Fun in the Shop or Dissecting a Pakistani Bowie Knife...

[CDHumiston]

So, I had this big Pakistani Bowie Knife my brother gave me a while back. He bought it on eBay from Pakistan. I used the sheath for another knife, and I got tired of looking at this thing sitting in my office. It had no meaning to me, and I decided to see just what it was made of.

As you can see in the pictures much of the handle was completely hollow and not even filled with epoxy. The wood pieces and brass seem to be decent and strong. The blade is a completely different matter. It tested around 50 HRC. When I bent it in the vise the main portion snapped fairly clean, but the edge bent like unhardened steel. If you take a look at the grain pattern you can see just how course the grain is.

I wish there was some way to inform the eBay buying crowd just how terrible these blades really are...

 

[Eric Brinkerhoff]

Pretty crappy for sure!

 

[opaul]

Wow! Thanks for posting that.
Amazing!

 

[bladegrinder]

And the guy that made that probably got half a loaf of bread at the end of the day.

 

[chrisstaniar]

So, I had this big Pakistani Bowie Knife my brother gave me a while back. He bought it on eBay from Pakistan. I used the sheath for another knife, and I got tired of looking at this thing sitting in my office. It had no meaning to me, and I decided to see just what it was made of.

As you can see in the pictures much of the handle was completely hollow and not even filled with epoxy. The wood pieces and brass seem to be decent and strong. The blade is a completely different matter. It tested around 50 HRC. When I bent it in the vise the main portion snapped fairly clean, but the edge bent like unhardened steel. If you take a look at the grain pattern you can see just how course the grain is.

I wish there was some way to inform the eBay buying crowd just how terrible these blades really are...

View attachment 82176

lol, those aren't grains, those are rocks!

 

[chrisstaniar]

So I was at the Sacramento International Sportsmens Expo and there were several knife dealers there. Most were US dealers and they had some nice looking stuff at the prices you'd expect.

But of course, then we found the Pakimascus table. Damascus knives for under $50, etc. etc. My son looked at the prices and then looked at the vendor and said "this is a bunch of crap, isn't it?" Yes...Yes it is.

Sadly, there were a fair number of people crowded around the table. SMH

 

[opaul]

So I was at the Sacramento International Sportsmens Expo and there were several knife dealers there. Most were US dealers and they had some nice looking stuff at the prices you'd expect.

But of course, then we found the Pakimascus table. Damascus knives for under $50, etc. etc. My son looked at the prices and then looked at the vendor and said "this is a bunch of crap, isn't it?" Yes...Yes it is.

Sadly, there were a fair number of people crowded around the table. SMH

Same here at the gun and knife show this past weekend

 

[John Wilson]

I think every one of us as a kid spent hour upon fruitless hour trying to sharpen a "Stainless Pakistan" knife. I remember seeing them lying loose in the shoebox next to the cash register at the feed store and wishing so bad I could get one. Yes, even as a kid you could tell the scales didn't fit right. And the bolsters were uneven. And the pins didn't look right. But a Buck cost a princely sum and asking for something like a Buck 110 was held in special reserve. You only ask Santa for stuff like that, and you knew that was too rich for Santa's blood, too. Imagine what shipping those raw materials to the North Pole would run!

As a kid you're used to hearing "no, that's a waste of money" about ten times a day, but it really stings when you want something that badly. Then one day, inexplicably, your Dad caves in and lets you buy it. (40 years later, it's not so inexplicable. He had $5 and just wanted me to shut up.) And after those fruitless hours of sharpening, toiling in bitter denial, you understand that Dad was right. This thing sucks!