SZCO Full Tang Bowie Fixed Blade Hunting Knife 15 inch - Camping Knife with Leather Sheath for Men - Firm Grip Handle, Brass Guard with Carbon Steel Clip-Point Blade Knifes for Camping, Outdoor

So there I was drunk and off another red dead redemption kick looking for a Bowie knife that was decent looking and cheap. Drunk me and carbon steel are basically married at this point but I digress. When I got the knife the next day I almost rushed to check my checking statement to see how much of a fool I was, thankfully I wasn’t much of one at all at 20 bucks. I took a look a the edge and the majority of it had a pretty good bevel to it and a reasonably sharp edge, however the last inch or so of the point was dull as pig iron. That was annoying yes but easily cared for with a bastard file and a 1000 grit stone and she was then incredibly sharp given her size. Fast forward a few months and I’m beating on the thing just to see if I could break it. Full force throws into trees, often dirt, and bounces off rocks on all parts of the knife and the only thing that gave was the brass pins in the handle. Which honestly was gonna happen sooner than later given they’re just under an 1/8 of an inch thick. I’ll be remedying that soon with 1/4 inch brass rods soon and possibly new handle material but for now it’s a pretty tough knife. Did I mention I tried to snap it and it didn’t even budge? Great buy for the price all the way around. Treat it like hell and it’ll just keep coming back for more.

So, I got my Szco bowie knife today. Right away I found out that it was well constructed, well balanced, and made of superior steels that put my Timber Rattler Big Green bowie to shame. It came sharp, which my Timber Rattler didn't, and in fact the tip had been broken on the Timber Rattler, and it took a long time to put on a new tip on that one. This knife had a nice pointed tip for easy penetration, and the blade was sharp. It will even cut paper, so I don't know why some say it came dull. It does not. The blade guard on the Timber Rattler was loose and this one is very solid, as was the overall construction. Now, there was one defect, the metal on the handle did not totally meet, or was not properly ground down, but since I always wrap my knives in grip tape, this was not a deal breaker for me. The fact that this knife was made of 1095 carbon steel speaks for its quality and workmanship. Simple classic shape makes for a great bowie knife, and a god slasher and fighting knife. I'm very satisfied, and I am giving an informed opinion, not an emotional one. I recommend you buy one before they raise the price to over $20-$30, I got mine for $15.99, and consider that a damn good deal. It's worth twice as much! UPDATE: loving this knife more each day. Still sharp, with few touch-ups, strong and sturdy. Big, beefy, and made of very good materials.

I love this knife so far, the sheath is alright but not impressive, the latch that's on the back of the belt loop doesn't reach to the front of the sheath to secure the knife for some reason. One thing that is incorrect in the description above, is that it's carbon steel, now carbon steel is a very strong and dense metal, but there is low carbon and high carbon, if they are saying this is carbon then it's actually stainless steel because when I was trying to chop a 5cm branch with it, small parts of the edges would bend. Stainless steel has a tendency to do that, this knife is either stainless steel or it's low carbon, or maybe not even that because carbon is carbon.The knife came sharp and is definately a full tang blade. The choice of metal for the guard of the knife isn't very good, the brass guard bends after a few good hits which is not good for a guard, I plan on replacing it with steel or something stronger, so keep in mind that the brass guard is pretty weak. The knife doesn't rattle, it's entirely secured. The price for the quality is outstanding.

UPDATE: Thrown in the trash. After 1 month in my car it was totally rusted out. I had oiled the blade, ensured the sheath was dry and waxed. DEEP RUST that I couldn't get out with 00 steal wool and oil after a 15 min scrub. Honestly, I wouldn't even use this as a self-defense deterrent. Complete garbage even at $20 bucks when you can pick up a nice Chinese Marbles, Old Henry, or Schrade. In a world of Pakistani and Chinese pot steel knives with purchased USA brands, this simply doesn't even deserve a place at the bottom of a river. This is a truly terrible Bowie! The cut on the handle is way off. The wood was two different kinds on the handle, and had some wetness still in the wood. The grind is completely off. And it was as dull as a Joe Biden fundraiser. The pummel guard is scratched to pieces and has wear in spots. That being said, I sanded and re-stained the handle. Took about 20 min to sharpen the darn thing, and scrubbed it a bit to get the horrid car oil off the blade. Now, it's just a really bad bowie. But for 20 bucks and next day delivery, I have a nice self defense weapon for my car that I won't be upset about when someone in California inevitably breaks into my car and steals it. Another upside is that the sheath is not too bad! Gets five stars from me because it's exactly what I thought I was buying!

For $27 bucks hey it’s fine for intended use. It’s a bit crude, blade has some wave/dimples to it, it lacks finesse, but it is sturdy, solid and not ugly. It is heavy with a chunky handle. It is intimidating to look at, certain meets Crocodile Dundee’s quote “ Now that’s a knife! “ ha. Came pretty sharp, cuts paper,. It’s no wall hanger or display case knife, it’s a woods carry animal protection, brush cutting, camp, shed, car, tool. You will need to keep a light coat of oil on blade at all times or she will rust. . I decided to keep it for what it is…a user…..If you want real quality, and a Big Bowie at a fair price, get a Condor undertaker bowie, at $100 bucks or a Bear and Sons Bowie for slightly more, of which I own both of them.

I purchased this as a gift so haven't gone out and used it to chop anything, but for the 20-some bucks I paid for it I'm very happy with it. The knife is solid; brass guard, wooden handle scales, decent grind, and a full tang blade that's fairly sharp. The leather sheath is better quality than I was expecting and is well fit to the knife with even stitching and good retention even without the strap. I might end up buying one for myself as well, for the money it's really hard to go wrong.

