Crude Made Dagger; Opinions Please

Jim McDougall · 23rd July 2024, 11:31 PM

Looks to me like a very interesting 'frontier' knife of probably mid 19th c. give or take. The 'Bowie' term of course became a collective term for virtually any large frontier knife, it seems regardless of the actual configuration, as Rick has noted.

These followed no distinct pattern, but obviously were simply fashioned pragmatically for the rugged use on the plains, so real way to determine more exact, but certainly seems period, and not reproduction.

As Drac notes, likely and old file blade (very common and actually the 'first' Bowie was reputed from an old file blade) and bone hilt. Very nice !IMO!
Rugged frontier charm.

23rd July 2024, 11:31 PM	#6
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Looks to me like a very interesting 'frontier' knife of probably mid 19th c. give or take. The 'Bowie' term of course became a collective term for virtually any large frontier knife, it seems regardless of the actual configuration, as Rick has noted. These followed no distinct pattern, but obviously were simply fashioned pragmatically for the rugged use on the plains, so real way to determine more exact, but certainly seems period, and not reproduction. As Drac notes, likely and old file blade (very common and actually the 'first' Bowie was reputed from an old file blade) and bone hilt. Very nice !IMO! Rugged frontier charm.