Bowie mania, let's see the Bowies.

[katanas]

BladeScout: what a bunch of crappy knives , they look like they have been USED, disgusting .

 

[Icky Thump]

Man, nice knives... love the 225Q!

Thanks, Aias! Found that beautiful example here on the board from a great member.

.been a the hunt for some time..Fantastic knife.

Nice hoard, BladeScout

 

[Aias]

Nice! A 124 has been on my short list for a while--how do you like it?

 

[SteelJunkee]

One Foot, One Pound, Full Convex

 

[Arian29]

Nice! A 124 has been on my short list for a while--how do you like it?

Thanks,
124 is my favourite, am very happy to have it

 

[BladeScout]

Lon's knives are truly exceptional. That's a beauty

Thx
I quite like his Gunfighter Bowie as well.

Very nice! I have one that has since been re-handled... makes a great field knife. I'll likely pick up another and keep it 'historic.' Here is the modified one... after I did it I felt like I committed something a little horrible, but the tang was very badly rusted.

Yes and no. On one hand its a historic knife, on the other hand, your knife had a badly rusted tang. I suspect, several of mine does as well. Ive treated the washers on those which could be saved but of course didnt have a chance to look at the tang.
Further more, they made a gazillion of these.
I draw the line at the company, which systematically bought these and modded them beyond reqognition IIRC - there is no need to make an assembly line deal out of it.
Not a bad rehandle.
Nice to see the old warhorses being used.
I still use one or two of my 225s.

Could we see the sheath please ?

Sure

BladeScout: what a bunch of crappy knives , they look like they have been USED, disgusting .

The horror ..., the horror!





Actually using knives - what an alien concept!!

Nice hoard, BladeScout

Thx.
Here a crappy pic of a few more

 

[BladeScout]

Old school Gerber.

 

[BladeScout]

EK

 

[Dr Heelhook]

Old school Gerber.

I always liked this knife. The guard and the handle are really cool.

 

[BladeScout]

Yeah. Big fan of coffin handles.
Ive refrained from polishing the guard; it has a heavy dose of patina and looks great up close.

I always liked this knife. The guard and the handle are really cool.

 

[Legendary_Jarl]

As the Bowie knife itself has 'transmogriffed' from a very simple butcher knife to the fantasy Musso knife - and a multitude of very different knives in between (some small, some XL) - I personally have no problem with 'small Bowie knives' falling within the Bowie catrgory. Just my opinion


Much is lost to history and there is so much obfuscation regarding the subject, so many different takes, stories and terms are thrown in the ring.
Take the 'Arkansas Toothpick.' It used to be an alternate name for a Bowie knife but most knife afficinados think of a needle point dagger, when they hear 'Arkansas Toothpick' today.

Bowie and Bowie /Bowie and Arkansas Toothpick.

Random pic.

"Toothpick"?!? That's a short sword you got there lol. Pretty cool.

 

[BladeScout]

"Toothpick"?!? That's a short sword you got there lol. Pretty cool.

Neither of those two are mine - as stated, its just a random pic to illustrate my point but yes, they are behemoths.
Food for thought, that blades of that size was dragged off the War Between the States ... before being discarded as being to cumbersome.

 

[Hickory n steel]

One Foot, One Pound, Full Convex

love that blade, you rarely see a full convex on anything more than a slipjoint.
It's a great blade profile.

 

[marcinek]

love that blade, you rarely see a full convex on anything more than a slipjoint.
It's a great blade profile.

I would be curious to know some examples of slipjoints that come stock with a full convex (Opinel?), or even a flat grind with a convex edge for that matter.

Certainly plenty of fixed blades come with a convex edge (BRKT, Fallkniven) and many customs/midtechs come with a full appleseed. Here's one! A Mike Malosh of mine.

Full convex.

