Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bowie Knife

Entertaining video. Reminds me of Bill Bagwell. Wish he was still around.

Interesting video, tks.

I had read tho that incidents of Rebs and Yanks actually bayoneting each other an are hard to find, much less fighting with knives. A situation where even revolvers were discarded as excess weight by infantry on long, hard marches.

I believe many of those Bowie’s in photos of soldiers were studio props.

I could be wrong.

A good point he makes about British marketing defining what today we say a Bowie “has” to have. Early on it seems most ANY big knife was called a Bowie until British marketing kicked in. I have read of the exact same British bade design being sold as a Bowie knife here, a Buffalo knife in Canada, and a Gaucho knife in South America.

Meanwhile the Brits were quietly exporting to here many plain ol utilitarian 5-7” blades, far outnumbering Bowies, referred to as “trade knives” or sometimes “scalping knives” when traded to Indians. I wish there were stats on killings with them vs Bowies.

Sheffield mass produced high quality steel so good and so cheap that it wasn’t until the 1840’s that an American manufacturer could compete; Green River (contrary to pop history, the Rocky Mt fur trade was fading fast by then).

That knife is dam near a sword. One hell of a close quarters weapon.

My latest "Bowie". A Rio Grande Camp Knife bu Adam Daub up in Maryland. Circa 1850-60. Similar to the one Powell tried to use on Secretary Seward.

Oh! Birdy mentioned Sheffield butcher knives. A new John Nowell 8" Butcher circa 1830-40 I just finished a norther plains tacked scabbard for. Dyed with vinegaroon dye. These were the workhorse of the west for decades.

I was in the Texas Hill Country for the eclipse last week, and I stopped at the Alamo while I was in the area. There are several "Bowie" style knives from the period on display. They were longer than I expected and clearly fall into the short sword category.

Some of the knives are shown in the first part of this video. It's a British couple touring the Alamo with a guide / docent.



Brits In TEXAS - The Alamo PART2
video posted to YouTube on Feb 15, 2024
YouTube channel: Mr H and Friends

James Black knife found at a river crossing known to have been used by the Mexican Army after the Alamo.

https://blademag.com/knife-history/the-sea-of-mud-knife-james-bowies-knife-found-pt-1/amp

This blade was on display at the “Sea of Mud" exhibit at San Felipe de Austin shs museum year before last.

vinegaroon dye?

How many of them critters did it take? Did ya milk em alive or hafta kill em?

PS I looked it up

I've got a butcher's knife, too. Mine's made in Switzerland.

This is my custom made "Bowie" knife, made by a fellow named Voorhis back 30 or 40 years ago.

I deleted the photo of the one Jim Bowie supposedly presented to a famous New Orleans actor. It was a straight 9" blade butcher knife with no guards. The handle scales appeared to be horn with cross hatching like might be cut with a saw

This I. Wilson, Sheffield, England, butcher knife (top of picture) has been in my family since about 1850, according to my late grandmother from whom my mother got it. After my mother died I found it in one of her kitchen drawers so I brought it with me.

It was of the type that the fur trappers used, and also traded to the Indians in the Rocky Mountains.




It still cuts meat very well, and is easy to sharpen.

The bottom butcher knife was bought by my father back sometime in the mid 1930s. My mother used it almost every day in the kitchen. A very handy and useful general butcher knife.

FWIW.

L.W.

Very nice Bowie

Thanks. I bought it back in the early 1990s.

Nice blade.

I am partial to Ka-Bars.

BMT

Nice one THR !!! 👍🏻

Nice one Bob! That’s more along the lines of what I thought the “original” Bowie might have looked like.
I’ve seen the one at the Alamo that is supposed to belong to Bowie’s brother, Rezin.