Kizer rendering of the Little River Bowie

Dirk

Dirk

Joined
Mar 19, 1999
Messages
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Here is a rendering, by Kizer, of the Little River Bowie. 4.5" hollow ground blade, 4" handle, 3/16" thick. Looking at doing a black and grey g-10 handle. This has been a popular little fixed blade for me. There are a lot of rural sheriff's deputies carrying these in many counties around the country. These lucky guys are permitted to carry small fixed blades! I was fortunate in having them select the Little River Bowie as one of the knives they carry!

We are still finalizing the steel. 1095 or VG10?

This is in the prototyping phase!

9H4H4A1832VD$(@H3QUU7MD (1).jpg
 
Hello Dirk,
The knife looks ok to me except that the bowie curve seems a bit long in my opinion but if you have been making these already it must be acceptable for your customers.
I like that the blade grind comes back to the handle. As for steel maybe the 1095 would be ok with some kind of coating for the blade.
The handle looks ok.
What sheath do you think will be offered for this knife?

Anthony
 
anttttt said:
Hello Dirk,
The knife looks ok to me except that the bowie curve seems a bit long in my opinion but if you have been making these already it must be acceptable for your customers.
I like that the blade grind comes back to the handle. As for steel maybe the 1095 would be ok with some kind of coating for the blade.
The handle looks ok.
What sheath do you think will be offered for this knife?

Anthony
Click to expand...

Anthony, thank you for the input!

At this time, we are looking at a Kydex sheath. It would be made to mount to most belt clips one the market today. The blade steel is going to be the trick. Trying to figure out what is going to have mass appeal and still be cost effective. This knife will fall into the Vanguard line. A coating might be the way to go.

I am heavily influenced by Middle Eastern and North African blades, Persian if you like. So my Bowie style blades will tend to be longer in the clip. This knife brings many influences together. Where this knife design shines is how it feels in the hand. It feels really good. I can't wait to check out the prototype!
 
I love the looks of this blade. My personal opinion as far as the steel would be vg 10 all the way. I love vg 10 it holds a great edge for a long enough time and is a breeze to sharpen not to mention a blade like this would be a outdoors blade for me so the corrosion resistance would be great. I'm not a fan of coated blades but it would at least serve a purpose on the 1095.
 
I agree with the satin finished VG10 as a steel. I think it would make the most sense for a Vanguard series knife where your target market might not know how to care for 1095.

I personally really like the looks with the long clip. If you could incorporate some kind of milling on the sides of the G10 to improve wet grip, without breaking the pricepoint, I think that would be awesome.

I'd definitely be interested in buying one of these. What blade thickness are you considering?
 
Satin VG10 will serve LEO's well..they don't have time for keeping rust at bay.

As far as scratches, satin is easy to touch up with a bit of sandpaper.

I like the grind lines and feel like they support the tip well, which will be important.

However, A more dropped point might be more useful for things like piercing thrusts--- albeit a little less attractive, in my eyes.

I'd like to see you delete the sharpening notch and run the edge all the way to the handle/kick area even if you have to leave a bit unsharpened.

You don't want a seatbelt or cord or string to get hung in a sharpening notch in a high stress situation. Without the notch, it is easier to "saw" without getting hung up in fibrous material in my experience.
 
Some more good input.

I believe Vg-10 is the way we will go. Thanks. To answer an earlier question, the thickness is .187"

I'll try out a couple of patterns for the handle. I normally leave this design without any pattern but, I heavily bead blast the scales. G10 gets surprisingly grippy finished like this.

I will play with removing the sharpening choil and see what I come up with.

Thanks!
 
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