As to a style of small fixed blades carried historically by cowboys I don't know of any specific style. I do know that on the trail, bowies/larger type fixed knives were carried but as Cushing mentioned more as a camp knife and a backup weapon. A large fixed blade in day to day ranching activities is cumbersome and dangerous horseback, especially during those unexpected, unintentional dismounts. Even today ya just don't see large fixed blades very often and almost never in a vertical style sheath. I do know folks, packers, guides, outfitters that do carry large knives. Often these are attached to the saddle. But they can ain’t cowboying. Historically, here in California, early Vaqueros carried a punal but this was a larger type dagger or fixed blade. This was carried in the boot. Besides its use as a weapon, the California cattle industry was based around hides (California dollars) at the time not meat. Large groups were herded together and dispatched by the vaqueros riding amongst them and stabbing them in the poll (where the head joins the neck). This dropped them instantly and they would ride on killing another.
Regarding bull cutters as a ranch knife. Depends where ya are, they are very regional. Not something you see around here. The only one I've ever seen used, I made. Lots of that is due to how cattle are processed in different areas. Not particularly a practical design for general use as they are designed for well...... cutting bulls, hence the name. Specifically, a castration blade for turning bull calves into steer calves. Here's a lil deal I did on em a while back:
I make cowboy knives, its what I do. Around Christmas time I'd received several requests to build an old style knife pattern known as a blunt nose castrator, or in the vernacular a "nutter". Honestly, I didn't really want too. They were kind of foreign to the traditions I know growing up in the...
www.bladeforums.com
To show ya how regional I didn't really know they existed until a few years ago, bout the time of that post.
The de facto "Cowboy Knife" in these parts and the west in general has been the two bladed trapper made by all the usual suspects that make those. Case, Moore Maker, Schrade etc. I think this is mostly due to the safety issue of carrying a folder horseback over a fixed blade. 30 years ago or so, I started seeing a lot of folks starting to carry small fixed blades. Folks were trying to come up with a safe way of carrying these horseback. One guy had me sew a regular sheath to the leg of his chaps. Didn't work real well. Ya started seeing lots of different kinda ab lib ways to carry a small fixed blade.
More later, out of time this morning, more cowboy stuff to do.
