I decided that I really didn't care for the "Kraton" rubber bumper that the Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie, I bought last Fall, was issued with - so I crafted a new handle from a stick of black/white Ebony purchased online from one of the wood vendors.
This is what I found when I cut the rubber handle apart:
The small squares of steel on both sides of the hidden tang were presumably to prevent any cross-guard movement against the rubber bumper, and the brass ferrule (since I couldn't think of a practical way to remove it, so it could be reused) went the way of the Dodo (bird
).I shaped the 1-1/2"x 1-1/4"x5" stick of Ebony to a shape that I liked & felt good - but left it a trifle too wide/thick, to allow for the saw kerf created when I sawed the stick in half, length-wise.
It didn't take too long to inlet the halves of the Ebony for the hidden tang, then attach the Ebony to the tang with glue & rivets.
IMHO, the finished product makes the bowie quite a bit more traditional than it looked with the (functional) rubber bumper.
(The sheath is from a Cold Steel Natchez Bowie that went walkabout a few years ago)
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