Quicksilver, hollowed back bowies ....?

[Stephen F]

I recently read in Flaydermans bowie book about a pair of Bowies, made by the Hassam brothers in the mid to late 19th century. What has intrigued me about these knives is that the back of the blade was hollowed out and filled with quicksilver (mercury).

The mercury would flow into the handle and back into the blade depending on the stroke and position of the knife - as a down ward blow was struck the mercury would move to the tip end of the blade adding weight and momentum to the stroke. Conversley the mercury would move back down the blade to the handle as the the knife was held tip up, redressing balance and quickening its use.

My questions are as follows:

1. Does any one have any experience with this type of design, or knowledge as to if it was considered an effective and useful aspect of the design.
2. Is anyone aware of a modern knifemaker who has replicated or employed this design that I could contact?
3. Are there any collectors out there that have either a repro. or original of this design that I could contact?

In an ideal world there would be a collector at Blade this year with an example I could look at, but in the meantime any additional info. and views of this would be welcome.

Thanks,

Stephen

 

[RogerP]

I read that too, but don't otherwise have any additional info. I can't say that the idea of a shifting weight within the knife particularly appeals to me - I just think it woud feel weird and give a feeling of less control - like the knife wants to jump out of my hand on the downward chopping stroke. All supposition on my part, though. I'd just rather have the knife well balanced for its intended application.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[george tichbourne]

The weight shift would appear to be counter productive, in a downward stroke the inertia of the mercury would tend to have it pool in the handle and not flow back into the blade until the stroke was complete. The amount of mercury possible inside a blade also would not add significantly to the shift in balance either.

Could it be duplicated today? probably. Difficulties to overcome would involve, air valving, or the mercury flow would be impeded by the air in the chamber unless the entire chamber could be a sealed vacuum. The other difficulty would be long hole drilling.

 

[S2nd]

Another difficulty in duplicating it is that mercury is not readily available and is hazardous to work with.