From: deowll@gmail.com
"B. Goode" wrote in message
news:f373e55p18jsbkbbmu9p98jg5fru08pbls@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:48:36 -0500, "deowll" wrote:
>
>>
>>"Good Soldier Schweik" wrote in message
>>news:fistd55rvkh9eb6r4cdffnivaeop3fth4l@4ax.com...
>>> On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:36:49 -0500, "deowll" wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>"Good Soldier Schweik" wrote in message
>>>>news:8ocnd5h41of5qkg9tg8jv5co84tikun41l@4ax.com...
>>>>> On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:52:05 +0000 (UTC), wrat@panix.com (the wharf
>>>>> rat) wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>In article <7jvb1jF3761kfU1@mid.individual.net>,
>>>>>>Del Cecchi wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>was. They did have a really cute little bayonet for the M16 that we
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Well if you havce a perfectly good rifle why are you bothering with
>>>>>>that stupid Glock? :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>So when you go camping you just take a big ass bowie?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Actually I use a stove for cooking and a tent for shelter. I carry
>>>>>>a small fixed blade knife, formerly a Gerver A400 that got lost then
>>>>>>a Schrade now a Bark River TUSK. I use an entrenching tool for the
>>>>>>latrine.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>An I consider the current fad for all these testosterone laden manly
>>>>>>>fighting knives made out of half inch thick steel bars silly. But to
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Bowie isn't a current fad. They've been around for hmmmm
>>>>>>150 years? It's a classic American design.
>>>>>>
>>>>I've seen pictures of a sax from 900 AD that many would call a bowie.
>>>>The
>>>>basic design seems to be rather old and seems to stray rather far from
>>>>what
>>>>James Bowie described.
>>>>
>>>>> However.... From all I have read the alleged reason for making the
>>>>> first Bowie knife was so that the guy who it was made for, Jim Bowie,
>>>>> would have a better weapon when setting upon, or being set upon, by
>>>>> various adversaries, whom it is rumored there were more then a few.
>>>>>
>>>>> Not to chop firewood for a camp fire...
>>>>
>>>>Actually "the bowie" was made for James, the older brother as a hunting
>>>>knife and he had his younger brother carry it because Jim was having
>>>>problem
>>>>getting along with others. The blade was normally described as a large
>>>>butcher knife. James said it had a blade 9 1/4 inches long with a
>>>>straight
>>>>back.
>>>
>>> I have read that there is some evidence, I believe a letter written by
>>> a granddaughter, who states that she was present when her grand dad
>>> Rezin P. Bowie instructed a hired (White Man) blacksmith to make the
>>> knife. Several sites seem to credit this origin.
>>>
>>> She also wrote that knife was just a hunting knife...
>>>
>>
>>Excuse me my brain is slipping. Rezin it is. The design of bowie knives
>>changed through time. Rezin as a old man that the newer blades were a big
>>improvement on his original design.
>>
>>Not sure what he meant by that. I've looked at pictures of what some
>>people
>>think the original design would have looked like and I prefer it. Oh well.
>>
>
> My guess is that the original "bowie knife" was just a modification of
> an existing design. Perhaps a larger or heavier design. the whole
> story of the fight on the sandbar doesn't ring true. Not that Jim
> Bowie didn't participate, but that because of the fight the knife
> became immensely popular. After all, similar types of weapons had been
> in use for hundreds or thousand of years.
>
> What I suspect happened is that the Sandbar story, being a rather
> flamboyant account of "life on the frontier" was used by foreign,
> mainly English, knife makers as a sales promotion and when we call a
> "Bowie knife" today may well have no relationship to what Jim actually
> used.
>
> Heresy? Perhaps, but likely.
>
A lot of sources I read would agree with you. That is that the modern bowie
is in large part a product of the English cutlery trade and they called all
their large knives Bowie because Bowie was famous even though their blade
might be said to have been based more on a large traditional English style
knife. The sax with a guard added.
My best take on what Rezin described is a butcher knife (with wood scale
handles) with French chef's knife type back with a wide blade, wider than
the handle, and a rounded point and straight spine. As a weapon it would
have created a wide wound and still been able to slash and hack at 9.25
inches. It would have worked well to butcher large game and could have done
minor wood modification.
I'm not sure what Rezin was thinking when he had this made but it would have
worked well as tool or a weapon while most modern bowies aren't that
flexible.
>
>>>>The knife and a replacement seems to have seen a lot of use as a hunting
>>>>knife being used for whatever Jim needed done while doing whatever. I
>>>>would
>>>>assume they normally used an ax to chop firewood but with a knife this
>>>>size...Weell I suppose you could actually be rather flexible with it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> As far as thickness goes I really like a blade that's thick (more
>>>>>>than 1/4") at the hilt but that has a lot of taper towards the point.
>>>>>>It
>>>>>>seems to put heft where I want it and balance the knife perfectly.
>>>>>>
>>>>> cheers,
>>>>>
>>>>> Schweik
>>>>> (goodsoldierschweikatgmaildotcom)
>>> cheers,
>>>
>>> Schweik
>>> (goodsoldierschweikatgmaildotcom)
> Cheers,
>
> Billy
> (billybegoode@gmail.com)
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