Update: Now I have TWO Pakistan made knives, and I find them pretty cool...

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

I purchased this strictly as a piece for my collection, and it now represents in my collection as a handicraft product of Pakistan. I have an appreciation for old world hand made knife making, (including something like this that was likely made in a cottage industry environment).
I think it has quite a bit of cool factor to it.
I don't know if the vendor's description was accurate, and so it may be made of some sort of random/mystery steel, and it may or may not have a good heat treatment... But, yes, I still find this knife to be interesting. And, I personally find it aesthetically pleasing. To my eyes, it seems to have a styling that would have fit right in with an American riverboat gambler of the 1850's to 1870's era.
The engraving likely took some considerable man hours to hand chisel.
It's just another addition to my personal collection of do-dads

 

[Hickory n steel]

Maybe the " engraving " was etched ?
I don't know but I do think the knife is cool, Pakistani knives aren't for me but many of them are perfect for display.
They have upped their game in recent years, I don't know if their functional quality is better but they're now making things that easily pass as custom pieces.
They're often falsely sold as such, but the fact that they can look the part at least to some degree says something.
they are a far cry from the $10 Bowie's and daggers I lusted after when I was 10-13 years old as far as fit and finish is concerned. The sheaths look fancier now but are often still that thin stinky waxy stuff that just may have come off a goats rear end

 

[mrknife]

one of my earliest knives was a two blade trapper from pakistan, i even attempted to convert it to a single blade when I was a kid. not very successfully

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

The engraving part is def legit.

 

[Hickory n steel]

The emgraving part is def legit.

There is a form of etching where they paint what is to remain and leave a piece in ferric chloride overnight, the unpainted surface is etched away and you get what looks like an engraving.
It still takes some skill to hand paint the design but is a bit easier and requires less tools.
I'm not sure what this technique is called, but it could have been used on this knife if you didn't pay a fortune for it.

If you say it's hand engraved I'll just have to take your word for it i guess ,b you may actually know something about this craft.
All I know is that it takes some skill and is not cheap.

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

I, (like most knife enthusiasts), have been jaded by the utter poor quality of Pakistani knives I've had the displeasure of seeing and handling. I am 53 years old, and never came across a Pakistani made knife that I would consider buying, and never did... Well, until now.
It's been hard to break away from that stereotypical belief I've had that all knives made in Pakistan were sure to be junk. But, I know that is ridiculous, since craftsmanship exists everywhere in this world, and that political boundaries does not squash that fact.
I used to manage a nice privately owned gun shop, (not the big box type), and handling chisel engraved firearms was pretty common there. Also, I sent one of my own revolvers, (that I used to own), to a gentleman out in Wyoming to have it engraved for me. Anyhow, this is definitely hand chiseled engraving on this knife. It may not have been done by engravers at the level of olden day Colt custom shop engravers, but still took some decent skill, and likely some considerable time. I paid more than what usually one pays for an average Pakistani made knife, but still much less than what it would cost if it had been done stateside.
Decent work for the money, for sure.

It has a full length/width tang, and what seems to be walnut scales. These wood scales have a leaf pattern carving done to them, adding even more to it's hands on crafted look. The smooth bone section seems to be what one would expect from that region of the world, camel bone.
I would say the blade is about 5mm thick, so it's overall feel seems solid in hand. The grinds were very well executed, making some of my US made Ontario Knife Company knife grinds look amateurish.
Seems a good effort was placed on overall fit and finish, while still showing obvious traits of being a hand made item.

I put it's sheath away, but it's nicely done thick leather, and has a nice brand new leather coat smell to it. Again, it was not dirt cheap pricing that I paid for this knife, (one hundred dollar price range), which may seem high when compared to what most Pakistani knives sell for. I took a shot in the dark to see what I would get, and am very pleased indeed. Heck, if just for it's engraving, the price was worth the admission

 

[JC972]

I've had very few Pakistan knives but none were anywhere near that quality. That's a cool knife if nothing else. I reckon value can be determined partly on how much it means to the eye of the beholder/buyer. I'm far from any sort of expert but that's THE nicest knife I've ever seen from Pakistan. I love the look of that engraving and the bone on the handle. I stll have two or three pakistani knives in my collection. One is kind of a knockoff of a Buck 55 from long before the 55 existed, a small lockback about 3 3/8" or so and made of wood and brass. Apparently the guy who made the blade was really on top of his tempering game that day because the thing would hold an edge pretty good. Much better than others I've had from there. After hours spent with a flat file making the blade actually sharp and then a while with diamond stones it'd ribbon the hair off my arm. I carried it to school for a while rather than risk confiscation of a nicer knife. One day in shop class the teacher asked to borrow a knife and I offered mine up. He looked at it and scoffed at the cheap little knife until I told him to see if it'd shave a hair and it left a nice slick patch on his forearm! Sometimes them Pakistan knives will surprise you.

