Tops Prather War Bowie

As some others have said: 1095 and micarta are nice materials, but very cheap. You're talking about maybe $10 worth and paying $200 when finished out.

You could probably find a custom maker to do you something similar in your shape/pattern with your choice in handle materials for about the same price. A little more $ and you could get CPM 3V or some other top-notch steel in a custom piece.
 
Nice looking knife. I like the looks alot,Price wise it is a bit high, but then so is every thing else these days. Randall made Knives has the #12 Big Bear Bowie with a similar blade shape. which is one of my favorites. if you think the Tops is high check out the Randall.LOL
 
Last edited:
MIKE MACINTOSH said:
Nice looking knife. I like the looks alot,Price wise it is a bit high, but then so is every thing else these days. Randall made Knives has the #12 Big Bear Bowie with a similar blade shape. which is one of my favorites. if you think the Tops is high check out the Randall.LOL
Click to expand...

for cheap materials... lolz isn't their stainless 420?
 
As to the War Bowie,I like the style of it quite a bit and don't consider $150 too much money.If it came sporting good Kydex it would be the cats a$$.
 
ah the things you could do with the money for a Randall...

oh wait. we're talking about TOPS ;) haha. i know what the custom maker prices are, i've talked to several. i just haven't seen any of them make a clip i like quite this much. and i believe there are many ethical barriers stopping me from asking, and them from making a copy of it.
 
It caught my eyes too, the blade shape is beautiful, I think I'll get one when I have enough money.
 
I am really interested in this blade. Any of you BF owners have any personal pics to share? According to the online dimensions, it is only slightly bigger than my ESEE 6. However, the pics I am able to find, including those showing Mr Prather holding it, make it seem a bit larger.

Very attracted to this blade shape.
 
I like Tops knives. I do think they are a little over priced though, as do most. I have the Tops/Buck CSAR-T fixed blade. Great knife. The sheath is ok, but thats it. I too would like kydex w/dangler loop for the price of thier knives. I may get the Alaskan Harpoon one day.
 
I really like the blade design, but something about the handle looks uncomfortable to me. It just looks too much like a door wedge. The same thing with the TOPS Power Eagle 12. I really want one, but I'm not going to put down $200 for something I haven't actually held, and taking a risk to waste more money sending it back just ain't happening for me in our economy.
 
The only tops i have, or will ever have, unless they step up their HT, (or someone gifts me with one) is a Cat# 200. Its a 3-1/2" 1095 fb. Although The design is great, and the sheath is impeccable, the steel is the softest 1095 iv'e ever come across. It takes an excellent edge, but
when it comes to retention, well, not so excellent. After batoning through some soft eastern white cedar recently, the edge went from hair
popping sharp to printer paper tearing, in all of two minutes of splitting. Thier coating is also terrible, i stripped mine, than bathed it it
ferric-chloride to force a patina. The factory bevel was also quite obtuse, not quite like benchmades, but around 50 inclusive, even though the literature stated it was 44 inclusive. After thinning out the bevel to around 20 a side and stripping the coating, the knife is more functional. I have plans to reharden the knife to around 60 hrc in the future. Don't get me wrong, i love the design of this knife, and i like lots of Tops designs, It's just that they come from the factory in my opinion in need of significant modding. But if you have my high standards when it comes to FB's i would steer more in the Esee or Becker direction. If you don't mind a bit of a project on your hands, than by all means go for it.
 
I bought the Alaskan Harpoon & love it. Sheath---not so much. Will love it more when i have a custom kydex sheath made for it.
 
I have the tops tom brown tracker and the Esee 5, both beautifully made production knives and easy to sharpen and maintain. I too am looking at the prather war bowie basically for the looks alone. I agree with one of the above posts in that tops putting gay names on their blades is annoying and spoils the look.
 
got my week ago . I would just love to have kydex sheath for it
qH2vq.jpg
 
Last edited:
I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Fuller and Leo Espinoza at the Atlanta Blade Show last month. I mentioned some of the criticism I'd read on this forum regarding their knives and Fuller responded, "we can't be all things to all people". I totally agree.

I have a few TOPS knives and have been completely pleased with each. These include the CAT 203 Tanto, Cobra SFA 6, USMC Combat, CQT neck knife, (all 1095) Mil Spie 3 in 154CM and my pride and joy the CQT Magnum 747 folder in N690Co. I also have the ESEE 4 and 6 so I feel I can make IMO valid evaluations of each. They're both terrific, well made knives.

To say these are made with $20 worth of material, etc. is ridiculous but hey, it's a free country. I personally find the fact that so many want to shell out $400+ for a particular folder on this board a much better example of paying way too much for a blade. But apparently this places the owner in some sort of select group of experts. I don't know why.

Enjoy the War Bowie!
 
Last edited:
caine said:
Got mine today
Click to expand...

That is a heck of a knife there SGT. But, as a leg... I doubt that you'll ever need that. Just messing with you buddy. Go to the "tube of you" and type in "last 100 yards." This should be our official song. Either way, awesome knife.
 
I have always liked the design of that knife.

As companies go TOPS has a fairly good reputation. Several people here on the forum have reviewed various knives, and overall those reviews have been favorable.

As to edge holding, 1095 is not going to hold an edge as well as some other steels with a better heat treat. It isn't going to outperform Swamprat's sr101 for instance, however it will perform more than adequately and is easily touched up in the field.

I'm not impressed by some of their zannier designs, but they put out some good functional designs as well.

Myself if I pick up a Prather the first thing I'd do is convex the edge.
 
TOPS makes a LOT of different knife styles. Some of them are too wild for me but others look very interesting and useful. Years ago I bought a large TOPS for my collection. It seems to be well made and will probably function well. I'm interested in another smaller TOPS knife for carry. Some of their knives seem to be reasonably priced but others seem to be priced too high considering the materials.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top