Possibly an old Sheffield Bowie, or maybe a remake, but, nicely made!...

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

Joined
Aug 4, 2013
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Well, I picked this up yesterday. I don't know it's vintage, or if the knife is a repro/remake type, but it has all the qualities of an older handcrafted Bowie. Whether it is a true Sheffield Bowie from J. Rogers & Sons when based out of 6 Norfolk St., or not, it has a truly well executed overall build.
I like it, whatever it turns out to be :)
 
The leather is in nice condition, for it's age, but age has obviously made it a little bit fragile. While everything is intact, the belt loop looks & feels like any attempt to open her up, would cause harm. Of course I have no plans to do any such deed to it, so it will stay intact for as long as I am alive and own it. Once I pass, and it moves on to another owner... Then all bets are off
 
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PocketKnifeJimmy said:



Well, I picked this up yesterday. I don't know it's vintage, or if the knife is a repro/remake type, but it has all the qualities of an older handcrafted Bowie. Whether it is a true Sheffield Bowie from J. Rogers & Sons when based out of 6 Norfolk St., or not, it has a truly well executed overall build.
I like it, whatever it turns out to be :)
Click to expand...
Beautiful purposeful bit of history.
Wonder how much it cost new and what that compared to the average working man's wage?
 
ed_is_dead said:
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Beautiful purposeful bit of history.
Wonder how much it cost new and what that compared to the average working man's wage?
Click to expand...

That would be cool to figure out... I mean the cost of one like this back when it was new, and how much that would translate in today's dollars. I find things like that intriguing.
As for now, I am going to see if I can find one that was maybe listed sometime recently online, just to get a ballpark figure on how much something like this is worth today.
It's not because I would want to sell it, but again, something I just find intriguing :)
 



She's all wiped down with a nice thin layer of oil to keep her healthy :)

I did some searching online, but did not find any hard info on this knife. I mean, yeah, I found some that had been listed that were similar, but when I clicked onto them, most were old listings with little to no info offered.

But then I figured... why not just ask the fellas here... Where better to gather up a good range of facts! :)
A couple things that I am most curious about...

*How can I tell the vintage of this specimen? I mean, I can probably find when that 6 Norfolk St location opened and closed up, but that would place it into a range of many, many decades. So, is there anything that could narrow that range down considerably more than that?

*Although I am not going to sell this knife, does anyone have a ballpark figure on what something like this goes for today?

*And, basically any tid bits you can share with me would be much appreciated... Thank you very much in advance
 
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If it is that old it would carry a lot more patina...so therefore I contend that someone has cleaned the blade and shined it up....and that causes it to stray into the " collectible value reduced paddock"....still its a beauty...may we ask where did ya get it? that might help with provenance.
 
The blade looks to have the factory finish, although some light scratching is obviously here and there. The edge even looks like it never got anything beyond it's factory applied edge. Even the leather looks really good, besides what it likely received here and there from whatever storage it has seen over the years, (like in drawers being moved about and such), which also likely helped in protecting the blade. I don't believe this knife seen much, if any use at all. That likely explains it's overall condition. The only area I see that it got "cleaned", and it is very minor, is on a dark spot that likely had become red rust, and somebody at some point tried reversing it before the damage went too far. Whoever did it, didn't go crazy on it, and it is obvious that the small spot was his or her only focus. It does have some minor age spots/freckles, but nothing serious at all.
I imagine that this will be how much of my collection will be found when I pass... Well stored, well maintained, and in minty overall condition. I looked it over real well, and she doesn't look tampered with. Just a knife that wound up being stored away, more than anything else.
I believe the gentleman I purchased it from is one of those guys that has his hands in knowing whenever people pass away, and then he makes offers on buying what he can from the deceased person's family. He often comes up with some good stuff, but he is still a bit old school, and prices things off the top of his head. That can be good or bad... In this case, it wound up being good for me.

This video is probably about a half hour or so long, but it is an awesome coverage of Bowie knives up until the 1870 period.
One can see many quality Sheffield Bowie knives in pretty minty condition. The polish applied to a quality Bowie was usually very much a high polish, which not only looked nice, but more importantly, it helped in keeping the blade from rusting, (they were, of course, carbon steel blade knives). Anyhow, it's a great documentary of Bowie knives of Jim Bowie era and beyond :)

 
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