- Joined
- Apr 27, 2011
- Messages
- 3,198
It was on the way up for a weekend alone at my mountain cabin that I decided I would bust my 2011 knife budget (already completely spent out) and pick up a Heavy Bowie. I'd wanted one for a long time, and I knew I'd be passing right by a Sportsman's Warehouse and the only KA-BAR they stock other than the KA-BAR f/u's is the HB. I was planning on harvesting some fatwood from my property and was already bringing my Cutlass, so I figured this would be a good chance to compare the performance of the two.
Here are a couple shots of the Cutlass and Heavy Bowie side by side.
Here's the HB in hand.
My first impression was that the HB is *fricking huge*. It's funny because even though the Cutlass is larger, there's something about the HB that makes it just feel ridiculously gigantic. I had already suspected that the Large HB would be a little bigger than I'd really need and was contemplating a (now discontinued) Small HB, but those are a little trickier to get a hold of and I could walk right into the store to buy this one. As an aside, you know what would be badass? A 4" bushcraft knife with this exact shape and a smaller version of the Toooj handle. Anyway...
The shape lends itself to mall-ninja dreams so I had to corral that real quick. It's a wickedly stabby design, for sure. Sadly, since no terrorist Nazi werewolves were parachuting into my theater of action demanding a tactical military solution, I was left to chop up trees. Fortunately, I had a bunch. I selected a nice four-inch branch at eye level for maximum wood chip-to-eyeball contact, and let fly.
At 80 strikes with the Heavy Bowie, I quit. I had at least an inch left in the branch. I switched to the Cutlass and was through the branch in around 65 swings. The HB worked about as fine as you'd expect nine inches of very thick steel designed for murdering people to work on wood. Probably would have been all excited if I wasn't already used to the Cutlass, which is a hacking machine and has multiple chopping design advantages over the HB.
I grabbed a bowsaw (*gasp*) to more precisely remove the five-inch-long stump still sticking out of the tree trunk, as this was the resin soaked piece. Then I took the knives over to the woodpile to experiment with some finer work, namely cutting the branch stump into fatwood candles. The HB has a really good design around the pommel area for choking up and doing finer work. The Cutlass is okay in that there's appx an inch or so of unsharpened steel to wrap a finger on, but the HB has a semi-choil that lets you get real close while being able to still hold onto the handle area rather than holding onto blade. I split up some fatwood and trimmed out a baton handle with this and it worked like a champ.
Heavy Bowie pommel area
Cutlass pommel area
Then I decided that I had spent enough time getting pitchwood from dead branches and thought it was time to mess with stumps. I had read that knots of old rotted wood often have a concentration of resin, so I grabbed a smallish chunk of wood that had obviously been laying on the forest floor for a long time. Figuring I'd break it apart first, I stabbed the HB straight down into the intersection of a couple knots and hammered the wood piece against the ground to set the knife a little better. Gave it an experimental pry, and !TINK!, the tip broke off.
Before, then after!
I believe I may have said one bad word. Possibly two. Possibly 6.02x10^23 bad words.
Once I had calmed down, I dismantled the wood piece. I'd say it was actually on the soft and rotten side of things, and when split along the grain came apart quite easily. It was dry inside, with only a few spots showing any resin. I think I had managed to wedge the tip into an area where the grain was going all kinds of crazy directions, enough that it was held securely. The HB is a stabby knife so it's much thinner at the end; no surprise the tip snapped once I had effectively put the very end half-inch of it in a vise. And while I had not used much force when prying, as the knife is so long a lot of moment force was transmitted to the end. There was no bending; it just popped like a toothpick.
I don't expect the retailer or manufacturer to replace my HB. I pulled a dumbass move, it was a good lesson, and ultimately I still have a mostly-fully functional big knife. I mean, how much does someone use the point of a knife like this anyway? Hell, if we show these pictures enough times, Cold Steel* will probably think it's a new KA-BAR design for a tipless knife and rush out their own version.
* I like and own Cold Steel knives; they're just fun to make fun of.
Here are a couple shots of the Cutlass and Heavy Bowie side by side.
Here's the HB in hand.
My first impression was that the HB is *fricking huge*. It's funny because even though the Cutlass is larger, there's something about the HB that makes it just feel ridiculously gigantic. I had already suspected that the Large HB would be a little bigger than I'd really need and was contemplating a (now discontinued) Small HB, but those are a little trickier to get a hold of and I could walk right into the store to buy this one. As an aside, you know what would be badass? A 4" bushcraft knife with this exact shape and a smaller version of the Toooj handle. Anyway...
The shape lends itself to mall-ninja dreams so I had to corral that real quick. It's a wickedly stabby design, for sure. Sadly, since no terrorist Nazi werewolves were parachuting into my theater of action demanding a tactical military solution, I was left to chop up trees. Fortunately, I had a bunch. I selected a nice four-inch branch at eye level for maximum wood chip-to-eyeball contact, and let fly.
At 80 strikes with the Heavy Bowie, I quit. I had at least an inch left in the branch. I switched to the Cutlass and was through the branch in around 65 swings. The HB worked about as fine as you'd expect nine inches of very thick steel designed for murdering people to work on wood. Probably would have been all excited if I wasn't already used to the Cutlass, which is a hacking machine and has multiple chopping design advantages over the HB.
I grabbed a bowsaw (*gasp*) to more precisely remove the five-inch-long stump still sticking out of the tree trunk, as this was the resin soaked piece. Then I took the knives over to the woodpile to experiment with some finer work, namely cutting the branch stump into fatwood candles. The HB has a really good design around the pommel area for choking up and doing finer work. The Cutlass is okay in that there's appx an inch or so of unsharpened steel to wrap a finger on, but the HB has a semi-choil that lets you get real close while being able to still hold onto the handle area rather than holding onto blade. I split up some fatwood and trimmed out a baton handle with this and it worked like a champ.
Heavy Bowie pommel area
Cutlass pommel area
Then I decided that I had spent enough time getting pitchwood from dead branches and thought it was time to mess with stumps. I had read that knots of old rotted wood often have a concentration of resin, so I grabbed a smallish chunk of wood that had obviously been laying on the forest floor for a long time. Figuring I'd break it apart first, I stabbed the HB straight down into the intersection of a couple knots and hammered the wood piece against the ground to set the knife a little better. Gave it an experimental pry, and !TINK!, the tip broke off.
Before, then after!
I believe I may have said one bad word. Possibly two. Possibly 6.02x10^23 bad words.
Once I had calmed down, I dismantled the wood piece. I'd say it was actually on the soft and rotten side of things, and when split along the grain came apart quite easily. It was dry inside, with only a few spots showing any resin. I think I had managed to wedge the tip into an area where the grain was going all kinds of crazy directions, enough that it was held securely. The HB is a stabby knife so it's much thinner at the end; no surprise the tip snapped once I had effectively put the very end half-inch of it in a vise. And while I had not used much force when prying, as the knife is so long a lot of moment force was transmitted to the end. There was no bending; it just popped like a toothpick.
I don't expect the retailer or manufacturer to replace my HB. I pulled a dumbass move, it was a good lesson, and ultimately I still have a mostly-fully functional big knife. I mean, how much does someone use the point of a knife like this anyway? Hell, if we show these pictures enough times, Cold Steel* will probably think it's a new KA-BAR design for a tipless knife and rush out their own version.
* I like and own Cold Steel knives; they're just fun to make fun of.
No,that is really a bummer,ouch!
