Automated Transcript
10 Best Bowie Knives
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 353)

00:00
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco and coming up two amazing knives on loan.
Spyderco gives endura the K390 treatment and we're going to take a look at the 10 best bowies.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.
Your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show.

00:40
My favorite comment from this past week was from Jay McConnell, frequent contributor to Thursday Night Knives, and it was on my video from Saturday where I was showing how to use the swedge in a back cutting motion on the on the Boeing knife.
And he says awesome demonstration, Bob.
I've often played with back cuts on paper using clip points just to see how well the tip is honed apparently.
It doesn't matter.
The back cut is a nasty is nasty anyway you slice it.
That's a tip I won't forget.
Way to cut to the point.

01:15
So he's got kind of three puns there, and as I've become an old man, I'm just loving puns, someone else said.
This is just the kind of advice I was looking for, and that warmed my heart too.
So thank you everyone, for watching and and enjoying and something else that warmed my heart.
This is a a dad joke that came to me from my daughter, who's like the best supplier, almost better than the book they got me and.
Ohh, I shouldn't have shouldn't let you know I was gonna lead into a joke.
That was one of the bits of advice she gave me.
OK, so let's just pretend you didn't hear that.

01:48
So why do teen girls always travel in groups of three?
Because they can't even.
Ohh, you know what?
I think we need to get a sound effect that goes either ohh or yeah, and I think that that was maybe an awe, but it's in the delivery when you see a 12 year old girl go because they can't even.
It's it's much better.
Alright, enough of that.
How about a pocket check?

02:24
So, as I've been commenting recently, I'm on a huge Bowie tear that got interrupted by a minor dagger tear.
But I'm on a I'm on a big Bowie kind of acquisition thing right now, so today's front right hand pocket had to be a Bowie, and today's Bowie folder was the Cayman XL from off grid knives.
Just a big audacious.
Uh, boy, this this is a Bowie knife that lives out loud.
Huh?
Lives out loud.
That's how that's how we talk in the modern age.

02:58
I, I I really.
This thing screams gnarly Bowie.
It's got that blade shape that is based sort of on the snout of a Cayman, which is a smaller sort of crocodilian animal that lives in South America.
I know they they're big in the Pantanal, in Brazil.
I just happen to know that little.
Factoid, but they are, they're have a very kind of long and pointy snout, similar to this this here knife.
It is a very thin blade stock that is broad and a Saber grind about half the way up, so it is incredibly thin and slicey, like all off grid knives tend to be.

03:37
This is an awesome cardboard knife, especially it's little it's little brother.
Frankly, I haven't used this one on cardboard, but it's got the same blade stock and is broader, so I. I submit it'll be even better with it.
Yeah.
So it had this on me today and I was thinking about as I tend to do, I was thinking about how this blade would work if it on a thrust.
Now it's so wide and that swedge sweeps up.
So high in it sort of an extreme angle and sweep that I believe this would make a very large hole in whatever.
You know you're going to stab it into a cardboard for sure, did a bit of that cardboard stabbing and that is kind of one of the unique selling propositions of this knife.

04:22
It's going to make a big hole, but also it's got that tip down below the center line.
So not only is it great as a Boeing knife or a clip point with all of with all that that implies, but also it's a great.
Nearly worn Cliff.
I mean that that tip is so low down.
You can use this knife for a lot of great utility cuts.
Also.
It just has just insanely great action.

04:46
Super Super Drop shut action made by best tech.
I'm a huge fan of best tech and they just do it right as does carry with his designs for off grid.
Been carrying the Stinger XL a ton and I was complimenting him on it and he was just saying that demand is through the roof for that knife.
Which is I love it.
I love hearing that warms the cockles of my heart.
Alright, Next up on me today was another knife I've been carrying quite a bit, and this is a unique one.
Kind of in in a small category with the Yojimbo and a few others sub 3.5 inch bladed knives that I will carry happily in my front right pocket.

05:28
Usually it's got to be 3 1/2 or larger.
Just that's just my proclivity.
Or my I guess that's the word.
That's what I want.
That's that's what really brings brings me to the yard.
But this one here is 3.25, and I find that Warren Cliffs can get in under that 3.5 inch.
Bar, and this is definitely one of them.

05:55
Dirk Pinkerton, designed made by beyond EDC.
This is part of their asymmetric line.
That's S 35, VN and bronze anode titanium.
Great action.
This also has a great sound.
Let me see if we can hear it.
Nicely on the mic.

06:14
So you get a lot of really nice sound in the titanium knife from the hollowing out of the, you know, the the weight relief pockets that you get in the titanium that really can make a knife sound great.
Well, you look at the the main bit of the spine and if you put it flat you'll see an upward angle on that blade that gives it a great utility use of that point.
That point has the the perfect angle for a Warren Cliff as far as I'm.
Concerned because it gives you all the poll utility kind of cutting, but it also gives you a nice stabby blade.
It also puts that point.
That upward angle here on the blade puts the point at the center line, which is good for knowing where that point is on a thrust or on a penetration sort of thing, you're going into a clamshell package or whatever.
You always know where that tip is because it's center line, no matter how the blade is oriented.

07:11
Thirdly, today I had the Jack Wolf Knives.
Benny's clip, this one just dropped last Friday, the 16th.
I I haven't kept my eye on it, but I have a feeling this one.
Is so.
I mean each each month, uh, they sell quicker and quicker.
People are just very enthusiastic about these awesome knives.
But this one, the Benny's clip, which is Ben Belkins take on the lannys clip, the classic Tony Bose design, has just been really receiving a lot of acclaim.

07:44
A lot of reviewers are saying this is their favorite so far.
I'm not necessarily saying this is my favorite Jack, Wolf knives knife so far, but I am saying I've.
Use this the most and all along.
I've kind of said that about each new knife as they've come out, but this one?
Is just it's the biggest one of all and it does have a quite a stout spring and if you needed to use this in a work situation this would be this would be great.
M390 Blade steel integrated titanium liner bolster setup with micarta.
I mean this this is a very tough knife.

