BOWIE Knife or not?

Definitely not a Bowie.

Looks like a modified chef's knife. More for slicing than general chef knife duty. I've got a couple that look like that.
 
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Here is old one that could date to the 18th century (1700s). Perhaps it was used by Jim Bowie's grandfather. Unfortunately, I have not been able to identify the marking.

It is a 11.5" blade, up to 3" wide, and tapers from about 5/16" in thickness. The handle is riveted horn.

n2s
 

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Arathol said:
Cuchilla is the gaucho term for a large blade with a curved edge.....
Scroll down a bit.....

A Short Essay about Gaucho knives: Facón, Daga, Cuchilla and Puñal

Historic setting and classification of the types of traditional South American knives and daggers and parallels with the Bowie knife
www.vikingsword.com
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Thank You Arathol, what a fascinating read!
When It was first mentioned, South American gaucho style knife, I wondered where they got the steel!
The pin placement on Forrest knife looks indicative of pistol grip handle in English pattern/style. I dunno, just wondering.
 
riversidedep said:
Are you sure that knife and sheath originally went together?
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As sure as can be, the collection was huge, and very old. Malham was a gunsmith, and the name would have been widely recognized at that time I imagine.
From what I can gather the pattern, with this stamp, was in production from 1850. this is just an 1878 model. although Malham has been producing firearms from the early 1820's I have not been able to ascertain if he made knives "on the side" as well. the research so far is not exhaustive, just a few bits cobbled together.
 
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There really only was one Bowie knife. It is lost to time.

With the utmost respect for Jim Bowie, I have a disdain for Bowie knives in general.

Because it has been turned into a marketing term. Which I see as disrespectful to Jim Bowie.

Call a knife what it is, not what you want it to be.

This one is a flat ground spear point kitchen knife with a (mismatched?) sheath.

Anyone who calls it or any other knife a Bowie is either disillusioned or trying to add monetary value.

It would be like calling every convertible limo a JFK car.
 
eveled said:
There really only was one Bowie knife. It is lost to time.

With the utmost respect for Jim Bowie, I have a disdain for Bowie knives in general.

Because it has been turned into a marketing term. Which I see as disrespectful to Jim Bowie.

Call a knife what it is, not what you want it to be.

This one is a flat ground spear point kitchen knife with a (mismatched?) sheath.

Anyone who calls it or any other knife a Bowie is either disillusioned or trying to add monetary value.

It would be like calling every convertible limo a JFK car.
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So true. The true Bowie knife is the one at SandBar fight that was made for him. There is specific information on that knife and it's build. Including high thickness and distal taper and no clip point. Every clip point knife that came afterwards had already been around. But as you said, it was a marketing tool. At this point it is less about the man and more about a category of knives, that's all.

Now the JFK reference is a negative one, not positive one like Bowie, so I don't think they are the same. lol.
 
Here's a Gaucho camp knife that was made from a big French Dumas Lobster Splitter. It came out of a big Argentine collection a few years ago
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tltt said:
Here's a Gaucho camp knife that was made from a big French Dumas Lobster Splitter. It came out of a big Argentine collection a few years ago
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gauchlobstersplit1-3-wide.jpg
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Was there any description on the thickness of that knife. It looks huge.
 
Also, here is an excerpted page from a 1937 article on Giles Wetherill, an early custom maker. Note that the knife he made for a Paraguayan customer is essentially a German style Lobster Splitter. So these conversions were common -
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105977-Bone-aka-Splitter.jpg
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Henckels Lobster Splitter from a similar period for comparison.

[ALSO, For the Bushcraft boys - Note the knife in the sheath, and leftmost in the line up photo of the Wetherill article. That's a version of the Townsend Whelen hunting and camp knife that he made for Whelen and then offered for sale. Whelen would show versions of that pattern often in his books].
 
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Cobalt said:
Was there any description on the thickness of that knife. It looks huge.
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I don't remember for that specific knife, but it was huge. 12-14" blade 2 1/2-3" wide blade. I've handled a decent amount of the old ones, they are huge old knives 3/16" - 5/16" thickness depending on length usually. But the distal taper grinding saves them from being too unwieldy.
 
Cobalt said:
Now the JFK reference is a negative one, not positive one like Bowie, so I don't think they are the same. lol.
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I was thinking of him dieing at the Alamo more than the sandbar fight. But I see your point.

My favorite part of the story was always how he fought off the highway men in the dark on his way home. Left body parts all over the trail.

No doubt Bowie and his knife are the American version of King Arthur and Excaliber, or the Ghurkas and the Kukri.
 
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Good video above, i have also heard the original sandbar Bowie was more of a butcher type knife. In my opinion the Edwin Forrest Bowie is closest in style to the original sandbar knife. I personally like this style. After the fight, everyone wanted A KNIFE LIKE BOWIE’S, and the styles took off. Resin and Jim also had fancier ones made, maybe that is where we get the Searles style made, my second favorite design, maybe with some Spanish influences.
 
eveled said:
I was thinking of him dieing at the Alamo more than the sandbar fight. But I see your point.

My favorite part of the story was always how he fought off the highway men in the dark on his way home. Left body parts all over the trail.

No doubt Bowie and his knife are the American version of King Arthur and Excaliber, or the Ghurkas and the Kukri.
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The funny thing about the Alamo is that his only claim to fame there was that he was there and was famous by then. Think about it, he was deathly ill at the Alamo and could not really do much from his bed. At Sand Bar he actually fought a duel and won with his overbuilt butcher knife. And that made him locally famous.

The legend of Bowie shows the over exaggerated clip point knife, because the reality is not fancy or cool looking.

Interesting side note about the real heavy butcher style blade he used in the fight. The crow liver eater carried almost the exact style and size of knife that Bowie did in his fight.
 
tltt said:
Thick belt or shash, you just tuck it in -

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The stud or tab acts as a stop. Very comfortable way to wear a big knife.
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Looks like the guy in the last pic needs to pull up his pants though. Looks like the tip would be down around his knees.
 
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