My Battle Blade - the Cold Steel Trailmaster

In our final installment on big knives, we at last come to what I think of as “my knife.” My last bowie is what I call my “battle blade.”  The reason behind this has nothing to do with my expectation that I will need this knife in pitched battle with zombies . . . or anyone.  The reference is a nod to Bill Bagwell, specifically to Chapter 32 of his book Bowies, Big Knives, and The Best of Battle Blades.   Bagwell, writing in 2000, notes that there are relatively few “good” bowie knives on the market that satisfy his requirements for a proper “battle blade.”  He says there are really (circa 2000) only two, the Cold Steel Trailmaster and the Camillus Bagwell series.  The Trailmaster is a solid choice, according to Bagwell, but lacks certain qualities to make it an ideal choice.  He approves of the Bagwell series, of course, since these are reproductions of his own custom knives.

Bagwell acknowledges that some might wish to design an effective battle blade without resorting to these two models, and his chapter is devoted to a project knife based on the Case Bowie.  The Case bowie is large, with a wide blade and an imposing S-shaped guard that, as Bagwell says, is too large for utility and will simply snag on things.  His chapter details how to grind the blade to restructure its overall shape and modify the guard and grip to create a serviceable “battle blade” on a budget.  This is the approach I took for my bowie.

I began with a stock Cold Steel Trailmaster.  It comes with a 9” blade, which meets Bagwell’s magic length requirement.  The blade is not overly broad, but the false edge is too false.  The grip is a nice coffin shape, but sadly is a rubberized material - I hate rubber grips. Finally, the sheath that it came with is a standard (that is to say, sub-standard) leather sheath with a belt loop attachment.

Based on Bagwell’s direction in his chapter, I set to work to transform my stock Trailmaster into my own “Battle blade.” The first order of business is to break out my handy-dandy Dremel tool and begin grinding a new profile for the false edge, or swage.  I grind it down so that it’s slightly convex and put an edge on it.  This gives me the capability of a back cut, so the top edge is sharpened. Unfortunately, this is tricky to sharpen because of the convex curvature of the edge - you can’t use a regular stone. As it stands I’ve gotten it passably sharp for the first inch and a half or so; beyond that the edge pales quickly.

Secondly, I cut off the awful rubber grip. I like the uniformity of the classic coffin shape, but I can’t abide a rubber grip on a knife.  Luckily, the Trailmaster uses a real full tang (unlike the Natchez), which is both full length and relatively full width, so rehilting is a fairly straightforward affair.  I used mesquite blanks. Rather than duplicating the coffin shape that came on the stock knife, I tried my hand making a shape that Randall knives terms their “Border Patrol” design.  It worked out well, and I love the way it fits my hand.  I intended to put a liner in the thong hole, but in the end I didn’t. Honestly, I figured I could always bore it out and add one later if I chose.  The grip is held on solely by epoxy, which concerns me a bit about its longevity, but once again, I figure that if it becomes an issue at a later date I can drill through the tang and add pins.  It’s not like I will be deployed in some faraway land when and if the handle fails me - I’ll almost certainly be no more than thirty minute hike to my Jeep, and I’ll just as certainly have a secondary knife as backup.

Finally, I had to address the sheath.  I sent my knife off to Mike Sastre, owner of River City Sheaths.  He is renowned in the bowie knife community for his kydex sheaths, and is one of the only makers who makes an old-style sheath with a stud for a belt rather than a loop.  River City is one of the most famous sheath makers out there, so be advised that the lead time is considerable.

In the end, my “battle blade” represents pretty closely the design I would get from a custom maker. At 9 inches long, the blade is large enough to do most anything I might need, but not so large as to be unwieldy, as the larger bowies like the Musso or Natchez could be.  The sharpened top clip is a bit controversial; it’s a feature that you wouldn’t want on a dedicated woods knife, but as a martial artist, I like the combative capabilities of it, even if I’ll never use the knife in combat.  The wood handle fits my hand, and I think it’s far more attractive than any rubber could be.  If I sold off the rest of my collection, this is the knife I would keep as a woods companion.

​The Bagwell  (in honor of the anniversary of Bowie’s Sandbar Fight Sept 18, 1827)
 
Among Bowie knife enthusiasts, the name Bill Bagwell is uttered with a hushed reverence.  Bagwell is custom knifemaker in Texas who specializes in building large fighting bowie knives from scratch.  If one wants a bowie, especially a fighting bowie, and one wants the best money can buy, they call Bill Bagwell.
 
His most famous bowie is called the “Helles Belle,” and it’s a beauty.  Generally, it runs 11 -12” long in the blade, with a Spanish Notch, forward curved crossguard and a classic coffin-shaped handle.  If you order one from Bagwell, he will want to know a variety of things about you, including height and weight, and will ask for a tracing of your hand.  This will be your knife.
 
My Bagwell is not a custom job from The Man himself. Rather, it’s an authorized reproduction made by Camillus knives under his direction.  It’s no custom hand-forged knife by the Master, but it’s still a sweet blade.
 
This is the “Fortress” model, with a 10.5” blade.  The largest of the Camillus knives was the “Helles Belle,” named after its custom brethren, and each successive model got shorter in blade length.  Commonalities were a wooden coffin-shaped handle secured with exposed rivets and a wide crossguard that curves forward.  The shortest version, the Plainsman, sported a simple oval crossguard rather than the fighting quillions.
 