08:18
I don't use it like that, I've used it but I've used it a lot and this has been a good food knife for me.
I've had a few opportunity few few steaks recently.
I'm not, I don't eat too many steaks.
Trying to watch out for the ticker but.
This recently has been a great going out to dinner knife.
Been going out to dinner a couple times recently and unexpectedly and this has been in my pocket.
So this has been the thing I've pulled out in lieu of the wet handled dull saw that they hand you at most restaurants, all right?

08:51
Lastly, uh, today's carry fixed blade was the Revere.
The Revere.
I want to call it the Revere.
The Revere from the 1558 knife company.
This is the production knife or semi, you know, semi production knife.
Line of mastersmith.
Master bladesmith.

09:09
Josh Fisher.
This one.
This one I am bound to make a new kydex sheath, for I love the one that he made.
He just put the grommets too close to the to the blade and it's just too tight.
And I hit it with a heat gun last night, try to loosen it up, and it loosened in some places, but not in the not in the right places.
So I think I'm going to make my own, my own sheath for this.
What I should have done was got the beautiful leather sheath I've could have could have gotten for the same price, but I was like thinking, oh, I won't carry it in the leather sheath.

09:40
Well, dummy, you can make a kydex sheath.
We can't make that sort of leather.
Anyway, so this beautiful clip point Recurve was what I had on me today.
It's nice and thin.
This makes for a great in the waistband carry knife the way I prefer to carry it.
It's got a little bit of sheath marking on it, which at first really bothered me, but now I'm liking it it just looks.
You know, like it's getting some use, which it's really actually not.

10:07
It's ready for use.
But this this blade has not gotten any use yet.
You know, major use 51. What, 52100 is this blade steel, I believe, and uh, just a very nice micarta warm micarta handle.
I know.
When I got this and I was showing it off around Blade show, I got this at Blade Show.
People were asking if it was a Winkler and I I suppose it does have a sort of wink clarian profile.
A little bit, a little bit.

10:39
But I've nerded out on the contours of Winkler knives and this is this is pretty different, but a great knife nonetheless.
And smaller than my pocket carry actually.
So that's what I had on me today.
I had the 1558 Revere a recurve clip point.
I had the.
Clip point lannys clip.
Geez.

11:02
Everything is clip point man except for the next one which is the contact the Dirk Pinkerton lovely Dirk Pinkerton knife.
And then of course the off grid came in Excel.
What a cool, cool knife this is.
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11:39
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12:15
And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
So as I wait anxiously for spider coated drop the military two with its compression lock and tip up carry, I've been keeping my eye on Spider coat and notice that they have.
They've given the endura, the K390 treatment and this this picture that they have on that they've been using for promo is a beautiful worn Cliff version of it they use.
They use that dark teal.
Handle material GRN for the K390 blades.
It's K 390. It's a semi stainless.
Excuse me semi stainless carbon steel.

13:00
Tool steel that.
That is very, uh, impact resistance, sorry, I was looking for the word.
It's very tough and impact resistant and that's one of the.
So that's one of the USP of K390 that have this lineup and they are kind of going through their catalog and K390 ING things.
I love the look of this Warren Cliff.
Got to say, I have the delicate Warren Cliff and it is awesome, especially with the serrations and I do know that K390 will, I think you can get it to Patino.
Which is, I don't know.

13:37
I mean that's something that's something that I like, but I like this dark teal blue handled affair and I like seeing it come to the endura.
This is the kind of thing that does not tempt me, though I must say I I am not.
I'm a knife snob.
In the most superficial of ways.
I'm, I'm a knife snob.
I'm, I'm the, I'm the guy who who buys the Mercedes so that he has the Mercedes, not not because he loves the performance of the Mercedes, to be 100% honest, to me, the steel.
Is kind of a benchmark of of the quality and and and I know like I'm as I'm saying that I'm, I'm, I'm.

14:14
I'm hearing myself and believe me yes I know it is but.
So that does not tempt me.
When it comes to spending extra money on a Spyderco, for instance, I I'm not going for the different variations in steel in just about anything, but I do understand people's desire for that, especially collectors.
I understand the collecting instinct and Spyderco is the most imminently collectible of the modern knives.
So.
So have at at UK 390 people.
You, you knife you you blade steel nerds, this this looks like a good one.

14:50
And I like, I like watching test videos of these kind of hyper steels like that.
So there you go, Endura gets the K390 treatment.
Benchmade is resurrecting a line of knives that I've thought was very, very cool from the start.
But I guess it went away for about two years and the first two years of it were in the Crooked River, the Mini Crooked River line, but it's the artist series and they have each year they will have.
A new artist who specializes in woodland and sort of nature art and have them make etchings that go into the bolsters and into the blades that are themed.
And the first let's see, last time, which was two years ago, it was all fish themed.
This year it's half fish, half foul.

15:40
Is that right or no?
No, it's not half fish, half foul, it's half fowl, half here, listen, it's pheasant and Mallard that's foul and bull elk.
And white tail, so you can get these themes etched into your mini crooked river with this artist theories series in the blade, also in the bolster, but also you get a a really cool kind of.
Wooden handle and I I'm kind of thinking throw wood in quotes because it is wood, but it's that sort of.
I don't know multi colored wood that actually you see on really cheap knives.
So it looks kind of funny in this particular picture, but there are others that have less colored wood that that is more attractive to to my eye.
For what that is worth.

16:25
So are you interested in that, that a lot of you know I dishon bench made sometimes for being somewhat.
Boring, at least to me.
But really they give you so many options to customize.
You can you can do this artist line or you can go to their online shop and just create the bench made for you, which is a pretty cool thing.
So I need to lay off bench made and just be grateful that we have bench made in our lives.
All right.
Still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at 2 knives.

