The knife is about what I expected for the $20 asking price.  What you get is a Bowie knife with an overall length of 13 inches and an 8 inch clip point blade.  The style is very much like that of a Classic Western Bowie.  As you can see, the blade swell a bit as it reaches the clip point,  The  3/16 inch thick blade is hollow ground and features a false edge on top.    It is made of 440 A Stainless Steel.   This is an older version of the knife and does not feature the blade etch.  That is fine by me.

 The knife features a full push tang that is about ¾ inch wide, 4 ¾ inches long and 3/16 in thick.  Wood slabs are on either side of the tang and are then wrapped in leather and embossed with brass pins.  The dark brown fringe on the end of the knife appears to be glued or possibly pinned to the wood slabs.

The Brass guard appears to be held snug by the wood handles but may also be epoxied.  It does not appear to be tack welded or soldered in place.

The sheath seems stiff.  The leather is okay but I doubt it is top grain. The loop is perhaps 1/8 inch thick and is dried out.  I suspect it is made of some type of reconstituted or corrected grain leather.  It seems stiff and dry.  The shiny surface does not seem natural.   The fringe on the scabbard portion is very soft and has the strength of felt.  I'm sure it will not weather well.  Despite these complaints the sheath is well stitched, and the closing strap is nicely riveted in place and holds the cross bar securily.   That said, the knife fits the sheath quite well.  Hopefully, leather moisturizers will improve the suppleness of the sheath.  For now, I’m skeptical of how long it will last in woods but it is as good or better than other leather sheaths I've seen at this price point.

The leather grip seems very soft but it is also very thin.  I’m not sure how well it will tolerate use.  When it starts to fail, I will re-wrap it with better quality leather.  For now, it’ll do.

The fringe at the hilt is very fragile and can be broken with the slightest tug.   One was broken off when the knife arrived.  I pulled another off with no effort what so ever.  That’s okay for me because I plan to remove all of the fringe on the hilt and the sheath.   However, for people who like the fringe, I think they will find this very disappointing.  As for me, the fringe on the hilt and on the sheath is what stopped me from buying this knife for several years.   I know others will like it but for me it just looks tacky!  I also think it would have been nicer if all of the leather had been the same color.

So at the end of the day is it worth the $20 price tag? Despite all the negativity I’ve written I’m going to say yes.  The knife has a strong solid build.  Yes it was made more too look at but the steel is worth the $20 price tag.   I think it is asking too much to expect top quality leather at this price point.  I’m pleased with the knife and despite its flaws it's a decent knife for $20.

Next up: I plan to modify the grip and sheath and put the knife through some paces.  I’ll update you once I’ve played with the knife for a while.  As for now, I need to find a $20 Mountain Man Tomahawk to go with a Mountain Man Bowie!  You know that leather wrapped handle with brass tacks and raw hide fringe might look good on a tomahawk!