Cold Steel Natchez Bowie

This promotional video for Cold Steel's Natchez Bowie Knife vividly illustrates the capabilities of a large blade. Cold Steel president Lynn Thompson demonstrates the knife's temper with a test often used in the 19th century--he stabs through a silver dollar without damaging its tip.

The card-cutting trick is also impressive. There are several stories of high-stakes poker games in mining towns in which a player who had to leave the room secured a good hand he had been dealt by pinning it face-down to the table with his bowie knife. I'd never heard of anyone chopping an entire deck in half, though.

Though hefty, the Natchez is well balanced and feels lively in the hand. Knife master James Keating says it is his favorite bowie currently on the market.