Three Sisters

The arrival of the Justin Carnecchia Bowie reminded me of a couple other knives of similar proportions in our collection. These are excellent illustrations of what I often refer to as "Fencing Bowies." Sure they will cut, but cutting is not their forte'. With narrow ten-inch long blades, these are primarily point weapons, to be used like an epee or a foil.

The top knife is by Kent Hicks and qualifies as one of the top five fighting knives in my second book. It has a broad hamon sweeping from guard to tip. Crisply marked "Hix Hand Forged, " it is one of the few knives I have used the "Buy It Now" option on Ebay. Seeing it I knew I had to own it. The balance is wonderful and like all of Kent's knnives the workmanship is meticulous. The black micarta handle is capped with a stainless steel guard and pommel. I will eventually do a posting on my small collection of "Hix" knives.

The middle knife is the Carnecchia Bowie from the mountains of Idaho. Follow down the posts and you will find a more complete writeup about it. A gorgeous hamon embellishes the hand forged blade. The handle is burl Mesquite filled with activity and beautiful reds and rays of lighter colors. Damascus steel was gracefully shaped and blued for the guard.  Justin bought the steel to begin forging my Osoraku blade. So hopefully within a month or so we will have that to look at.

The bottom knife is a sleek Bowie made a half a world away in Auckland New Zealand. Brent Sandow hand ground this blade and fitted it with a stainless guard and a sweet piece of figured wood for the handle. The deep hollow grind gives the knife perfect balance, only slightly blade heavy as a good bowie should be. As you know Brent is the maker of my Cobra fighting knife and also the excellent fighting knife of his own design called the "Viper." I'll have to do a post on Brent's knives before too long as well. He is a very flexible maker, capable of creating working style knives or high grade work like this bowie.