My Stephan Fowler collection and notes:

[Gordon]

About 4 years ago while coming across Stephan Fowler's web site I was caught with an image of a green canvas micarta 11" Bowie with a wrought s guard he had done previously in his gallery. After ordering it with a little more S and as big as possible I wound up with it which is actually the beginning of his "2nd phase " of work (according to me!) and of our relationship. I was thrilled with the ergos of the handle, the wrought nature of the kewl s guard and his superb grind lines that made it very light for a 11.5" bowie.
Then Stephan made me prolly his most beautiful work yet a couple years back this 13" "Confederate Bowie" with a flame double Hamon and magnificent Amboyna burl , damascus fittings and w-4 forged beauty! The most beautiful knife I own by a long shot! Scary in it's gladius deadlyness too!
Then the most recent 7" Chopper recurve, very compact for what it does and drop dead gorgeous to my eyes. This is his Blade 2012 era work, and his focus HAS changed. This thing chops all out of proportion to it's size and light weight. A good general belt knife !
Then the one that has gotten the most use; his "rough Duty " 4" bottle opener. I have allready really given this knife hell, the finish is turning case hardened looking from the temper I guess.
Stephan has hid my pins since the Confederate bowie, as I like them that way on his knifes at least!


Here's handle and riccasso detail . where Stephan excells along with his grinding, hamons and pounding!

I missed the awesome extreme spine distal tapers!:banghead:

 

[hso]

Good for you!

Stephan is a great guy and an outstanding bladesmith (and should be a new dad right about now!).

 

[JShirley]

Gordon, any chance of taking a pic of the 7" Chopper recurve next to your Camp Defender, and attaching the pic, so I can view it?

John

 

[Gordon]

The Camp Defender is 2" longer , 50% heavier and a FAR superior chopper. The Camp Defender I have is my favorite all around piece of kit that doesn't live in a safe. The design of the spine and the weight distribution is superior to anything yet IMHO, the handle is also ideal for snap cuts. Sam's semi mirror polish is the schizzle and better than 99% of other's finish. IMHO you have to add $1000 to his price to get it's better. For the extra grand you will get perfect symetrical grind lines and almost microscopic attention to finish. I know the metalurgy of the vastly more expensive knifes is completely trust worthy under any circumstance. I would bet Sam's Camp Defender or Stephan's work would not fail either, but I am not triple Dog dare sure! Kapish?

 

[JShirley]

Did you invoke the Mad Dog?

Okay, that's a good thumbnail comparison. I know I saw a big chopper of Stephan's in 07 that I greatly admired.

(ETA) You know, after some thought, I can't agree with

completely trust worthy under any circumstance

. There are always circumstances for which a particular tool may not be the right choice. I used a custom knife to pry a 120mm round out of a container it was frozen to, in early 2007. Yeah, it did it, but I was abusing the knife. I knew it was abuse, and I wouldn't have been the least upset at the maker if the knife had been damaged, because I was using the wrong tool.

I guarantee you that there are circumstances under which any of your knives will fail. They may all have their own strengths, but every one can fail. And I'd take Stephan Fowler's knives at least as quickly as any other maker out there, cost be damned- except for the Busse family. I'll take a Busse over any other knife for toughness-for-weight, regardless of price.

John

 

[Gordon]

We all have our totems I see.
Infi steel ? Can't seem to find that listed in the charts. I have found Busse knives to have handles that make hot spots without gloves on, in short they all shred my mitts.And why cover up a blade with rough spooge unless you don't like polishing steel? It drags in cuts.

 

[JShirley]

Oh, without a doubt, I'd change some things, if I designed them. Sam and I usually spend quite a bit of time going over handle and blade shapes before we arrive at a product we both like and feel is authentic to both of us.