What Are Bowie Knives Used For?

Bowie knives are renowned for their versatility and their durability. However, if you're in the market to purchase a new blade, you'll likely want to know what bowie knives can and can't cut. What limitations are there to these knives? Actually, the limitations are created by the knife itself - its size, construction material and even the keenness of the edge will play a role in what you can and can't cut (or what you want to cut and don't want to cut). What does all that mean?

Why is there such a great disparity where the bowie knife is concerned? Actually, it boils down to the several different types of bowie knife out there. For instance, you will find smaller versions, as well as very large versions and everything in between.

Now, what do these factors have to do with your knife? Why can't a single bowie knife be used to cut through brush and then used to gut and clean that freshly caught fish? Why can't you slice a tomato into paper-thin pieces and then use that same knife to cut up kindling for the night's fire? Well, actually, you can. However, why would you want to? You will find that some bowie knife types are better suited to specific cutting tasks than are others. As an example, a larger bowie knife might be heavy enough and resilient enough to be used as a hatchet, allowing you to clear brush and even chop up small to moderate trees for the night's fire.

So, what can you cut with a bowie knife? It all depends on your particular knife. While you most certainly can use that gigantic blade to gut a fish, chances are quite good that the blade will be so large that you'll muck up the job. It's quite difficult to make a precision cut when the blade is twice as long as the fish! Now, you can take that in the opposite direction as well. You might not have much luck using a six-inch bowie knife to cut through thick brush or cut kindling for your fire.

Before purchasing any bowie knives, you should make sure that you are buying a design that will fit your intended purposes. Otherwise, you might find that you are doing little more than throwing your money down the drain and that your knife does not stand the test of time.