Your Knife

[musketman]

How many Bowie knife users out there?

Like them, hate them, they're OK?

 

[Huntinfool]

I don't own one at this time but I think it's a grand blade to have and carry!

Chuck ::

 

I love knives, all kinds, but I love some less than others. My opinion, and it is only my own stuborn opinion, is that knives are much like dictionaries. A big old Oxford unabridged dictionary is a grand thing to have, as long as you don't have to carry it around hanging on your belt. I like to leave it on the table in the study and go to it when I need it If I need to carry a dictionary with me it will be one that I can forget I have until I need it, but still find it adiquite for the task at hand. If it is too big to carry in comfort it will not be there when it is needed, even for simple tasks that make up 99.99% of our modern knife work.
My first bit of equipment was the big oversized bowie, just like most other newbies. ( we now use the presence of big Bowie blades to mark the newcommers to the sport, or those who never get out of sigh of the parking lots to re-enact) It was carried to one event, nearly cut me in two along the waist line(from its weight, not its cutting edge), and never carried again, though it does make a good decoration hanging on the wall of the den.
I usually carry 3 blades at any event(yes at the same time), which is only one more than I carry in normal life. Belt knife, boot knife and pocket foulder (I leave off the belt knife in the real world).
That being said, the clip point blade is a versitle style and very usefull when sized properly and made of good steel.

 

I won a large bowie without a sheath at a blanket shoot last year.I was at the lower half of the pick,(had a off day,ha ha)so it wasn't that much in demand even though it is a really nice knife.I love the looks of them,but would rather carry a couple of smaller ones in the real world.

 

MM,

Tell me how to post a pic and I'll show you the one I completed this weekend.

 

[Huntinfool]

Hey Ghost, I agree in the modern world small is in and for most chores a huge blade is not needed. In fact among some circles a large knife is a sign of a tenderfoot.

That being said a few years ago when I was going bowhunting for bears on the ground. I started thinking about why the frontiersmen carried long knives.

If they had to do battle with a bear, injun, or some white bandits a long, strong blade would be the best. Especially when you consider they usually carried a single shot frontstuffer.

So for reenacting I like to carry a 8" to 12" blade about 1" to 1.5" wide. I'm presently about to finish up one made from a pair of hedge shears. I'm planning on a deer antler handle.

Some time ago I started buying hedge shears and grass shears at roadside sales, yard sales and such for abbout 50 cents to a dollar each. They usually have some good metal in them with just some minor smithing and you've got a decent blade.

I presently have about 7 period correct knives and 4 or 5 modern blades, plus 7 or 8 belt axes and/or hawks.

Keep Her Dry Fellers,
Chuck

 

Reminds me of one of the Crockett stories! He said he charged in on a bear he had wounded, armed with knife and hawk! The bear stood up and looked at him. Suddenly he realized what he was doing and "backed up real quick, reloaded and shot the bear dead!"

I have viewed many of the origional knives of the long hunters and frontiersmen and most are not excessively large or heavy in blade. Crockett carried a double edged knife with blade about 6", Boone carried a knife slightly larger, an English knife, taken from a dead Shawnee, blade about 8-10" and not excessively thick. George Rogers Clark carried a simple knife with a stout blade about 8" long. The knife issued to Roger's Rangers was a butcher blade, 12" overall length. The dime novels didn't popularize the big blades of Bowie fame until the Alamo fiasco in 1836. That was at the end of the fur trade, which was dominated by the butcher knife, ordered for the companies by the hundred gross, often without handles. Blades 6-8 in. long. "Up to Green River" was only a six inch cut.

The knife makers guild promotes the continued life of the big bowie blades with an entry test that requires a bowie type blade; hacking a 2x4 in half, cuting a free hanging rope, penetrating 1/2 in. plywood, etc. Most guild members make them to gain entry, and then on order as "art knives", not intended for use in the real world. Real world knives have blades 4 inches long and 1/8 in. thick.

One can reach the vital organs and arteries of man or beast with a blade of 6-8 inches. More blade length is useless excess, more weight to carry that requires heavy jewelry on the pomel for balence. Some folks can carry it, I can't. I carry a small hawk for the rough work. It is lighter, carries better and was made with hacking as its purpose. I just can't move a heavy blade quickly.

Knives are for cutting, smooth, deep and often.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have a large (11" blade) rifleman's knife made on a blade that Dixie Gun Works used to sell as their "Large Ticonderoga", which was a copy of a blade found at a dig of Ft. Ticonderoga. About as simple a blade as can be. Rough steel, completely flat along the back/spine and a ground edge. This is a full but blind tang pinned into an antler crown with just enough bolster to keep my fingers from slipping up the blade. I use this as a "camp knife" and it serves about as well at chopping kindling as a hatchet.

My most used & useful is a 4-7/8" blade that is a modified butcher shape I've heard described as a "trailing point" (wider at the quillion and narrowing gradually to the upswept tip). The tip is kept from sweeping up above the spine by a 1-1/2 top edge. Blunt enough to be a good skinner and a sturdy tip. I like a deep blade that I can choke up on and 'palm" for gutting a deer. Makes a fine patch knife, too. John Donelson pounded mine out of a piece of coulter steel and it is of unknown Rockwell. I'm guessing over 65 as it ignores my Gobrecht & Grizzly broadhead files entirely . Luckily, it just doesn't seem to need sharpening often. A few runs down the ceramic stones and a lap on the surgical Arkansas & it will cut a hair held in my fingers.

