So last year one of the Conservation Officers in the Kootenay Area of British Columbia was called out to deal with a cougar had broken into some homes, the CO was attacked by the cougar that turned out to be very emaciated and sick. He did not have his sidearm on him at the time and ended up dispatching the cat with a folding knife. With this in mind a friend who is also a Conservation Officer for the province of British Columbia wanted me to make him a fixed blade knife for when he is out chasing after dangerous wildlife. In chatting with him he wanted something that he would be able to strap on his belt that would be easy to carry and deploy in the event that things went sideways. Since most cougars and wildcats around here are fairly thin skinned this did not need to be super beefy or long. He wants something with a double guard and around 5 inches of blade length as the vitals are not very deep on a cougar. I went to work and came up with the knife below. It is a d2 blade with stacked micarta for the guard/top half of the handle and ebony wood for the lower section. I was trying to go with something that would provide good grip and prevent the hand from sliding up onto the blade while still being small enough to be comfortable to carry. As was related to me when the CO's go after a cat they usually dump most of their gear except for their pistol, magazines and a knife as they use hounds to tree the cat and need to shed as much weight as they can to keep up with the dogs. So with all of that being said I thought that I would put it out there to the community to see if any of you see any design elements that could be tweaked or changed to improve on the design. Thanks in advance Grayden aka g dub
I don't know much about fighting cats (not the big kind, anyway) but it looks efficient. The only thing might question is the grip on the handle. I'd want to some testing to make sure it doesn't slip or twist in the hand, especially when wearing gloves.
Also not an authority in art of Feline gladitorial combat sports but, this looks to be a winner. It just says "let me stab somethin". Nice handle.
When I was in Zimbabwe, Mom told the PH that she was keeping her knife next to her bed in case a lion came into her tent. His reply was "Good. If a lion comes in, grab your knife and stab yourself quickly!". YMMV.
