Storing your Bowie knife is a very important topic. In fact, where and how you store your knife can have a dramatic impact on how well it looks, how long it holds up and even how long you can use it. What are your options for storing your knife? How should you go about it? There are two things that you should know about storing any knife you might own. Below, you will learn more about your options for knife storage.

Bowie knives are great tools, but they’re also lethal weapons and were designed as such. Keep them away from children. They’re not guns, but they’re still very dangerous. They’re also very impressive looking and it’s easy to see how kids can get themselves into trouble playing with them. Your Bowie knife should always be kept somewhere younger people cannot access it, preferably up high and out of sight where the temptation is avoided altogether.

Bowie knives do not belong in tool boxes or junk drawers. There are almost always substances in these locations that will damage the handle, sheath or blade. While these knives are great tools for various purposes, they’re also a cut above wrenches and screwdrivers, to be certain. Primarily, the blade construction and the grade of the steel used in the production of the knife is much better than that used for common tools, and should be protected against unnecessary wear and tear.

If you have to remove your Bowie knife, put it in a dry place. Don’t store it outside the sheath. There are plenty of people who expect their knife to be supernatural; being able to be stored in a tool box, unsheathed, next to numerous metal implements without losing its edge, for instance. You have to care for your knife as you would any precision tool, at the very least. Ideally, you should recognize it for the elegant survival and hunting implement it is and treat it with due respect.

Generally, the best place to store Bowie knives is with other expensive outdoor equipment. If you have a gun cabinet, you have a great place to store your Bowie. You may also consider a safe, if you have one, or simply your dresser drawer, as they usually are fairly stable in terms of their interior climate and, of course, they contain nothing that would hurt skin, much less metal. Always, however, remember to be safe.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knife store featuring cold steel bowie knives.

Bowie knives are very popular with outdoors people. While they’re not as specialized as hunting knives, they’re more widely-usable for a variety of tasks. Bowies were originally designed as fighting knives, but they were carried by people who often used the same knife for fighting, hunting and cooking. Their blade design is very distinctive and useful in many different scenarios. They come in all grades of steel and manufacturing quality, from combat-ready to cheap trinkets.

Bowie knives usually have a blade with a clipped point. If you haven’t seen this before, think of a cavalry saber. The intent is the same. When this point is thrust at an opponent, it penetrates easily and can rupture vital organs with almost no effort. Hunting knives usually have much less severe points, as piercing organs can ruin meat by tainting it with urine and feces.

Consider the fact that a Bowie knife can be used to chop, cut, gut, skin and cut. You can use this single knife to replace a gut hook knife, a skinning knife, boning knife and even many different types of kitchen knives. It can chop vegetables with the same equanimity that it guts fish or skins deer. That is, you will need only a single knife, rather than having to carry a selection of knives with you on your hunting trip. Therefore, while you can consider Bowies as hunting knives, they are also much more than this.

There are numerous different designs of Bowie knives, so it’s important to point out that a Bowie is a specific type of knife. Some hunting knives have Bowie-style blades-with clipped points and blood grooves-but aren’t really Bowie knives. Bowies have hand guards, a throwback to their combat origins. These are usually never seen on hunting knives. If they are, they’re minimal and are designed to protect the user from their own blade, rather than the blade of another.

These are just a few of the reasons that a Bowie knife might be considered a hunting knife but is actually much, much more. These beautiful, versatile, durable blades can serve you well for years to come with the proper maintenance, and can ensure that you have the tools you need at all times.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knives store featuring SOG bowie knives.

The number of options out there to help you sharpen your Bowie knife are staggering. You have traditional bench stones, as well as rod systems and more exotic options. However, many people feel that a strop should be used in conjunction with other sharpening methods. What is a strop? How does it work? Is this a good choice for your needs? To answer these questions, you’ll need to look a bit deeper at what a strop is.

In essence, a strop is nothing more than a wide strip of leather or canvas. Most users prefer a leather strop, but canvas options are quite popular as well. The strop might be a handheld paddle, or it can be mounted to a wall or some other immovable object. Stropping a Bowie knife should be done as part of the sharpening process, or as part of basic maintenance, between sharpening periods. It should not be used as a replacement for a rod system or even a bench stone. Why bother stropping at all, then, if it cannot replace other options?

Better Polishing: In addition to sharpening, you will find that a strop can help you keep your Bowie knives looking great for life. Along with the sharpening, rubbing your blade against the leather will put an incredible shine to the metal. This is required care for straight razors, and is largely the reason that they look so new, even if they are decades old. Using a strop can help you keep rust from your blade and can help remove stain spots that even some chemical cleaners cannot eliminate.

Better Mid-cycle Care: Have you ever noticed that once you get a terrific edge to Bowie knives, a few uses will leave the edge noticeably duller? While your knife does remain quite sharp, it has lost that ultimate edge. A quick stropping can restore that edge in those times between regular sharpening sessions, which can make your blade last longer.

As you can see, there are numerous reasons that a strop should be part of your care regimen for Bowie knives and other knives in your collection. This simple device can offer some significant advantages for the committed knife lover, as well as for the blades in your possession.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knifes store featuring western bowie knife.