I can see whay a lot of people have left less than five star reviews on this knife. I bought it anyway because I was looking for another "project" to finish. If you view this as a pretty much 95% finished "kit knife" you will certainly not be disappointed. When it arrived it was quite sharp, but with a lot of prominent grind marks in the edge, very much like a sharp but cheap machete. It was a pretty simple thing to get a nice smooth and razor sharp edge by just using my diamond sharpener followed by about ten minutes on my ceramic sticks. And then a light few swipes again with the diamond sharpener to smooth out the grind. Then I turned to the grip scales. They were covered in what I can only assume is some sort of polyurethane finish and were fairly rough. I just used some 220 grit sandpaper to smooth them out followed by 400 and then 600 grit paper. Some stain and a boiled linseed oil/pine tar combo that I make up and voila' -a very pretty set of hand filling scales that look for all the world like walnut. It was a very simple task to get the wood to fit the tang properly since they were pretty close in the first place. Next I put a patina on the carbon steel blade and tang, using some Birchwood Casey Perma Blue and a wash of the same company's Super Blue. The color came out a pleasing blue/gray after carding with oil and 0000 steel wool. The patina is very similar to my 1930s era ROMO Solingen bowie knife. When I get time this weekend I plan to also use some of their Plum Brown solution on it so it will appear to be a much older patina. This is about the heaviest 10 inch bladed Bowie that I currently own. The reaction to my sharpening was very similar to 1095 high carbon steel in some of my other knives. SO in my case at least, it seems well heat treated and tempered. The blade is right at 4.95 mm thick at the spine. So it's a nice heavy Bowie knife with a bent towards chopping. Spend some time (which I find to be fun) in actually finishing this knife. You will find it rewarding and can end up with a knife that will last you a lifetime. (Oh the "Pakistan" tag on mine was a simple piece of tape thoughtfully placed on one of the grip scale. It peels off so easily!) Next up - the sheath. The one I received is actually quite nice and fits snugly. It is much better than the one pictured in the listing. I am going to remove the belt loop and snap on this one. In place of the snap on the mouth of the sheath I'll be putting in a Sam Brown type stud for carrying it tucked inside my belt. The positioning of the snap and the snug fit of the knife will make this a five minute conversion. This knife can easily be made into one that looks the part of an 1840-1870 Bowie knife. It doesn't take much skill. Just a willingness to have some fun and expend a little elbow grease. If this is what you are looking for, then I HIGHLY recommend it. If you want a fancy Bowie knife for under eighteen bucks - well that just ain't going to happen. So get this eighteen dollar knife and turn it into what looks like a $100 knife. It will take you a couple of hours and will be well worth it.

I'm not sure what Amazon thinks they're doing. This knife used to be an aesome value. Now, in addition to adding commercials to Prime Video, Amazon is trying to sell a $15 knife, for $31.57+tax. For reference, you can buy a Cold Steel Wild West Bowie for about $76+tax, and it's a vastly superior knife. This knife sells for $15 on the SCZO Supplies website, but you have to spend a full $100, in order to make a purchase from SZCO Supplies. I'm not sure what Amazon is thinking. They used to have the best prices, or close to the best prices. Free Prime shipping typically made up for the difference. In the past year, Amazon has consistently been more expensive than other online retailers. They raised the price of this knife by $10 since last week. If the price dips back below $20, it's a good buy. If not, this is drastically overpriced. This knife is currently $22 on another well known knife reseller store. If this is the way Amazon continues, they're going to start losing subscribers. My original review is below: First and foremost, this knife is definitely carbon steel, as mine came all oiled up, with some rust already on it. There seem to be different versions of this knife, or maybe an older and newer version. I've seen pictures of a knife with a slightly less wide tang, more comfortable handles with rounded corners, and the black sheath in the pictures. The one I received has a larger square handle, a wider tang, and a brown double stitched leather sheath. The handle is very thick, because the tang is wider, and the corners aren't rounded. It will be too big for most people. I have huge hands, and it's just right for me. It wouldn't be such a problem if the handle had more grip, but It's quite smooth. I typically add heat shrink grip to my knife handles. Unfortunately, the leather retention strap barely has enough length to fit around the current handle. I have to stretch it to get it to snap shut. I suppose and can put heat shrink grip, or grip tape, on the handle sections the retention strap doesn't touch. I'm giving the knife 5 stars, because there is no better large Bowie on the market for such a low price. It's a carbon steel blade, probably close to 420HC. The thickness of the knife is understated, because I measure 4_mm, or just shy of 4_mm. I have a 2.8_mm thick Cold Steel Black Bear Bowie Machete. It flexes easily with hand force. This knife doesn't flex like a machete. I can barely get it to flex at all. I've seen countless YouTube videos of people abusing this knife in every manner possible. It doesn't break, and the blade doesn't chip. The pinned handle scales may fall off after a lot of heavy chopping. That's not a big deal. My blade doesn't say Pakistan on it like others have said. The box it came in says Pakistan. But, that box also shows a picture of what I assume is the older style blade, with the black sheath, and smaller, more rounded handle scales. The sheath is nothing spectacular, but it is double stitched leather. I'll probably re-stitch mine with more durable thread, epoxy the sides of the sheath and belt loop attachment, and drill a hole for a dangler. The knife I received came with a full blade. I plan to make it razor sharp with my Work Sharp. For $22.50, this is a project knife with extremely durable, full tang blade stock, and a sheath that's serviceable. As an aside, I tried fitting this knife into the MOLLE sheath that comes with my Ontario SP10 Marine Raider Bowie. Despite being the same length, this blade is too wide to fit in that sheath. The Ontario SP10 sheath is sold separately for around $16. It's possible I can take the plastic insert out of the Ontario SP10 sheath, take a heat gun to it, and make this knife fit. If I can, I'll update this review.