Does anybody carry a traditional bowie in the field?

[akabu]

When it feel's that way its a Keeper

 

[HighDesertWalker]

I like the extra-wide style Bowies. If you look at a Bowie, you'll see, they generally have a fairly fine tip. The extra-wide ones allow you to easily grab the blade itself to choke up close to the tip for fine work.

Closest thing I have to a traditional Bpwie is the HI Cherokee Rose:

I been a wantin one of those. Haven't scored yet.

 

[ArchAngel]

I love large bowies! They are right up there with khukuris for me. Even a huge 18" bowie designed more for chopping than slicing duty can be pressed into kitchen duty if well reprofiled and sharpened, and still chop wood for the fire if needed. One of my favorite bowies for shear mass and style is a MMHW bowie I keep in my truck door for limb clearing when off the beaten path in my F-150. I was at a Christmas party/dinner last year and there was not a sharp knife in the house I was visiting to cut the turkey with. All eyes turned to me to try and steel a blunt knife to razor sharpness. No way it would work, so out to my truck I went and got my brush bowie. It worked quite well, although there were those stares of dissbeleif and fear at the sight of it. Oh well, we all ate sliced turkey at least.
I guess what I am getting at is a good bowie is great at any occasion, woods or home dining.

 

[kgd]

I like the buck 119 as a belt knife and it is a small but bowie-like. I do with the blade was wider though.

 

[m. wohlwend]

I forged this from a billet of 5160. I am not done with it yet and was planning to carry it on some camping trips. Think I wil try a mustard finish on this one. I shaped the brass gaurd like a coffin.

12 inch blade, 18 inches overall length. 5160 steel, elk antler handle

 

[Fletcher Knives]

I handled a bowie exactly like this one at the Blade Show for a good while.

The one I was playing with was well proper used and had no shortage of battle scars on it. I would have purchased it, but i only brought enough money for the knife I had gone there to buy, which was an RC-4. Since then, I have been seriously considering getting a brand new one. They are very visually appealing. I don't much care for larger knives for actual work, and if I were to take on out into the field, I can almost garantee it would be my Ranger, but still. I think I might take it out every once in a while just for thr fun of using a big, fun, good looking bowie. It really is a good looking knife. It reminds me a lot of the Knife from Crocodile Dundee, one of my favorite movies.

 

[Mtn Hawk]

Like I mentioned earlier, that's why many Bowies have the very wide blades -- you hold onto the blade itself, you don't try to "choke up" over the guard. With the big guard most have (because fighting is indeed one of its design points), a choil would be next to useless anyway.

True about the choil. I can see how a big guard would be a problem.

i'm not a firm believer in this line of thought. one could look at some of the ABS competition cutters and see what i mean.

I'm not familiar with the design of every production and custom knife out there so maybe there are exceptions but, generally speaking, I think it can be safely said that a heavier knife chops better than a lighter one.

 

[Quirt]

I've spent a little time learning about and training with Bowies from several Bowie instructors. I've picked up a couple here and there...this custom carbon steel Bagwell is a fav.

 

[sodak]

I'd like to carry this one......

Like this?

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/sodak_photos/p1010014-2.jpg

I love the Bowie design also.

 

[baldtaco-II]

...And here we have it, unsatisfactory, but a Bagwell and a MMHW forces me to suppurate the boil that is my conclusion - the thing that makes the OP's question hard to answer is that the term “Bowie” is a bucket category that can embrace too many variations:

It's pretty obvious that we could make at least two distinct piles. On one hand the MMHW is blatantly a heavy Bowie design, as are the Case V-44 and the Becker BK-9. And what of the Ranger RD9 ?

There is no way I would attempt to hold that they are not Bowies. Modern materials for sure, but I'd be on a precarious perch holding they violate the traditional Bowie design. Bernard Levine's take no prisoners approach is sufficient motivation for me to not want to get on the wrong end of that fight for starters ;-)

However, if we once again recurse and reiterate the fact that traditional Bowie knives are first and foremost sidearms, not utility knives or all rounders, but back up weapons to ye old one shot from the frontier days of yore, then it is plain that close quarter battling or skirmishing is not their forte. On that, if Bowie is at least in part what Bowie does we have fouled something.

By contrast, we have here that Bagwell design that is blatantly a fast in the hand looking Bowie weapon above all other things. Similarly, although capable of other things I'm sure, there's that offering from charlieridge. And there's that gorgeous looking thing mneedham posted [I think was made by Ray Laconico]. These seem to represent the complete opposite from the slow lumpen Bowies and immediately enforce the notion of the nimble sidearm despite their bigness. Bowies with Bowie[ness]. A boat out of water is a shed.

Then just to make the soup real murky we have all the little Bowie spin-offs. And once we start to include those as traditional Bowies we completely lose focus on what one is. Bit of a bugger when that is prerequisite to answering the OP's question.

I figure that's enough blurt from me now. End ex.

