sisters enter thier home. The mechanical lock jammed in the cold. The shove knife lifted an upstairs window lock.

Dean"
 
How much is it? :)
 
Ken--did you get my email? contact James if you did. I think the cost of the package is around $150 Canadian or maybe $115 US but he'll have to quote you the price on the package. I'm glad Dean had an early opportunity to make use of it.
 
Hey Murray, did Dean happen to take any pics of the knife in action...and the highly appreciative sorotity sisters? :)

RL
 
Thanks Murray for posting the pics(as usual they are great)
and thank you everyone else who likes the design as I have been kicking the idea around for a few years and this is what I figured was all that I needed along with a cheap folder to carry in my bunker gear.The field testing will always be on going but I have to say I am very happy with it (eventhough I get to deal with the crackheads instead of the sorority girls like Murrays son) :eek:

Ken you have email

Thanks
James
 
That looks like a very useful piece of kit!

I have friends who have done a fair amount of relief work, especially post-earthquake rescue and extraction. They mentioned a couple of Canadian firemen at an earthquake site in Armenia (I think) or maybe Russia, anyway they had some fancy handmade tools that from their description could be the same kind of thing.

Is this one a new design James or have you had Canadian firemen testing out prototypes elsewhere in the world? Top secret test-sites situated on fault lines .....

I think I'd also rather help the nice ladies back into their home than dig through earthquake rubble ;)

Roger
 
Hi Roger ,
As far as I know they were not my work as mine was the first Proto then a couple of this batch were finished just before Xmas .

James
 
Jim,

that thing is tooooo cool. love it!

one of these days i will order one from you to replace the prybar in my pack.

take care and best of luck with it :)

-jon
 
It's beautiful now -- it goes in and out very smoothly and the carry is completely unnoticeable, even with a tucked-in shirt (although that kind of makes draw difficult... )

Awesome work -- thank you for all you time on it. :)

When the Yojimbo actually goes into delivery, I'll probably replace the Gunting with it... I'll email you when that happens.

-jon
 
James,

I apologize - I never did end up ordering a custom MAK from you.

But I did just pick up a CRKT's MAK-1.

It's a beaut.

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