jim bowies knife ?

F

from sweden

Joined
Mar 28, 2005
Messages
25
what did it look like i know it did not look like a sog bowie
some think it looked a bit like the camilus western bowie but bigger is
their any evidence it looked like that
ps my first post by the way, originaly from sweden but i live in australia
 
I don't think anyone real knows for sure exactly what Jim's actual knife looked like. I've read many articles and the "experts" are not sure. Get the one YOU like the looks of, you'll be happier. ;)
 
Jim Bowie's knife was described by contemporaries as a big butcher's knife. That's about as specific as you're going to get. Welcome aboard.
 
Rezin Bowie, Jim's brother, is known to have patronized one Daniel Searles, a knifesmith from just up the road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Rezin claimed that he gave Jim the knife that he carried at the famous Vidalia Sandbar fight and, since Rezin was known to have given away Searles' knives to others, it is reasonable to think that one of these may have been what Jim carried. Here is a link to a replica of a Searles Bowie that Rezin had given someone else that certainly looks like a large butcher knife.
http://www.harveydean.com/Antique_Reproductions.htm
Other than that, there is a lot of speculation as to what Jim Bowie may have been carying at the Alamo and it is doubtful in the extreme that we will ever know for certain. Here are a couple of knives for which claims have been made:
http://www.thealamofilm.com/bowie_knife.html (look halfway down the page)
http://www.imperialweapons.com/knives/Ip-201.html (I and others have bought this replica, not because we bvelieve it to be a copy of his personal knife, but because we see it as a good affordable example of a fighting Bowie of that era. It is made in the Philippines, but it is well made and it is quite a nice piece.)
 
If archaelogical expeditions at the Alamo haven't uncovered it by now, I guess we'll never know.
 
Weel, the story goes that the one in the Knife World story, the one in "The Alamo" film site, was picked up at the Alamo the day after the fall by a Mexican soldier who took it home with him. His grandson sold it to the grandfather of the current owner, Joe Musso, along with the story. With n provenance, however, who the Hell knows?
 
I thought the final design of the Bowie was made by a blacksmith at Old Washington, in SW Arkansas?...d-2
 
I once saw a book on Texans of the pre Alamo period and one of the Texans profiled was James Bowie. During that period he lived in Texas and made a living as a land speculator. T he book showed a photo of a knife which was one of several he had made for him, to give to business contacts.

That knife was a short broad bladed knife with a straight clip, oval guard and a coffin handle. I would speculate that he would have chosen a design that bore some resemblance to his own knife, but then again maybe not.
 
d-2, you have reference to James Black and it is probable that James Bowie had a knife or two made by this smith, although we have no proof of that fact, AFAIK. The romantic version in "The Iron Mistress" is just that, a romantic tale for a movie. What needs to be remembered is that both Bowie brothers, James and Rezin, were "knife knuts" as well as knife users of some considerable skill and, as such, likely had more than one knife that they carried around. How many of us "knife knuts" in this forum stopped with one knife? Think about it. They also were both in the habit of giving knives to friends and business acquaintances, apparently. So there are probably any number of knives floating around out there that really did belong to one or the other Bowie at one time. But nobody has come up with evidence to support such a claim other than one or two that Rezin gave to people, such as the Daniel Searles knife in the Alamo Museum.
 
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