Dec 6, 2009
Can I Use My Bowie Knife as a Screwdriver?
Bowie knives are renowned for their versatility as general purpose knives. You’ll find that the blade can be used for a wide range of things, from skinning and cleaning game and fish to cleaning branches and much more. However, you will find a lot of uses that bowie knives are not suited for. These uses will not only damage your knife, but can possibly even break the blade, ruining your knife and possibly even leading to an injury, should sharp pieces of the blade come into contact with your unprotected skin.
Screwdriver – Your bowie knife is a precision tool, for all of its heft and length. However, many people simply cannot understand why you should never use a knife as a screwdriver. After all, if you can fit the tip of the blade in the slotted head of a screw, why can’t you turn it? The problem here is that your knife is a tool designed for cutting, chopping or slicing. It is not intended to do the job of a screwdriver. If you attempt to use it as such, you’ll find that you can damage the tip very easily.
Let’s look at using your bowie knife as a pry bar to get an even better feel for why these versatile knives should not be used for such tasks. When prying on something, it generally means that the item is either rather heavy, or it is jammed and stuck. While your knife might fit quite well under whatever that object might be, you can rest assured that you do not want to put the blade there. Even a small amount of pressure can actually bend the blade of your bowie knife, leading to some serious problems.
Now that you know a bit about why you shouldn’t use your knife for situations such as this, you should know a few other things. First, using your bowie knife in such a way will instantly void the warranty on the blade. As you’ve probably spent a pretty penny to purchase a high quality bowie knife, this is not a good situation to be in, particularly if an issue comes up for which you need that warranty protection.
If you do manage to bend the blade or damage the knife in some other way, and it is not covered under manufacturer warranty, you will need to find a skilled blacksmith or cutler to repair the knife for you. As these skills are not quite as common as they once were, this can be an expensive, time consuming process.
Dylan Sabot is the owner of an online bowie knife store featuring the Cold Steel bowie knife. Additionally, Dylan is also the President of an online butane lighters store.


