“Creating a new set of knives for John Thomas Rourke proved to be a challenge,” said Bob Anderson, President of LANCER. “Both had to be small enough to carry concealed if necessary but, in Jerry Ahern's words, ‘Big enough and strong enough to hang my life on if need be.’”

Jerry and Bob agreed on the concepts for the knives: blades between five and six inches long made out of quarter-inch stock, integral guards on top and bottom, very aggressive serrations and a skull crusher at the end of the handle with a hole for a thong.

One stipulation was the grip had to be designed for both conventional thrusting and slashing as well as a reverse grip for more advanced knife fighting. Lastly, the sheath for both needed to be leather and hang from a belt in a diagonal fashion or mounted horizontally in the small of the back or set for a cross draw mode.

Jerry’s last stipulation was, "Whatever you come up with will be fine but I want them to be as alike as possible. Yes, they will be two different types of knives, but I want them to be a set." With those instructions, Bob worked up a John Thomas Rourke (JTR) brand to be placed on both blades of the set.

Each JOHN THOMAS ROURKE FIGHTING BOWIE is handmade from S35VN by Martin Knives in Caddo Mills, TX, and carries the John Thomas Rourke (JTR) brand as seen on the photo. The extremely aggressive length of the clip point combined with serrations along the top make this an unusual fighting knife, large enough to do battle, but small enough to be concealed with little effort.

Each comes with a handmade leather sheath designed for regular belt carry or can be mounted for cross draw. Handles are black Micarta and both the blade and handle is bead blasted for retention in wet conditions and to reduce reflection from the blade.

The JOHN THOMAS ROURKE FIGHTING BOWIE is available now! Visit www.LancerOnline.net for details.

Knife Specifications:

-Over All Length – 10 ¾ inches

-Width from top to bottom guard – 2 inches

-Blade Length – 6 inches with aggressive serrations on the extended clip point

-Blade Width – 1 ¼ inches

-Blade thickness – .207 inch thickness with full tang construction

-Steel – S35VN stainless with aluminum oxide finish

-Knife Weight – 6.5 ounces

-Sheath – 9.7 ounces with Martin Multi-Carry sheath system, serialized to specific knife

-Handle – 4.75? inches length

-Blade and sheath are sequentially serialized

-Handle Material – Black Micarta scales with stainless steel pins

-Skull crusher with thong hole

(JOHN THOMAS ROURKE FIGHTING BOWIE is a trademark of LANCER).