The Iron Mistress bowie knife

Keith Montgomery · Mar 28, 2006

It seems that the most recent reports seem to side with the 9 1/4" blade, butcher/Mediterranean dirk style knife. In later years Bowie was to have knives made by many makers in many different styles.

Big Ugly Tall Texan · Mar 28, 2006

My study of the Bowie has been recent, but rather intense. It is my understanding many people think this knife

the Edwin Forrest knife, may be the one Jim borrowed from Rezin and used at the Sanbar Fight.

Although I was shocked to my toes originally, I think Mr. Levine's assertion that there is no proof Jim Bowie ever owned a knife may be right on. Rezin was the knife nut, if you ask me.

I have to add my name to the list of those who might say they are not impressed by the Imperial Bowies, either the Musso copy nor the Iron Mistress copy. I am much more impressed by Gil Hibben copy of the Musso Bowie

and the Atlanta Cutlery copy of the Iron Mistress.

And in the case of the second knife (which is not sold as a copy of the Iron Mistress, but sure does look like it), I am talking about appearance and not about quality of construction.

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

[/QUOTE]and the Atlanta Cutlery copy of the Iron Mistress.

And in the case of the second knife (which is not sold as a copy of the Iron Mistress, but sure does look like it), I am talking about appearance and not about quality of construction.[/QUOTE]

I own the Atlanta cutlery version of the iron mistress-(they call it the horn handle bowie) and it does resemble the iron mistress but the gen 2 is a much much much closer replica, as far as the gen 2 musso and the gil hibben musso---I don't know because i don't own either but I know that the gen 2 musso, (if it were still available) would be more in my price range. I own the atlanta cutlery primitive bowie which resembles the musso bowies. Gil Hibben also does an iron Mistress.

orthogonal1 · Mar 28, 2006

Oh, understood it is nothing like the probable profile of the actual knife.

I was just under the impression it looked like some of the knives that were from that era. Profile, features, and such.

After all, a practical butcher knife profile seems to lack "glitz."

Doug C · Mar 28, 2006

orthogonal1 said:
After all, a practical butcher knife profile seems to lack "glitz."

I don't know man.A butcher style knife,maybe in the Searles style

,with a sharpened top clip would be pretty imposing.That may be all Bowie's knife may have been. :foot:

Tried to post pic of checkered handled knife BRL was kind enough to post with pics of Jim Bowie and Edwin Forrest but file size was too large.Anybody have that?
Jimbowie,How is your Atlanta Cutlery Primitive Bowie sharpened?I have one also and have a wide CNC hollow grind on mine and it didn't explode when they ground it!

Doug

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

leatherbird said:
I don't know man.A butcher style knife,maybe in the Searles style,with a sharpened top clip would be pretty imposing.That may be all Bowie's knife may have been. :foot:
Tried to post pic of checkered handled knife BRL was kind enough to post with pics of Jim Bowie and Edwin Forrest but file size was too large.Anybody have that?
Jimbowie,How is your Atlanta Cutlery Primitive Bowie sharpened?I have one also and have a wide CNC hollow grind on mine and it didn't explode when they ground it!

Doug

My ac primitive bowie is very dull, when you order them you can pay extra to have em sharpened but i figured i'd do it myself but I havent gotten to it yet, might do it this week.

Dog of War · Mar 28, 2006

Keith Montgomery said:
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.

Fascinating stuff I didn't know, Keith. The movie industry has always surprised me in this regard..... they'll go to great lengths many times to produce realistic period costumes, sets and props, yet take liberties with some things that leave me wondering (if not laughing.) I recently saw "The Untouchables" with Costner on DVD, and while the sets and everything were very believable, they wove in so many falsehoods about Ness, his men, and how things really happened, it was just ridiculous.

Sorry got off topic there ..... I suppose it's possible my own preference for knives of that period, which are like yours, may bias me. I just don't picture Bowie in all his exploits carrying a fancy knife .... more likely a functional, no BS large fighter that was quick in the hand.

