Testing the Timber Rattler Jungle Fury Bowie Knife (Surprising Results!)

I purchased the Timber Rattler Fury Bowie knife after the purchase of such a knife was suggested to me by a reliable source. Purchased through Kennesaw Cutlery located in Georgia – it was only $9.99.

With that said – let me go ahead and say it – I know, I know – it is a cheap knife made in a foreign country. It is not a Buck, a Gerber, a Cold Steel nor a Reeves. I knew this going in and I also knew I would get some flak for even holding such a knife.

Timber Rattler Jungle Fury bowie knife
the Timber Rattler Jungle Fury bowie knife

So – why take a gander at such a piece of steel? It is called budget survival. If someone can purchase a knife for $20.00 that will work for them rather than $100 – that is $80 that can be spent on other beans, bullets and band-aides. I am not at all suggesting that a $10 or $20 knife will last through a lifetime of daily hard use.

Above – you can see the Timber Rattler bowie ready to be put to work.  This is not a small knife. The blade alone is 10.5″ and came to be very sharp. Initial impressions with the knife was positive. Handle is hardwood and felt comfortable.

The pommel and guard are both brass. Everything was secure and nothing wobbled. The knife is big and heavy- felt rather sturdy. The sheath not so much. It is pretty thin and flimsy.

To conduct some testing I figured I would try to accelerate usage of the knife.

Above is a tree which sits at approx 5 inches in diameter. Chopping my way through this tree should expose the Rattler Jungle Fury to some decent amount of stress.

Once I started chopping away – the sharp edge took some decent chunks out of the tree.

No easy task – at this point I am most of the way through and worked my way around the perimeter. About 5 minutes worth of sweat.

Almost through…..

Checking the knife – the edge is decent – certainly not as sharp as it came out of the box.

Above – finally all the way through. Was not as difficult as I expected – took about 7-8 minutes.

Next up for the Timber is to split the log pictured below.

Log to split…..
Starting to penetrate the log…..

I placed the Timber Rattler across the top of the log and pounded the back side of the knife across the entire length to drive it into the log. I used a large stick like a club. Within no time the log split. Initially – I really “walloped”  on the knife with some decent force.

As can be seen above – success!! I went ahead and split the pieces again – great for the fire pit.


Final Report: I am pretty impressed. I really expected this knife to fall apart while I was chopping on the tree. Is it a good survival knife? It is a cheap knife that seems to be pretty sturdy. For those looking for what appears to be decent reliability and utility for a cheap price – go for it.

More tests to come……

Rourke


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10 thoughts on “Testing the Timber Rattler Jungle Fury Bowie Knife (Surprising Results!)”

  1. Great review on an inexpensive knife. I probably won’t buy one for myself as I have enough knives now. But I have 2 nephews that are just starting to get into camping and “survival” stuff. These knives may make good Christmas gifts for them.
    Also, what happened to the “things to stock up on this week” posts? Reading those made me look at and think about the things I am stocking up on. I would like to see that come back.
    Thanks,
    Kevin

    Reply
    • VTpaladin –

      Could be better. Need to sharpen it now – will update at a later time. For a $10 knife – pretty good I think.

      Rourke

      Reply
  2. Looks pretty good for a 10-spot 🙂 ONLY thing I can say negative about the design is the ‘hole’ in the blade. I learned this one the hard way – if you use the knife for butchering/food-prep/cooking, PLEASE be insanely-careful about cleaning/sanitizing (chlorine bleach) it afterwards. Otherwise, you may spend an unpleasant night in the latrine NEXT time you use it to cook. Just an FYI/heads-up to the wise 🙂 (DO be careful with the cheap, light-duty ‘Ozark Trail’ sheath knife with an intricate, hard-to-clean triangular hole in the blade, that you can find in the camping aisle at WalMart. If you lend it to one of your kids, clean the bejeebers out of it before you use it to prep your dinner.)

    Reply
    • BraneFrees –

      The $9.99 did NOT include shipping. I bought a couple of things and the shipping was slit up.

      Shipping was very reasonable.

      Rourke

      Reply
    • LJ –

      Cheap takes less typing than inexpensive.

      Either one will work.

      Used it today to split some wood – still going strong.

      Thanks – Rourke

      Reply
  3. YOu made a very informative review. I am now very impressed with the knife and plan on purchasing the Jungle Fury Knife. …. thanks again for your wonderful review, Jack Lea 🙂

    Reply

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