In the world of knives, there are many different kinds of blades, different types of edges (called bevels) and other elements. In fact, even with the vaunted Bowie knife, you will find an incredible diversity of different blade types. A high-relief blade is one such variant that you can find on a few knives of Bowie derivation. What does this mean, though? What does this type of blade feature?

Because Bowie knives are oftentimes used for taxing work, the high-relief blade is sometimes a good choice. This blade is very easy to sharpen. The angle is consistent so, to achieve the proper orientation of blade and stone, one can use a reference point anywhere along the blade. This makes them good choices for blades that are likely to be sharpened in the field, when you don’t’ have all your best sharpening tools with you to bring to the job.

This makes the point of the knife very thin, which is ideal for holding a razor edge. Can you find a Bowie knife with this type of blade? It’s certainly possible that you can find a knife similar in style to a Bowie with this type of blade. However, it is more common for these blades to be used with boning knives, as well as other specialty blades.

Flat blade and high-relief knives are sometimes a bit more expensive than other Bowie knives. The more common grinds, such as double bevels, hollow grinds and saber grinds are a bit easier to create and, thus, flat grinds are harder to produce. The quality of the steel used in the knife, however, will still have more bearing on how much you sharpen the blade and how it performs. Your preference where the blade grind is concerned may change with different tasks.

A high-relief blade is also good for outdoors situations. These blades can be sharpened quickly and easily, almost as quickly and easily as can a chisel ground blade. They don’t have the edge-holding characteristics of double bevel grinds, but they definitely can hold their own with tough tasks. This blade grind has been used on most every type of edge.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knife store featuring bowie knives for sale.

Disturbing as its name may sound, a gut hook is a very useful part of a knife. It is a backward-facing, one-sided blade that is usually found on the top reverse of a knife blade. It makes cleaning animals much easier than it is with a regular blade and, quite often, allows even amateur hunters to successfully and safely field dress an animal on their first attempt.

The gut hook found on some versions of modern Bowie knives is used for cleaning game and fish. To use the hook, you must first make a small incision in the animal or fish that you want to clean. As a note, even on Bowie blades, gut hooks are often too small for use with large game, such as deer. For this, you will have to do the job with your hands and the blade of the knife. Once you have made the incision in the gut, simply reverse the blade and insert the tip of the hook. The sharpened portion will cut the skin, ensuring that you do not puncture the organs or the intestines of the animal in question.

To use the hook, you will need to make a small incision in the animal’s gut. Be careful here so you do not cut too deeply, or you will puncture something. Once the incision is made, reverse the blade and insert the tip of the hook into the opening.

If you choose any of the various Bowie knives with gut hooks, and actually use the hook, then you will need to sharpen it eventually. This is not as simple as sharpening the blade, as the design of the hook means that a whetstone will not be sufficient for the job. The best tool for the job is a round file, but this means additional money spent on supplies and additional skills to learn.

Bowie knives with gut hooks make these much more practical blades. While some of the blades on these knives are way too big to safely gut a deer, the gut hook allows you to have the advantages of a large and heavy blade without the peril of piercing organs when you’re field dressing the animal, which can ruin the meat entirely and make your entire venture, and the animal’s life, a waste.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knives store featuring hunting knives.

Determining what style of Bowie knife suits you best can take some time. There are numerous styles from which to choose – the popularity of the knife has spawned change after change, modification after modification. One of those that you will find most commonly is a drop point blade. What is this blade design and what does it offer? Would it be better to choose a knife with a clip point, or perhaps a spear point? Actually, a drop point does offer some significant benefits.

A drop point is similar in design to a clip point, with a few differences. On a clip point, the spine of the blade drops down well before the point, giving it its distinctive clipped appearance. On a drop point Bowie knife, the spine continues almost all the way to the point. This offers a number of advantages to users. For instance, because the spine (the thicker part of the blade) extends farther, the blade is stronger. It can handle heavier tasks than can thinner blades.

Bowie knives with drop point blades have the advantage of being very sturdy. There’s more metal at the end of the blade and, thus, the blade is capable of taking more abuse. The drop point is also usually preferred by hunters, as it offers more control and a less severe point than do clipped point blades. That last reason is important to understanding those Bowie knives with clipped points.

Another advantage of drop point Bowie knives is the fact that the spine technically continues almost all the way to the tip. This increases the strength and resilience of the blade. Therefore, it can be used in more heavy-duty cutting situations than can some other knives, without the fear that the blade will snap. As you might imagine, most hunting knives manufactured today make use of a drop point, rather than a clip point, spear point or other types of blade design.

Should you choose Bowie knives with a drop point to add to your collection? That question must be answered by your own usage needs. Do you need a strong knife with considerable cutting ability? Are you willing to sacrifice much of the stabbing power of the blade for greater cutting strength? Choosing any particular knife style over another is always a series of tradeoffs. However, when you choose a knife with a drop point, you are getting the best of many worlds, unlike some other knives that offer you only limited benefits due to the design of their blades. Take your time and choose a knife that fits your needs.

Blake is a business consultant for an online bowie knifes store featuring survival knives.