16:57
One is is so exquisite.
But a couple of knives on loan to me and then we're going to take a look at the 10 best Boeing knives.
And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Alright, Jim, can you cut to the to the knife Cam for dramatic purposes please?
That's right.
You've never seen a grimsmo knife on this channel or on this show.
And valued patron, Mr VC256 has sent this to me, or actually had had it sent to me on its way to him.

17:41
So very, very generous.
The generosity of people in this community and and and I can really speak for the knife junkie community is staggering.
I, I'm, I'm very.
I'm very happy.
Thank you, Mr VC, for for letting me check this out.
So this thing is beautiful.
This is the Grimsmo Norseman well.

18:00
This is the box that it comes in.
A very nice, stout box.
Look at how it presents though.
Ohh yeah, look at that with the tool and the Lube and it's all kind of fit in these perfectly sculpted out foam.
Inserts and then there's some directions and birth card and stuff underneath.
But this is the Grimsmo Norseman and.
Let me just say I I get the hype.

18:28
I understand.
I I don't even want to call it hype that that that word connotes some sort of insincerity like I I understand.
Why people are so Gaga over this knife.
It's it's amazing.
I mean, OK, so it's a polarizing design.
Some people think it's ugly as sin.
I think it's beautiful.

18:49
I I love the recurve Tonto always do.
But this is a recurve clip.
Point Tonto with a swell.
I mean, you're you're you're talking my love language in many different ways here.
The thing that I never.
Carried for visually I the handle always left me just a little bit cold, and then having it in hand makes makes that just go away.
Sometimes just having something in hand makes your feelings about the way it looks go away.

19:18
And.
Here is the real thing.
The action on this is just.
Sickening.
It's nauseating.
Makes me it's, it's it.
It gives me Vertigo.

19:32
How how?
This just drops.
It's just.
You've seen this progressive conversation of this is the smoothest knife I've ever held, even smoother than the Konig areas.
That's what I said about the skaha that was smooth.
Yes, this is smoother.
This this blade has more weight further out, longer blade.

19:54
So if all things are equal, the blade makes up for it.
But I'm not guessing that all things are equal.
All right, let's take a look at this.
This is a RWL 34 blade steel.
It has a dark stone wash finish.
You can see this, the terraced what were once terraced steps in milling, the grind, the hollow grind on this and and the rest of the blade ground almost all the way out.
But you can see it.

20:22
In other words you can you can feel it, but it won't affect the cutting at all.
Umm.
But it is a beautiful visual flourish.
This is flat ground up here, hollow ground here, and.
Uh, magically sharp.
Like just insanely sharp.
I do not have paper here.

20:44
When I do my close up video, I will do a little paper cutting just a little bit just to show you, because I did cut a piece of paper and I used just the that forward edge and it was crazy.
I do that when I have a tanto.
I'll check the main edge of course, but then I'll see how well that front edge cuts, because oftentimes that front edge.
Um, that secondary front edge is coming in at a much more oblique, flat angle.
And so, you know, how well does it slice?
We know it's gonna Pierce, it's gonna cut into things when it starts with the tip.
But how does it cut in a vacuum?

21:22
And this tip cuts amazingly.
I. Yeah, I'm.
I'm pretty pretty amazed by this knife I do not have.
Ohh, there you go.
Good good thumb stud action.
Was gonna say I I do not.
Ohh man that thumb stud is beautiful too.

21:41
Not sure what that material is.
I need to pull out the.
The birth card?
Um, I didn't want to molest the box, but I don't think I'll hurt it at all.
Beautifully crowned spine.
Which transitions into a flat spine here.
Very thin.

22:00
Gold flourishes, gold anodization.
It's stunning.
It's a stunning knife and.
Yeah, it would be a great knife to have.
I would love to have this knife.
It's very thin.
And pocketable and feels incredibly sturdy and incredibly drop shut smooth.

22:21
So Yep, I get it.
Grimsmo norseman.
Wow.
What an amazing knife.
By the way, this is.
This is not only knurled and then knocked down so that it it's not.
It's not heavy knurling, but it's also contoured.

22:35
Now I reached out to John Grimsmo a while ago.
I have to reach back out to him.
He the story of the of Grimsmo knives and and how it basically started as a an experiment on YouTube and grew and grew and grew and grew and not an experiment on YouTube, but an experiment in knife making that he documented in YouTube so you can basically see.
How you know, he arrived at such a sublime.
He and his brother arrived at such a sublime creation, this thing, the Grimsmo Norseman.
I I I'm very, very, very impressed with amazing.
OK, enough about that.

23:14
Next up, this is another really awesome knife that I at Blade show.
I had one in my hands and I was really considering buying it, but I was trying to be good or a frankly, I didn't.
I didn't come with enough money this year and I wasn't going to, you know?
Pay interest on a knife and put it on a credit card.
I just didn't want to do that, so I passed this one up.
But lo and behold, it was in a box of Loaners that good friend hero sticks sent.
Thanks again, hero.

23:44
He's always hooking me up with boxes full of awesome knives, exposing me to new things, different things.
And this one.
Oh, what a joy to see it and to spend a little time with it.
This is from Berg blades, and this is the iron pup.
Look at this thing.
This is the full size iron pup.
That's a four inch blade and it's like a. Ah, it's a clip point Tonto.

24:08
Or a clip point Tonto.
Bowie hybrid blade.
You know, it is a great looking blade.
I love that swedge.
I love that secondary point.
But all of it is the same grind.
Unlike the Norsemen.

24:22
We were just looking at our other tontos.
It's not too different.
Two different bevels.
This is one single bevel.
Just has a little sub tip there.
Beautiful titanium bolster lock.
I am not sure who makes this.

24:38
I need to do my research.
I think it's riat, but I could be mistaken.
A beautiful, beautiful, tight micarta, you know micarta.
I kind of always like it, even the cheap stuff.
But when you get really fine, nice.
My car to like.
This is it.

