Double sided knives

[Loyalist Dave]

Just trying to apply logic, the GRN butcher or scalper were great all around knives, but if someone was carrying a knife for use as a backup to their single shot rifle, I think a knife designed for fighting would have been in order. For long hunters, of course, the tomahawk was the backup, but heavy Bowie knives and even spanish style daggers and locally forged knives of all sorts, such as reground and re-handled broken swords were probably not that uncommon, especially in the Southern Plains and later in the period.

Ah but sometimes what we in this century think is "logical" depends on unrealized assumptions.

Carrying as a "backup" to the single shot rifle...., so why is one carrying the rifle if one is not "hunting"? If one is not hunting, but on some other journey, one is going into the wilds so why wouldn't a person also carry the tomahawk? It was not a tool only for hunters. IF it was the new backup for the 'hawk, then the 'hawk would've died out, or dramatically dropped in demand, but it did not.

If the fascination for custom knives was as prevalent in the 18th century, or the first half of the 19th century, as it is today..., why so many outposts with inventories and orders for so many common butcher knives? If everybody is having a knife made for them, then there is no market for so many butcher knives.

It is possible that the desire was the same, but that is not the same as availability. A blacksmith, even a very good one, is/was not the same as a cutler. There is a huge difference, especially between 1750-1850, between a fellow, expert in making hardware and nails and material things from iron, compared to one who can work steel and make a serviceable blade.

As for reworking swords, sure this has been done in history, but one must account for how the swords came into an area, and why they were available to be reworked. Often this is done in time of war, or after a large battle where surplus weapons are readily available, but that supply dies up quickly. Scottish dirks are often attributed to broken blades from "back swords", but these probably were not sacrificed for dirks, rather they were broken at some time through accident, and then used. Unless you have a ready supply of used, unwanted swords, or a bunch of broken blades, you are assuming this was a common case.

Surplus bayonets were more likely to have been available, with old, worn out muskets being sold off without them, or simply left in the back corners of armories, to rust away. Yet we don't hear about nor find socket bayonets turned into fighting knives (unless the blades were so reworked that documentation didn't recognize them as such)

:idunno:

The Bowie knife was created at Jim Bowie's direction, due to a series of life threatening encounters in and around the town of Natchez. A series of pistol duels were part of the situation. Life threatening encounters were happening when men didn't have rifles with them. Pistols and knives were acceptable in the town, and were the weapons that lead up to the fight.

The famous "Sand Bar Fight" where the "Bowie" knife was first used to draw blood, and it caused one fatality and one man was maimed, was the aftermath of a pistol duel where Bowie, a "supporter" of one side, engaged the supporters of the other side of the duel after the duel was concluded...and Bowie was shot by a pistol before he engaged any opponent. Before the fight concluded, Bowie had been shot more than once, but only by pistols.

Bowie wasn't looking for a fighting knife because the knives of the time were inadequate...in fact they were quite deadly. Bowie was looking for a knife that gave him an advantage over the fighting blades commonly used. In fact during the fight Bowie was stabbed in the chest by a "sword cane" blade, and the man Bowie killed was that same fellow who had stabbed him with the cane sword.

As the tales of that fight spread, AND as additional stories surfaced of fellows who were able to survive grizzly bear attacks (iirc) because of the use of a heavy, inflexible blade, that could reach the internals of such a large bear..., the Bowie style knife spread, but as much among people in towns where toting around a rifle for self defense was frowned upon or impractical. It was, therefore, more popular as a backup to one or two single shot pistols, than as backup to the rifle.

BTW the only documented knife fight by Bowie and his knife, is The Sandbar Fight. By all accounts, Bowie was equally lucky to have survived as well as he was saved by his designed knife. :shocked2: However after many months of recuperation, he returned to public life with a reputation, and always wore that knife or one similar to it..., and the fame of the fight may have done as much to defend Bowie from then on as the knife actually did. :wink:

Meshach Browning documents dispatching many bears with a simple butcher knife...at the same time period as the Fur Trade Era...at the same time as Bowie and his knife's fame spread, and huge numbers of them began to be made and imported back into the United States from England.....he never bought one (as far as we know) but Browning was killing black bears in the East, near the head of the Potomac River, not the Brown Bears of the West.

