'80's era John M. Smith Bowie.

RMLamey

RMLamey

Joined
Nov 13, 1998
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Here is one you dont see every day, 80's vintage John M. Smith Bowie. The blade is 9-3/4" long x 1-1/2" wide x 5/16+" thick, W2, very keen/thin edge, and sharp clip.

As most folks here know John was among the best of the "Bowie" makers of the 80's, 90's. While simple they were very well finished, keen in both point and edge, and just felt "right" in the hand. This one is no exception as it arrived sharp, even though it had been rolling around in a sock drawer for 25 years or so.

Its the little things you cant see in the photo that I like most.. dead perfect plunge lines, wicked keen edge, textured guard etc.

Someday I want to find a later era one, early/mid 90's, with the very angular clip and almost dagger like tip.

A few quick pics, and maybe a trip down memory lane for a few of you.
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John made a heck of a great bowie and that is a very fine example - congrats!

Roger
 
thanks Roger, im still on the search for one of the later ones. At one time I had a photo John sent me of about 1/2 dozen 11" bladed Bowies laid out on a table, all with that real aggreassive clip/tip... thats the type im hoping to find.
 
Never heard of him, but that looks very well made. If only it had a spacer before the guard!
 
Matt a great blast from the past from one of the more famous Bowie makers of the time

is this knife yours
 
Jonathan, they are beyond well made, and although you may have never heard of him he probably made the steel in some high end knives that youve drooled over ;)

Even being 25+ years old this Bowie has better edge geometry then most being made today. The clip is also sharp, as in it will cut you, and the clip/tip angle is thought out for the back cut, like I said... little things. Some of his later stuff was "fancy" as well, but i like the simple "business" like Bowies that he made.

He was a very talented 'smith and still does some fantastic art work in copper and other materials. For what ever reason he pretty much dropped out of knife making in the mid/late 90's, which is unfortunate as he was really hitting his stride during that time. I occasionally swap emails with him, awaiting one with info on this knife.

edited to ad- yes Joe its sitting right here by me now.
 
Timeless looking knife. If you were to post it as your own I'd believe it. Reminds me of a Bagwell kinda.
 
I remember lusting after the one in Greg Walker's Battle Blades book. That one is very similar to it.

Nice find:cool:
 
Petah, John worked with Bill for a while in the early 80's, hence the similar styling. When I first started forging knives in the mid 90's I had many conversations with John. I always admired his work.
 
I really don't know much about the history of knife makers other than Fikes. Ah... but that is another thread.
 
Very clean Bowie. I remember that Les had a few of John's more fancier (Inner City) Bowies up for sale on his consignment website (that isn't active anymore I believe) a while back. Really cool stuff!! Here is a link to some earlier discussion about John: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=334186

I happen to have a folder made by Doug Casteel for which John made the damascus steel. And a very well executed piece of steel it is!!!

Marcel
 
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Very nice. John's work was some that inspired my early on and I have noticed that you occasionally favor that aggressively dropped clip like he did. I have done one or two like that also.;) He also kind of went against the flow at the time and used the "sculpted" guard that we are quite familiar with today thanks to guys like Don Hanson and Russ Andrews among others, instead of the oval plate guard that you saw on many of the bowies from that era. I remember seeing at least one each of the Inner City fighter in carbon and damascus that had single bout hunter type guards, but I don't know how many(or all perhaps) were made that way.
 
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Crossada- thats where I also first saw Johns Bowies, the old "Fighting Knives" magazine. There was a photo or 2 with his ph # and I called, had many informative conversations about steel types, forging, heat treat etc.

I learned alot from those conversations and along with the fact that I just plain like the way his Bowies looked definitely influenced my work.

Joe, ive seen a couple of yours that were also obviously influenced by John, and were very well executed by you.

If anyone else (M.Starr) has some photos of JM Smith Bowies please email them to me if you dont mind at matt@lameycustomknives.com
 
Very sweet Bowie. I've been a huge fan of John's work since Bagwell wrote about him in SOF in the late 80's. You really have to handle an Inner City Bowie to appreciate how fantastic they are.
 
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