- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Mike Williams, an ABS Master Smith from Broken Bow Oklahoma, has long been on my radar screen as a bladesmith turning out exceptional bowies. Though I had only seen perhaps less than a dozen of these blades, no two looked closely alike and each one I would have been happy to call my own. The only problem was finding one of his bowies on the secondary market I just wasnt having any luck. So I decided to go right to the source and speak with Mike about picking up one of his blades (yes, a genius am I 
).
Those discussions would ultimately bear fruit at the Spirit of Steel show held in Grapevine, Texas this past September where I finally got to meet the gregarious Mr. Williams, who proved to be every bit the friendly, agreeable and knowledgeable fellow that I had expected. Mike had available a bowie so me I all but expected to see my name engraved upon it somewhere.
And here it is: the Rolling Wave damascus bowie:
This knife features a 10 blade, 2 wide and an overall length of 15 ¼. The handle is stag and the guard, ferrule and butt cap are wrought iron. The most striking feature of the knife is the bold damascus pattern which resembles a sine curve or wave one one side, which is reflected out of phase on the other side:
This bright broad path of the wave seems to curve up into the clip where it straightens out to form an accent line that visually sharpens the profile of the blade. The pattern above the wave is quite interesting as well it looks something like a combination pool and eye and rain drop, interspersed with a widely spaced ladder pattern (the latter aspect is not really visible in the photos).
This knife has a real old timey feel to it that derives primarily from the handle and fittings. The handle is a real nice piece of aged-looking amber stag. Make that pieces of stag. I had shown the knife to two of my knife buddies and the three of us were scratching our heads trying to figure out if this was a single piece of stag, or two pieces mortise fit to the tang. On the underside of the handle you can barely see about two inches of seam where the pieces meet, but on the upper side the seam is utterly invisible to the naked eye. Really a superb job of handle fitment. The wrought iron fittings, showing the grain and texture characteristic of that material, add to the antique look and feel that I find quite appealing.
The knife has just a superb feel in the hand well balanced and quick for its size. The stag handle provides an extremely comfortable and secure grip. Mike is a fixture at the ABS cutting competitions along with Fisk he devises many of the surprise tasks for the competitors. Maybe thats why this knife really feels like it wants to cut something the moment you pick it up.
It would be a substantial understatement to say that I am extremely pleased with this knife. My thanks to Mike for this terrific blade.
And Ill close with a final pic of the man and the knife:
Cheers,
Roger
).Those discussions would ultimately bear fruit at the Spirit of Steel show held in Grapevine, Texas this past September where I finally got to meet the gregarious Mr. Williams, who proved to be every bit the friendly, agreeable and knowledgeable fellow that I had expected. Mike had available a bowie so me I all but expected to see my name engraved upon it somewhere.
And here it is: the Rolling Wave damascus bowie:
This knife features a 10 blade, 2 wide and an overall length of 15 ¼. The handle is stag and the guard, ferrule and butt cap are wrought iron. The most striking feature of the knife is the bold damascus pattern which resembles a sine curve or wave one one side, which is reflected out of phase on the other side:
This bright broad path of the wave seems to curve up into the clip where it straightens out to form an accent line that visually sharpens the profile of the blade. The pattern above the wave is quite interesting as well it looks something like a combination pool and eye and rain drop, interspersed with a widely spaced ladder pattern (the latter aspect is not really visible in the photos).
This knife has a real old timey feel to it that derives primarily from the handle and fittings. The handle is a real nice piece of aged-looking amber stag. Make that pieces of stag. I had shown the knife to two of my knife buddies and the three of us were scratching our heads trying to figure out if this was a single piece of stag, or two pieces mortise fit to the tang. On the underside of the handle you can barely see about two inches of seam where the pieces meet, but on the upper side the seam is utterly invisible to the naked eye. Really a superb job of handle fitment. The wrought iron fittings, showing the grain and texture characteristic of that material, add to the antique look and feel that I find quite appealing.
The knife has just a superb feel in the hand well balanced and quick for its size. The stag handle provides an extremely comfortable and secure grip. Mike is a fixture at the ABS cutting competitions along with Fisk he devises many of the surprise tasks for the competitors. Maybe thats why this knife really feels like it wants to cut something the moment you pick it up.
It would be a substantial understatement to say that I am extremely pleased with this knife. My thanks to Mike for this terrific blade.
And Ill close with a final pic of the man and the knife:
Cheers,
Roger
It speaks for itself 
Nice job Mike!
( inside joke ) * See you Thursday night. *