LD

 

[crockett]

Well, nothing is etched in stone. I started out with this idea you carried a single shot, muzzle loading rifle. After you shot that you might have a pistol or two. After you shot them (if you had pistols) you then pulled out your big bowie knife and fought it out. So a knife was a weapon.
I think the Jim Bowie Sandbar Fight was 1826- in any event at a time that mountain men were in the mountains so as far as being in existence- sure.
When I started reading some of the diaries of the trappers, it seemed to me they would "run fer life". There just didn't seem to be that many accounts of a knife used as a weapon. Sure there were exceptions but it didn't seem as common as I had assumed.
When I read that mountain men carried butcher knives the first thought was why would anyone use that bulbous, blunt point type knife? A scalper with a more rakish point seemed better for stabbing a hostile or beast. I was still seeing a knife as a weapon.
Like it or not, I came to a conclusion that a lot of trappers used a knife solely to butcher game and skin beavers (unless a camp keeper was around). There were "big" knives but it seemed these big or fighting knives were carried by the leader of a trapping party or a sportsman in the area (William Drummond Stewart) or Post trader (Larpenteur). The butcher knives and scalpers seem to have been carried in a sheath that was tucked under a belt- in the small of your back, and at an angle. The fighting knives seem to have been carried on your left front so you could use a cross draw type withdrawl of the knife out of the sheath. This frontal wearing of the fighting knives. There is a painting or two of Wil. Drum. Stewart with a knife in that position. Lapenteur speaks of the brass mounting and a big knife in front of his person. There is a Miller painting of Antoine Clement with a knife on the left front. There are a few paintings of mountain men fighting bears- now the artist might not have been accurate but I think a dagger type blade is usually shown.
In any event I gave the matter some thought. I figured in a remote wilderness where you might never really need a knife for fighting- a dagger was a better choice than a big heavy Bowie- easier to haul around- even if only a slight advantage. I'm told by those that know- a stab with a single edge is actually about as bad as a stab with a double edge. You would think the two edges would do more damage. In any event it seems the two edge dagger was a pretty common choice if you in fact carried a fighting knife.
And that pertains to mountain men when they were trapping beaver. I read about a guy that met Kit Carson on the trail driving sheep to New Mexico from California. Carson-like Kirker- had a big knife stuck in a boot or bota but once again- that was after the beaver trapping days.
I lost that Carson reference, it describes his attire. If anyone has it, please post.
In any event, Bowies were around but it is just my impression they might have been more common on the fringes of the wilderness- frontier towns where a bar argument may end in a fight where you need a knife.

 

[LaBonte]

If the fascination for custom knives was as prevalent in the 18th century, or the first half of the 19th century, as it is today..., why so many outposts with inventories and orders for so many common butcher knives? If everybody is having a knife made for them, then there is no market for so many butcher knives.

Well Dave once again I'll disagree. Today there are thousands of custom made knives made, but there are millions of butchers, hunting knives, etc. made so your "logic" doesn't fit the facts - Just like custom guns there are bunch of custom makers but the commercial market for such guns is much bigger.

As for blacksmith's vs cutlers - yes there were pro cutlers, but almost any blacksmiths worth his salt could make a knife - in fact most American gun makers of the period were also blacksmiths and there are both knives and tomahawks, as well as re-steeling hawks, etc.

Bottom line yes butchers and scalpers were the most common knives available if one wanted a custom knife they were available from many sources.

As for Bowies - it was Rezin (pronounced reason), Jim's brother, who had the first "bowie" knives made including the one Jim used at the sandbar. Based on his description it was a Mediterranean style butcher (think French chef's knife) with a 9.25" blade made by his blacksmith. Resin also had several other custom knives made and gifted several of them.

 

[Artificer]

Dave,
You made some great points.

As for reworking swords, sure this has been done in history, but one must account for how the swords came into an area, and why they were available to be reworked. Often this is done in time of war, or after a large battle where surplus weapons are readily available, but that supply dies up quickly. Scottish dirks are often attributed to broken blades from "back swords", but these probably were not sacrificed for dirks, rather they were broken at some time through accident, and then used. Unless you have a ready supply of used, unwanted swords, or a bunch of broken blades, you are assuming this was a common case.