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

I've had very few Pakistan knives but none were anywhere near that quality. That's a cool knife if nothing else. I reckon value can be determined partly on how much it means to the eye of the beholder/buyer. I'm far from any sort of expert but that's THE nicest knife I've ever seen from Pakistan. I love the look of that engraving and the bone on the handle. I stll have two or three pakistani knives in my collection. One is kind of a knockoff of a Buck 55 from long before the 55 existed, a small lockback about 3 3/8" or so and made of wood and brass. Apparently the guy who made the blade was really on top of his tempering game that day because the thing would hold an edge pretty good. Much better than others I've had from there. After hours spent with a flat file making the blade actually sharp and then a while with diamond stones it'd ribbon the hair off my arm. I carried it to school for a while rather than risk confiscation of a nicer knife. One day in shop class the teacher asked to borrow a knife and I offered mine up. He looked at it and scoffed at the cheap little knife until I told him to see if it'd shave a hair and it left a nice slick patch on his forearm! Sometimes them Pakistan knives will surprise you.

Thanks ☺ Good story share too ☺

Truth be told, after I placed the order for it, I almost instantly thought to myself... "Really, Jimmy? A hundred bucks on a Pakistan made knife!?... What the heck were you thinking!?!?!".
By the time it arrived in the mail, I had already talked myself into an "Oh well, whatever it is, it is what it is."
I totally convinced myself that it was a long shot that it would be anything more than what I've always seen from Pakistan, and that if indeed it was a crude piece of steel, I would simply chalk it up to a dumb move on my part and move on.
But, to my surprise, I was pretty darned impressed on how well they got the fit/finish down, and how nice the knife is. The engraving definitely adds a great touch to the styling of the knife. And about the knife's styling... it too impressed me. Too many Pakistani produced knives can be quite out there in their styling, usually enough to be a turn off for me. But, this one was unique, yet tastefully done and thought out.
It's why I say that it would have fit right in with a professional Riverboat Gambler of the 1800's... I mean, they were often known to be a bit flashy with their dressing and such, and a hand engraved knife, such as this one, could have been a perfect choice for a concealable up and close situational type weapon. It would have been smaller and much more discrete than the common bowie knives of that time, and much easier to access and pull out in a confined area. It's finger guard design would have guaranteed that the knife would remain securely in grasp if the knife were used for it's likely emergency self defense purpose. When in hand, one's index finger is placed in a way that prevents the hand from going forward onto the blade, or rearward to lose the knife's hold.
And again, it's styling & engraving would have fit right in with a well to do professional gambler of that era.

There is something I was wondering about... I don't know how they got away with not marking the country of origin onto the knife. I have no problem with it, since it means the knife's look is undisturbed by any brand or origin marks, but still wonder what has changed, if anything, on those requirements of origin markings.
I have a few Cold Steel Frontier Bowie knives, and they too do not have country of origin anywhere on them. If one takes off their rosewood handle, the Cold Steel brand can be found stamped onto it's tang, but no country of origin (which would be India).
Not sure how origin markings are handled by US laws anymore.

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

My having been so pleasantly surprised at how artistically well done the above knife was, I decided to go with another specimen from the same dealer.
I paid about the same amount of money for it as the first one, (about one hundred dollars), but this time went with a scale-less specimen, as to have been more of a blank canvas for the hand chiseled engraving done by the engraver.
Without it having handle scales, I'd guess it to have about 75% of it's total surface engraved. The edge feels very sharp, and as with my previous specmen, is well executed. If someone were to want to put this knife to use, it would require wrapping the handle area with something like paracord, or better yet, some leather lacing to better fit the knife's overall look.
The production of the knife itself aside, I wonder how many man hours it took to chisel engrave this specimen? There are obviously a lot of factors to consider, (like the experience of the engraver), but I still do wonder on average how long something like this would take to accomplish.

The hand engraving adds that old world look to it... I really do like it!

