What is the standard length of a bowie blade?

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
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I understand that most bowies vary in length between 10 and 12 inches.

What is the optimum length of any bowie?

Say, if it is 10 inches, what are its advantages as opposed to a 12-inch bowie?
 
What is the standard length of a bowie blade?
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There was no standard length.

But, better yet, what is a bowie knife? During the first half of the 19th century it seemed to mean little more than a big knife sold to a greenhorn. It is supposed to be a knife just like Bowie's knife, but no one knows what that was like. So even to day it is still little more than a big knife sold to a greenhorn; especially on EBAY.

n2s
 
I have to agree that there really is no standard length for a bowie blade. I have seen them run from around 6" to as long as 13".

N2S is correct in that there really does not seem to even be an accepted look for bowies, though I seem to usually know one when I see one.

I think the advantages of the different blade lengths are the same with bowies as they are with any other knife. Shorter blades are better for fine work and longer ones will be better for chopping and heavier work.
 
It always struck me as odd that Jim Bowie is credited with the knife that started it all and no one knows exactly what it was he actually had.
 
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=213544
Some more Fibonacci Series stuff.

I'm particularly enchanted of late with that particular means of sizing a fighting knife, and intend on soon building myself a bowie-style fighter built using that method of sizing it to fit me. It seems to me a very interesting thing.

In an article in one of the issues of the defunct Combat Knives magazine Bill Bagwell said that he considered a bowie to have a blade of between 9 and 13 inches.

But I have seen them with blades from 5 or 6, up to 16+ inches... still called Bowies.
I think its subjective, basically.

To me a bowie is a large (7 to 15 blade inches) clip point knife, with a double guard, and a handle. Aside from that... who knows. :rolleyes:
 
It always struck me as odd
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Not odd, just a very early and effective application of mass marketing. Jim Bowie didn't invent a knife; the basic styles associated with the bowies have been around for centuries.

He was merely a local celeberty of sorts (fradulent land deals, slave smuggling) who got involved in a lethal scuffle at just the right time and place. In 1832 literacy and newspapers were finally beginning to reach the general population, factories were starting to gain real momentum, the American West was ripe for exploitation, and Natchez was the major Western supply point for frontier development. The story was published locally and spread quickly to the East and across to Europe. Along the way, many imaginative writers enhanced the tale, while many entreprenuers exploited it.

Bowie was no more responsible for these knives then pro-athletes are for tennis shoes and breakfast cereals. But, he was a perfect role model for a cutlery industry striving to find a nitch, and his ending at the Alamo has given an ever lasting legacy to his name.

n2s
 
In all his noteriety though, no one drew a picture or wrote a detailed description of the knife he had. It was probably taken by one of the victors at the Alamo, and was not recovered.
 
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