Who really designed the knife most of us think of when we see the word Bowie?

B

Big Ugly Tall Texan

Joined
Jan 27, 2006
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107
Mr. Levine says it wasn't Jim Bowie, and God knows he has probably forgotten more about the subject than I am likely to ever learn. So, who did design the "generic" shape for a Bowie knife - big blade, with a trailing edge or false edge or whatever, that was also sharpened to allow slashes in either direction, and a cross guard - either curved or straight?
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=b...osecreekforge.com/images/k_Bowie Dec 2001.jpg


The design has been around for awhile since I have seen knives that were known to have been made in the 1840s, 50s, 60s, etc., with that shape.
 
Oops!:eek:
Sorry!
Was trying to post pic in a thread I started relative to the guitar forums thread that's been going on the last couple days. :)

Apologies,
Doug
 
Frank J. Dobie (Texas historian) wrote a short article on this topic several decades back. His conclusion was that several people (Bowie's brother and a blacksmith from Arkansas, most prominently) claimed to have made the Bowie design. It is likely that Bowie carried several different large knives in his career.
 
korbiaka said:
Bowie, Bowie, and again with the Bowie. BUTT, your killing me!
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As far as I am concerned, there is no other knife worthy of discussion. I guess it's just the Texan in me. But now I can't figure what a true Bowie is supposed to look like. Most if not all of what I thought I knew about the Bowie has been shaken pretty good lately.
 
Big Ugly Tall Texan said:
As far as I am concerned, there is no other knife worthy of discussion. I guess it's just the Texan in me. But now I can't figure what a true Bowie is supposed to look like. Most if not all of what I thought I knew about the Bowie has been shaken pretty good lately.
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But as a Texan, can you carry a bowie?:p

I can.;)
 
The Bowie was a meld of a couple different knives that were popular from the Spanish influence. The Mediteranian dirk, and the falchion, if I have it right. The knives that Reason Bowie gave away as gifts were almost strait mediteranian dirks. Remember that in Bowie's day Arkansass was on the border of Mexico. Spanish influence would have been strong there, not to mention the Spanish and French blades that would have been floating around La, and Tx.
 
ABS member Jim Batson is probably the foremost authority on the "Bowie" knife. He has written numerous books and articles on the subject. As a matter of fact there's an article by Batson in the current issue of Blade mag.
Scott
 
I have seen scramaseaxes that look distinctly like Bowies and they date from the 8th - 9th Centuries CE. I suspect that the Bowie Knife has many fathers.
 
As far as I am concerned, there is no other knife worthy of discussion. I guess it's just the Texan in me.
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That's funny. Texans can't even carry large bowie-style knives.

Get a Swiss Army Knife. :p

-Bob
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
But as a Texan, can you carry a bowie?:p

I can.;)
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No, I can't, unless it's has a blade shorter than five and a half inches and only one edge is sharpened... although as a current Federal LEO and a licensed peace officer in the state of Texas, I could probably get away with it.

I spent a night in jail in Dallas back in 1984 because I was caught with a knife that had a blade that was too long, so I am very aware of that law, and try to stay clear of it now.
 
I came across this picture some time ago. It's a messer from Europe, and it's probably older than America. I really don't think there are any truly new blade shapes.
normal_01740.jpg
 
Big Ugly Tall Texan said:
No, I can't, unless it's has a blade shorter than five and a half inches and only one edge is sharpened... although as a current Federal LEO and a licensed peace officer in the state of Texas, I could probably get away with it.
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I hate restrictive knife laws:thumbdn:
 
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