Primitive Guardless Fighting Knife.

T

TheRebelPatriot

Joined
Apr 7, 2022
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Got this awesome knife over the weekend. I've always wanted a knife like this. I love the old guardless bowie look. Got it for 25 bucks. I typed up a description, and I'm going to make a custom display for it.

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You have made a lot of assumptions in your write-up. I would question the dates (I would suggest it is not that old), nor would I suspect it was intended to be a dedicated fighter.

It is also far from one of a kind. This style knife has all the characteristics of a crude hunter/trapper's knife that was widely popular and forged by countless farmers, ferriers, blacksmiths, and knifesmiths around the start of the 20th century.

Nice, none the less.
 
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Sure looks like a knife from the turn of the century frontier to me. Very akin to a Green River hunting knife. Perhaps you could expand on your dates and the reason you think it’s a fighting knife. Considering most “fighting knives” were just hunting knives pressed into use for that role, I’d doubt that was its intended purpose.
 
Well, there's what we want to believe, and then there's what is.

If you want to believe that it's a one-of-a-kind fighting-knife made in the mid-1800's, I don't see any harm in that. If you want to put it on display and call it that, that's your prerogative, do what makes you happy. But unless that description can be authenticated, it's nothing more than creative writing and a flight of fantasy.

To me, the handle just looks too good. I would think a piece of wood that old would have dried out and developed some very noticeable splitting by now. But I'm no expert on antique knives from the mid-1800's. Maybe it was well cared for.

As long as you're happy with your purchase, that's all that really matters. :)
 
It's probably a fur trade butcher knife, but possible fighting knife sounds a lot cooler! Lol

And I never sell any of my collection. I have a ton of Confederate relics, etc... So the description would just be for my display, and not to rip anyone off.
 
Also, I've always loved this primitive bowie from Robert Vines collection. RIP Bob.

My knife looks very similar to me, and it's a knife I've always wanted, because of his knife in this photo.

Here's the comparison.


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TheRebelPatriot said:
Also, I've always loved this primitive bowie from Robert Vines collection. RIP Bob.

My knife looks very similar to me, and it's a knife I've always wanted, because of his knife in this photo.

Here's the comparison.


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Click to expand...
Top one is just a Hudson Bay camp knife. I’m not sure I would call it primitive. Condor still makes an identical model that’s in use today.
 
Murdamook said:
Top one is just a Hudson Bay camp knife. I’m not sure I would call it primitive. Condor still makes an identical model that’s in use today.
Click to expand...

I'll have to disagree. The handle and blade look slightly different than any old Hudson Bay that I've seen. It looks to be blacksmith made to me. And Robert Vines really knew his stuff. He believed it to be a primitive guardless bowie made circa 1850s.
 
TheRebelPatriot said:
I'll have to disagree. The handle and blade look slightly different than any old Hudson Bay that I've seen. It looks to be blacksmith made to me. And Robert Vines really knew his stuff. He believed it to be a primitive guardless bowie made circa 1850s.
Click to expand...
I think perhaps I’m not being clear. I’m not stating that it’s Hudson Bay-made. I’m saying it’s clearly in that tradition. The handle and Bowie blade absolutely look like old HB camp knives. I believe the era, but I just wouldn’t call it primitive, since plenty models are still made and used that look exactly like it. Primitive denotes that it was created incredibly early in the evolution of the tool. That’s a modern knife by design standards.
 
I like the look of it, possibly made by a local blacksmith to do a job, has some age, but I would leave the description as that. The term ‘primitive‘ to me means that It is made kind of crudely without much refinement, with local materials, but still solid and ready for work…..not meaning early in a particular time period, although it very well could be. A knife can be made nowadays much the same way and I would call it primitive too. I have an ML Knives Hudson Bay knife, it is solidly made with good local materials as Matt Lesniewski can do, and I would call it ‘primitive’ looking too, maybe more frontier looking to be fair, but it is built by a craftsman, and built for work. I really enjoy the look of it. Other makers whose work I admire are Mike Mann and Levi Graham. Just my two cents. Is the knife still solid? If so, I would put it to work.
 
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I have a lot of Confederate relics, and I am a Confederate Historian and descendant of Robert E. Lee. I'm also a Genealogist for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a member.

Here's some of my collection:

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Mississippi Rifle Saber Bayonet cut down into a fighting knife by a Confederate.

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M1841 Mississippi Rifle, Dated "1851 Harper's Ferry" w/ Confederate alterations during the War. It was bored out to .69 cal smoothbore, bayonet lug removed, buckhorn sights, front sling swivel removed, Confederate inspector stamped, Initials carved in Stock, "10" hand inscribed in brass parts, and two "X's" inscribed in wood.

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Just some of my Confederate Currency (I have more in another box):

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I have many more items in my collection, but I would be here all day uploading them lol hope y'all enjoyed seeing some of my collection.
 
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