Bowie knives

[Aglifter]

A) Any idea what sword the original Bowie knife may have been made from?

(From what I remember, Jim Bowie's slave was supposed to have made it for him from a broken sword - I believe Bowie is supposed to have killed a man by throwing it at him, so it must have been quite heavy.)

Given the TX con debates, it was considered quite an intimidating weapon - far more feared than a pistol.

It was supposed to be a pretty common weapon among Texicans, esp. the poor, and useful for chopping as well as other tasks - again, indicating weight, although there's no indication that Bowie was in a situation as to have had to use his knife as a hatchet.

Admittedly, Jim Bowie's savagery may have made much of the reputation of the knife.

I would guess, based on a reputation for strength, and the supposed sword origin, that it had a spline running down the middle, to the point - either that, or it was remade from a broken cutlass - only because the blade shape looks like that of a cutlass, to me.

[Flintlock Tom]

No idea, however I would think that a cutlass blade would be too narrow. Perhaps an early version of the short sword used by the confederacy during the war between the states.

[Aglifter]

Er... JIm Bowie was dead ~25 years before the Civil War began...

[Rod]

From wikipedia (not exactly the best source),

The blade, as later described by Rezin Bowie, was 9.5 inches (24 cm) long, 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) thick and 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) wide. It was straight-backed having no clip point nor any hand guard with simple riveted wood scale handle

. There is really no actual Bowie Knife design, it's more accurately a type of heavy knife.

[blackeagle603]

Er... JIm Bowie was dead ~25 years before the Civil War began...

Er... I took it to mean that the Bowie knife might have been and early version (as in a predecessor) of the short sword used later.

[Flintlock Tom]

Er... JIm Bowie was dead ~25 years before the Civil War began...

The Confederate infantry sword looks like it was fashioned after the Roman Gladius, so I imaging that the sword style has been knocking around for quite some time.
It would not be a stretch to speculate that Boone could have taken a grinding wheel to a broken blade.

[ZeroGravitas]

Rod's quote is similar to what I've read; that Jim Bowie's knife used on that sandbar fight looked a lot like a modern large chef's knife, and it was hand-forged by his brother.

[HTRN]

Randall knives makes a couple of Bowies patterned after historic examples, notably the "Smithsonian Bowie", a copy of one in their collection..


HTRN

[Bullspit]

There is a lot of hype, confusion and mystery surrounding the Bowie knife. As has been stated, generally a Bowie knife is a large knife of several patterns. I don't think Bowie experts agree on a tighter definition than that.

As for the actual Bowie knife used by Jim Bowie, there is some uncertainty about it. There are at least two, and probably three knives that have been put forward as "the" Bowie knife.

Here is what one expert says is most likely the real deal:



It is more like a big heavy butcher knife than a sword.

Later on, Jim's brother did a good job promoting the legend of the Bowie knife and had several made. He took care to make them look a bit fancier than the likely original:



More recently, this type of knife has become a popular bowie style:



And of course there is the Natchez style:



So, as to what the real Bowie knife was made from is a mystery, and would probably depend on which Bowie knife you mean.

If the Bowie knife was made from a sword, I would guess a saber of some sort. Others say the knife was made from a file, a large file to be sure. No matter what it was made of, as with many weapons, it is indeed the person who determines how dangerous it is to the other party in the fight.

[Combat Controller]

I suspect it was actually a version of the Scramsax.