Purchasing a bowie knife is an excellent way to gain a powerful tool that can be used around your home, on camping trips, hunting expeditions, fishing trips or even adventure exploration. These famed knives have been in widespread use for almost 200 years and during that time, numerous modifications have been made to the original design. One of these is the blade length available. What blade length options do you have for your new bowie knife?

You will find that bowie knives come in blade sizes ranging from a compact six inches all the way up to a full two feet. This tremendous range of sizes is testament to the wide range of uses this blade design can be put to without damaging the knife. However, what size is right for you? In order to answer this question successfully, you will need to know more about your intended uses. While bowie knives are well known for their versatile nature, different blade lengths are more suited to different tasks. How do you determine what’s right?

While the smaller blades mentioned above are certainly convenient, you will find that medium length blades are the most common. These run between six inches in length all the way up to about twelve inches in length. Such a blade is the perfect bowie knife for things like skinning prey or helping around the campsite. These blades are more than versatile, which is the reason that they are so enormously popular with such a wide range of knife owners. You will also find the widest range of handle materials, handle designs, blade designs and manufacturer’s names in this size range, as well.

Midrange blades, those between eight and twelve inches, are good for a variety of different tasks. While they might not offer the same degree of control as their shorter brethren do, these bowie knives make up for it with greater versatility. In fact, you can use these as butcher knives quite easily, or to chop small sticks for the fire. Of course, you will find that these blades are not the limit to bowie knives. Larger blades do exist.

Blades larger than about twelve inches are a bit more unwieldy than smaller blades are. However, they are ideal for heavy chopping and can even be used to clear brush in a pinch. However, because of their immense size, carrying these blades can be a bit difficult though you will find that they are more than eye-catching when worn.

Dylan Sabot is the owner of an online bowie knifes store featuring the cold steel bowie knife as well as lighters for camping.