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how did they keep their bowies in place ??

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zukeeper1

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I'm sure this is a stupid question but hey , its 20 degrees and snowing like crazy so ,
I always see the pictures of the mountain man , plainsman with a big knife tucked under his belt in the front. How did they keep them from just slipping on through the belt ??
 
Tight belt,and If you try it the Knife just stays where you put it I was a little worried at first but the knife just stayed right where I put it in my belt :hmm:
 
The sheath needs a button or hook that lips over the belt, or a leather flap that does the same. Other than that, you could lash it securely in place. If you take a fall with an unsecured knife, it can become a loose cannon, or a lost knife.
 
What pictures? Are they historically accurate? Butcher knives were usually worn diagonally across the back, the knives carried in front were few and far between, usually fighting knives carrying on the left front if you were right handed. I'm not sure how they were secured, most likely with a rawhide thong run through two small holes in the back of the sheath and then tied to the belt.
 
The sheaths were made with the rough side out. You put the sheath and Bowie knife inside a sash or belt, and the friction between the two items kept them in place. The polished, or ' smooth" of the leather allowed the knife to be pulled from the sheath, quickly, without pulling the sheath out of the sash or belt.

Today, a lot of men make their sheaths with either a slot( or 2) to put a belt through, or a long supported leather "hook" that hooks over a belt, and keep the sheath from falling down through between the body and the belt. Some use the more modern design of a Loop sewed to the back of the sheath to hand the knife from the belt, on the OUTSIDE.

I found to my detriment that hanging a large heavy knife from a belt look beats your upper thigh to black and blue bruises in a day of walking around, and have since carried my knife higher behind the belt. I was very young, then. :idunno: :shocked2:
 
They probably carried light butcher knives and left the massive Bowie knives in Hollywood, that's why there are still so many Bowie knives there to this day. :haha:
 
I carry a bowie a lot when I walk in the woods, and a simple brass stud on the sheath will keep it from sliding out of the belt and holds it pretty well- I think this may be an early 1800's design, but I could be wrong. My 2 cents...

Rick
 
CoyoteJoe said:
They probably carried light butcher knives and left the massive Bowie knives in Hollywood, that's why there are still so many Bowie knives there to this day. :haha:

I think your right on about that!...I think there were more butcher knifes with Mountainmen than Bowies!
 
Butcher knives were worn diagonally across the middle of the back, such that if you reached around with your right hand the top of the sheath would be pointed towards your hand. Just stuck under the belt (brass tacks sort of kept it from slipping through, or a few paintings show a rawhide thong holding it in place.)
Fighting knives were carried by some. There is historical documentation of that. Paintings show them worn in front on the left side- sort of a cross draw style. Charles Lapentuer speaks of carrying a big knife that an Indian took while facing him. Stewart and Clement are shown in paintings with big knives/dirks on front left.
 
How did they keep their Bowies in place?

With a bowie knot! :rotf:

I've got a million of them. Three of them are even funny!
 

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