# Magellin 14" bowie knife



## GunnSmokeer (Jul 31, 2019)

I bought this 14" overall lenth bowie knife (with 8.5" blade) last week, to use for chopping up bamboo and kudzu and assorted tall weeds and bushes.

I have a couple of 18" bladed machetes,  but their blades were unnecessarily long and actually impaired my ability to swing them in the dense jungle-like growth where I was working. Also there were other people working in close proximity to me, so I thought having a shorter blade would be safer for everyone involved.

This big bowie knife  worked Great. I noticed that the blade was thick when I bought it, but I didn't realize how much thicker it is then pretty much any other inexpensive bush knife, Bowie knife, short machete, or multi-purpose survival blade out there at box sporting good stores.

Since I got it,  I was thinking of getting another one to loan to other people who might help me do some work --clearing brush, landscaping, cutting a clear shooting lane through the woods--- and I looked at a lot of different machetes and large knives in the last week.

This Magellin brand bowie knife is heavy,  not only due to its size but do the remarkable thickness of its blade I didn't put a calipers on it but I estimate the blade is probably .2 of an inch thick at the spine.  That's 3X thicker steel than several competing models  of big knives or small machetes that I looked at.

It's got full tang construction, too.

The  leather sheath sheath is cheap and soft --and I don't know how well it will help hold up to a very rough use.  But it is stiff enough to allow re-sheathing the knife one-handed, but flexible enough that if you sit down without the knife in the sheath, it will bend out of your way when you sit .

I think  this is a good all purpose chopping & slashing knife that fills a role that sometimes neither a fighting knife nor a full-size machete can fill.


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## 660griz (Aug 1, 2019)

Thanks for the info. Good write up. 
I use a Kukri for that task. I have had a Ka-Bar Kukri for years. Never had to sharpen it and it will still slice through vines and saplings amazingly well. 
I also have a Bear Grills one that I got for Christmas. Works pretty good as well. Haven't cut enough with it to know how the edge holds up. I like the weight forward on Kukri that seems to help with the swing. 

How is the grip on that knife? Have you used it with non-gloved sweaty hands yet?


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## j_seph (Aug 1, 2019)

I happened to find one of these and it does good work as well.


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## Dub (Aug 14, 2019)

Either look like good truck knives, too.


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## AceOfTheBase (Aug 14, 2019)

Nice write up on the Bowie.


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## GunnSmokeer (Aug 26, 2019)

660griz said:


> How is the grip on that knife? Have you used it with non-gloved sweaty hands yet?



Yes, this past weekend I was dripping sweat AND chopping bamboo that was still wet with rain, so I was shaking water drops loose to fall on my head and back as I cut them.

I took my gloves off when my fingers got wrinkled like prunes, and the bowie knife still handled well.
But... I wasn't swinging as hard as I could. If I were fighting for my life against a wolf or whatever, with sweaty or bloody hands, I don't know if the grip would've still been so secure.


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