Knife too big ?

[cadb6942]

I carry a 6 inch blade on my hip that is like a sharp crowbar.. usually a 3 to 4 incher in my bag for skinning and food prep.. never leave home without my pocket knife.. The bigger knife i figure if i somehow lost everything i would still have something to process wood and strike a flint from..

 

[graybeard]

I've seen some huge blades on deer hunters. Have an Olsen with a 3 1/4 inch blade, rather thick and stout. It's cleaned a lot of grouse and deer over the past 30 years since my daughter bought it for me for Christmas. Blade is too thick for trout. I use a fileting knife carried in my shooting pouch for them. Also carry a neck knife for patches and a pocket folder for eating. graybeard

 

[cadb6942]

I've seen guys carrying bowies for hunting.. i think between 3-5 is good for deer dressing..

 

[Walker357]

For cutting I use a 4 inch blade. For defense I use a 357.

 

[jmforge]

The vast majority of 19th Century bowies sold in the US were made in England. Some fancy and expensive ones were made in the US by guys who were also jewelers, silversmiths or makers of fine surgical instruments, including folks like Sam Bell, Henry Schively and Daniels Searles. Supposedly, Rezin Bowie had at least one Searles of his own and apparently bought more as gifts. IIRC, one of those is in the Alamo collection.
Some theorize that the original large fighting bowies were replacements for blades such as a smallsword, etc. Their reign as a backup weapon was short lived as repeating cartridge firearms were readily available after the Civil War. You did see smaller very elaborate "mens jewelry" knives from makers like Michael Price and Will and Finck of San Francisco in the early post war era. The consensus is that the post war/wild west period saw the proliferation of what some call the "cowboy bowie" which was in that 7 inch range and really a big hunting/utility knife. As mentioned, it was that size bowie that rose to popularity as a military knife in the early to mid 20th Century and is still with us today in the form of Kabars, Randalls and many others.

 

[satx78247]

In the "For What It's Worth Department" (While I was helping to judge the NASP Archery Tournament at the Bell County Expo Center, near Belton TX on 22 & 23MAR17) I was lucky enough to have been shown & was allowed to handle a very similar knife to the one that you pictured in Post 1577668. - The knife has an about 8" blade, is "really Plain Jane" & is handled in swamp oak, btw.

The knife was originally the property of Endurance Bain, who emigrated to Texas in the early Spring of 1825, settled in what is now Panola County, later briefly served in the Texas Revolution at the Battle of Medina and some years later was a town marshal & "livestock trader".
Mr. Bain passed away "of advanced age & infirmity" in the Winter of 1862 & was buried at the Methodist Cemetery near the village of Dotson.

The current owner, Carlos F. W___________, is a direct descendant of Mr. Bain & he said that he believes that his ancestor had the knife made at Captain Shreve's Port (Now Shreveport, LA) on his way to Texas from Pickens County, AL.

Note: Servicemen from that family have "carried that knife to war" at least during WWI, WWII & RVN.
(The current owner carried the knife when he was a member of the 23rd Americal Infantry Division during The War in VietNam.)
Note: The current sheath was made during WWII by a member of the USN & is marked with the name & SN of Carlos' father.

yours, satx

 

[TJK]

If you want to get real period like then you need to get a Wilson butcher. These were shipped by the barrels. They are not real big ranging from 6 to 12 inch blades. A real period one will cost you a couple hundred bucks.

That said, use what you enjoy and have fun.

 

[SacramentoJohnson]

Howdy!
I've followed this thread from the beginning and I think the tool vs weapon distinction is a very good point. I've gotten away from using the term 'bowie' knife and instead have gone to the term 'fighting' knife, as that seems to be their main purpose, with camp chores being a secondary use for atleast some of the big fighting type knives (W. Jackson's "Rio Grande Camp" knife; a spear point 'bowie'/fighting knife, comes to mind as a one that might be usable for some camp chores also.)
A really good book with lots of pictures of period knives and their historical background is "Great Knife Makers for the Early West" by James D. Gordon. His emphasis was on 'trade' knives (utilitarian knives) from the mid 1700s to the end of the 1800s, (but there's quite a few pics of bowies of the 19th century as well.)
As the poster above mentioned, 'butcher' type knives were extremely common according to Gordon, and I suspect they were frequently carried on one's belt through out the entire 1800s, given the huge number made both in Sheffield and here. Definitely not very flashy looking, but practical.

 

[Byvordaer]

Those are called Ballock daggers. Triangulr blade about seven inches to about twenty four inch long blade.

go source for old period stuff is myarmoury.com he was following a lot of oakshott typology.

Ballock dagger blade styles varied considerably. One of the first and most common forms was a single-edged, triangular section blade that tapered evenly from hilt to point. The blade was sometimes reinforced for piercing with the end becoming quadrangular near the point. These styles seem to have persisted throughout the dagger's considerable lifespan. By 1400 an evenly tapered double-edge blade became popular and by 1450 the double-edge blade became slender with a thick diamond cross section that sometimes included a ricasso.

As to carrying a longer bladed knife there are two safe ways to carry one in a sheath with the flat of the blade strapped to your thigh point away from you at an angle and draw downward between your knees, and with the ricaso strapped to your dominate hand side and no longer than your arm fully extended at diaangle with the blade drawing horizontal with the flat of the blade firmly to the flat of the back. Once you get to messier swords lengths you want a sword frog that hang from a belt so that the pommel rests under your dominate hand and the blade rests on an angle so that you push the hilt behind at an angle, swing it upward to follow your spine or out at the mirrored angle to draw it upward across the body. Some people start by pulling the blade to break the inertia then jerk it so it flies up in the air and catch it when it falls as a flashing way of building momentum but most people simply draw out to a certain point in an arc when the sheath falls free.

I carry an eleven to twenty one inch blade across my back at ren faires but likely would carry only the eleven inch at a colonial event as you don't want it to interfere with the shoulder strap on your musket which needs to be able to snap to a shoulder even if you don't do it at colonial event for safety reasons. But most of the knives that are colonial have been around for centuries. Some of the really old Spanish steel has only been improved on in the last decade or so.