24:54
It jumps out at you.
Very nice, no skeletonization in that handle, which on this knife I love gives it a substantial but not heavy feel.
Just look at this in hand.
What a beautiful, beautiful knife.
This is one that I would consider seeking out right now.
I'm in a fixed blade phase.
I'm.

25:17
There are a couple of things I want to get the get the Colin Maison Pierre knife, the new knife, CM designs from best tech, the the tonic.
There are a couple of other folders I want to get that's way out of my wheelhouse.
But it's a but it's so out of my wheelhouse.
It's almost in, but this is this is, you know, I've been kind of hard pressed to think, what do I want right now?
It's a flipper.
Titanium you know in this sort of mode and and nothing has been really tempting me recently until this showed up and I'm I'm just even looking at its profile against the the light background.
It's a really.

25:54
Beautiful, beautiful knife.
Very well built by.
I'll have to find out who before I make my close up video.
So another another great one on loan.
I. There's a whole box of them.
I'll be showing things off as as we go.
A little drip of hero sticks, loner knives, and I promise you a hero.

26:15
I'll have this box back to you way sooner than the last one.
I will not grow attached to your knives.
The bird blades.
Iron pup or Iron wolf?
I'm sorry.
The iron pup is the small version of this knife.
Beautiful, beautiful thing.

26:31
OK, Next up.
This was from this is from a company.
It's called BPS knives.
They're out of Ukraine.
They reached out to me and asked if I wanted to check out one of their knives.
Well, so I went to their website and checked them out and I said yeah, send something over.
So they sent me this bushcraft knife, I believe.

26:50
Yeah, the HK5.
CSH is the is the model number.
Before we get to the knife, I just want to stress how incredibly sumptuous and stout and sturdy this sheath.
Because it's a beautiful drop sheath, actually.
I wore this this past weekend.
You can see it on my belt when I do my goofy swedge knife Bowie fighting video.
I have this on my belt.

27:16
Great dangler sheath.
I ordinarily don't care for danglers.
That's an awesome sheath.
But here's the knife.
It's a. 1085. Blade this is a a scandi ground blade with a wicked convex edge.
It's been stropped or or polished into a convex edge.
This thing is just insanely sharp and a a great ergonomic knife.

27:43
This is made by a father son team in Ukraine and they're looking to penetrate the the American market.
I I've seen choirboys has one of these on their channel.
Scab does.
And ohh, I'd love to see him abuse this, but I'm gonna use this in a fire pit.
My my most abusive thing.
We're going to do a fire pit.
All buttons from wood with it.

28:07
I'll do some fire, some sticking feathers sticking with it.
Have the girls shoot it, see how it works.
But I used it this past weekend just in noodling around, throwing it into a into a tree stump and that kind of thing.
It's awesome.
I I wish the best for these guys.
I'm going to do a close up on this with some test footage BPS knives out of Ukraine.
The handle is ohh.

28:34
What is it?
Walnut.
It's not walnut.
It's something else.
But oddly.
I mean it's sanded and but it's unfinished.
Which is kind of cool.

28:42
I'm going to finish this.
I'm going to put a sort of dark red stain on this once I test it and show it off as it came.
Now I have a lanyard on on there that's not the one I'm going to leave on.
I'm gonna put a different one on.
I put this on initially just to pull it out in and out of the sheath because it was very.
Tight at first, but now it's perfect.
This is a great knife.

29:04
I'm very psyched about this.
BPS knives also not to, not for nothing, but a great way to support Ukraine in a very direct way.
If you if that is in your you know, if you're interested in doing that.
BPS knives of Ukraine OK, last up.
Since I've been on this Bowie thing, I, I ordered the cold steel marauder and I just want to show it real quickly before I put it back in its box and send it.
Send it.
Back to Amazon.

29:32
First of all, this is how it arrived from Amazon.
They just threw it in an envelope like, here you go buddy.
Take your knife.
Here's the knife, nerd.
Thanks for the knife, nerd.
Get yourself one.
OK, so that this is how it showed up scuff on the Cliff.

29:47
Obviously someone had this before me and I hate that that they don't tell you.
You can see that mark there on the you know this has been clipped shut for a long time.
And the blade, there's nothing wrong with the blade except the blade.
It's beautiful.
And I've always wanted one of these.
Sort of because I've had this OSS forever and love it.
And thought it would be in the same.

30:13
Same sort of line.
This has a very, very heavy blade and with this very light Crayton handle.
It's just feels weird.
It's balanced like a chopper, but it's clearly a fighting knife with the sub hilt and that style of clip point, so it's it kind of doesn't know what it wants to be.
I think they used to be hollow ground, in which case there'd be a much lighter knife and seems to make much more sense for a fighting thing.
This comes to a very wedge like.
Wedge like edge.

30:44
I'm not sure if you can see that, but I mean it's.
It's just not the Bowie for me, so I'm sending it back.
Does anyone out there have an old hollow ground marauder?
Is it lighter?
Is it?
Is it different?
Is it weighted more like a balanced, more like this at the hilt?

31:04
You know where a fighter should be balanced?
I don't know.
I know this has a lot less weight to it because there's a lot less blade steel to it, but yeah, cold steel.
Cold steel hollow.
That blade, buddy.
All right, so let's move on to the 10 best bowies I've been.
I've been dancing around this topic all morning, all day, and I just want to get to it, but before we do.

31:28
I want to show you that I'm gonna be doing that a lot.
My boys are all arrayed out next to me on my bench, so not enough room on this table for all these big bowies.
So this one right here is not on the official list, but this is the one that started it all.
This was a kit that I got as a child, probably like 12 or something like that.
You know, you sow the leather, you just with that, but you get the blade you get, you get everything and you put it together and you might some of you might recognize this.
I've seen these, actually.
I saw one of these for sale on eBay and someone made same sheath and everything.

