2 from Joel Bolden

Ebbtide

Ebbtide

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Joined
Aug 20, 1999
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JCBpair.jpg

A pair of Joel's Baby American Bowies.
Both have 154CM with 4 3/4" distal taper blades.
Heat (& cryo) treated by D'Holder to Rockwell C of 60-61..
LOA is 9 1/2"
(the wide angle lens on my P&S camera makes the closer knife look bigger)

The knife in the back sports stabilized curly maple (with copper & copper mosaic pins), copper bolsters (with N/S pins).
The blade is 3/32" stock.

The knife in front is made of thicker 1/8" stock. The bolsters are bronze with copper pins. The handle material is "J-Carta" Joel's selfmade version of micarta...these made with denim, 22 layers thick. The pins are bronze and bronze/copper mosaics.

JCBpair2.jpg


Convex edges make these two cutters that beg to be used.
Now all I have to do is get that first mark on the mirror finished blades ;)
 
I'll answer this Ebb, since I made them. These are my Baby Bowie models. They're a slightly minaturized version of Resin Bowie's Coffin handle bowie design. While the knife that his brother carried at the Natchez Sandbar fight is still unknown, as is the one he wore at the Alamo(although there are a number of conflicting claims), this one is well documented. Resin had a number of these made by a variety of craftsmen and presented them to various military/congressional/prominent business men of the day. Many of them have inscriptions etched on the blades with various names/dates. The major difference, besides the use of modern materials is that I didn't put a swedge on the blade like the original had. Don't care for them, and these are ground with a lot of distal taper, and are quite thin at the point to begin with. The 4 3/4 inch blades are a lot handier and closer to the true Resin Bowie designs than some of the mammoth creations floating around. According to a Blade article several years ago, Resin Bowie's daughter was interviewed in the late 1800's and stated that her father designed the knife as a hunting knife. A number of surviving bowies from that early period and in this style have blades around 6 inches, which isn't much more than what these are. As the legend of the Natchez sandbar fight and Jim Bowie grew, so did the size of the knives. Resin himself also commissioned larger blades from makers such as Searles and of course many makers, plus the English got on the bandwagon.
 
They should; seeing as how I used that bowie as my first model:) . The same Blade article I mentioned above had a full length photo of that Bowie, which I believe was from 1849. I had posted some pics here at the Makers forum of those a bit over a year ago. I still, however, wanted that really great design in something that could be an everyday EDC, and these are the end result.
 
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