How important is a Bowie style knife?

I currently have a Cold Steel machete, Kershaw4" clip point folder, and a hatchet in my BOB. Do I really need a sheath knife, and if so what do you recommend? I am thinking about a Ka Bar, anyones thoughts?

 

A LOT of that depends on your plans. A decent hunting knife would be near escential if you plan to hunt your food and especialy if you are going to save the skins to tan for use for clothes, shelter or whatever else since a dagger for instance will swiss cheese the skins whe you try to skin the animal.

On the other hand if you are going to be driveing to a BO location that is all set up and stocked and dont figure on doing a lot of this type of stuff then some other blades or just the ones you have may serve a lot better.

 

Biggest sheath knife I've got is a kabar,
Kabar is a fighter with length enough for killing penetration on humans,not really a decent skinner or field knife.
O course I just watched "Rambo 16 "

So now I want a monster fighter too along with a hot asian secret agent chick..
( 50 minutes of stallone's one "word" dialog):
" Rambo?"
"uuhhhhhhhhhn" and the occasional "hoo"while blindly leaping off
cliffs.
So I'm looking up various knife makers "survival blades" tonight,They are cool incarnate..
Gotta" ask yourself the why (utility) of a giant sheath knife:
Uses quoted usually includes heavy "chopping" (for shelter building ,sizing firewood, splitting the pelvis(dressing) of big game). Whereas its much more energy efficient and safer to use a sportsmans folding saw.Gerber makes an outstanding one, I was involved in building the machine fiskars ued to test blade designs. They have however ZERO coolness factor and they do not make decent weapons. I'd like to have a huge knoife mate, But ( the old joke is a woodsmans' experience is inversely proportional to the the size if the knife he carries.)

<!-- / message --><!-- sig --> On the other hand, rambo knives never need or run out of ammunition. I could see getting something huge, justdon't think its as mportant as a water filter and firestarters,or ammunition. I kinda' like the gerber backpax belt sized hatchet with the small fixed blade knife in the handle...Hatchet or a 'hawk would make a"fearsome" weapon. For a bov I'd say a real axe. and a bowsaw __________________
.



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Agree, the hatchet or machetee would serve most folksfar better as weapons if it came to getting that clsoe than a fighting knife and with them already there the bigest reason I could see for a sheath knife would be for skinning game.

 

Most of the survival gurus I read use some kind of folder (bear gryyls seen on man v wilduses a large victorinox and a gerber folder If any at all) Tom
brown "the tracker" designed a "movie knife" ( the "warthog") itsa fairly short fat wide bladewith a sweeping curve.Sharpest object in our house is an Alaskan ULU knife friends sent back as a souvineir I don't have a sheath (just alittle woodblock witth "alaska" on it) but its scary sharp. its all seeweeping curve for
skining/scraping..
kabar"warthog"

the "ULU"


See a common thread here: When a knife is used as a tool by folks who live by it, it's a sweepingcurved blade.nota saw edged machete sized one with a false tang and matches in the handle...

 

That said does anybody here own a jimmy lile? or gil hibbens custom rambo like knife? If so Am I missing something?, Coldsteel makea few nicely priced quality bowies...I'm not totaly immune to the "Oohhh thats cool I gotta get me one of those"(es)....

 

I have several Bowie knives, most of them custom made, but they are collectors and not something I would choose to carry and use. I also have several swords, mostly Japanese, but others as well and once more, probably won't be carrying then around the boonies...well ok, I do carry a sword walking stick occassionally.

 

So... fess up,Is abig honkin' bowie a good useful tool ( replacing a chopper and a weapon??) or are they just clumsy, ungainly , too heavy Egad man, the suspense is killing me; tell us what you think.

 

IMO, IF you feel you need to go with 1 tool to do it all, then a large bowie would be a likely choice since it could be pressed into service to chop, be a contact weapon, skin animals and so on.

OTOH, if you are looking to have redundancy and or specialization in the tools then a hatchet, a good folder, and a moderate hunting knife (something like a buck trail boss with about a 5" blade) would cover all the bases better and give backups that could be pressed into service to fill the gaps if 1 was lost or destroyed.

 

You know, this is what I have been thinking. I have a good folder that I have used for hunting for years, and a hatchet for chopping in my BOB, but I did not think I really needed a Bowie style knife. All of the lists that I have seen usually list one, but I could not justify buying one, I have never needed one in the past. I think people get caught up in the macho Rambo image and don't have the practical experience sometimes....

 

Yup, added to those 2 and ability to make full use of them the bigest thing IMO would be for redundancy (a good thing) kind of like haveing matches, a lighter AND a magnesium striker rather than just one. The tools would overlap and fit specificneeds perhaps better than the others (like the hatchet for chopping rather than the folder and folder for intricate carving needs ratherthan the hatchet) but the bowie would 'kond of' be able to fill both slots to a point that it makes a back up to each of them in case of need.

 

I am getting a kukri (read machete), a commando type knife, a small skinner, a multi-tool and a hatchet. I think that will cover all my bases.

Just my thought.

 

TMH, with that combo you could probably skip the comando type knife since the skinner would cover itsuses as a general tool and the kukuri is a visious weapon. Used properly it will remove appendages as well as or better than a sword, as such also works well to duplicate the hatchet, and with the shape of the outer part of the blade could be pressed into service as a skinner if needed, so you even with just the 3 you would have good redundance on edged tools IMO.

 

To answer your question as best I know how:no. The weight to function ratio doesn't add up even if you give it a few points for cool.

 

I see your point MM. It would also cut down on some minor weight. I first saw a kukri and fell in love with it's design and capabilities. It will make one great edge to have. And do you recommend a certain type of skinner? I have seen many styles, just don't too much know what they all mean. I used to just use a fillet knife to do skinning with, though I know it's not really for that job.

 

What I normaly carry and have used a lot for skinning and such is a Buck Trail Boss. Just a basic hunting style knife with the curve to the front of the blade that makes it easier to avoid carving up the pelt while you skin it off of the critter. The one thing I would probably change from it if I was designing one would be to shift the balance a bit more toward the tip so that it would be easier to use for the heavy work and any light chopping you had to do with it, but thats just me. There are other knives/styles that are better for skinning but IMO the bowie style, like the buck trail boss and most hunting/skinning knives, are a lot more versitile for doing other jobs and still work pretty well for skinning.

 

Saw a couple Bucks in a surplus store yesterday. Didn't take the time to look at them good, just noted where they were. Will go check it out and see if I think they would be right for me.

 

How about something like this

 

Something similar to that or possibly just another inch or 2 of blade with the same basic design is what I was thinking of.