Welcome to everything you need to know about the Bowie Knife. We are talking about the Sandbar Fight, James Black, Sheffield England, Civil War, WW1 and WW2, the legacy of modern knife making with Buck Knives and the greatest custom makers of all time, as well as Rambo, Crocodile Dundee, and all the magic and mystery surrounding almost 200 years of history!
VIDEO HERE (23:33 minutes)
Keep one in my "get home" bag, in place of an axe.
ReplyDeleteBowie had an acquaintance named William Smeathers who was involved with Austin’s colony and other adventures in early Texas. Bowie and his knife were bad ass. Smeathers was more bad ass. He hunted bears with a tomahawk.
ReplyDeleteBig deal. Chuck Norris hunts bears with a willow switch.
DeleteKnives of all stripes are wonderful and I love most all of them. I just have a thing for a single bit winged boys axe for utility as Ive split wood with one for years. They are hard to beat and fast to swing but who doesnt love some more knife?
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great video
ReplyDeleteAs for the Sandbar Fight knife, letters between James Bowie and his big brother Rezin clearly show it was just Rezin's old butcher knife. Bowie borrowed this after an attack where 4 flintlock pistols misfired (2 of the attackers and both of Bowie's), then the attacker hauled out a 3rd pistol and shot Bowie before he could get his pocket knife open. By the time Bowie was walking again he'd made up his mind that the only carry weapon that could deploy instantly and be relied on was a big fixed knife stuck under his belt. James was not rich and his brother's extra knife was free. He used it to win the Sandbar Fight, but the main factor there was that he just could not be stopped that day - he took at least two pistol shots and was apparently run through with a sword cane, but he used the sword cane to pull that guy onto his knife, then chased after the others until they'd fled to their boats.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he later had the smith that made Rezin's knives make one that was designed for both knife fighting and camp chores. (This would be unlike the narrow double-edged Arkansas Toothpick that had to be used carefully for anything but stabbing.) I think it's more likely that Bowie's preferred knife design was pretty close to the original butcher knife. A frontier knife smith knew that no one used a butcher knife only for carving meat, but rather frontiersmen needed one knife that would do everything, skinning a deer, shaving kindling for the fire to cook it, and defending against Indians and robbers when needed. This knife would have a thick, strong spine for when you had to pry something, an edge suitable for butchering and other camp chores, and a sharp point for fighting. Bowie would have had a new knife made just the way he wanted it when he became wealthier, but I think men who saw him at the Sandbar Fight were already ordering "Bowie knives" based on Rezin's butcher knife.
When I was in Joint Services I had a Marine Gunny as my supervisor. Besides our normal training I was taught how to knife fight. I have a 10" Bowie knife that is my first chose but I have a 9" K-bar that I keep in my truck. The best thing about a K-bar is that it is easy to sharpen.
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