Btw, I was thinking that the leather sheaths that came with these knives have a very familiar new leather smell to them. At first I thought it may be like the smell of a nice new leather coat. But, today the smell finally hit the nail on the head for me... They smell exactly like I remember a brand new quality baseball glove smelling when first purchased

So, in the end, I've managed to include a couple unique Pakistan made knives that represent well within my collection of do-dads

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

I've been a wee bit impressed with these two knives I purchased from this vendor. His online photos of the knives were accurate, and in fact were pictures of the knives I would receive, not just stock photos.
Well, with that said, I had avoided the temptation to order one of his Pattern Welded steel blade models, (what some describe as Damascus steel). Well, that was up until yesterday, when I pulled the trigger on one. The price is much lower than the two I purchased above, but that may simply be because of the added cost of the hammer chiseled engravings on those other two knives.
In any case, for me, it's more of a "let's see what I get" sort of a thing, and since the price is low, the cost in indulging my curiosity is worth giving it a try. I know the phrase "You get what you pay for" often holds true with oh so many things in life... But, I also know that the world is not all one "cost of living" & "minimum wage" standard. That it is indeed possible to get a lot more bang for the buck when an item has been made in a country where the cost of basic living and wages are WAY less. Lower overhead costs, lower cost of basic living, lower wages, and a high percentage of folks willing to do this sort of work to try and make a living from it, can easily translate to a way lower price for these items when exported to much wealthier countries. That's not to say I expect the highest end quality to be had from such situations, but that I do understand some decent stuff may be had for what we American's believe to be a ridiculously low price.
My two already received knives have really impressed me as way more bang for the buck than I had expected, even if solely based on the hand crafted engraving work, which I feel is pretty impressive for what I paid

So, in the end, I just want to take a "stab" at seeing what one of this vendor's Pattern Welded knives are about in hand

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

Well, while I wait for my third Pakistan made specimen to be shipped and delivered from the vendor, I decided to work on putting up the last one I got, up onto my wall.
Mission accomplished

 

[WValtakis]

I'd be curious if they're actually hardened? If they engraved before hardening they did an amazing job preventing scale and keeping the engraving crisp, and engraving (hammer/chisel) hardened blades is almost never done...

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

There were some burs on the bottom of the ricasso area, (right behind where the sharpening begins).
Anyhow, it could have been caused during their clamping or whatever during the engraving process. So, although it was not a big deal, I wanted them gone. So, I took to a slight file work to remove them. Although I can't say what hardness the blade has, it is definitely not soft. As I did my careful & judicious filing, I could tell the steel was hardened

 

[WValtakis]

There were some burs on the bottom of the ricasso area, (right behind where the sharpening begins).
Anyhow, it could have been caused during their clamping or whatever during the engraving process. So, although it was not a big deal, I wanted them gone. So, I took to a slight file work to remove them. Although I can't say what hardness the blade has, it is definitely not soft. As I did my careful & judicious filing, I could tell the steel was hardened

Normal file, or diamond file? If a normal file cut the steel, I would say they are NOT hardened (at least nowhere close to what is appropriate for a knife these days)...as well as if the steel deformed from clamping during engraving.

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

They were files I had in my tool area, and which I have used before on steel, (are definitely for metal filing, not for wood or otherwise). The burs were filed away, but it took some effort. As soon as I started onto them, i knew it wasn't cutting in as I expect when working on mild or soft steel, it felt and sounded like when I have used these files on older heat treated steels. Again, I have done enough filling on all sorts of things, and know when something is soft.
Anyhow, (in my opinion), this knife definitely has been heat treated. To what level or consistency throughout the blade, I can't say.

As for the burs, and how or when they were caused, (before or after hardening/before or after engraving), is totally an unknown to me. Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, these are likely handcrafted in ways that we here in the States would now see as being really old school/obsolete... But that's a big part of the charm I find in them

By the way, when I was a young man, and used machetes as an almost daily tool, I would sharpen my blade with a file. These were not special files, but did the job I needed them to do to sharpen my blades. I guess the machete blades were only likely in the lower 50 rockwell hardness, and the files maybe in the 60+ range, so the blades would sharpen. It may be the same situation here with my knife specimen, where, in my opinion, it's been hardened, but not as hard as the file I used on it, (I imagine most files typically run high in their surface hardness). It definitely took some effort and time to get the small burs smoothed down.

Of course, I'm only sharing my personal experience here, and other folk's experiences may vary from mine

 

[lambertiana]

Pretty cool knives, questionable steel notwithstanding. Certainly better than most Pakistan knives.

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

Pretty cool knives, questionable steel notwithstanding. Certainly better than most Pakistan knives.

