Bowies.

Keith Montgomery

Keith Montgomery

Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Bowies, about as traditional as you can get, right? What is a traditional bowie? I see so many different styles of this knife I often wonder if they are all considered traditional or are some of them thought of as modern? The original bowie styles are so different than most of what you see today. Is it traditional just because it is a bowie? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
If I close my eyes and think of the word "Knife" the picture that comes to mind is the 50's Hollywood version of the Iron Mistress. The Bowie knife I wanted most was probably the Randall #12 Smithsonian Bowie, but that's changed. What I'd rather have now is a Rezin or Searles style Bowie. Right now the closest I have is this.

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That Tomes bowie is a beauty Phil. It is a style that I find incredibly pleasing. Below is an example of a bowie style that I think is just plain ugly. I do not care for a big upsweep in a bowie blade.
 
KWM,
I think you are right on. I dislike everything about the so-called "Iron Mistress" pattern--the short deep clip, coffin handles, extra wide blade--in short, everything that many people think of as a "bowie"! :barf: Though I could make an exception for that coffin handle on yours, PhiL--nice knife!

I prefer a long shallow clip and the blade's spine in line with the handle. Jim Fister makes a pattern that I find very appealing.
 
There's an easy way for me to describe the kind of Bowies I like. Do a search on the username "Danbo" and look at all the Bowie pictures he's posted. I don't remember ever seeing one of his that I didn't drool over.:)
 
I will admit that I chose that picture as an extreme example of a bowie style that I do not like. I also do not care for the bowies with blades that are almost half as wide as they are long.

What I wonder is what actually makes up a traditional bowie. It seems to me from what I have read that many knife historians think that the knife that James Bowie made famous may have been designed based on a big Kitchen knife. Others think the idea came from the Mediterranean dirk.

It is easy to look at the Sheffield bowies and recognize that style when you see it. There are plenty of examples of these knives from when they originally appeared. People seem to be guessing at what the knives of James Bowie looked like because none of them can be proven to still exist.
 
KWM, Because no "real" Bowie exist anymore , and even the
historians can't agree on what it looked like, there will be all sorts
of attempts to make (and sell ) Bowies to the un-educated.

Like you I've seen some really fine examples of this type of
large knife. That ,I think, I what a Bowie really is today.
A larger than average ,but shorter than a sword, heavy blade
knife suitable to sustain one in the wilderness for an unknown
length of time. Great Grandpa's survivial knife if you will.

That is what makes a Bowie a Traditional knife in my book.
 
Bowies have been around so long, there are many evolutions of them.
In any given time period they will look a particular way.
Bowie No. 1 looks like a butcher knife. Years later, when Sheffield started making bowies, they began to look different (show improvements/evolution) bigger guards, sharpened clips, etc.
Skip ahead a hundred years and we have the Randall mod. 1. It still meets the basic bowie fundamentals, but looks different.

Add to that the name Bowie has become a generic (marketing) term. Kind of like "Kleenex" which is something any good marketer strives for!

Kinda like cars, they don't look anything like when I was a kid (sure miss those fins ;)) but they are still cars and still do the same basic job.
 
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