This is a single purpose fighting knife.  Upon holding this knife, one immediately feels the difference in balance - while the Cold Steel Natchez has a balance point around an inch forward of the crossguard, and the Musso’s is still further down the blade, the Fortress balances right at the crossguard - just immediately in front of it, actually.  This balance point is critical to how the blade handles in the hand, and with the point of balance this close to the user’s hand, it is lively and fast.  This is exactly the kind of quick handling knife one would want if one were to be dueling with blades.
 
The forward-curving crossguard is also built with blade-on-blade combat in mind.  The arms of the crossguard reach forward in a wide arc to enable its user to capture an opponent’s blade.  Rather than simply parrying an incoming cut, one could control the opponent’s blade and perhaps even wrest it away from him (or her). James Keating does a lot of such disarms in his bowie knife videos.  It takes a lot of practice and good timing, but it’s pretty slick when it works.
 
The Spanish notch is something of an oddity, and its purpose has been debated.  According to Bagwell and Keating, the Spanish notch is designed to catch the opponent’s blade, presumably as it slides down the edge in a parry.  Now, I confess I haven’t trained in its use, and remain a wee bit skeptical.  But I’ve got one if I need it.
 
Another feature of a true fighting bowie is the sharpened top clip.  Bagwell actually asserts that a proper bowie will have the edge run around the tip, and the sharpened tip is used combatively in a flicking back cut.  In a woods blade such a sharpened tip is a recipe for cutting oneself, but it’s just the ticket in a fighting knife.  Sadly, Camillus no longer makes these blades, so if you want one you’ll have to scour ebay.  They’re worth the hunt.

If you're interested in learning how to wield your new fighting knife, check out James Keating's video series at:    ​http://www.jamesakeating.com

​  The Natchez
 
In this third installment of Battle Blades I’ll turn my attention to something of a hybrid knife, a fairly recent production bowie from the guys at Cold Steel.  It’s the Natchez Bowie, and it’s everything a bowie ought to be - big, wide, and sharp.
 
Cold Steel named their knife the Natchez because of the history of bowie fighting in the area of Natchez, Mississippi, invoking a romantic frontier ethos for this knife.  It is styled generally like the “primitive” bowie and its overall lines echo the shape of the Musso Bowie.  Its blade is 11 ¾” long and 1 ¾ “ wide.  It’s a big blade, fully capable of swinging, chopping, slicing . . . or even paddling, if need be.
 
There are four major differences between the CS Natchez and the Musso bowie.  Firstly is the tip; the CS Natchez’ tip is not nearly as thin and vulnerable to lateral forces as the earlier Musso design.  The tip still narrows to a needle point, but it is not upswept as on the Musso, which has the dual benefit of keeping more mass in the tip for structural rigidity, and also keeping the point in line with the wrist when the blade is extended, thus making this knife a more effective point thruster than the Musso design.
 
The second difference is the hilt.  The CS version uses a simple and straightforward oval crossguard rather than the large “S” shaped crossguard of the Musso design.  It’s really six of one, and a half dozen of another, as hilt design only comes into play when one is anticipating duelling against another blade, but it’s worth noting that CS makes a big deal of marketing this knife as a “fighting bowie” and then puts a regular utilitarian hilt on it.  Things that make you go Hmmnn.
 
The third difference between the Natchez and Musso is in balance.  The Natchez’ point of balance is just about one inch forward of the crossguard; this is still a fairly weight-forward balance, but it’s a far cry from my Musso version, which balances right at three inches forward of the crossguard!  Both have a distinctly blade-heavy feel, but the Musso feels like a large, cumbersome saber, whereas the Natchez feels simply like a big knife.  The weight is forward, but not overly so, and it’s still maneuverable.  I like this balance point very much.
 
The fourth difference can’t be seen or even felt, but I know it’s there, and is the reason I called this a “hybrid” knife in my introduction.  This third difference is one of construction.  Cold Steel uses a full-tang construction on many knives, such as their Trail Master bowies, but their Laredo and Natchez bowies (both “fighters”) do not use full tangs.  These two models use a weirdly designed cable system, in which a twisted cable attaches to a stub tang and is then tightened by a screw in the base of the grip.  This provides sufficient tension to provide enough structural integrity to replace a regular tang, although its durability is not well tested so far as I know. If one listens to the legions of internet commandos, this system is a miracle of cost-cutting engineering, an overbuilt design intended to save an ounce or so of quality steel per unit.  I used to own a Laredo, and have used the Natchez and not found either wanting, so perhaps this design is suitably strong.  I’m something of a traditionalist, however, and knowing that my tang is really a wire cable under tension leaves me feeling a little suspect about its capabilities.  In all likelihood the knife is probably completely dependable for 98+% of what real users will ask of it .  . . but I’d still prefer a full tang, even if it were a lower quality steel welded onto the blade.

​So in the end, I bought this knife thinking it might easily become my favorite user, and yet I find myself hesitating to really put it through its paces due to its tang design.  Another snag with this is the grip is not ideal for me; it’s comfortable enough, but if I had my ‘druthers I would replace the grip with a wooden one of a different shape . . . however, that’s not as easy as it sounds given the complicated tang design (grrr!).  So in the end, I love this knife, but it’s not my favorite.