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“Stay ‘unreasonable.’ If you
don’t like the solutions [available to you], come up with your
own.”
Dan Webre
The Martialist does not
constitute legal advice. It is for ENTERTAINMENT
PURPOSES ONLY.
Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.
Bowen Belt Knife
A Product Review by Phil Elmore
“As the story goes,” David Pittman told me, “Back in the
Seventies, Billy Joel, the singer, was performing in Atlanta, Georgia.
He went to Blackie
Collins’ knife shop requesting a knife that he could wear on stage for
protection and he wanted it that afternoon. The result was the Bowen
Belt Knife.”
The Bowen Belt Knife, sent to me by company owner
David Pittman.
According to David, who bought Bowen Knife Company in 2002
and moved it to Magnolia, Arkansas, Blackie Collins sold the design to Bowen
because of the leatherwork involved. Today, Mr. Pittman continues to
produce the belt-buckle-shaped knife that I’ve seen advertised in knife
magazines for what must be years. When I finally acted on my curiosity,
David was more than happy to ship a sample of his work to The Martialist.
The Bowen fits into a leather slot built into the
belt itself.
The
Bowen Belt Knife is essentially a blade terminating in a square buckle.
The buckle has a single stud projecting from its face. When the supplied
belt is threaded through the buckle, the stud
mates with a metal collar in the belt and then with one of the holes on
the other end of the belt. Considering this arrangement, the belt should
not be worn by anyone whose belt forms an integral part of the structural
integrity of his pants unless it is long enough to tuck behind another belt loop. Otherwise, if your gut puts pressure on your buckle, it
will pop the Bowen out of place.
As David Pittman commented, “If the Bowen belt is the proper size (fastening in the middle hole), it is a very strong and secure belt. The belt tail does have to fit under the first belt loop of your pants.” This makes perfect sense to me; I normally wear my belts shorter than this because I don’t like a lot of excess past the buckle, so I didn’t think of it until I spoke to David.
The stud projecting from the knife makes it work like
a buckle.
The stud mates with a metal collar in the belt.
When this stud projects through the belt, it mates
with the belt holes.
What this is, then, is a clever piece of stealth gear that looks like a belt and will raise no eyebrows among even the most politically correct of crowds. For years I’d been curious
just how a knife that was a belt buckle could be at all accessible to someone
wearing it. The way the leather fits over the stud makes it easy to pop
the belt free and draw the knife. It is this ease that makes the Bowen a
poor substitute for a traditional belt if your pants don’t fit and the belt is not long enough. If the belt is long enough, it will take a little longer to unthread the belt (with practice, this isn’t long at all), but of course the whole arrangement is more secure. As in
anything in life, you must make a tradeoff. In this case, we trade for faster access according to our preferences.
Freeing the knife is a simple matter of popping the
leather belt out.
You won’t win any quick-draw competitions drawing this
knife compared to drawing a conventional pocket folder, but it’s surprisingly easy to do nonetheless. I spent a day wandering around
the house popping my belt free and pulling the blade into a push-dagger style
grip, grateful that there was no one around to wonder what
the devil I was doing.
Worn as a belt, the Bowen blends in very discreetly.
The knife is of 420 stainless for rust resistance. The
blade is just under three inches long and ships with a decent factory edge.
The curve of the buckle fits the hand fairly well, forming an ergonomic
platform against which to brace the blade. The knife is mirror polished
and displays good workmanship and attention to detail, with no rough corners
or other flaws that I can see. I used it for light utility around the
house but didn’t see any point in subjecting it to more rigorous testing.
Daily utility needs are better served with a more conventional folder, whereas
the Bowen is intended as a “hideout” tool.
Drawing the knife is easy once the stud is free of
the leather.
Belts are of steer hide stitched with Nylon thread.
They’re available in multiple styles. The knives are also available in
multiple styles, with the added plus that you can have the buckle engraved
with up to three initials. David even offers a money belt option, which
is a zippered pouch built into the inside surface of the belt.
Multiple belt styles are offered in different colors.
Bowen knives are hand-finished and all belts and buckles are
100% USA-manufactured. Each buckle can also be used as a bottle opener.
If you foresee a need to keep both a sharp blade and a bottle opener as close
as your beltline, I can’t imagine a more purpose-built knife.
The ergonomic curve of the buckle fits my hand well.
There’s a scene in the movie
Eraser in which
our hero Arnold hurls a belt buckle knife into the arm of villain James Caan.
“I can’t believe you nailed me with this mail order piece of crap!” Caan
laments. The Bowen, however, is not a cheap piece of junk.
It’s a quality piece of USA-made cutlery that, while unusual, has a specific
role to play as a discreet emergency blade.
Blades are hand-finished and mirror polished.
I couldn’t say whether Billy Joel carries one, but David
Pittman wears one every day.
He is definitely keeping the faith
in carrying on the product line.