Western Bowie.........reborn

Gossman Knives

Gossman Knives

Edged Toolmaker
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
9,438
I got this off of E-bay and wanted to see what I could do to make it more useable from it's original shape. I redid the guard and handle. I took the sharp hook off the pommel end and contoured the handles. This will make a great wilderness blade. This is one of the older carbon steel bowies. By the way, these older bowies have maroon linen micarta scales, NOT wood.
Scott

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Cool. I have an ancient carbon steel W-49 that fell apart. The wood scales shrunk so bad that they came off! I have the knife stripped down and someday here I'm going to re-do the whole thing.
 
Scott, great job with the Bowie. I get the opportunity to use lots of knives in wilderness situations. When I get the question, "if you could take just one knife", I often think...Western Cutlery Bowie. The old carbon steel Westerns are among the best big knives ever offered.
 
Thanks. It took a sharp edge real quick. That's what i like about plain ol' carbon steel. The only thing i'm leary of is the thin main grind. Looks like a hollow or thin sabre grind. I'd worry doing any heavy lateral stress on it. BTW, it looks to be about 3/16" thick at the spine.
Scott
 
They say there is no such thing as a dumb question so here goes. How do you tell the age and blade material on the western bowies? Or maybe more to the piont what do I want to see on the blade if I am looking to buy one of the older carbon steel blades?
 
Nice job ! :)
I wish there was a forum on BF for purely knife mods only , modding knives is a hobby of mine big time.
 
FULMTALJKT said:
They say there is no such thing as a dumb question so here goes. How do you tell the age and blade material on the western bowies? Or maybe more to the piont what do I want to see on the blade if I am looking to buy one of the older carbon steel blades?
Click to expand...
Absolutely not a dumb question. Western Knife Co. was in Boulder Colorado in the 60's. I'm not sure how far back they go as far as age. Sometime in the 70's Coleman outdoor products bought Western and produced the bowie under the name Coleman/Western. It was marked on the knife as such. I'm not sure when but I think sometime in the late 80's Camillus bought the Western name and has it in the product line now. After Camillus bought them, they started making the bowie with stainless blades. If you find a Western Bowie and the blade is stained or does stain, it's carbon steel. If it is stainless, it will probably be marked as stainless.
Scott
 
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