The Iron Mistress bowie knife

J

jimbowie

Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
119
This is a comparison of the original Iron Mistress bowie and the Gen 2 Iron Mistress from imperial weapons.
ironmistress011.jpg
original
ironmistress013.jpg
Gen 2

I think Gen 2 has done an excellent job on this iron mistress replica, the quality and finish are superb -especially for the price. how close do you think the Gen 2 replica compares to the original. I say A++++++++++:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
It's hard to tell how acurately they copied the original from those fuzzy pics.

However, I gotta go on record as saying that they're both among the ugliest, most graceless knives I've seen. Never understood the appeal of that style of bowie, sorry!
 
Gryffin said:
It's hard to tell how acurately they copied the original from those fuzzy pics.

However, I gotta go on record as saying that they're both among the ugliest, most graceless knives I've seen. Never understood the appeal of that style of bowie, sorry!
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Hi Gryffin,

A lot of people say the same thing about the iron mistress but I just don't understand it. In my opinion it's THE best looking knife ever made, but that's just me.
 
jimbowie said:
Hi Gryffin,

A lot of people say the same thing about the iron mistress but I just don't understand it. In my opinion it's THE best looking knife ever made, but that's just me.
Click to expand...
Must be why they make different ones!! ;)
 
It looks pretty close to me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I likem. Don't think I would ever use them but way cool if you ask me. Blade balance has alot to do with how the knife will handle and if they have that right along with steel that can take a razors edge both main blade and top clip it would be alright if you ask me. keepem sharp
 
Bors said:
Not to bad how thick is the blade
Click to expand...

The blade is about 3/16

This knife handles excellent and is very well balanced. Yvsa has a nice review of the gen 2 iron mistress. just search for iron mistress.
Here is the picture from imperial weapons of it
IP-202.JPG
 
I thought it was based on a real knife from the Civil War era, just exaggerated a bit for the movie. Visual impact and all that.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
An interesting point is that the original Iron Mistress is a movie prop knife.
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yes it was, but there were a lot of knife props for the movie also, and i read that the actual knife is a working blade.
 
I got a cheapo,well,109.95 from Windlass Steelcrafts,paid 10 bucks for them to sharpen it.It came unsharpened.:rolleyes:
I wanted it 'cause it was a knockoff of Jim Bowie's(Jason Patric),from the new Alamo movie.
It is in the style of your Iron Mistress.As Keith mentioned the Iron Mistress is a movie prop,this style of Bowie has gained a following,and managed to offend the purists while doing so.If someone has a link or a pic of a Civil War era Bowie in the I.M. style it would be appreciated.

I did CNC grind a wide hollow grind on it.It's an excellent weed whacker and the brass is corroding green already.

Doug
 
orthogonal1 said:
I thought it was based on a real knife from the Civil War era, just exaggerated a bit for the movie. Visual impact and all that.
Click to expand...

Nope, it was completely designed by the prop department.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
Nope, it was completely designed by the prop department.
Click to expand...


yup! nothing to do with civil war, It was supposed to be Jim bowies knife, and nothing more, but I don't care what it was suppose to be.....I LOVE it.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
An interesting point is that the original Iron Mistress is a movie prop knife.
Click to expand...
orthogonal1 said:
I thought it was based on a real knife from the Civil War era, just exaggerated a bit for the movie. Visual impact and all that.
Click to expand...
Keith Montgomery said:
Nope, it was completely designed by the prop department.
Click to expand...
Yes, and the differences between the movie prop knife and Bowies from around the same time made by James Black are huge. But of course Hollywood has rarely cared about historical authenticity, and a realistic, early 19th century Bowie probably just wouldn't have been flashy enough for the movie.
 
The Warner Brothers research department checked out photos of authentic early 18th century bowies and also consulted Raymond Thorp's book, Bowie Knife. They eventually decided to loosely fashion the Iron Mistress after a knife in T.B. Tryon's, American Toothpick. They added design features from other knives including the Smithsonian Bowie. They also decided on some of their own embellishments.

There were so many different knives that were called bowies that there quite easily could have been one that looked like the Iron Mistress, who knows? All I know is that it is not one of my favorite representations of this style of knife. I much prefer the knives of Schively, Searles and Black, if the knives many think were made by him actually were. The Iron Mistress seems unwieldy to me.
 
It's an interesting piece, although the clip should be fully sharpened and the spine should be thicker than 3/16" . . . 5/16" at least!

BTW, Jim Bowie's original knife -- the one he used at the Sandbar Duel -- looked nothing like that. More like an oversized butcher knife with a sharpened false edge. However, since the original Bowie no longer exists, and there were no photos or detailed sketches of it, this is a matter of contention among knife historians.

Dwight is the Bowie expert . . . if anyone here at bladeforums could better describe the original Bowie, it'd probably be him.
 
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