Some early 1880’s/90’s works mentioned Scottish Dirks were sometimes made from broken sword blades. Since then, some authors changed this to “most” or “all” dirks were made that way. More recent scholarly works are back to SOME Dirk Blades were made that way, but most were not. I am paraphrasing one more recent scholar when he notes with slightly sarcastic humour, “There must have been a tremendous number of broken swords available, if even a somewhat sizeable percentage of surviving 17th and 18th century dirks were made from broken swords.” Grin. Further, when one looks at the styles of Dirk blades made in the 17th and 18th century, and they did change during this time frame;, it is highly unlikely most, or even many, were made from broken swords. Oh, and I think you are spot on the swords were broken (in combat or other fighting) and THEN made into Dirks when it was done and not that good swords were broken to make them.

The Scottish Biodag ~ Dirk. (pr: beedak ) was ALWAYS intended as a fighting weapon, either for personal defense or accompanying other weapons in war time. Scots had other knives that were used for gralloching game, common butchering and even to cut the meat they ate. It IS amusing that after the Proscription Acts of of 1746 and later; when some British Forces caught some Highlanders with Biodags who were not supposed to have them, the Scots tried to say they kept the Biodags for cutting branches and wood and/or gralloching large game. Even some of the most ignorant or gullible British Soldiers didn’t buy those excuses. However in actual practice it seems many Highlanders,who were not allowed to possess Biodags after the Proscription Acts, continued to do so when they could get away with it.

Gus

 

[nhmoose]

There are free states. To bad for those that are not.

 

[tenngun]

MNM had to fight some Indians and sometimes other MM. All and all a knife fight would have been a rare event. Butchers were sold $2.00 a dozen, about 16 cents a piece, not much more then a pound of powder back then, say the equvilent of $25 today. A blacksmith would be hard pressed to have make a knife so cheap. Going about on a day to day basis with a knife just stuck in a belt of limited use, compared to a once in a lifetime or even once in a year event when you could do a lot of damage with a butcher what would you chose. Often a knife on a belt was a rattlesnakes alarm a dont tread on me statement. More useful in the view then the use. The derth of fighting knifes being shipped west bespeaks a limited use. Companies sell what folks want to buy.

 

[Artificer]

In the other thread you mentioned, "Then you'll have Davy Crockett's double edge knife, one edge kept fine and the other used for rough work."

I am really curious about that knife and would like to ask you if you have more details on it? Do you know how long and wide the knife blade was? Did it have a guard on it? What type of tang did it have and what was the grip or grips made from? What time period did he carry the knife? Is it recorded where he got it from? Any information would be appreciated.

Gus

 

[tenngun]

Claude, I know you can not carry a dagger on you in Ca., but can you have a collection of them at home?

The penal code states "possession". Just like possession of drugs, I believe that applies to your person, vehicle and residence?

Are you meaning that nothing will happen to you unless its your 5th or 6th coviction?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well Dave once again I'll disagree. Today there are thousands of custom made knives made, but there are millions of butchers, hunting knives, etc. made so your "logic" doesn't fit the facts - Just like custom guns there are bunch of custom makers but the commercial market for such guns is much bigger.

As for blacksmith's vs cutlers - yes there were pro cutlers, but almost any blacksmiths worth his salt could make a knife - in fact most American gun makers of the period were also blacksmiths and there are both knives and tomahawks, as well as re-steeling hawks, etc.

Ah but you're applying 21st century facts and manufacturing, to the first half of the 19th century.

The vast majority of "Bowie" knives in the 1830's were made in England and imported to the United States (if the historians are correct), if your assertion is correct, that nearly all "blacksmiths" were blade makers, why would that have happened, instead of boom in making "Bowie" knives in America, at a lower cost?

LD

 

[druid]

Just a quick caveat. Here in Mich. it is illegal to carry ( or even posses) a double edged knife.

Same in PA....although it is legal to own, just not carry in public. In other words, you may own the dagger or sword [or broadaxe] but you may not carry them in public.



