18.5" Primitive Bowie Knife, 13" Long High Carbon Steel Blade with Leather Sheath

It's hard to find a long yet lightweight, wide-bladed yet acutely pointed, traditional yet functional design, reasonably-priced yet high-quality Bowie knife in commercial production these days. And this Primitive Bowie by Windlass Steelcrafts fits the bill.The blade is 13" long, 3/16" thick, and polished to a mirror finish. The taper of the blade from spine to point and from spine to edge is artisanally crafted, with the rippled texture (when held under angled lighting) indicative of a hand-forged process. A brass strip has been bent over the spine of the blade raising the overall thickness to 1/4," and is secured tightly by both friction and epoxy. The edge is like a massive straight razor, and the point exceeds even those of my Fairbairn-Sykes and V-42 daggers in acuteness, piercing through any organic material with frightening ease.The guard is a generously-sized S-curve of brass, with a brass collar joining it to the smooth, contoured hardwood handle. The profile is surprisingly slim for a knife of this size, being not much thicker than 3/4" at its thickest point of handle or guard (when viewed from the top or bottom).There is no indication of a full tang, but the construction and balance of the weapon definitely scream "functional" rather than mere display, a test that only time and use will prove.Speaking of balance, the weapon moves with great deftness, agility, and presence, whether leading by edge or point. This is a classic cut-and-thrust blade.Now, the fatal flaw of this product lies not in the knife but the sheath. While the leather sheath, with its deceptive good looks and aesthetic, appears to be high-quality at first, its functionality speaks otherwise. If left in the sheath for more than a mere 30 minutes at a time, the tanning chemicals and/or moisture trapped within the inside of the leather begin to corrode the painstakingly mirror-polished blade, several specks of hard, gritty rust at a time. After various failed attempts at a solution, I finally gave up and fabricated my own out of thick cardboard, solving the corrosion problem completely.As a side note, the belt frog of the sheath is merely glued on with a weak glue, such that I could pull it apart with light/moderate finger strength alone.Another side note is that even excluding the previous two problems, the tip cuts into the stitches of the sheath, even when drawing/resheathing very carefully, indicating a poor fit and a potential safety hazard as well.Overall, a terrific knife worthy of its price point, with a comparably faulty sheath. One would have to go custom for a similarly-designed knife of better quality.