What makes a "Bowie" a Bowie?

It's still disputed as to THE actual knife the legendry Jim Bowie carried most.
There are those who claim that he must have owned a few in his lifetime (makes sense to me).
And that they were handmade by equally mysterious smiths (very probable as there wasn't a lot of knife specialty stores along the wooded trails then).
But I surely won't dispute that there are a whole lot of factory knives out there which were (created mostly upon his untimely heroic death at the Alamo) and still largely based purely on the lure of Jim Bowie the knife legend; or more correctly the creation of THE "legend of the Bowie Knife" - in retrospect the most successful marketing ploy aimed at greenhorns headed out west.
So what do we have today?
A Bowie Knife which at some point or another is a trade name for some successful cutlery manufacturer.
A generic description of ANY large clip point fixed blade.
A historic mythical knife which eludes us all.
Take your pick.
I'll go with the generic term!
 
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