A Tanto does not a Bowie Make…
December 19th, 2007 | 
Author: I came across a fairly cool blade recently:
Now I like this knife. I really do. It has a sweet combination of characteristics that would make it the dark beauty of any blade party. (Yes. I have them often. But I only invite guests with lots of points, curves, and a razor sharp wit… 
) The smooth swept blade, the simple brushed pommel and hilt, the textured black grip, and a no nonsense looking scabbard to boot.
BUT… (Don’t you hate how there is almost always a “but”…)
Despite anything that the great site I found this on might say, this, my friends, is not a bowie knife. At least not in the traditional Jim Bowie frontier knife kinda way. This, is what a bowie is supposed to look like:
Do you see the difference? There are some pretty big differences if you ask me. Like the shape and size of the blade. (this is waaay wider than that “Fantasy” one) The cross guard. The “Fantasy” one doesn’t have one) The pommel and hilt of the grip. (The “Fantasy” one has brushed butt and hilt cap) The Black Fantasy Bowie, while cool, is the complete opposite of a Bowie. It is closer in design to a Japanese Tanto than a bowie.
So why the Bowie moniker? Who knows? I’ve learned to stop thinking about these things so much. Questions like these only initiate perpetual waves of mental logic errors in my head…
Black Fantasy Bowie – [BudK]
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That is a nice looking knife. Cant tell if the blade is straight spine or if it has a little clip to it.
Check this out
Played with this one in paint to see how close they were.
Change the blade a little, add a handguard. Kinda a differnt look, can’t say I’ve seen a Japanese style Bowie.
Ok…that didn’t work.
Here’s the address to the pic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/sinza/photo%20gallery%20other%20makers/BlackFantasyBowie_sm.jpg
Guess I can’t put a picture in a responce.
I guess as long as you put the word fantasy in front of it, you can interpet a blade in anyway you want, however unlike the original it is. It is a nice looking blade but they ought to give it a new name.
@Jon
I got the higher resolution pic linked to the image now. Actually, the spine looks pretty flat all the way to the tip, or if anything, maybe rises a little bit. So far as the Bowie photochop, it’s an interesting look, though I think the proportions are still a little too far off. The blade is just too small. This design is such that if you could actually get the proportions right, it would look more like a Ka-Bar.
@LadyofSpiders
Yeah, I guess the word “fantasy” gives some knife makers creative license to do whatever they want, however it kinda doesn’t make sense to me to use that as an excuse to give something a name that is totally unrelated to what it is. It’s like calling a Vulture a “Fantasy Bald Eagle…” Or calling a Golden Retriever a “Fantasy Lion”. It just doesn’t work for me.
“It’s like calling a Vulture a “Fantasy Bald Eagle…” Or calling a Golden Retriever a “Fantasy Lion”. ”
Shiiiiiit, now that is funny!!!!! Oh man! Thanks for the laugh out loud!!!
I am so gonna use that!!!!
“Why no officer, this is just a ‘Fantasy Cigarette’ hahahahaha
“what do you do for a living?”"I’m a Fantasy Assassin”
I kill your dreams! oh man better stop.
Oh man! That made my morning!!
“Fantasy Bald Eagle…” Or calling a Golden Retriever a “Fantasy Lion”. It just doesn’t work for me
OMG that is funny.
Well, I think I can offer a reason as to why this is a ‘bowie’ and not a ‘tanto’. Phyre, as I am sure you have noticed (from reading your blog), a lot of designers give their blades an assortment of Japanese-sounding names to ride marketing coat-tails. Ergo, this designer has noticed this tackiness and done the complete opposite in an attempt to dodge the silliness of misnaming his blade design… and subsequently fallen straight into it.
Still looks cool though.
Irony… deciding to name a blade the complete opposite of what it is supposed to be, in order to avoid being clumped into the see of those that have been mislabeled… That is just sad…
I agree on all points. Bowies are heavy-duty hunting knives that sometimes doubled as ad hoc weapons. Tanto are daggers actually made for killing people.
It’s still a neat design, though.
Actually the interesting thing about Tantos, is that traditionally, they were made from flawed or broken Katanas… So I suppose they could have been made from a weapon that was made for killing people, but once they became Tantos, I think they kind of took on a much broader role in the the daily life of a Samurai…
Hey PB the original maker of this style knife is CRKT who do not advertise it as a bowie, more of a middle eastern jobbie. I actually own the less expensive desert tan model and it is a decent knife. Here is the link for the non folded blade. http://www.crkt.com/Hissatsu
And here is the folded blade. http://www.crkt.com/Hisshou-Fixed-Blade-KydexSheath
Hey Wartorn,
That makes a whole lot more sense! I like CRKTs stuff. Thanks for the link!
Some facts about tanto’s. The original CRKT that this is a shameless rip off of is based on a japanese tanto style called Osoraku-Zukuri.
The tip shape on just about every knife called a tanto that is made outside of Japan is NOT a tanto, it was a style invented by a custom maker by the name of Lum, then appropriated and claimed as his own by Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel.
A real tanto was used for many purposes, not just as a weapon, it was a general purpose blade of the warrior class, there as many styles of true japanese tanto as there were schools of blade making.
wartonspectre : the Hisshou is not folded steel, it’s a lot bigger than than the hissatsu.