Repro EK Bowie Knife

I have plenty daggers, such as Gerber Mk II, and the Applegate/Fairbairn.  I passed by the EK "dagger" because I have plenty of such.

I have come to appreciate the sharpened, upward-swept tip on bowie knives when used in the backstroke.  EK bowie comes with adequately sharpened edge, but "false" edge is not sharpened, nor is the tip "upswept".  Only takes maybe an inch or so to be sharpened to be effective in backstroke, and while NO expert, that is at least HALF of knife-fighting, because opponent often fails to realize the backstroke is often more dangerous than the forehand stroke.

Plastic Scabbard secures the hilt of the knife adequately, and Kbar offers some inexpensive plastic belt loops for it for about $14.  On order, so no opinion.

Balance point of knife is about 1" behind the guard, which makes it a bit "blade-heavy" which is not optimal, IMHO.  Removing metal from "false edge" to provide a "recurved false edge" and then sharpening it is likely to make the knife better balance, and far more useful as a fighting knife.  Such mods, if not taken to extremes will not impede this knife from being a useful field tool.  Rather long plastic scales of hand grips are surprisingly well-fitted to my size Large hands.  I understand that ancient WW II knives came with sandpaper for user to "adjust" wooden handgrips.

Full-tang, and exposed/rounded rear tang/pommel with lanyard hole.  Some folks might want to "sharpen" the pommel, and that's possible.

Contacted KBar, and they do not sell spare handgrips nor unique screws for the EK handgrips.  Use an appropriate very wide-bladed screwdriver and cut an appropriate slot in the blade to engage the cross-slotted fasteners and use a properly fitting wide-bladed screwdriver to engage the screw-heads on the other side of the handle.  Easy to do with a careful application of Dremel cutting wheel.  Easy to see what is needed, once one sees the unique fasteners.

A well-known You-tube knife channel has panned the Model 5 for having the guard come loose after some chopping and other "semi-abuse" for which the knife was not originally intended, but IMHO, he has a legit gripe that the knife should be capable of withstanding such abuse.  Being able to use proper tools to "adjust" the horizontal position of the plastic handguards will likely solve this potential issue, but no mention of this being attempted by YouTube reviewer.  For that matter, as one person suggested, emplace some very stout epoxy between the plastic handles and the metal guard, OR wrap some plastic fishing line between metal guard AND plastic scales grips will serve.

BTW, "Expert" YouTube reviewer was "reminded" in "Comments" that Ek knives originally were designed to have removable cross-guards.  I'd never do so with a "thrusting" dagger, since hitting bone and having NO decent guard to prevent one's hand from slipping forward on the blade is obviously a potentially injurious situation.

I'm a "fixit" kinda guy, and this fairly minor guard issue is fixable in a number of ways.

The KBar version of the EK Bowie knife is a decent item, especially if one sharpens the "false edge" for about an inch or so from the tip.

That said, even this very decent knife is as NOTHING compared to a Bagwell "Hells Belle" Bowie.

Simply NO comparison.  You'll need to feel difference in your hand to appreciate the difference. The Helles Belle Bowie "wants" to cut something.  In my personal experience, nothing like it for a "fighting knife".

I paid $400 for a "NIB" OKC "licensed" repro of a Bagwell Hell's Belle Bowie.  I consider myself lucky to have found it. Normally I "question" folks who say, "You have to "experience" such-and-such an item to understand how well it is made/designed", but in this case, it's actually true.