Same goes for swords [specifically mentions 'no' sword canes in the statute]...but there's a section in the State Code with allowances for Dramatic Performances: In part, the statute reads [bolded emphasis is mine]:

from: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/htm/18/18.htm

specifically

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=18&div=0&chpt=9&sctn=8&subsctn=0

Title 18 § 908. Prohibited offensive weapons.
(a) Offense defined.--A person commits a misdemeanor of the first degree if, except as authorized by law, he makes repairs, sells, or otherwise deals in, uses, or possesses any offensive weapon.
(b) Exceptions.--
(1) It is a defense under this section for the defendant to prove by a preponderance of evidence that he possessed or dealt with the weapon solely as a curio or in a dramatic performance, or that, with the exception of a bomb, grenade or incendiary device, he complied with the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq.), or that he possessed it briefly in consequence of having found it or taken it from an aggressor, or under circumstances similarly negativing any intent or likelihood that the weapon would be used unlawfully.

and

(c) Definitions.--As used in this section, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this subsection:
"Firearm." Any weapon which is designed to or may readily be converted to expel any projectile by the action of an explosive or the frame or receiver of any such weapon.
"Offensive weapons." Any bomb, grenade, machine gun, sawed-off shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches, firearm specially made or specially adapted for concealment or silent discharge, any blackjack, sandbag, metal knuckles, dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument, the blade of which is exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, spring mechanism, or otherwise, any stun gun, stun baton, taser or other electronic or electric weapon or other implement for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.

So my interpretation is that if you are heading to, participating in/at or returning from - let's say a 'Ren Fair' or Rendezvous - the possession should be legal under "dramatic performances" clause but on the trips to and from the event, I'm guessing you'd need to warp/secure the device in a container in the trunk.

As always, seek the advice of an attorney before embarking on this activity.

 

[tenngun]

Too often we try to apply rules and concepts that didn't exist in the past. There were blacksmith made knifes, but most knifes were imported. We see some old knifes made from files and fitted with crude and not so crude handles, but knifes remain mostly imported, including very fine ivory and rosewood handled knifes.
I am no doubt going to get a virtual kick in the gut for this, but everything we think of as classic Bowie comes out of English knife makers. Pure economics raises its head, it wasn't cost effective for s blacksmith to try and make knifes on a regular basis.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Native Arizonan wrote:
Just trying to apply logic, the GRN butcher or scalper were great all around knives, but if someone was carrying a knife for use as a backup to their single shot rifle, I think a knife designed for fighting would have been in order. For long hunters, of course, the tomahawk was the backup, but heavy Bowie knives and even spanish style daggers and locally forged knives of all sorts, such as reground and re-handled broken swords were probably not that uncommon, especially in the Southern Plains and later in the period.

(Native Arizonan's comments are in bold):

Ah but sometimes what we in this century think is "logical" depends on unrealized assumptions.

(You seem to assume everyone of the time applied the same logic. That, in itself, is not logical)

Carrying as a "backup" to the single shot rifle...., so why is one carrying the rifle if one is not "hunting"? If one is not hunting, but on some other journey, one is going into the wilds so why wouldn't a person also carry the tomahawk? It was not a tool only for hunters. IF it was the new backup for the 'hawk, then the 'hawk would've died out, or dramatically dropped in demand, but it did not.

(Tomahawks did die down, though not out. Tomahawks were more favored as a weapon when iron was scarce and it was cheaper to use a long stick of wood to reach your opponent that having a long piece of steel. Axes were often carried by small groups with a pack-string, which made the tomahawk less important in the Rocky Mountains as compared to the Eastern Woodlands. In the Revolutionary War, a rifleman was expected to have a tomahawk; not so much by the time of the Texas and Mexican wars. Revolvers eventually made even the fighting knife almost obsolete, but never completely.

If the fascination for custom knives was as prevalent in the 18th century, or the first half of the 19th century, as it is today..., why so many outposts with inventories and orders for so many common butcher knives? If everybody is having a knife made for them, then there is no market for so many butcher knives.

(Most of the trade goods were for the NDNs. The butcher knives were commodities, and not personal items. Some dressed them up, and used them every way we can imagine and then some, but some, especially those of European descent who would occasionally have visited a town or even a city, would have different expectations and desires. Again, they would not all have equal desires or equal tastes in weapons. Most of them would have carried several blades for different uses. A long butcher knife will slice meat well and a 5-6 inch curved blade was better for skinning, but a shorter knife, like a modern caping knife would have been desired to skin beaver and such. Having a few extra butcher knives would also be an advantage as trading with and gifting to the NDNs was part of the game. Traders would not have brought a lot of more expensive custom knives to the Rocky Mountains, because they could not afford to return with unsold merchandise.)

It is possible that the desire was the same, but that is not the same as availability. A blacksmith, even a very good one, is/was not the same as a cutler. There is a huge difference, especially between 1750-1850, between a fellow, expert in making hardware and nails and material things from iron, compared to one who can work steel and make a serviceable blade.

