Burt Foster Buckeye Bowie

[RogerP]

Burt Foster ? an ABS Mastersmith hailing from Bristol, Virginia ? is a maker who has been on my radar screen for some time. I had really liked what I had seen of his work in photographs, and perhaps more importantly, many knife aficionados whose opinions I trust and value have spoken very highly of his work.

When this bowie became available, I was more than ready to take the plunge.



This knife features a 9 ?? blade of forged and differentially tempered 52100 with an overall length of just over 14? . The handle is a solid piece of California Buckeye burl, secured to the full hidden tang with three domed nickel silver pins. The knife can be disassembled by removing those pins ? no glue has been used to secure the handle. One thing I have noticed about Burt?s work is his consistent use of premium quality handle materials for his knives. Whether the handle is crafted from walnut, ironwood, maple, horn or ivory, you can be sure that it will be of the ?grade-A? category.



The blade features a flawless hand-rubbed satin finish on the blade flats, set off nicely by a domed or rounded a mirror-polished spine. This type of finish offers both functional and aesthetic benefits: should you need to get your hand up on the spine for a push-cut, the rounded spine will prove more comfortable, and it just plain looks great. Burt credits Tim Hancock as the inspiration for this two-tone finish. The following image shows this feature fairly well:



And here you can see that the underside of the choil is similarly domed and polished:



The nitre blued damascus guard and ferrule on this knife are fashioned from a two bar twist of mild steel and nickel. The swirls in the damascus nicely complement those in the wood handle. The following image shows another feature of this knife that I like: the year it was made bracketing the Mastersmith stamp. Since a well made and well cared-for custom knife such as this will likely out-last its original owner, it?s nice to have the date of manufacture indelibly marked on the blade itself.



When you have high expectations of a knife the chances of being disappointed are that much greater. My admittedly high expectation have been met and exceeded. This knife exhibits flawless fit and finish and has a wonderful feel in the hand ? very quick and well balanced. While I would love to see Burt?s take on a large bowie with say, an 11 ?? blade, it is hard to imagine actually needing more knife than this. Case in point, Burt won the ABS cutting competition at Bowie's Hammer-in in Knoxville, TN in 2004 with the knife below that has ?only? an 8 ?? blade (the rules allow for up to 10?).


Image from www.burtfoster.com

Finally, one of the added treats that come with every Burt Foster knife is a top quality sheath produced by the maker. You?d think I would have been smart enough to actually take a picture of it, but alas, no. You can catch a glimpse of it in the photo below from www.rehobothcustomknives.com :



How much do I like this knife? Well, the matching hunter should be joining it in a few months.

Roger Pinnock

[Jamey Saunders]

Loooowwww, Loooonnnnnngggggg *whistle*.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[Jerry Shorter]

Roger, what a find that was. Beautiful knife from a great knife maker and fine person. Burt has it all.

congrats Jerry

[rhrocker]

Great score Roger!

[Buddy Thomason]

Roger - You know what I think about this knife from 'the other forum.' Just felt I wanted to add my praise here as well. Burt has truly earned his good reputation!

I like this one a lot. Burt's MS logo with 20 and 05 on either side is a nice touch. The Damascus is really nice. One might predict that the pattern in the Damascus and in the handle could conflict - but the opposite is true. The long clip is just right and the up-curved grind line where the swedge meets the spine is a nice detail. In fact, I see that little curve as important for Burt's subtle use of an "S" curve moving from end to end of the knife - something my eye-brain connection translates as 'beautiful.'
Really nice pictures too, Roger.

[RogerP]

Thanks very much for the comments guys - and thanks for adding your comments here as well Buddy.

Roger

[David Johansen]

AMAZING!!!!! WOW!!! That you for showing us that beauty!!!

[JeridJohnson]

I sure like Burts work.. congrats!

[oljoe]

That is a beautiful work of art. I wonder if he is my long lost cousin.

Alias I doubt it.
He has to have a better genetic make-up than me to make something like that.

Joe Foster