Yes, thank you... It's very much how I see them as well

I had somewhat recently purchased a few pieces from the Royal Nepalese Armory acquisition that International Military Antiques (IMA) & Windlass/Atlanta Cutlery made during 2002/2003. These pieces were three antique Kukri knives that had been stored away in that armory for many, many decades after being used by their Ghurkha soldiers long ago, (late 1800's to early 1900's).
These specimens are a joy to behold and admire for the relics of history that they are, and that is how I keep them, left with all of their imperfections and signs of actual soldier use/wear & long term storage. I simply removed the grease that they were covered in, and left them in their original condition.
That said, my friend was over admiring them, and he decided to order one of the "Longleaf" versions for himself. Unlike me, when he received it, he was not happy with leaving it as it came. After he removed the grease, his specimen had quite a few dents/burs on the cutting edge (a bit more than any of my three specimens). He wanted his edge restored a bit, and asked me to do it for him. I tried to convince him otherwise, since it's an antique, but he was set on having it done.
I agreed to bring his kukri's edge back to life. My first step was to judiciously start off by using a fine cutting file to remove the edge's dents/burs, before moving on with less aggressive materials to finalize the edge. Anyhow, the file cut in pretty easily, making short work of the task at hand. My understanding is that it is indeed common with these antique kukris to have pretty soft steel. Yes, they heat treated them, but the steel composition, the Kamis that made them, and the methods they all used, all had quite a bit of variation. That said, it was how they were made, and although deficient by modern standards, they pretty much all served their purpose, and got the job done, (yup, no super steels required, or even common 1095).

I look at these Pakistan specimens that I purchased in the same light. Although made in modern day times, the equipment, materials, and makers, likely have many of the same shortcomings that the Kukri' had back 100 years ago. Some locations in the world today, simply still use methods, materials, and knowhow, that is as variable as it was back then when these kukri knives were being made.
And again, that, to me, is part of their charm

Here is my antique "Longleaf" kukri knife, which I totally left in it's original condition

 

[DDDYLN]

From what I've seen, Pakistan-made Bowie knives are the best value for the money. There's actually a YouTube video showing how they make the Timber Rattler Western Outlaw Bowie. The steel says it's "surgical steel", which should be the cheapest stainless, yet these knives rust if not oiled. After reading reviews, I've heard people complain a little about fit and finish, but literally nobody says they've broken one, or even chipped one. Awhile ago I bought the SZCO Carbon Steel W49-type Bowie everyone gets. It has terrible fit and finish, but it performs. It's made in Pakistan, whether they say so or not. I actually just purchased 2 knives last night to satisfy a curiosity. My curiosity is simple. As a mechanical engineer, I'm 95% positive that knives from Pakistan, regardless of the brand and knife name, are manufactured at the same facility, with the same materials. Everyone knows the Timber Rattler Western Outlaw Bowie. SZCO sells an identical knife called the "SZCO Sable Bowie". I ordered both, and I'm going to compare them. I don't care what they say the steel type is on the blade. If they look identical, and have the exact same dimensions, you'd have to be foolish to think they come from different sources. Take the SZCO High Carbon Bowie (W49 style) as an example. You can find that exact same knife sold by 5-10 different "manufacturers", and they're identical.

I'm not writing this to say Pakistani Bowie knives are good or bad. I think some are good, and some are bad. You have to be a smart shopper. If you can't see a full tang, there's a 90% chance it's a rat tang, or the knife is simply welded to the tang. Here's the thing. Are the brand name knives better? I love Cold Steel, but the only Bowie I'd buy from them is the 1917 Frontier Bowie. The rest are trash, with cheap cable tangs. Cold Steel doesn't make them. They buy them from an Indian knife company, and rebrand them. Ask yourself if you'd rather have a $115 Cold Steel Wild West Bowie, with a crap skeletonized tang, or a Timber Rattler Western Outlaw Bowie, which is 0.25" thick all the way through the tang. I've looked at a lot of the "USA Made" Bowie knives. None of them look great. People love that Case XXL Bowie. You can't even see the tang, and it's literally called a "Presentation Bowie", as in you take it out and show it to people. It's not even a carbon steel. The ONLY USA made Bowie worth a damn is the Ontario SP10 Marine Raider Bowie. That knife is the real deal. I defy anyone to break one. I destroyed an entire wooden pallet with one. After cleaning and oiling it, it looked brand new.

I guess my point is this. Are you actually going to use your $150-350 USA made Bowie knife, or are you going to bust out the 0.25" thick, full tang, Timber Rattler Western Outlaw Bowie, and go to work? I'm pretty sure everyone knows the answer.

So, if you want a Bowie knife that works, buy an Ontario SP10 Marine Raider Bowie (they're like $65, but you have to sharpen them yourself), and/or a Timber Rattler Western Outlaw Bowie, or another full tang Pakistani equivalent. If you want to show someone your knife collection, buy the Case XXL Presentation Bowie you'll never actually use!

 

[abcdef]

I purchased this strictly as a piece for my collection, and it now represents in my collection as a handicraft product of Pakistan. I have an appreciation for old world hand made knife making, (including something like this that was likely made in a cottage industry environment).
I think it has quite a bit of cool factor to it.

Jimmy, Jimmy............................................