Custom knife – The ExhaustNotes Blog

By Joe Berk

Well, maybe it’s three. A little while ago I wrote about a custom Bowie knife good buddy Paul crafted for me. That knife was a surprise gift, I like it a lot, and it fit in nicely with the rest of my collection.

A surprise gift from good buddy Paul: A custom Bowie knife.

Paul then sent a photo of a curly maple Bowie he made for himself, and I liked it so much I offered to buy it. Not so fast, Paul said. He’s keeping that one, but he offered to make another one just like it for me. One thing led to another, and I decided to go ahead with the curly maple Bowie. And then I decided to get yet another Bowie, this time with a white Micarta handle. Paul told me about a block of Micarta he’s had for 40 years, and he thought it would do nicely. Over the years, the Micarta had taken on a beautiful yellow hue similar to real ivory.

Lifelong good buddy Paul with some of his Randalls and a few other toys. I’ve known Paul longer than any other person on the planet.

Paul is an experienced and serious knifemaker, and he is also a collector. He has the nicest collection of Randall knives I’ve ever seen, as well as a bunch of other high-end knives.

Now, on this business of Bowie knives: In the previous Bowie blog (to which I provided a link above), I wrote briefly about the history of Jim Bowie and the knife that bears his name. And speaking about bears, some of you might be thinking about Davy Crockett, a Bowie knife, and the myth surrounding his encounter with a bear. Congressman Crockett’s ursine encounter is but a story; it’s not historical fact. It likely came about as the result of the song, “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.” As our President might say: It’s fake news. There’s no proof it actually occurred. But it’s fun to think about.

My two recent custom Bowie acquisitions are both massive knives. The Micarta-handled bowie has a blade length of 9 3/4 inches and an overall length of 14 7/8 inches. It’s a huge knife with a gorgeous brass guard. It is simply stunning.

The Micarta Bowie. The handle, the brass guard and pommel, the blade, the brass pins, and the Micarta handle make for a beautiful custom knife.

A close up shot of the craftsmanship on the custom Bowie handle. It is an exquisite knife.

Big boys, big toys: Both of these knives are huge. The Micarta-handled knife has a good feel to it. The ruler you see above is 15 inches long.

The curly maple custom Bowie knife is the one that got all this going. When I saw the one Paul had crafted for himself, I had to have one. I absolutely didn’t need it, but I wanted it. I wanted one just like Paul’s, and he came through. It’s a beautiful knife.

Paul does beautiful custom work. You should see his black powder rifles; they are equally impressive. This knife just looks right.

The workmanship on both knives is superb. The guard and the pommel are beautiful bits of aluminum hand filed and finished by Paul. There are a lot of hours in these knives, and it shows.

Curly maple, custom everything: This is a beautiful Bowie knife. The background for this photo and others in this blog is an Ossabaw hog skin. I shot it on a hunt with Paul in Arizona about 10 years ago with a curly-maple-stocked Model 70.

The curly maple knife is even bigger than the Micarta knife (the blade length is 10 inches and the handle is 5 1/4 inches, for an overall length of 15 1/4 inches). Although it’s bigger, the maple knife is noticeably lighter than the Micarta Bowie due to its more slender blade, the aluminum guard and pommel, and the curly maple handle. Both are big, big knives. Huge, actually.

Paul asked for my inputs during the design of both knives, and he kept me posted with photos as the knives came together. It was fun, and I now own the two beautiful Bowies you see in this blog (three, if you count the first one). They are stunning knives, they are built exactly as I wanted them, and they are a magnificent addition to my small collection.

You know, we have bears here in southern California. Lots of them, apparently. One was in the backyard of a home just a half-mile from ours few days ago. Bears, be forewarned. Thanks to Paul, I’m ready.

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By Joe Berk

It’s good to have friends, and it’s even better to have friends that go back to your earlier childhood. I have a few of those, and the one I’ve known the longest is good buddy Paul. We were next door neighbors back there in rural New Jersey from the time we were babies. Our dads hunted, fished, and shot trap and skeet together when we were little. They were friends and it was natural that Paul and I were friends. We fished, explored the area’s woodlands, lakes, streams, and ponds, and generally got into all kinds of trouble together. In other words, we had fun, and that continues to this day.

That’s me on the left, and Paul on the right during a recent visit.

You have read some of my posts on my latest obsession: Pocket knives. Paul is what you’d call an enabler. He has an extensive collection of both pocket knives and fixed blade knives, including some that are absolute masterpieces. Paul is a craftsman, and he’s fabricated several fixed blade knives. He recently made one for me, and it’s become the touchstone piece of my modest knife collection.

Bowie Knife History

First, a bit of background on what a Bowie knife is. The term has come to denote a large fixed-blade knife with a handle, a guard (the piece between the handle and the blade), and the blade. Jim Bowie is the stuff of legends, a frontiersman in the early 19^th century, a hero of the Texas Revolution, and a fighter who died at the Alamo. Although we don’t know with certainty, the Bowie knife design is generally credited to Jim Bowie, his brother, Rezin Bowie, and blacksmith Jesse Clifft. Legend has it that Rezin designed the a knife, with inputs from Jim, and Clifft crafted it from an old file (custom/hobby knifemakers sometimes similarly make knives from old files today).

Jim Bowie and the knife that bears his name.

Jim Bowie used the knife in the 1827 Sandbar Duel, where he used the knife to injure an enemy in a fight. The Bowie knife concept spread, and the term planted itself in our national lexicon. The knife became a frontier tool, equally adept in combat, in skinning and butchering animals, and as a general cutting and chopping tool. It has been carried and used by soldiers to this day; indeed, one could argue that the famed Marine Corps KaBar knife is a direct descendant of the Bowie. Numerous custom knifemakers offer various interpretations and takes on the Bowie concept, including famed knifemaker Randall Knives. William Westmoreland, whom I met once when I was in the Army, carried a Randall. Paul owns several Randalls and he’s trying to convince me I need one. So far, I’ve been able to resist taking that plunge.

My Custom Bowie Knife

During a recent phone conversation with Paul, he mentioned that we was working on a new project. When I asked what it was, Paul told me I’d find out soon enough. And I did, when a package arrived at my front door with the Bowie knife you see in the photo on the top of this blog. It’s awesome. Paul also sent along photos showing a few of the steps involved with his making this knife.

Fixing the curly maple handles in place.

The guard and its brass rivets. Paul hand filed the guard to its final shape and polished it.

The knife’s handle is curly maple finished with nitric acid and one coat of TruOil. Paul has built a number of custom black powder rifles with curly maple, using nitric acid as the finishing agent. It’s not something for amateurs, as it requires special handling. Nitric acid causes the wood to darken, which brings out the figure in a piece of curly maple (as it did on my Bowie knife).

Here’s close up of Bowie’s blade: