The Fairbairn Sykes Fighting Knives
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Bowie

1/31/2020

1 Comment

 
My good friend in New Zealand asked me when i was going to do a new posting. I'm not sure what to write about. I am open to questions, suggestions, and your ideas. Not too long ago I let the Bowie bug bite me and I bought a second Larry Harley Battle Bowie. It is unique in that it is single edged as opposed to his more common double-edged version. I love Bowies and Harley's were some of the best, even though the design is not traditional. Some folks get all spastic when they see the handle with its heavily finger-grooved scales. No you cannot do florets or spinning pinwheels with one, like you might with a kerambit, but your opponent is not going to easily knock it out of your grip either. The single edged version is nice although less dramatic looking. The sheath is a little odd, perhaps setup for lacing to a backpack or some other gear. Type Bowie knife into ebay and see how many pieces of junk show up. I've tried "forged Bowie." mostly junk from Pakistan pops up. Tried "custom Bowie," and i got a lot of fantasy junk. Finding a good Bowie is difficult, not because there aren't plenty, just that too many ignorant sellers attach "Bowie" trying to attract more buyers. As much as I love Fairbairn-Sykes knives, the great hidden heresy is my love of Bowies. A Bowie with a 9 inch or longer clip point blade is an ideal fighting knife if properly balanced. Personally I find a ten inch blade works best for my hand size and build. Anything longer than 12 inches becomes unwieldy for me. So for now this is my posting and I'll get better photos of the pair of Harley Bowie I own in a day or two. Here are some photos of the new one from the sale. The grid is one inch squares.
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Larry Harley Bowies became famous back during the Vietnam War era as gutsy Special Forces guys booked guided pig hunts using their knives to kill the hogs in a test their manhood.
1 Comment

    Author:

    You can find out more about me on the "Stories" pages. My hobbies have included training in Japanese martial arts, including Kenjutsu, many forms of knife fighting, long range rifles and tactical firearms. I have written several self published books on muzzle-loading firearms, knife-fighting and textbooks on gas engines and compressors. I am working diligently on my 400+ page F-S book.

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