Of the several types of gaucho knives used in the past, I personally consider the most interesting type to study (especially for Bowie collectors) to be the variant known as the puñal, a knife which was widely used along the territories of what today is Argentina, as well as Uruguay and southern Brazil. This type features subtle distinctive differences of design in each of these regions. Several years ago I developed my own theory, tracing a common root in both the Bowie knife and the puñal. I don't know if this theory would be widely accepted among our leading Bowie authorities in the USA and I can't say if I'll ever be able to fully demonstrate its complete truth, but in the meantime I humbly consider and present it to our readers as an approach to the study of these most interesting types of knives - Bowies and South American puñales- taking into account their broad use during a large historical period of our countries....
The Spanish influence upon these knives is evident as soon as you compare their shape with the Belduque, Albacete and Flandes knives brought by the Spaniards to our lands. On the other hand, there is a Germanic influence too, as there were several types of knives of German origin which used the same blade shape long before the gaucho knife.
The so-called "Mediterranean Dagger" (actually a single-edge knife) is a knife which was used in Spain, Italy and France during the XVII and XVIII centuries and it is commonly shown as a probable origin of the early Bowie knives and is also probably connected to certain Genovese and Corsican fixed blade knives. As a matter of fact, we know that Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas received a very strong French and Spanish influence in those days and some early Bowies elicit a strong reminiscence of the European dagger or knife. This can be easily seen for example, in the classic lines of the knife Searles made for Rezin Bowie.
Both South American puñales and early Bowies and Spanish Mediterranean daggers can be compared with large butcher knives and actually this was the way Bowie knives were described in early documents and newspaper accounts of knife fights.
Then again, what was true in Mr Clay's time may not have been true if you were facing off against a heavily armed Elmer Keith, who I think may have coined that phrase (I'm ready to be corrected 
