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#1 |
(deceased)
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Coast USA
Posts: 3,191
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Hi all
just won this on ebay the other day. I think it's an old Mexican Bowie knife? |
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#2 |
Keris forum moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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What exactly defines a knife as a "Bowie"? The Bowie knife itself (ones designed by Bowie) changed in style somewhat from what basically looked like a butcher knife to the clip point most are probably familar with today. Is it far to assume that any large N. American knife created after Bowie was a take on their design?
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#3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Coast USA
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David
A Bowie is a generic term for any large North American knife with either a clip point or straight back profile. http://harveydean.com/antique_reproductions.htm Last edited by Lew; 8th November 2011 at 09:17 PM. |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: The Sharp end
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Nice big piece Lew!
I've seen a Brazillian bowie with a horn disk handle. I'm not familiar with Mexican knife types TBH, you could PM Gonzalo, I'm sure he'll know more? |
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#5 |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,872
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Looks like a Canary Islands 'Bowie/punal'
![]() Actually influences of the Iberian Peninsula pretty well known in Mexico and the 'Spanish Main'. Truly an attractive and heavy item of the type which do seem to colloquially fall into the collective heading 'Bowie' though of course not technically. I like it !!! Love those wide heavy blades. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
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I know it's a different kettle of fish....
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#7 |
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Location: East Coast USA
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Atlantia
yours looks like a Brazilian copy of a Sheffield hunting knife design. Very cool ![]() |
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#8 | |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 608
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![]() Quote:
By 1838, newspaper reports immortalizing both Jim Bowie (already partially immortalized from published accounts of the "Sandbar fight" a decade earlier), Davy Crockett, and the rest of the Texans who died at the Alamo resulted in a new market for a knife "like Jim Bowie's." In the wake of this sudden surge in interest, widely circulated newspaper accounts described Bowie's knife as a large, straight-bladed single-edged knife of roughly 12 inches in length with a guard and a clip-point. By 1850, the existing demand for Bowie knives, along with the demand for frontier knives following the Gold Rush, had surpassed the production capacity of the cottage industry of American cutlers. Producers in Sheffield were more than happy to meet the new demand in the American market and began producing Bowie knives in earnest. I am yet to encounter a Sheffield Bowie knife of what we now accept as the "classic" form - in person or in print - that predates this period of mass export by Sheffield cutlers, and given the two-decade old pedigree on which this form was based, would refer to all clip-point, single-bladed Sheffield hunters/skinner from the period as Bowie knives. ![]() |
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#9 | |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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![]() All the best, Jim |
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#10 | |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: The Sharp end
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Lew, how long is that beauty of yours? It looks massive! |
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#11 |
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It's not in my hand yet but should arrive any day now. Will let you know. My guess is the blade is between 9-12 inches.
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#12 |
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The knife arrived today it has an eight inch blade not as big as it looks in the pic but it is still nice.
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