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.

Roger, have you had a chance to stick a hog with that one that I sold you, yet ?

I still have its slightly smaller twin I carry when pistol hunting for hogs.

I was told today that an authentic Bowie sold for about $18,000.00 at the Tulsa gun show earlier this month. I believe the boys at Ledford’s Trading Post in Hickory, N.C. sold it.

What a find, K_dub. Congrats. 🤩

LeanWolf ,
Awesome story and picture.
To have and hold a knife your ancestors owned 175 years ago & and your Fathers 90 years is amazing.
Was these knives and family in Arkansas?

No, not yet.

The incident that made the Bowie Knife famous was mentioned in the video, the Sandbar Fight. It was a duel held on a sandbar in the Mississippi River in 1827 where Bowie was a second to one of the duelists. The sandbar was neutral territory between Louisiana and Mississippi so therefore outside the laws of either state which prohibited dueling. It devolved into a brawl with Bowie using his knife to kill some on the opposing party. The river has changed course several times over the years and now the location is on the Louisiana side of the river, it's known as Giles Island and is a high end hunting preserve. Even though it's on the west side of the river it's still within Mississippi state lines since the line follows the old course of the river.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbar_Fight

https://www.louisianalife.com/historic-hunters-retreat/

I believe his opponent was using a sword cane.

Yes, Ol Mike. We lived in a small, rural town in north central Arkansas named "Mountain Home." We moved there in Feb. of 1941, from Batesville, and moved to Little Rock in 1957. My brother and his family still live in L.R. I remember great times living in M.H.

L.W.

I read where the "trade knives" were sent over by the barrel-full.

Yes. And he was shot too, maybe twice. It's a miracle he survived, only to die from malaria in the Alamo. One TV show way back when gave credence to the simple butcher knife. Bowie's hand was badly cut. He's lying in bed designing the iconic Bowie Knife shape with guards. It became a felony to carry one of those things in Arkansas after a brutal fight in the congress that left one man dead and the other severely wounded. The Arkansas Toothpick variety was particularly nasty.

Beautiful examples. Well done!

Halfway between a Medieval dagger and a Roman gladius.

Here's one made by Randall:



And a much more affordable example:

Tell Sackett shaved a man with a toothpick. Well, his mustache.

I remember you saying you were from MH, Ar.

I'm partial to INFI steel....

Leanwolf! That is a nice Sheffield butcher!!!! Thanks for sharing the pic!!

Original English Wolstenholm Sheffield I picked up a few months back.

Some great knives there, Roger.

A friend of mine had a very large Randall collection. he died 2 years ago and I have no idea what happened to the collection.

Pawn shop got it, probably.

That sucks.

Reminds me of when I was a kid and visited my friend's house. He would always open his dad's fancy, glass front, gun cabinet, located in his study, and show me his guns (He had a beautiful old collection). I was always enamored with the pre-war Winchester 94 carbine in .30-30. A real old beauty.

When me and my friend were adults, many years later, his dad died. Not wanting to be uncouth, I figured I'd wait a month or two before asking what was going to happen to that 94. When I finally asked, thinking I'd offer to buy it from his mom (or him, if he was in possession of it), he told me his mom had it auctioned off, and it was gone.

As I have kids in private school, farm land notes and plenty of other things to cut checks for every month, I try to be practical when I buy things for myself.
But, someday I hope to own a high end custom bowie knife. I think they are about the coolest knife ever made.
Great pics everyone.