If you’re one of those dudes and the dudette or two who watch my videos you might know
I have moved across the country.
What some of you may not know is that I am staying with inlaws temporarily, in a densely
packed neighborhood, where I would have a brand new audience of neighbors who’ve never
had the pleasure of living next to an asshole with a Youtube channel.
90% of my knife based and also my standard material possessions are in a few storage
pods until we move out and into a place of our own.
And hopefully that should explain why I’m not doing many fixed blade reviews right now,
that and I got drunk and lost a hand because of the latest social media craze- the chop
off your hand challenge.
However, I have no doubt made the inlaws worry with the large fixed blades that pile up in
their garage, week after week…
Which brings up this knife- the brand new for 2019 Cold Steel Wild West bowie.
Which bears more than a passing resemblance to the discontinued Western Bowies of yore.
For a brief history lesson I plagiarized from Wikipedia, Camillus bought Western in 1991
and folded in 2007 after most of their customers died.
Of course they’ve been relaunched… but the point is- best as I can reckon The Western
W49 bowie pattern, which the Cold Steel looks based upon hasn’t been made since the mid
2000s.
Which is a damn shame because only a few years later saw the Golden Age of internet table
top and backyard knife celebrities.
But before we go any further let’s look at the dimensions like the overall length
and weight.
With and without the sheath.
How big a bowie is too big.
I’ll give you a second to think about it.
Blade length and cutting edge.
Trick question there’s no such thing.
I dare you to ask that to Lynns face.
Handle size and grip area.
Real blades are measured in feet.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
However there is a good rule of thumb to using the right pig sticker for the hog.
Tallnesses.
It shouldn’t be bigger than the hog.
So the BBW…
W or the big beautiful Wild West.
Features a big silvery chuck of rust lustin 1090 carbon steel, and this particular knife
is made in India.
And a big thanks to Cold Steel.
A lot of modern knife companies don’t trust us with uncoated carbon steel blades anymore,
which is a shame- because generally the sorts of hombres buying shit like this know that
carbon steel will rust if you don’t wipe and lube your blade.
Big ass blades love getting wet with your bodily fluids, just not for long.
Be a gentleman, bring the tissues.
The satin finished hollow ground 10 inch blade on my particular sample, purchased for about
$80 from Blade HQ was pretty sharp out of the box.
Of course Lynn gave the order and now it’s like $95.
Also the top swedge is not sharpened.
The handle.
The Wild West handle is tanged deep with steel, and the wood handle scales are held on by
brass screws and a rear rivet for the lanyard loop and skull bead sculpture.
I reckon enough brass in hardware to make the 110 jealous.
I tried removing the handle, but the rear rivet seems to keep them from being fully
removed.
The handle is nice and comfortable and throughout my chopping it didn’t create any hotspots-
because thats what the cross guard is for.
The big brass cross guard is generally smooth and the edges have been cut down.
However repeated whacking of pretty hard wood did give me an owie.
Right below the knuckle, on my pointer finger.
Again the cross guard isn’t sharp there, but it’s just a small injury a man gets
for chopping wood with a knife.
It was a good hurt.
The sheath.
Even down to the sheath is this very similar to the Western Bowie.
It’s a welted and sewn drop sheath dangler.
And even a string at the bottom so you can wrap it around your leg to keep it from moving
around.
Also doubles as a make shift tourniquet when combined with ripped pieces of clothing after
you sink the knife into your leg or arm, because your out chopping with with a fucking Bowie
knife.
The sheath has a retention loop too, to keep it from flying out of the sheath as you skip
along the trail on your bush adventure.
Comparisons.
In this segment you’re going to see a whole lot of knives you haven’t seen before that
I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, because I’ve been busy ok.
All sort of Bowie esques.
First the Wild West.
Probably the sort of knife people picture in their heads at night when they dream of
knives.
It’s beautiful isn’t it.
I have a hankering one day to get a trail master but this will have to do for now, because
I just blew money on a stupid Leatherman free.
The guard is a little overkill, especially when you’re not fighting cowboys who shot
your paw near the Ok corral.
But I get it, it’s more a Heritage thing now than a practical consideration.
Here it is next to the virgin Marine Raider Bowie from Ontario.
I paid only $40 for this knife which is a steal.
Yeah that coating looks a little too pristine for my tastes- don’t worry though, eventually
it’ll get a whooping on camera.
Handles a bit more comfortable at least in social media use, no big metal cross guard.
Now the Benchmade Jungle.
This one is about $95 but it’s been discontinued.
Can’t wait to film a review of this one, just for the comment section alone.
All I really have to say about this is that I own Benchmades, and like them, and if you
can’t stand the site of them- find a new channel.
Ok here’s a small yet kindred spirit to the Wild West bowie.
You might wonder why, oh yeah the rattlng cross guard.
The difference is the 499 Ontario ships with a rattling cross guard… and if you send
it back they’ll just add some silicon adhesive and send it right the fuck back.
Look for this review along with a description of Ontarios flaky customer service.
Ok let’s wrap it up.
Now I’ve watched part of another review on Youtube of some dude whopping the ever
living shit out of this knife, like Lynn intended, and he had a different experience.
I get out and chop and baton for 20 minutes, and my cross guard loosens up.
It looks to be held into place by the scales only… which by the way don’t seem deformed.
The spine whacking and chopping worked the guard loose a bit.
It might be a dud, since that other guy didn’t have a problem- or maybe you shouldn’t be
chopping wood with a knife.
But for Christ sakes what’s a nearly 2 pound Bowie knife supposed to be used for.
Say with me, nothing smart.
It is a possibility if I had given it a few hard tugs while no one was looking the guard
might have loosened up a bit anyway.
As far as overall impressions.
I like the knife a lot.
I’d like the lanyard loop to be easily removable too.
The steel held up to chopping with no chipping, or rolling, and still stayed sharp.
It’s a heavy knife for sure, but that’s part of it’s charm.
So if you like that sort of charm, subscribe to the channel, comment on the video, donate
to my Patreon- it’s what Lynn would want.
And if you’re new to the channel, and don’t get all the Lynn jokes, may he have mercy
on your soul.
Here, look upon his grace and say a prayer.
Thanks to Pete at Cedric and Adas for the graven image.
Follow me on Instagram and thanks for watching.