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.

Pleaase Stop Lying.

The tragedy of stupidity. After weeks of lying and misleading the American public about Libya, treating all of us as if we are total idiots, the President finally explains it all, he says. And what is it but another lie! How magnanimous of him to stoop to our intellectual level. His words of wisdom did not come from the Oval Office, where he is so fond of pontificating, but from the stage of yet another comedy show. Somehow a comedy show doesn’t seem like the appropriate venue, but then maybe he was hoping to make it seem as hilarious as Joe Biden did in the VP debate. Well Mr. President no one I know is laughing. Here is an exact quote from the show.

 

The president: "Here's what I'll say: If four Americans get killed, it's not optimal. We're going to fix it. All of it," Obama said, according to pool reporters David Nakamura of the Washington Post and Mike Memoli of the Los Angeles Times.

 

Yes I suppose it was not “optimal” for your re-election campaign. Mr. President, exactly how are you going to “fix it"? Like you fixed the last month's press releases, like the video someone dredged up to give you a lame excuse? Like Susan Rice’s, Jay Carney’s, and Hillary Clinton’s lies and cover-ups? How are you going to “fix it” Mr. President for the parents, spouses, and loved ones of those murdered in Libya because some bureaucrat denied their requests for more security, and you were too busy campaigning to attend your intelligence meetings? Will some new furniture and a coat of fresh paint in the embassy erase your incompetence, will that  “fix it, all of it?” Perhaps since you cleared the heavens, raised the mountains, and lowered the oceans you really believe you can also raise the dead……..

 

My thoughts and condolences remain with those who lost loved ones in Benghazi and for our nation. This president is no "honest Abe."

Affordable Fighting Knives?

Illustrated in this posting are some of my favorite, production model fighting knives. Most of them are out of production now but examples can be found on Ebay™and other sites. In their day they were not cheap knives either. Back when I bought them it was an extravagance to spend $175-250 on a production knife. Randalls were a lot cheaper back then but still topped the list of expensive fighting knives. Makers like Pacific Cutlery, Blackjack, REKAT, Cold Steel, Ek Knives, Gerber, just to name a few, were turning out very high quality knives. I liked the Pacific Cutlery Fer de’ lance so much that I own several of them. If I see one at a can’t-resist-price I buy it. Now I see one on Ebay with a used Randall sheath that the seller is asking $450 for. Holy Cow that’s a lot of money for one even taking inflation into account. Then last week a “Rare” inscribed WW-II Fairbairn Sykes sold on auction for well over $500. It pays to know what you’re bidding on. That knife was made in the 1970s or 80s, I cannot remember which. But in my memory of history that is a little post WW-II. How do I know that knife was not WW-II? Because I bought one brand new when they were first advertised in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine, which is also post WW-II. I paid $90 for mine and have since bought two more overruns without the blade etchings. Nope I did not even pay $500 for all three of mine. Maybe those bidders should have looked on my F~S web-site. But anyway, here are some nice knives for those who asked me to post an article on something“Affordable” from the recent past. By the way this is the early "Recon" tanto with bead blasted finish and different pommel. There is another later version called the Recon which is a fine knife too. I forgot to mention the Fer de' Lance is double edged in case you cannot tell from the photo.

Blackjack Mamba
Cold Steel Recon Tanto
Pacific Cutlery Fer de' Lance
Cold Steel R-1 (Randall look-alike)
Gerber MK-II
Ek Knife MK-2

 

new post saturday

I'll have a new post up saturday about some mid-priced fighters that I have bough over the years and why I picked them. Here is a nice hand forged Larson "Bowie" with a Spanish flair to it.