(LaBonte covered this well. Factory produced knives were available, but by no means had a corner on the market.)

As for reworking swords, sure this has been done in history, but one must account for how the swords came into an area, and why they were available to be reworked. Often this is done in time of war, or after a large battle where surplus weapons are readily available, but that supply dies up quickly. Scottish dirks are often attributed to broken blades from "back swords", but these probably were not sacrificed for dirks, rather they were broken at some time through accident, and then used. Unless you have a ready supply of used, unwanted swords, or a bunch of broken blades, you are assuming this was a common case.

(I never wrote that one particular style of knife was common, please re-read what I wrote. I basically wrote that other types of knives, that being one possible type, bowies, daggers, and locally forged knives being others. I think carrying fighting knives other than butcher knives was common. I don't believe the trade good inventory is evidence against that.))

Surplus bayonets were more likely to have been available, with old, worn out muskets being sold off without them, or simply left in the back corners of armories, to rust away. Yet we don't hear about nor find socket bayonets turned into fighting knives (unless the blades were so reworked that documentation didn't recognize them as such)

:idunno:

The Bowie knife was created at Jim Bowie's direction, due to a series of life threatening encounters in and around the town of Natchez. A series of pistol duels were part of the situation. Life threatening encounters were happening when men didn't have rifles with them. Pistols and knives were acceptable in the town, and were the weapons that lead up to the fight.

The famous "Sand Bar Fight" where the "Bowie" knife was first used to draw blood, and it caused one fatality and one man was maimed, was the aftermath of a pistol duel where Bowie, a "supporter" of one side, engaged the supporters of the other side of the duel after the duel was concluded...and Bowie was shot by a pistol before he engaged any opponent. Before the fight concluded, Bowie had been shot more than once, but only by pistols.

Bowie wasn't looking for a fighting knife because the knives of the time were inadequate...in fact they were quite deadly. Bowie was looking for a knife that gave him an advantage over the fighting blades commonly used. In fact during the fight Bowie was stabbed in the chest by a "sword cane" blade, and the man Bowie killed was that same fellow who had stabbed him with the cane sword.

As the tales of that fight spread, AND as additional stories surfaced of fellows who were able to survive grizzly bear attacks (iirc) because of the use of a heavy, inflexible blade, that could reach the internals of such a large bear..., the Bowie style knife spread, but as much among people in towns where toting around a rifle for self defense was frowned upon or impractical. It was, therefore, more popular as a backup to one or two single shot pistols, than as backup to the rifle.

BTW the only documented knife fight by Bowie and his knife, is The Sandbar Fight. By all accounts, Bowie was equally lucky to have survived as well as he was saved by his designed knife. :shocked2: However after many months of recuperation, he returned to public life with a reputation, and always wore that knife or one similar to it..., and the fame of the fight may have done as much to defend Bowie from then on as the knife actually did. :wink:

(Although Bowie knives were already well established, I think Jim Bowie's death at the Alamo probably had a lot to do with why they became an almost absolute necessary accoutrement for frontiersmen. I think it quite likely became a political statement as well as a tool.)

Meshach Browning documents dispatching many bears with a simple butcher knife...at the same time period as the Fur Trade Era...at the same time as Bowie and his knife's fame spread, and huge numbers of them began to be made and imported back into the United States from England.....he never bought one (as far as we know) but Browning was killing black bears in the East, near the head of the Potomac River, not the Brown Bears of the West.

LD

 

[Nativearizonan]

Too often we try to apply rules and concepts that didn't exist in the past. There were blacksmith made knifes, but most knifes were imported. We see some old knifes made from files and fitted with crude and not so crude handles, but knifes remain mostly imported, including very fine ivory and rosewood handled knifes.
I am no doubt going to get a virtual kick in the gut for this, but everything we think of as classic Bowie comes out of English knife makers. Pure economics raises its head, it wasn't cost effective for s blacksmith to try and make knifes on a regular basis.

Certainly some fighting knives carried at the time could have been imported, that doesn't make them kitchen/butcher knives. These, would have paperwork proving them, whereas the blacksmith made knife would have had no record. This may be skewing our viewpoint of the past, when we feel the necessity to only rely on records.

I've seen a lot of constantly used carbon steel knives that have been sharpened to the point of uselessness. They are eventually discarded. How many of Hawkin's Rifles have survived until now? Rifles were certainly more cared for and would have survived at a much higher rate than an old rusted knife. I would think the few handmade knives from the period that do exist lie as proof there were many, many more in existence at the time.

