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Old 04-06-2020, 10:39 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
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Here is the mysterious metallurgy quality of that marvelous Bear Bowie. TaBill’s knife is made from 440C stainless steel, not from the standard 440B quality steel that Randall used ubiquitously for his stainless blades. There are only about 20-21 knives total, and only 15 of these 440C Bear Bowies ever made. Here is quote from Gaddis, p. 215:

“It seems that during the late 1960s while Gary was still spending a good bit of his time in a shop apron, a steel company sent Randall a sample bar of 440C stainless steel. The company salesman was interested in getting the Randall shop to switch from its standard 440B forging stock to this higher-carbon 440C. The sample bar was too narrow and thin for the big Smithsonian Bowie, so they decided to forge Model 12, 8-inch Bear Bowie and Model 12, 9-inch Sportsman Bowie blades from it. Gary remembered Randall getting about 15 Bear and maybe six Sportsman Bowie blades from it. They were marked with the usual “S” stamp to denote a stainless blade, just like the regular 440B ones…”

From the time period of T’s knife, it is certainly one of the 440C blades, as are all seven of the famous “Continent” Bear Bowies. But you would need a destructive test to prove it…. so ... trust me on this.

Last edited by Jacknola; 04-06-2020 at 11:12 PM.
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