Bowie?

[meshmdz]

this may seem like a stupid question but iw as wondering, where does the word bowie in bowie knife come from and what does "bowie" mean?

 

[psycho78]

Look up Jim Bowie in an internet search. He is an American hero who fought at the Alamo, who carried a large fixed blade knife made by Arkansas smith James Black. Pretty much any large fixed blade knife is referred to as a "Bowie knife", after Jim Bowie's legendary blade.

 

[Rat Finkenstein]

Most knives people call "Bowie" knives are just clip points. Maybe it sounds cooler or something. A bowie knife is a Large fixed blade, often with a sharpened clip point for back cuts.

 

[psycho78]

Is it true that no one really is sure what style of knife Bowie carried? The original sketch by his brother shows somethin like a large kitchen knife...or like something that resembles a Searles style Bowie knife.

The Joe Musso bowie (supposedly the original), the large clip point knife with the brass back is even questionable.

 

[Rat Finkenstein]

I think Big Ugly Tall Texan exhausted the topic of what a "real" Bowie is, but IMO, there is far too much useage of the word- especially when describing small folding knives.

 

[timmberman]

"Advanced Bowie Techniques" by Dwight C. McLemore. This book is very current and teaches the finer points of fighting with a large knife.

I been going thru this book for weeks and it has a vast amount of information.

Highly recommended.

regards,
Timmberman

 

[meshmdz]

thanks men

 

[Phil Brown]

...IMO, there is far too much useage of the word- especially when describing small folding knives.

Definitely. I've heard some people use "Bowie-style" interchangeably with clip point. Webster's defines it as:

A stout single-edged hunting knife with part of the back edge curved concavely to a point and sharpened.
​

The ambiguation of this term is a serious problem when you consider its use in certain knife laws. For instance, from the Code of Alabama, Section 13A:

...a person who carries concealed about his person a bowie knife or knife or instrument of like kind or description... shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $500.00, and may also be imprisoned in the county jail or sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more than six months.
​

With an expanded definition of bowie knives, any sizeable clip-point folder could be considered "of like kind or description." So my legal folder today could be an illegal weapon tomorrow.

 

[meshmdz]

yea that is a terrible law... because bowie can be anything right?

 

[Ebbtide]

"I want a knife like Bowie's"

Search for Big Ugly Tall Texan's bowie thread here and in Bernard Levines subforum.
Plenty of reading there.

As far as Bowie's actual knife...from what period of his life?
At the Sandbar near Natchez it was described as a big butcher knife.
At the Alamo?
No one knows.
In the years between the duel and the Alamo, no one is sure.
But I'll bet a sawbuck that he had more than one

For me, nowadays, it means a large fixed blade knife with a minimum 8" blade all the way up to 12" maybe 14".
With a clip point and meduim to large double guard.

Also check out Norm Flayderman's book

 

[Keith Montgomery]

There are some experts that think the Musso bowie was actually made more than a hundred years after Bowie died. They think it was made based on the knife in the book and movie, The Iron Mistress.

It is thought that Bowie had knives made by many of the top cutlers of his day. Searles, Schively, Black (there is still a debate as to whether Black ever even made any knives). His brother Rezin definitely had many great knives made over the years.

 

[jimbowie]

The knife that Joe Musso has, has been tested and it is circa 1820's, and on the guard it says JB, and it was made around where Bowie lived, and probably made by James Black, which might be what the JB is for.

 

[Bors]

The Edwin Forest knife is believed to be the knife used in the Sandbar Duel altho no actual documentation exists. The knife was presented to Edwin Forest (a popular actor) by Bowie along with a letter.The letter was lost in a fire but the knife survived. Anyway it fits well with some of the discriptions and knife designs of the time. The blade is ~12 inches long and ~1/4 in thick.




Bors

 

[GibsonFan]

You think "Bowie" is open to interpretation? Check any thread on "survival" knives.

 

[Cougar Allen]

 

[Cougar Allen]

On second thought, we've decided this thread is more general Blade Discussion after all, so I'm moving it back. People who are interested in 19th century bowies might find better info in The Bernard Levine Knife Collecting and Identification Forum, though.

 

[FullerH]

The thing is that Jim Bowie and his brother, Rezin Bowie, were knife fans just as most of us are and they both had several knives over their lives, apparently. Rhetorical question: How many knive have you? Think about it and then remember that giving someone a really nocely done knife as a business present was not considered at all amiss in the culture of the Old Southwest. It becomes very easy to see how there could be an awful lot of knives around that "Bowie owned."

We do know that Rezin, at least, gave some away. And I know that I have given knives to friends, even in this P.C. day and age. So it is quite reasonable to see there being a number of them around.