 

[tenngun]

And , too your point, the metal drives of the first and more so in the second had to have destroyed God knows how many old guns knifes belt buckles ect that we would give our eye teeth to see today.

 

[satx78247]

Usually, I agree with most things that you post but not this time. = There are far too many documented cases of individuals & blacksmiths making fighting knives to dismiss most Bowies/Arkansas Toothpicks, etc. OR to make such a dogmatic statement about English-made copies.
(For one thing a fighting knife was a personal thing & people with the money to have a blade made, likely had a local expert do the job. - The poor folks bought/traded for what was usable & cheap.)

In the case of COL Bowie's famous knife, Noah Smithwick made MANY copies of Bowie's knife in TX in the mid-1830s & thereafter. - So many in fact that he had an actual factory that made copies of Bowie's knife. Later Rezin had HUNDREDS of "Bowie's knives" made for sale & as gifts for his customers.
(Actually it was Rezin Bowie's knife that was in the Alamo fight but that's another story. - COL Bowie's knife is at HAM. - Rezin Bowie's original knife PROBABLY belongs to the family of a Mexican LT of Artillery, who reportedly took it home as a souvenir. = In 1986, the late Charles Oliver, who was CEO of The Texas Wagon Train Association, tried to buy the knife as a gift to the State of Texas but was "rebuffed" by the family.)

Also there were MANY Bowies, of every price range & amount of decoration, made in New Orleans & at least 2 factories that made fighting knives in Captain Shreve's Port (NOW: Shreveport, LA.)

All that said, there were MANY, MANY thousands of imported knives of all sorts that were sold in the "pioneer era". - My GUESS is that 15-20% of the total number of blades used on the frontier were made domestically, not including crude homebrew models that individuals cobbled together.

Additionally, fighting knives were "specialty items", that were essentially worthless for most utility uses, so one needs at least one other "carry blade" for other uses. = That other blade was probably a scalper/butcher knife. - A common butcher/scalper, kept razor sharp, is no pitiful excuse for a fighting weapon.
(When I was a soldier, I carried a "slightly re-shaped" German-made kitchen knife, that I found in a thrift shop outside Ft. Benning, in a belt sheath, that was made at the post craft shop & never felt "under-armed" in those years. = I liked "my ersatz fighting knife" better than the Gerber daggers, Ralph Bone fighting knives & English commando daggers that were very popular in the RVN period.)
Note: My final fighting knife was a "repurposed" US .30 caliber carbine bayonet, that was "re-handled" & carried in a "shoe repair shop" made sheath.

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

I think we are both thinking the same thing, but just from different angles, and I think the evedence has been tainted over the years by worn out blades repurposed and sold for scrap.

 

[crockett]

Artificer- don't know if you're still on this thread....Dixie Gun Works used to sell a replica of the Davy Crockett knife. The point was more blunt or rounded- not like a British Commando Dagger. Blade maybe 6" long. The guard was double- I think oval. Straight plain handle. It was DGW's description of this knife where I got the information on one edge kept sharp and the other for rough use.
And....on the butcher knives and scalpers. Since these were trade goods imported by fur companies- it has always been my "feeling" that they were primarily a type carried by fur trappers in the mountains. I'm not sure how many might have been carried by other folks on the frontier during the same time period.
Try this: http://dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1479
The price is pretty high.

 

[Artificer]

Thanks for the added information on the Crockett knife. I imagined it would have had to have been a spear point blade and somewhat wide - to allow for a somewhat rounded edge on each side of the blade. That knife is sort of in between the time periods I have reenacted and I wasn't familiar with it. Am I correct in thinking it would have been after the War of 1812? I also wonder if the original was 1/4" thick down the middle like the repro?

Gus

 

[crockett]

After 1812 but on the details I don't know. I think it is in a museum in TN some place. Maybe the curator knows- if you're lucky. Off hand, 1/4" seems a little thick for that time period.

 

[Artificer]

After 1812 but on the details I don't know. I think it is in a museum in TN some place. Maybe the curator knows- if you're lucky. Off hand, 1/4" seems a little thick for that time period.

That's what I was thinking, as well, on a knife that was to be sharpened and used as a hunting knife. Thanks for the further info.

Gus