Big Ugly Tall Texan said:
My study of the Bowie has been recent, but rather intense. It is my understanding many people think this knife

the Edwin Forrest knife, may be the one Jim borrowed from Rezin and used at the Sanbar Fight.

That's very much the kind of knife I see Bowie using, too. I have to assume that Bowie's life, like that of most other famous men of the 19th century, has been terribly romanticized .... IMO, the reason most of these guys became famous is only because they were the opportunists who followed the growth of the nation, i.e., they followed the action, and that got them attention. Their stories and legends were glamourized and heavily fictionalized at the time, and subsequently embellished even more. Forgotten in all that was the fact that Bowie still probably used a knife a whole lot more for mundane tasks than he did fighting ..... and the "Iron Mistress" looks about as practical for real work as do the gnarliest of Hibben's fantasy blades.

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

tyr_shadowblade said:
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!

shadowblade
yes The clip is fully sharpened, I think it might be even sharper than the main blade. 5/16'' would probably be better, but it's ok at 3/16''. I also would like to get a strip of brass put on it because the original had that(you can kind of see it in the picture I put on the first post in this thread)

Keith Montgomery · Mar 28, 2006

The original was 5/8" at the spine, if I am not mistaken. I will check after work.

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

I know for a fact that in the movie when bowie(played by Alan ladd) brought it to james black(played by David Wolfe), bowie handed him a wooden knife and said "this is something I sort of widdled out" then Black said "the heel at the back looks mighty thick, (he measured it) I get 3/8'' here" bowie said "thats to give it strength, and above all it must not snap, I've seen swords fail, Knives fail, I want something that will never fail." now wether it really was 3/8 i dont know but thats what they said.

Keith Montgomery · Mar 28, 2006

Sorry about that. 3/8" is correct. I don't know why I had 5/8" on my mind, that is over a half inch.

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

Keith Montgomery said:
Sorry about that. 3/8" is correct. I don't know why I had 5/8" on my mind, that is over a half inch.

yes keith,
I was thinking that would be kind of rediculous.

Bors · Mar 28, 2006

Here is a pic of my Randall Model 12 Smithsonian Bowie which was based on the movie Iron Mistress. I have liked this design ever since I saw the movie as a boy.

[/IMG]

Big Ugly Tall Texan · Mar 28, 2006

The one thing I have found in three months of reading everything I can find on the Internet about Bowie knives... there is just one helluva lot more myth and folklore surrounding the Bowies (both the brothers and the knives) than there is hard, verifiable fact.

jimbowie · Mar 28, 2006

Bors said:
Here is a pic of my Randall Model 12 Smithsonian Bowie which was based on the movie Iron Mistress. I have liked this design ever since I saw the movie as a boy.

[/IMG]

That looks like a very well built solid knife:thumbup:

Bors · Mar 28, 2006

At 34oz it's pretty solid lol. And it cuts well to

.

Bors · Mar 28, 2006

Here is a pick of an original dated to 1840. This knife is 17.5" overall, weights 2.5lbs and is 1/2 inch thick. Looks to be made for fighting.

FullerH · Mar 29, 2006

Bors said:
Here is a pic of my Randall Model 12 Smithsonian Bowie which was based on the movie Iron Mistress. I have liked this design ever since I saw the movie as a boy.QUOTE]
I think that Bors has it nailed. If you grew up in the 1950s with any interest in knives, you were familiar with the Iron Mistress knife. It was in the movie and then in the TV show on Friday nights, so almost every kid who had access to a TV saw that knife. And that knife came to mean "Bowie Knife" to an entire generation, no matter the reality. I know that it is the case with me, even though I am more partial to the Searles Bowies, myself.

FullerH · Mar 29, 2006

And, Texan, of course you are more impressed with the Gil Hibben version of the Musso Bowie than with the Imperial version. You damned well ought to be considering the price difference.

harm · Mar 29, 2006

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![/QUOTE]

ok i'm a phillistine.i agree with gryffin