Bowie mania, let's see the Bowies.

[Boggs]

Doug.....


Your familiar with the saying “If it looks like a duck” so goes a knife forum when it comes to types of knives...
There are tradional areas and then it quite definite, but here we are in the General Section “It’s a duck”

 

[Dr Heelhook]

To me a Bowie knife is a bit like a cowboy hat. We all know what a cowboy hat is supposed to look like and we all also know that real cowboys in the old west probably seldom wore hats like that, but a cowboy hat is still a cowboy hat. It gets tedious when people need to keep hammering home the point that "James Bowie's knife probably looked like a kitchen knife". It's much more interesting to focus on all the knives that came later in the 19th century that were inspired by the Jim Bowie legend and that lead to all the features that we associate with a Bowie knife today.

 

[Makael]

To me a Bowie knife is a bit like a cowboy hat. We all know what a cowboy hat is supposed to look like and we all also know that real cowboys in the old west probably seldom wore hats like that, but a cowboy hat is still a cowboy hat. It gets tedious when people need to keep hammering home the point that "James Bowie's knife probably looked like a kitchen knife". It's much more interesting to focus on all the knives that came later in the 19th century that were inspired by the Jim Bowie legend and that lead to all the features that we associate with a Bowie knife today.

Nice sheath for the big bowie

 

[Makael]

Bowie? I think so. When I bought it was waaay more rusted up than the pics really showed. I almost sent it back to the seller. Instead I had a chip finish done to the blade to remove all the pitting. This is one of my favorites. Then built the sheath.

 

[HFinn]

My humble try to make a primitive bowie, glue-impregnated cord over scrap wood handle and self-made gaucho sheath. The blade came from a Ka-bar bowie.

 

[Dr Heelhook]

 

[microbe]

 

[The Zieg]

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

They don't polish easily as I recall.

Zieg

 

[BladeScout]

They don't polish easily as I recall.

Zieg

You may be right. The patina is very dark and Id imagine, it wont polish easily.
I wont even mess with it, as I quite like the patina.

 

[bikerector]

I think I need a bowie... somehow big knives look more BA with a guard.

 

[BladeScout]

I think I need a bowie... somehow big knives look more BA with a guard.

A guard is nice on some knives but I also have a fondness for the sleek elegant lines of a guardless coffin handle bowie.

 

[BladeScout]

TOPS Prather War Bowie.
Not mine though Id like one.
One of the few TOPS knives, I much care for.

 

[pjsjr]

I'll add my J. Neilson, (now MS), San Mai Bowie to the fray. 161 layer high carbon San Mai steel with a 5160 core. Nickle silver, Sambar stag and Buffalo horn.

J. did this knife for me, in 2005, before his JS, MS and fame on The History Channel's Forged In Fire. Preston

 

[BladeScout]

Noice.

 

[Man with no name]

You may be right. The patina is very dark and Id imagine, it wont polish easily.
I wont even mess with it, as I quite like the patina.

Never Dull would make it look like new if you ever change your mind.

 

[BladeScout]

Never Dull would make it look like new if you ever change your mind.

Thx.
Ill look into that but have some Renaissance Wax Polish, should I change my mind.

 

[Ebbtide]

Well, when I mentioned all the changes and differences in what was and is considered a bowie knife, I didn't say they were right

Here's one patterned after a Civil War artifact

Livesay Sand Bar Bowie #13

10" of 3/16" 1095 not a chopper by any means.
Still a brick in hand compared to the Ontario Bagwell or my 10" Damascus Evans below

FWIW, I've always considered a bowie to be 7"+ of blade, with a double guard and clip point.
With special allowances made for "the big butcher", Michael Price SF style bowies and Guard-less Coffin Handles ala James Black.
Just cuz

 

[Dr Heelhook]

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Always take this one into the woods but certainly can do double duty at the Sand Bar fight. Sterile EK Combat Bowie with Oak scales made and mounted by me. Stolen from a waiting room chair I found in the dumpster at work.

 

[StrangeDaze]

I love this knife, sometimes i wish it were slicier though