 

[featherstone45]

I have a Matt Lamey Bowie that would make Jim Bowie very proud. I had Kenny Rowe make a sheath for it. This blade goes with me if im on horseback or if im going deep into the woods/mountains.The balance is amazing and it comes alive in your hand.
The blade is forged 1075 with amazing hamon, clip point, over 9 inches long and at its widest is 2 inches.
I have run into problems with drunks on the trail while riding one of my horses, as soon as they see what is attached to my hip, they sober up rather fast lol. It is a amazing slicer and chopper, it is one blade that I will be passing down from family member to family member.

 

[crossada]

I've spent a little time learning about and training with Bowies from several Bowie instructors. I've picked up a couple here and there...this custom carbon steel Bagwell is a fav.

that is my dream knife is this something you ordered directly from Bill? if so how long of a back order list did he have? thanks!

 

[Tim the Slugman]

I sometimes carry a 10" Linder Bowie!

 

[m. wohlwend]

However, if we once again recurse and reiterate the fact that traditional Bowie knives are first and foremost sidearms, not utility knives or all rounders, but back up weapons to ye old one shot from the frontier days of yore, then it is plain that close quarter battling or skirmishing is not their forte. On that, if Bowie is at least in part what Bowie does we have fouled something.
As posted by Baldtaco-II


I would have to agree that the original use and design of the Bowie knife was that of a sidearm, and not something the author had in mind for camp use. If fact some states had laws that stated if you committed a crime with a Bowie that, you were to be charged under the "pre-meditated" part of the law, due to the fact the law makers saw only one use for this knife, and that was a weapon.

 

[Horn Dog]

I have carried Case, Western, Gerber, and Cold Steel Bowies. I use them as short machetes, which is what the original Collins #18 (which the Case and Western were patterned after) really was. The fact that they are also weapons doesn't bother me at all. Nowadays, I carry the Scrap Yard Dog Father LE down in the swamps. Maybe it is not a traditional Bowie with a large handguard, but I call it a Bowie.

 

[SOGJasonSOG]

Just to agree with what others said: the Bpwie design is a jack of all trades, and from most of the accounts of its creation I've read, it was always meant to be. It was Jim Bowie's answer to the question "If you could only carry one knife. . ."
IMO if you want a Bowie, then you have to want the jack of all trades. There are certainly better fighting blades, better choppers, better slicers, better . . . canoe paddles. . .but few can do ALL as well as a Bowie.



Like I mentioned earlier, that's why many Bowies have the very wide blades -- you hold onto the blade itself, you don't try to "choke up" over the guard. With the big guard most have (because fighting is indeed one of its design points), a choil would be next to useless anyway.

canoe paddles?

 

[SOGJasonSOG]

I love large bowies! They are right up there with khukuris for me. Even a huge 18" bowie designed more for chopping than slicing duty can be pressed into kitchen duty if well reprofiled and sharpened, and still chop wood for the fire if needed. One of my favorite bowies for shear mass and style is a MMHW bowie I keep in my truck door for limb clearing when off the beaten path in my F-150. I was at a Christmas party/dinner last year and there was not a sharp knife in the house I was visiting to cut the turkey with. All eyes turned to me to try and steel a blunt knife to razor sharpness. No way it would work, so out to my truck I went and got my brush bowie. It worked quite well, although there were those stares of dissbeleif and fear at the sight of it. Oh well, we all ate sliced turkey at least.
I guess what I am getting at is a good bowie is great at any occasion, woods or home dining.

OH, man, real nice picture you are showing us... that turkey looks small with your bowie

 

[Ron53]

"The first Bowie Knife was made by myself in the parish of Avoyelles, in this state (Louisiana), as a hunting knife, for which purpose, exclusively, it was used for many years."
- Rezin P. Bowie, Planters Advocate, August 24, 1838

Let's put to rest the "argument" that the Bowie was first and foremost a "weapon." Yes, they were used for that purpose, even the original, which looked much like a heavy bladed butcher knife. But that was not the purpose for which they were originally designed.

And a well-made and well-designed one STILL makes a fine heavy duty field knife.

Ron

 

[mordi]

I have carried A ww11 Ka-bar for camping & military,I found it just to big .The last 10 years I have kept A William Rodgers 5" in my pack and it has held up well.

 

[Any Cal.]

My answer to the OPs question is no. However, I recently handled a knife that although made w/ modern materials, had incredible balance and very light weight, even though it was a large knife. It made an impression, because now I am considering getting something very similiar to try out.

Part of the difficulty in answering the question though, is that there are several conflicting "true accounts" of what THE Bowie actually was. Some say a butcher knife w/ a guard, some say plain blacksmith made knife, others say an ornate weapon. No offense to Ron53, but some claim that the statement of Rezin's was fraudulent, made only later on to cash in on some of the allure that the knife had. In a letter that may or may not be true, Davy Crockett supposedly said the sight of the knife turned his stomach, along with the ease with which Bowie handled it. If that was the case, it would not have been any conventional knife, or any lumbering blade. Fact is, no one really knows for sure.

I think that there is always a use for a well balanced blade though, depending on the application.