Bowie question

Robdigi

Robdigi

Joined
Jan 17, 2017
Messages
98
I have several Bowies that I enjoy of all lengths and thickness,
but this question pertains specifically to Bowies in the 9.0" blade length.
I really liked big ole choppers 1/4 thick.

Recently got my hands on a 5/32 9.0" long Bowie I thought this might be pushing the boundaries to nonsensical,
for any practical reason for a 9.0" Bowie style blade this thin...other than ones own strange preferences.

Does a 5/32 Bowie make any sense...is it even considered a Bowie at that point?
BTW the one I have 5/32 is quick as a whip in hand even though 9.0"...I do like that!!
 
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Bowie is a shape. You can make it as you wish otherwise. Most large bowies are pretty thick, with 1/4" not being rare at all. On big Bowies I like 3/16".
 
If it's not going to get used for chopping wood I think that would be fine. For the sorts of things I do with a knife a bowie in 3-4mm (1/8-5/32ish) depending on length is what I would want.
Spine thickness is also only one dimension, you also have to consider blade height, grind, and distal taper.
 
ferider brings up a neat project I had a good while back.
I had a customer who was a competition BBQ judge. He wanted a very large western style knife with a stag handle to use to cut the meats they would be judging. I made him an oversize bowie in CPM-S30V. The blade was 12" long and 2.5" high. OAL was 19". It had the profile of a classic frontier bowie with a damascus "S" guard, but was only .10" at the spine. It had a crazy sharp edge. I had a welder friend make an aluminum sheath liner for it, which we covered in a Mountain Man style sheath of leather and beading. The beadwork spelled B-B-Q. In the sheath it looked like it could have been Grizzly Adam's bowie .. until he pulled it out and started slicing meat.

I might have to make another like that for myself for back-yard partied, maybe with a 9" blade. Hmmm, I have a piece of 3/16" Magnacut that doesn't have a project for it yet!
 
I am really interested what does one use a (heavy spine) bowie nowadays for (if you are not a wood chopping/grizzly killing mountainman). I always thought of it a as a collectors item where knifemakers get to show their best form, fit and finish. Can somebody enlighten me?
 
FredyCro said:
I am really interested what does one use a (heavy spine) bowie nowadays for (if you are not a wood chopping/grizzly killing mountainman). I always thought of it a as a collectors item where knifemakers get to show their best form, fit and finish. Can somebody enlighten me?
Click to expand...

- cutting wedding cakes
- curving Thxgiving turkeys
- stabbing car tires
- cleaning toe nails
- making fire when matches are lost
- shaving
- etc.
 
ferider said:
- cutting wedding cakes
- curving Thxgiving turkeys
- stabbing car tires
- cleaning toe nails
- making fire when matches are lost
- shaving
- etc.
Click to expand...
you mean when you are not wrestling with the alligators and catching mountain lions with your bare hands? :)
 
One thing that gets left out of these conversations is that almost everything the general public (and many experts) know about Bowies is based on some very inaccurate or downright fiction movies and books. Anyone who has used a forge knows the melted meteorite as seen in The Iron Mistress is a joke.

Same for the Alamo. The Texas situation and "Brave Patriots fighting to the death" protecting their homeland is based on the Alamo movie and Disney's Davy Crocket. Crocket did not die fighting. He surrendered and was executed a few months later. They were not ambushed by Santa Anna. They were advised for weeks that 6000 Mexican troops were coming and asked to leave. They stayed because the officer in charge had no battle experience and believed that the government would send thousands of troops, even though he had been told none would be coming. Despite that this has been common knowledge for nearly a century doesn't matter. Texas has had laws barring the teaching or selling of books that say anything other than the Texas Creation Myth.
From what I have read, it is doubtful that the Bowie and other knives supposedly recovered at the Alamo are real artifacts.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
One thing that gets left out of these conversations is that almost everything the general public (and many experts) know about Bowies is based on some very inaccurate or downright fiction movies and books. Anyone who has used a forge knows the melted meteorite as seen in The Iron Mistress is a joke.

Same for the Alamo. The Texas situation and "Brave Patriots fighting to the death" protecting their homeland is based on the Alamo movie and Disney's Davy Crocket. Crocket did not die fighting. He surrendered and was executed a few months later. They were not ambushed by Santa Anna. They were advised for weeks that 6000 Mexican troops were coming and asked to leave. They stayed because the officer in charge had no battle experience and believed that the government would send thousands of troops, even though he had been told none would be coming. Despite that this has been common knowledge for nearly a century doesn't matter. Texas has had laws barring the teaching or selling of books that say anything other than the Texas Creation Myth.
From what I have read, it is doubtful that the Bowie and other knives supposedly recovered at the Alamo are real artifacts.
Click to expand...
Do you have a favorite example you can share a picture of?
 
As for my favorite Bowie, it would be the Joe Musso Bowie.

Here is some info and photos for you chaps:
This thread is about the Musso Bowie - https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/joe-musso-bowie.1472862/
This has lots of photos of different Bowies - https://relentlessknives.com/newsletter0411.html


I was given the blueprint drawing in the first tread link and had it reproduced. I sent full size copies out to 20 or so fellows here. There should be a bunch of build threads based on that. Someone (Greg?) scanned it in a digital form that was scalable, and posted a link. I don't see the link now, though.
Rick Marchand's build - https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/copper-back-musso-bowie.1102897/
Another build thread - https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ursas-custom-hand-made-musso-bowie-knife-review.1613519/

Thread about the hype and lack of any proof about most "original Bowies":

Blade Magazine articles on the "Sea of Mud" Bowie

I was curious if anyone else had read the series of articles that Blade Magazine has been printing on the "Sea of Mud" Bowie and / or the fall of the Alamo in general. It was an interesting multi-issue set of articles written by James Batson that detail accounts of James Black in Washington...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
One thing that gets left out of these conversations is that almost everything the general public (and many experts) know about Bowies is based on some very inaccurate or downright fiction movies and books. Anyone who has used a forge knows the melted meteorite as seen in The Iron Mistress is a joke.

Same for the Alamo. The Texas situation and "Brave Patriots fighting to the death" protecting their homeland is based on the Alamo movie and Disney's Davy Crocket. Crocket did not die fighting. He surrendered and was executed a few months later. They were not ambushed by Santa Anna. They were advised for weeks that 6000 Mexican troops were coming and asked to leave. They stayed because the officer in charge had no battle experience and believed that the government would send thousands of troops, even though he had been told none would be coming. Despite that this has been common knowledge for nearly a century doesn't matter. Texas has had laws barring the teaching or selling of books that say anything other than the Texas Creation Myth.
From what I have read, it is doubtful that the Bowie and other knives supposedly recovered at the Alamo are real artifacts.
Click to expand...
The reports from the sand bar fight describe bowie's knife as being a large butcher knife, so we even have evidence that suggests the modern clip point knives probably don't resemble the original.
 
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