Outdoors activities used to be the purview of manly types. Today, entire families are more likely to get in on the fun of adventuring outdoors. This means that new tools are required to accommodate them. Women and young people tend to have much smaller hands than the average male. While Bowie knives have long been associated with the rugged cowboy type, women will likely find them just as useful for their hunting and fishing adventures. Young people, as well, quickly learn to appreciate this blade.
While the size of Bowie knives is among their most defining characteristics, it is oftentimes very much exaggerated in modern models. Most actual Bowies topped out at around 14 inches and beyond 12 inches they’re not good for much other than self-defense. While that is a legitimate need, hunters usually can do better than a knife for defending themselves against any overly-enthusiastic predators they may encounter in the woods. Your Bowie, when you’re hunting, will be for getting your meat out of the woods more than anything else, and that requires precision.
The clipped design of Bowie knives makes the smaller models ideal for field dressing game. There are designs with dropped points, as well, which are even better. These tips allow you to make the sort of shallow, precise cuts that are required to get through the skin and muscle of the animal without piercing the internal organs. A high-quality steel will avail you of the sharp edge you need.
A Bowie knife should not feel “big” in your hand. It should feel like a natural extension of your hand, in fact. For hunting knives, lengths of between 4 and 8 inches are ideal. This keeps the blade short enough to maneuver easily when you’re cutting, but make sure it’s long enough to handle large game. The knife should not feel like a short sword, in any case, and larger Bowies do border on the size of those weapons.
Remember that good balance and a high-quality blade are more important in a Bowie knife than price. While the very high-priced models are definitely nice, in most cases, the moderate range of prices is often full of excellent blades. The cost of steel has declined while the quality has improved, and there’s no reason that any hunter should be going out in the woods with anything other than a top-notch hunting knife riding on their hip!
Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knives store featuring hunting knives.
Tags: bowie knife, bowie knives, Camping, fishing, hunting, hunting knives, knives