32:07
You know that they made in the 70s or 80s like I did and they were charging like 400 bucks like like it was taken directly from the Alamo.
Made me, made me laugh.
But I love this thing I've always had.
I've had this for a long time.
And it really did start my love for Bowie knives.
Love this thing.
And I had this.

32:26
Packed away for years and then recently found it, had it on my wall and now it's it's kicking it with the rest of the bodies alright.
First up, this this is the one that by far has gotten the most real use.
This is or use at all.
This is the trail master Bowie from cold steel.
We all know the trailmaster.
This was their one of their first one of the first knives they made that veered away from the Tonto.
Tonto was their first fixed blade.

32:59
I believe this was their second.
This is an old.
A VG1 I believe VG1 blade.
I've had this for a good 25 years or so.
The very first time I used it, it was when I was caught in the woods in the dark around Lake George and had to in New York and and had to make my way out.
I had this in my backpack, put it on my hip, and I swear we were being stalked by.
This is.

33:30
This is how I remember things though, you know, everything gets everything gets more dramatic with time, but I felt like we were being stalked by a Mountain Lion or something something while we were leaving, so I was glad to have this on my hip.
Not that, not that.
Well who knows this would a well placed shot with this would do in a Mountain Lion.
However I was I was not the the knife man I am now.
So anyway this this is the the great work knife also used it a lot and you know for about a year and a half I had SAP on it that I just couldn't get off from the white pine our neighbors have that sheds limbs on our yard and I finally got it off and all it was was WD40 and I had people tell me that
in the past and.
Still didn't work.

34:16
Ohh by the way, before I move this out of the way, a sharpened.
Zero ground swedge here for breaking bones.
Bam.
And I'm not just talking about in a fight, I'm talking about hunting.
You know, that kind of thing.
But a a great swedge back there.
I love that.

34:30
Zero ground swedge, I think is my favorite, even more than a fully sharpened swedge.
Since these knives are so large, I'm not going to leave them out.
I'm going to reshape them.
And.
Put them down.
Next up, this is a barn burner.
I love this thing.

34:47
Brand new to me is the company Kudamon Kutama kutiman kutiman.
I don't know how to pronounce it.
I'm sorry.
From.
Spain and first of all, beautiful red stitched.
Full hide, you know.
Tough leather sheath with their elephant logo engraved in there.

35:10
Look at this beautiful knife.
I've been showing this off a lot recently because I just got it.
This one was suggested heavily by Legion tactical, a channel that I like, a guy who really digs.
Big fixed blade knives and he got this and man, I was sold his videos first of all sold me on him.
He was very enthusiastic, but just looking at it I was like man, that is a beautiful style Bowie and I don't have this style in my collection with the hollow grind and that shape blade that that particular type of blade and then with the sort of neutral handle.
Then I realized, well, the von Tempsky is kind of like that.
But it doesn't have that blade handle combo, so I had to get this thing another another.

36:03
Factor that drew me to this was that Legion tactical.
I'm sorry I I I forget his name but he tested the hell out of his and really, really bashed on it and and and after all of it it sliced paper like it was nothing and this has a steel called it's a molybdenum, molybdenum, molybdenum, vanadium steel made in Spain.
I I always have trouble with that word molybdenum, even if I'm looking at it and.
Eating it and vanadium.
That's all they call it now.
I looked at a bunch of other, uh, I looked at muelas and jokers, other really good Spanish knives, and they used a a similar molybdenum, vanadium, steel.
I can hear you all yelling the proper pronunciation at your at your computers or radios.

36:56
Alright, so that's that's the CUDA man Bowie.
Next up is something a little bit more modern.
So let me take a moment to lay down some caveats here.
It took all I had not to put the K bar in this list, not to put the.
Not to put the Randall #16 that I have in this list and other fighting clip point blades really what I'm trying to focus here on bowies when you hear about bowies the the general definition is about a 9 inch blade about 1/4 inch thick.
Some of these are right in that area, some of these veer from it in one way or another.
But I am not going down to the combat classic level the the the the K bar style the K bar thickness.

37:45
K Bar style, size, I mean, uh, so that is my caveat for this list.
I have a whole other bunch of knives that are clip points in that are awesome fixed blades, but they don't quite make it into the Bowie.
Category for me, this next one is probably the most diminutive of of all of them.
It's the Prather War, Bowie here, Sierra.
I just was flexed into.
Boy, I'm I'm a northern guy.
I'm from the north so I bully.

38:12
Just sounds weird to me.
So this Bowie is the Prather War Bowie and it's a beautiful knife designed by Jeff Prather.
You've got some really interesting aspects to this knife.
First of all, it is 1/4 inch thick so it makes the list in that regard.
It is an 8. Which blade?
So it's not quite as long, but.
As a traditional or technical Bowie, but it has this incredible long swedge.

38:40
Really great for piercing.
Comes to a sort of diamond tip because of that swedge so great penetration.
And then just this, this great long sweeping swedge which is going to create a giant.
And I hate this expression, but wound channel, if you're going to use this as a thrusting, you know, weapon, but great cutter, it's incredibly sharp 1095. Blade steel, great edge that they really sharpen their edges beautifully at tops and they show they post a lot of videos of them doing so on
Instagram.
It's always fun.
To watch uh, but great Edge on this.

39:17
I've seen a lot of people use this as an outdoors knife, so this this is a knife that flexes in and out.
Of of different uses, but as a Bowie it's something here around the handle area.
Reminds me of a French knife, of French fighting knife.
A lot of those French fighting knives were based on French kitchen knives, and you have a. Choil here you have a a finger guard, but the finger guard is the ricasso.
The finger Guard is the blade itself.
You have a very wide blade and handle that narrows as you get towards the blade, and that leaves you with a. Blade guard here's here's a French version of it.
It's the Spyderco St Bowie by French knife maker designer and general ex commando ****** Fred parent.