 

[marcinek]

Here's another of mine...a clip point with a sharpened clip and a guard...really stretching even the "liberal" Bowie definition

It's convex saber ground. A Northwoods from the days when Ol' Dave Shirley was still with us. Passed in about 2010 I believe and Derrick Bohn @ KSF (also, sadly, no longer with us) subsequently bought the name.

 

[Douglas Wever]

A few people argue on here that anything and everything short of wood bladed knives are Bowie’s and that is now what is posted. I’m not baiting for an argument, I would like merely to offer some food for thought.

Depending on the point in time in history and even the part of the world, you can and have argued in this thread for everything, even folders as Bowies, and legitimately so (although many published descriptions say fixed-blade including the very first sentence of the lengthy non-authoritative Wikipedia article that quotes in large quantities from well respected works).

Here is the point, maybe it is possible in this thread’s vast spectrum of what a Bowie is to recognize that there is a median representation of what most people think of regarding the Bowie knife. The common use definition understood by most people: “Any large sheath fixed blade knife with a cross guard and a clip point.” “Basically a short sword with a handle.” Peterson, Howard L. (1958). American Knives; The First History and Collector's Guide. Highland Park, N. J.: Gun Room Press. p. 26. He also notes that four definitions of "Bowie" knives had supporters by the mid-20th century. Blade length, sheaths, and clipped blades were most common in each camp.

As former state LE in Alabama, we had a specific law around ‘Bowie’ carry, but that law did not provide a definition. However, we do have historical record for the reason for this law. When it was passed in the late 19th Century, the legislation was trying to stem the tide of Bowie duels in the State; and, none of the duels being fought with Bowie knives were diminutive knives, they were big substantial knives like a modern Randall Smithsonian at least with respect to size. It is very interesting that legislation more often than not includes very precise legal definitions; however, a definition of Bowie knife is not in that legislation and was not considered necessary because everybody knew very specifically what a Bowie knife was as mentioned by name in the law (later case law did define Bowie). I also served the active USAF at home and overseas and drilled with infantry and signal in the Florida Army National Guard and saw no small amount of Randall’s which were colloquially but not technically referred to as Bowie’s, of which I own three, one Model 14 from 1982.

So I’d just like to suggest this thread has dealt broadly, too broadly, with a knife pattern that is a bit more tightly understood in spite of all the citations that may be historically accurate but fall well outside of common usage and understanding, even perhaps among knife enthusiasts. William Kennedy in his 1841 work regarding the Rise of Texas noted that the Bowie had a blade around around 9.25 inches (23.5 cm) long and >=2.0 inches (4.2cm) wide with a cross-guard to protect the user's hands. A Bowie "must be long enough to use as a sword, sharp enough to use as a razor, wide enough to use as a paddle, and heavy enough to use as a hatchet.”

 

[SteelJunkee]

Snagged from Wikipedia.

"The historical Bowie knife was not a single design, but was a series of knives improved several times by Jim Bowie over the years. The earliest such knife, made by Jesse Clift at Bowie's brother's request resembled Spanish hunting knives of the day, and differed little from a common butcher knife. The blade, as later described by Rezin Bowie, was 9.5 in (24 cm) long, 0.25 in (0.64 cm) thick and 1.5 in (3.8 cm) wide. It was straight-backed, described by witnesses as "a large butcher knife", and having no clip-point nor any handguard, with a simple riveted wood scale handle.

Most later versions of the Bowie knife had a blade of at least 8 inches (20 cm) in length, some reaching 12 inches (30 cm) or more, with a relatively broad blade that was an inch and a half to two inches wide (4 to 5 cm) and made of steel usually between 3⁄16 to 1⁄4 in (4.763 to 6.350 mm) thick. The back of the blade sometimes had a strip of soft metal (normally brass or copper) inlaid which some believe was intended to catch an opponent's blade while others hold it was intended to provide support and absorb shock to help prevent breaking of poor quality steel or poorly heat treated blades. (A brass back is an indication of modern construction.) Bowie knives often had an upper guard that bent forward at an angle (an S-guard) intended to catch an opponent's blade or provide protection to the owner's hand during parries and corps-a-corps."

