I write from work, and don't have time to give this subject the time it deserves.
Of all the knife manufacturers, I think Spyderco could and would make the best Bowie knife.
=====
Rezin Bowie made Jim Bowie's first knife for him.
Rezin may not have actually made it himself: he probably designed it and had a blacksmith on his plantation make it for Jim Bowie.
Jim Bowie used this knife at the Vidalia Sandbar Fight.
Later, Jim Bowie designed a knife and commissioned James Black to make it for him.
James Black looked at Jim Bowie's design, and made two knives: one to Jim Bowie's design and one to James Black's own design.
When Jim Bowie returned to James Black's forge, Black offered him either of the knives for the same price.
Bowie chose Black's design.
We know almost nothing about Black's design.
However, we can surmise much about the knife Rezin designed and had made for Jim Bowie, and which Jim Bowie used at the Vidalia Sandbar Fight; and, the knife that made Jim Bowie famous.
First of all, we can surmise that Rezin Bowie meant for James to hold this knife major edge up.
Why?
Rezin Bowie used his knife, reputedly identical to Jim Bowie's knife, to defend himself against a bull.
In Rezin Bowie's fight with the bull, his hand slipped up on the blade and he almost cut off his thumb.
He almost cut off his thumb.
I submit that the Rezin Bowie knife had a sharpened top edge, and sharpened bottom swedge, and had either a drop guard (like a Chef's knife) or a double-drop guard (top and bottom, like the bottom of a Chef's knife).
Such a knife would have had a heavy spine along the lower edge, which would have had a sharpened swedge for the last third or fourth portion of the blade towards the tip.
Following this vein, this knife would have had a sharpened top edge, from guard to point.
The person wielding this knife would have used the unsharpened spine to bash and parry, and the sharpened swedge to slash and chop; and, he would have used the sharpened top edge for upward draw cuts, such as between his adversary's legs, the inside of the adversary's forearm, the back of the neck, or up under the adversary's armpit.
A sharpened top edge would serve any movement in which the defender raised or pulled the knife, giving both the drawcut and the backcut real meaning.
I think Jim Bowie asked James Black to make a copy of the Rezin Bowie out of James Black's allegedly meteorite-nickel steel.
I think James Black's version of the Rezin Bowie had a large brass hilt, exactly like the hilt we see on the Randall Model 1 "All-Purpose Fighting Knife."
http://www.randallknives.com/catalog.php?action=modeldetail&id=25
I believe it looked very much like the Randall Model 1, with an 8.343" blade and a 5.157" handle; but, with the handle perfectly straight and on line with the point, so that the user could easily wield it either edge-up or edge down.
Further, I think James Black intended Jim Bowie to have the option of wrapping his index finger around the hilt and a depression in the thickened, unsharpened spine, rendering the hilt a sub-hilt, and thus multiplying retention, the power of an upward pull or backcut, and, making sure Jim Bowie's hand could never run up on the sharpened upper edge of the knife and cut off his thumb.
Bo Randall's early Model 1's had a straight grip, so that one could hold it edge up or edge down.
Look at the depression in the spine.
The Randall factory continues to put that depression in the spine, without any reason (known to them) for doing it.
How I imagine one using this knife:
=====
In 1942, my father, then a member of the First Marine Parachute Battalion, served with Edson's Raiders during the defense of a ridge that rose out of the jungles of Guadalcanal and separated the Japanese Imperial Marines from Henderson field, the only landing strip on Guadalcanal.
Whoever held Henderson field held Guadalcanal.
As the tropical sun set, and the Japanese Marines prepared to attack the American Marines defending the ridge and Henderson field, Colonel Edson moved from fighting hole to fighting hole and said to his Marines "stay in your holes and die."
Sometime during the night, as the battle raged to and fro, most of the Marines ran out of ammunition and continued to fight with their rifle butts, fists, teeth and knives.
Towards morning, before first light, the Marines called in artillery fire on their own position.
As the sun rose, only American Marines remained standing on Bloody Ridge.
Well, what kind of knife would you have wanted in your hand that night, fighting in the darkness?
I would have wanted a knife with which I could have mindlessly, blindly clubbed and slashed, and with which I could pull up and towards myself and cut, deeply, to where it doesn't heal.
I would have wanted a knife that wouldn't come out of my hand, fore or aft, even in the midst of an artillery barrage; even when coated with gore, blood and sweat; regardless of whether I pushed, pulled or flailed; nor with all the insane strength that comes with desperation-unto-death.
Straight handle on line with point, balanced to favor either edge up.
Large brass hilt with depressions if front of the hilt for the index finger, curved and smoothed to protect the hand and fingers from forces coming from all angles.
Sharpened, straight swedge, with no concave curve.
Eight-plus inch blade and five-plus inch handle.
=====
I would have written more, but I have a crew change.
Later.