40:09
That's how he designs his knives.
He has.
The Blade Guard is just the blade.
So Prather, warboy at this, didn't make the list, even though it's called a boy because it's too small in all dimensions.
But I love the street Bowie and mine is razor sharp and I'm carrying it.
Right now, because I had to take the other one off to show it to you.
OK, so just while we have it right here, if you're looking, if you're watching.

40:37
You can see that incredible profile of this knife.
What a beautiful knife this is Prather War Bowie in a sheath that of my own making.
Sometimes my kydex sheaths are perfect.
Case in point right here.
And sometimes they're garbage and I have plenty of those, but this one is just one of the ones that turned out perfectly.
And that is the tops.
Prather war.

41:00
Bowie.
So this next one is a a Bowie knife that takes its its lineage from it's it's it's design cues from an historical knife that the Marines used called the Mariner, the Marine Raider, Bowie, the V 44. So this is the bark River Knives V 44 Bowie.
This was a release, I think it was a 20. 2018 or 2019 release and my dad got it for me.
He heard me talking about it on this show when when it was announced.
Ohh I love this thing and how amazing.
And with the Moran handle.
They had stacked leather, they had wood, they had a bunch of different handles.

41:44
But I love this shaped green linen or canvas micarta in the Moran Bill Moran style handle.
So he got it from my my my dad's awesome.
I have an incredible family.
I'm.
I'm very lucky.
Not just because they buy me knives.
Great sheath with a frog so you can take this out and slip it in your belt.

42:07
Like a real frontiersman.
Or you can hang it from your belt, but here's the knife.
It's A2 tool steel and very broad and just wickedly sharp and like all bark river knives it has a convex or apple seed grind.
Umm.
If you're to look at it in cross section, instead of coming together like this, like a like a regular edge, it comes together like this, sort of rounded and so it gives it a little bit more.
Beef behind the edge, but also makes it incredible for carving and fine tasks.
Feels great in hand.

42:46
It is a thinner.
A little bit thinner than than than 1/4 inch this is.
360. 3 sixteenths of an inch is that right?
Very, very nice blade.
It's got that perfect shape.
I love that shape.
It reminds me of 1 we're going to see here.

43:05
The last one we're going to see here.
Reminds me a bit of that classic Bowie knife you've got the S guard.
In brass, very heavy brass.
The the lower Quillian is a little bit longer and you can come up ohh you cannot on this one.
I was going to say you can come up onto the blade some of these you can come over the quillion, but this one now you're going to keep it back there.
Or like this if you're going to be in a Saber grip.
Just a great great fighting Bowie.

43:34
Fighting Bowie that will flex into outdoorsmanship.
Some fighting bowies are long and thin.
We have one here.
I'll show.
And some are more choppy.
Like this, but you get from that thinner blade, you get a more.
Easy to move in hand, what they call more lively in hand.

43:54
Blade you got a big, long, broad blade, but since it's thinner, it moves easier.
Yeah, beautiful knife.
Bowie from Bark River knives Next up.
The SOG.
Super Bowie.
Now I don't have any other McAfee soggs in the collection.
Bark River makes 1 vehement knives.

44:21
Makes one bunch of people make them.
But SOG made their name on it, and though they have done some cheesy stuff in the past, this makes up for all of those missteps.
Right here.
This beautiful, beautiful knife.
The SOG.
Super Bowie.
This is 1/4 inch distal tapered.

44:39
Bowie knife at what is that?
That's a 7 1/2 inch blade.
So this is kind of in that combat classic size, but it is a Mac V SOG and that is you can.
Identify it from these two peaks on the spine and that swell and that long swedge there.
The the SOG version has a slightly sharpened tip.
Great for a back cut, great for fighting like this, for that initial defanging the snake strike to the arm or hand is, you know, you really get a lot of effect from that.
From that point down, that this shape here, that point down, you get some nasty gouging.

45:25
That this edge, even though it's wicked sharp, you'll you'll get some nasty cutting, but you have more of a chance to glance off of things if you got to get through and really make a point.
It's a great way to I mean, what I hear from people who have experience.
It's a great way to start with the knife backwards like this.
I have a whole video on it.
It's kind of goofy, you can check it out, but the Mac, the saug version of the Mac V Sog, has that slightly sharpened tip and is just ideal for that very move.
Stacked leather handle.
Ohh, so beautiful.

45:59
This is AUS 8 steel.
I'm not sure if it's a kneeled.
Made in Taiwan and just gorgeous.
Gorgeous knife.
One of my very, very favorite knives and shapes ever is the MACV SOG.
They may they made a version of this knife called the Trident for.
More aquatic, you know, for the Navy, I guess.

46:21
And it was black micarta, I believe.
Black Micarta with with polished aluminum embellishments.
Really, really beautiful version of this.
Oh, and a steel blade, you know, not, not darkened like that.
Very stout leather sheath with uh anarchist Arkansas stone in there as well.
OK, Next up.
Ohh I did a little bit of a. Next up is the.

46:56
Alright, this next one is the Condor.
It's a Condor and it's technically not a Bowie, but is a knife that represents the spirit of the Bowie almost better than any of these in.
In a sense this is the Condor Hudson Bay and the Hudson Bay style knife is a big clip point Cleaver very style affair like this.
So it it it has some of the.
Uh, well, it's got sort of the upswept edge and higher, uh, point of like a butcher knife.
It's got the clip point of a Bowie knife and the thickness and and heft of a Bowie knife.
It's got this sort of area, like the more like the kitchen knives and the and the French knife I was talking about, where the the blade itself is the guard.

47:46
And it's an all around her.
It's not a fighter, it's not a camp knife, it's not a trappers knife.
It's it's all of those things.
It's it is a survive in the wilderness and do work.
Knife and get off of me knife and ohh there's a bear coming after me knife and one shot out of my must get missed and now I have to fight by hand.
Knife.
You know, this is a a cut your dinner knife.