Wikipedia describe a Bowie as.

Type Fighting knife
Place of origin Arkansas, U.S.
Designer Rezin Bowie
Designed 1830
Produced Since 1830
Length 12 to 30 in
Blade length 5 to 24 in
Blade type Clip-point


That Brings the Bowie term to a wide variety of knives tho.

 

[marcinek]

As former state LE in Alabama, we had a specific law around ‘Bowie’ carry, but that law did not provide a definition. However, we do have historical record for the reason for this law. When it was passed in the late 19th Century, the legislation was trying to stem the tide of Bowie duels in the State; and, none of the duels being fought with Bowie knives were diminutive knives, they were big substantial knives like a modern Randall Smithsonian at least with respect to size. It is very interesting that legislation more often than not includes very precise legal definitions; however, a definition of Bowie knife is not in that legislation and was not considered necessary because everybody knew very specifically what a Bowie knife was as mentioned by name in the law (later case law did define Bowie). I also served the active USAF at home and overseas and drilled with infantry and signal in the Florida Army National Guard and saw no small amount of Randall’s which were colloquially but not technically referred to as Bowie’s, of which I own three, one Model 14 from 1982.

So I’d just like to suggest this thread has dealt broadly, too broadly, with a knife pattern that is a bit more tightly understood in spite of all the citations that may be historically accurate but fall well outside of common usage and understanding, even perhaps among knife enthusiasts. William Kennedy in his 1841 work regarding the Rise of Texas noted that the Bowie had a blade around around 9.25 inches (23.5 cm) long and >=2.0 inches (4.2cm) wide with a cross-guard to protect the user's hands. Put that filter on this thread and we lose a lot of nice pictures.

Thanks for your service. Not sure how that makes one an expert on Bowie knives.

That said, of course you are welcome to disagree with the definitions of members here who have posted their pictures of their Bowies. Coming into a thread where people are showing off the Bowies they are proud of, and saying they are not Bowies, and that those members need to do more research...of course you are welcome to do that also.

 

[Douglas Wever]

Thanks for your service. Not sure how that makes one an expert on Bowie knives.

That said, of course you are welcome to disagree with the definitions of members here who have posted their pictures of their Bowies. Coming into a thread where people are showing off the Bowies they are proud of, and saying they are not Bowies, and that those members need to do more research...of course you are welcome to do that also.

I'm not saying I'm an expert on Bowies. I am not. My service is anecdotal to the subject and hardly a body of expertise. Nor am I saying any of the pictures that are posted are not Bowies. Again, I stipulate that the pictures on this thread very well may be Bowies as I also first stipulated in paragraph two of my post you are referring to.

Instead, I am saying only as "food for thought" that there may be available to us a common usage definition of a Bowie that may not be as broad as the definitions that may take specialized and sometimes obscure knowledge, but may not resonate with what is commonly thought of when we talk about a Bowie.

I am not expressing disapproval of the fine knives on this thread, I'm proud of my Randall Model 1-7 and me not thinking it is a Bowie doesn't take anything away from that. I'm just saying there may be reason to feel the label Bowie has at times been too liberally applied. But I may be dead wrong, and I'm not trying to go round on this.

 

[SteelJunkee]

When i was young i asked my grand father what was a Bowie ? And he answered "A large Clip-Point Knife", I replied "what`s a Clip-Point ?"

But today it seems that this definition is not true anymore.

The Shadow Tech Knives Backup Bowie, OK i can deal with that.

The Spyderco Bill Moran Bowie, Huh?

and The Fred Perrin Le Bowie Fixed Blade Knife, Yeah sure.

Now these babies are small 6 - 8 inches...
So the definition tends to go back to "Clip-Point Knife" alone. This would suggest posted pics on this tread are all indeed Bowie knives.

Keep them coming, I love Bowies.