The perfect custom Bowie - 12 inches - a Graill quest

lwrhea said:
That knife is gorgeous. Look at those lines! Congratulations on a fine choice. Lin
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Thanks Lin!! You were a great help with all the information! Don't be surprise if I place an order in the future with you :). Your subhilt fighter is one amazing blade =)!
 
DesRosiers said:
Joe, you are right about that. A heavy handle can counterbalance a big blade nicely. Proper distal taper is maybe the most crucial factor in balancing a big blade. No matter what, I have found that once you get over about 11.5 inches long, you just have to go a little thinner in overall blade thickness to keep the weight managable.

By the way Joe, that was an excellent cigar you gave us at Blade. We enjoyed it at a Father's day pick-nick on the beach in front of my Dad's place.

Thank you.
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You are most welcome, sir.:thumbup: You are right about blade length. I discovered with that big bowie that I did that I just wasn't going to get that thing to balance at the plunge cut no matter what. Of course, with most knives that big, you probably want a bit of weight out front unless you are building something like a rapier and hen you get to use a HUGE pommel nut to balance it out.;) The distal taper is VERY important, but, from the perspective of most commercial knife makers, it is just too time consuming and perhaps some times impossible to do that on the machinery they typically use. You don't have to be a metal pounder to do that trick, but you do have to take the extra time to taper that bar, perhaps more so if you are a stock removal guy.
 
I see that I'm a bit late in this discussion, but since I'm just getting down to designing a new bowie, I thought I'd search out what's already being made in this genre.

Pictures of my bowies can be found here:
http://sre.belosic.com/wp-content/uploads/products_img/griffin-field and fighter.jpg
http://sre.belosic.com/wp-content/uploads/products_img/arctos.jpg

The issues I'd like to resolve before I start making my Perfect bowie (I'm calling it the Arctos), are thus:

#1: Fancy Austenetic stainless steel is about 7 times more expensive than 1095. (Overhead cost for a waterjet or laser cut batch becomes phenomenal for a custom maker like me)
#2: 1095 rusts and can get brittle at mid/high hardness
#3: Some of our favorite tool steels might be better than 1095, but they still rust, and I'm not sure the marginal gains are worth the extra cost to the end user.

Here are my questions:

#1: Who wants to go in on a 900 pound order of 1/4" x 18" wide ATS-34 directly from hitachi?

#2: If you keep your blade out of the dirt and rocks, what's wrong with an Electroless nickel or PVD coating?

#3: For camp chores and survival purposes, how is a bowie better than one of my tomahawks?


I hope that my designs may lead some of you to give me some more insight into your thought process towards wilderness survival knives. I know what works for me, but then, I have yet to be caught out in the cold with nothing but a knife.

Thanks,
Jared
Omnivore Blade-works
 
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