48:13
This is an everything knife and that's kind of that was a bit of the spirit of the of the first Bowie knives.
Yes, the the first Bowie knife was created as a weapon.
It was created as a weapon, but they were adopted quickly and used for everything on the frontier.
And that's what I love about this, about this Hudson Bay sort of northern version of the Bowie knife and Bark River Knives makes a beautiful version of it.
Lots of people make the Hudson Hudson Bay knife.
What do you think I am, I am, I am I stepping over the bounds in adding this to the Bowie?
Bowie Bowie list I think I'm not because of the spirit of the thing, but let me know.

48:58
The northern Bowie.
That's what we'll call it.
The Hudson Bay knife.
This one by Condor is awesome.
They make a a smaller version of it.
I don't know why you would need that, but if you do then make a smaller version of it.
And just so you know I have put this knife, this is 1 knife that has gotten a hell of a lot of use.

49:16
We had a whole giant hedgerow giant is maybe we had a hedge row of about 10 individual hedges all grown together and we pulled those out years ago now.
But I I cut them all down with this knife and it I hit rocks.
It it was chipped in all sorts of stuff, but I think, uh, 1075 of this is not 10-9. There's 1075. Sharpened it all out and this knife has periodically been all the way sharpened on my belt Sander and it takes a great edge.
This has been chipped up and gnarled many times and it just keeps coming back.
This is a great knife.
I highly recommend I need more condors in my in my life, you know.
It would work great in this list.

50:02
The Condor, Undertaker, Bowie.
Yeah, that is for sure.
Next up, another cold steel.
Hardly a moment without a cold steel around here.
The classic Laredo Bowie and so grateful I got this way back when when it was in the killer leather sheath with the amazing.
So that's the best stud ever.
I like carrying Bowie knives like this where you slip it in the belt and then it stays in there because there there's a stud.

50:32
You can do that because it's long and it's heavy.
I tried to do that with a smaller with my writer, by attention to detail, Mercantile.
I had my brother make me a sheath.
Of this concept, but the blade to handle ratio is such that having a stud just didn't make any sense.
Doesn't work, but on this one it does, and now it's all in kydex.
Securex it's it's kind of a shame to have a beautiful knife with faux Coco bolo and brass fittings and then put it in a big plastic sheath, so I'm glad I got this one in this.
Lots of.

51:09
History in this knife, this one to me is over 15 years old.
I I know I got it when I lived in New York City.
I can't just can't remember what the year was, but it was a long time ago and.
When I got it, I was a less assertive individual.
It came to me with a cracked handle.
And the sheath scuffed the blade.
Something nasty you can see.

51:33
You can see the ghosts of that.
But I was like, uh, I didn't want to send it back.
I was like, this is my knife, you know, whether it's whether it's cracked or not, this is the one they sent.
And so it's my.
You know, I don't know if that was just me not wanting to send it back and wait, or if it was me not wanting to assert myself and say, hey, you sent me some crap here.
Not that it's crap, but a defective item.
But it's sort of added to the sort of do anything with this knife attitude that I adopted.

52:04
For many years this has been my in closet Bowie knife, you know so you know everywhere has a knife.
Just in case I'm dressing and ninja come into the room I'll I'll be able to reach up and grab this Bowie knife.
So it's always been around.
I've used it a lot outside, banged around on it quite a bit.
It has a cable Tang, but that hasn't affected this.
It's been strong, strong as all get out, but what is the cable Tang the the blade Tang comes to about here and then it's soldered onto a cable.
And then that cable is soldered onto a nut.

52:42
And then it's, you know the nut is is screwed on in the back.
It works fine, but I'm I'm thinking why that seems like such a pain in the *** and it seems like a long process.
And why would you add other points of?
Of possible weakness, but.
So I don't get it, but it works great on this knife in particular.
Your mileage may vary, but so the Laredo Bowie I was talking about fighting bowies.
This is not a batoning I I've used it as such just to see, and you shouldn't.

53:15
This is 5 sixteenths of an inch, by the way.
But this is a fighting Bowie.
It is long, it is slender, it moves well in the hand.
It's got a fully zero ground edge.
So it's not.
It's not slicing bread, but it is.
Messing stuff up, if you were to use this knife in this grip with the blade with the edge pointed towards you, and you're using that tip and this this bone breaking wedge here against someone's forearm in a in a in a duel.

53:47
I mean, we're talking a dual, of course.
Yeah, this is a fighting blade.
And then the fact that it is long and slender, meaning it can go in and out of things without much hang up, that's a big that's a big factor too.
Beautiful coffin shaped handle.
I'm a huge, huge fan of the Laredo Bowie and now I'm really regretting the fact that I never got the Natchez Bowie.
The Natchez Bowie with the with the leather sheath.
It can now be had with the securex plastic sheath.

54:20
In three V for like 500 bucks and I'm just, you know, I'm not buying a cold steel for 500 bucks.
All right, Next up.
Is ohh, this one's a beauty.
This is the shining mountain Bowie, and this one is, uh, bark river knives.
Shining mountain Bowie.
And the reason I stipulate that is that the Shining mountain here.
First, I'll show it to you in this gorgeous sheath.

54:46
Same thing as with the V-44.
The frog comes off and you can use that little stud.
I wish the stud was bigger on these.
I wish the stud were larger.
So I'm going to pull this out.
This is dark because I had it treated, water treated.
When you buy these, they'll they'll they'll either come raw, that beautiful tan leather or you can have them treated for, you know, water resistance and they come dark like this.

55:10
So.
OK, so the reason I called this.
The Bark River shining Mountain boy, is that it is the shining Mountain.
The Shining Mountain Bowie is a design by Mike Stewart now of Bark River knives.
That's that's the he's the man who started bark river knives.
He's also the man who started blackjack knives, which later got bought, but they do still produce some of the high end blackjack knives and other knives.
He's he's been in the knife world for ages and so this, this particular pattern of Bowie is his and it's traveled with him.

55:50
There has been a blackjack.
Version of this.
Excuse me?
And I've seen other versions also.
Just a big big nasty blade and nasty.
Ohh yes in a fight for sure but but also just you're gonna you're gonna just clear through the forest with this thing.
You can do heavy woodwork with this.

56:16
It's got a very stout convex grind right now.
It's I need to clean it up a little bit.
It's.
I tried well I put some oil on there and it just got all gummed up and weird so I gotta Polish that out but.
You get a lot of weight and you have a very dull swedge here.
Dull, not, I shouldn't call it dull.
Very flat swedge.

56:37
So you can pound this, you can baton this through wood all day long and your baton will stay whole, which doesn't matter much, because, as Donnie B says, they are free.
But in any case, this is not set up for for a fight necessarily.
But.
No doubt, if turned around and used in this way would be devastating.
Not only you know, if you missed the tip and missed the gouge, you just break the bone and hit him with this.
Break the bone.
OK, uh, antique stacked leather handle and this **** cap this comes also came in a number of different versions, different handle shapes, the Moran style that you saw before, and I think one other style.

57:26
But this to me was clearly the right choice.
All right.
As we pull into the station, we got two more.
This is the.
This is the biggest daddy of them all.
This a gift from my brother.
This is from our Northern European friends at sword.

57:45
Sword.
This is interesting.
I didn't notice this until I put it right under the under the camera here, but this incredibly amazing stout, leather Welt full grain sheath here has their logo.
The sport logo on the front and it kind of looks like the Sikh.
Symbol, doesn't it?
With those two, uh, curved sort of sabers there.
It's kind of cool.

58:09
All right?
This is one that my brother gave me for Christmas or my birthday one year.
Yes, my brother's awesome, as I mentioned.
I love my family for many reasons, but one of them is that they give me things like this for celebrations.
The von Tempsky Bowie and this is a knife that a an explorer called Von Tempsky made in New Zealand.
So he was.
Colonizing New Zealand or exploring New Zealand for for the colonizers I guess.

58:41
Colonizing force, I'm guessing from Great Britain, but I forgot to read up on this.
Sorry I did it one time.
You can look at that video.
He gave everyone in his kind of group of Roughnecks, a Bowie just like this because he had one made for himself and found it amazing for everything.
Camp, Hunt, fight.
So he had them, you know, they were doing a lot of all of those things.
So he had these made for his whole crew.

59:11
It is a giant blade.
This is an 1111 inch blade, 11 1/2.
What is this?
And as we'll bust out, no, it's 11, it's 11 inch blade high carbon steel.
It's got that really nice heat treat scale still on it or that heat treat pattern on it and then you just see out of that this nice big convex edge ground into it.
It.
This is crazy sharp, but has that sort of.

59:44
Appleseed edge.
Wicked.
Wicked knife.
Lots of weight, 5 sixteenths of an inch, a beautiful wooden handle, and just an intimidating big knife.
You got that S guard, and you've got.
They've got guards on the side, too.
So if you're in a duel in someone's blade, hits your blade and it slides down, that guard might stop it from chopping your knuckles.

01:00:10
This comes to a nearly zero ground swedge, but it's so obtuse and angle that it doesn't really matter.
This is just, this is a, you know, bone breaker.
You come down on the back of the hand with that, and the guy's going to drop his knife, and then maybe you don't have to kill him, you know?
All right, so that is the sword von Tempsky.
Though they also make a small version of this, but why?
All right, last up is one another one my brother gave me.
He got this one at a pawn shop.

01:00:43
And I said, Vic, if you ever go back to that pawn shop and they have another one exactly like that, please get it for me because I have to own it.
And it is the classic western W 49 Bowie uh based on the Marine Raider that I was talking about earlier, the V-44 has that same sort of.
Widening towards the belly and towards the tip blade.
This thing is awesome.
A fighting Bowie look at the thinness of the blade.
And.
And and the sweep of the front, you've got a downward, downward portion here that's gonna just aid and slashing and cutting and then an upward portion that's going to do a number as the blade is leaving.

01:01:29
A great point and a pretty thin swedge this would also do this.
Fight well like this.
That S guard is extreme, in this case the Western style bowies.
Cold steel makes their version of it bare and son makes their version of it.
Uh, every many different case knives makes their version of the Western Bowie.
They all have this s s guard on mine.
It is extreme.

01:01:56
You can see this downward quillion.
The person who owned this before pounded it down and it is very difficult to pound back up.
I tried and after putting a couple of dents I was like, I don't need it.
I I I have a story about this knife.
I don't know what the real story is, but it's it's labeled D. And that means it was made in 1980. This knife has been around for awhile.
It's got a bone handle, it's got a pounded down Quillian.
So to me this was like some rogue.

01:02:26
I don't know, maybe he was like a motorcycle gang dude, or maybe, I don't know.
But this?
I feel like this belonged to a rogue of some sort.
Someone who.
If they didn't use this knife, had this knife to use, and we all know this is a fighting knife, so something about this with the bone handle.
I don't know what kind of bone that is.
The pounded down Quillian.

01:02:49
This is a menacing Bowie and one of my absolute favorites in my collection, so thank you, Vic.
You're awesome.
You're responsible for a number of these knives and and dad too.
Alright, the Bowie knife.
A Great American tradition.
And a growing family tradition in the DeMarco household.
Thank you for coming with me on this journey down the clip point Rd.

01:03:14
I do love Bowie knives and I have a couple couple that I really, really want to get my hands on.
The frontier.
Bowie, for instance.
I'm thinking once I get rid of the marauder, I get the frontier and and make up for it.
Please join us on Wednesday for the midweek supplemental and Thursday for Thursday Night Knives at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube Facebook.
Twitch and then of course you can download the audio only podcast to your favorite podcast app.
Alright.

01:03:42
For Jim working his magic behind the Switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time I implore you to not take dull for an answer.
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