 

[Huntinfool]

I agree Ghost, the knife I carry the most when in period dress is a modified old hickory with a 7" long blade. I ground down the butcher knife hump so it looks more like a rifleman's knife.

I put a custom handle on it made from the same piece of wood as my rifle and pistol, it's tiger stripe maple and a beauty. It now fits my big hand better also. The blade is about 1" wide and .086" thick at the top of the blade. Not heavy at all.

I always have my small belt ax on me also it weighs about the same as the knife not much if any heavier.

The knife I use the most is 4" blade antler crown handled I carry it on the back of my possible bag.

Where I get the long knife idea from is the same place as Stumpy old originals dug up and in museums.

Keep Em Razor Sharp Fellers,
Chuck Goodall
"The Original Huntin' Fool"
&
Kanawha Ranger Scribe

 

[tg]

The Bowie is a bit later than the time period that is of interest to me, I carry a 10"butcher in a Racoon fur sheath with rawhide liner that tucks in my shash/belt and a small 3" blade with horn handle that I carry on my bag strap or haversack strap.

 

Here lately I've started doing more shooting than I was and it has brought a change in the knife I use most. I forge blades and assemble most of the knives I have carried for the past 20 years. Couple of months ago I came across a good butcher blade, 6" long (was 8), wide and flexable with good steel. It takes a razor edge. It also has a massive hickory handle with heavy rivits.
I have quit carrying a short starter. I patch from a strip. Sit the ball on the strip, pop it into the bore with that massive handle and trim the patch all in one operation with most of the "fumbling for stuff" done away. My antler, bone and fancy wood handled blades just won't take that abuse, and I really don't want to put them through it. That $3 butcher knife has found a good home on the back of my shooting bag.

 

[Huntinfool]

I never use pre-cut patches. I also load the way you do Ghost. I read somewhere years ago that if done properly you never have to worry about getting the patch off center.

It made sense to me and have never try to use pre-cut patches since. I did use pre-cuts 30 years ago when I bought my first ML a TC Hawkins. If you've ever used them much I'm sure you've got one started wrong and had to pull it as I did.

My patch knife (carried on bag) is a 4" blade with a deer antler handle. I left enough of the skull attached so there is ample bone to drive in the ball. It also doubles as a perfect size all purpose knife. My mentor has used this method for 35 years at least.

Keep Em Sharp Boys,

Chuck Goodall
The Original Huntin' Fool
&
Kanawha Ranger Scribe

 

[Doc Arroyo]

I carry a knife depending on the period that I am recreating. When I am the gunsmith at Sutter's Fort or doing a Gold Rush event, then a big old bowie is hanging from the belt.

But for fur trade and earlier I carry two knifes. A French style cartouche knife with a 6" blade and a butcher knife with a 10" blade. They are both more versetile and useful knifes then the forged bowie.

But when I am in one of the gambling halls in Columbia, decked out in my finery, that bowie sure looks cool!

 

While I own a Western manufactured Bowie such as musketman pictured it's never been on a belt around my waist. I sharpened it to shave and it's still that way, hanging on my office wall. Mostly I carry a 5" Jimmie May damascus blade with antler scales and a brass pommel and guard for skinning and gutting and on my shooting pouch strap is a 4" paring knife style blade with a deer antler handle. Both work so well I've never experienced the need to change. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Vic

 

Too big and awkward for my taste. I have two of birddog6's custom knives. I doubt they will ever get used. Too nice to use in the field. The latest one has Kauri wood scales.
The beauty of this rare and fast disappearing exotic wood is incredible.
www.custommuzzleloaders.com and view his work.
www.thewoodturnersstudio.co.nz for the skinny on Kauri wood.
(pronounced cow-ie)
Mine carbon dates 3860 years old, add possibly another 2000 years for the tree to grow and the scales could be over 5000 years old. I bought it to pass on to my youngest son as the wood will likely be all gone in less than 10 years.
This wood is the oldest known NON petrified wood and has wonderful color, some of it is green. The stuff looks like polished marble.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Too big and awkward for my taste. I have two of birddog6's custom knives. I doubt they will ever get used. Too nice to use in the field.

!?!?!?

Their Bowies might be awkward, but a knife that's too pretty to use is a useless knife. :haha:

 

These are heirloom quality. Check out that site on the Kauri wood, pretty interesting. If you like I'll call and read it to you as I know you're getting too old to see good anymore. :haha:
Now I'm going outside and test yer moose snot! :winking:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Oh God, it just keeps getting worse. I just purchased my first pair of bifocals after years of begging my optician & eye-doctors to do their best without 'em. Pretty soon a rifle scabbard for my walker.

As Papa used to say: "Too soon old und too late schmart."

Back to the knives. He also used to say: "Kissin wears out, cookin don't.

Ugly but servicable is my kind 'o implement. (But they sure are purty, I'll admit.)

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life . . .

 

yeh, I know tha rest o' that tune.......This'nso ugly she has ta sneak up on a glass o' water. :shocking: :shocking:

 

I love Bowie knives and have a small collection of them. But I do not carry one. Wrong for my persona--I carry a primitive butcher type knife with a stag handle and an 8" blade. For real using knives I prefer a smaller blade, something around 4" is perfect for me. My patch knife has about a 3.5" blade and it does for small chores. The early Bowies were heavy bladed butcher type knives, but date from after the 1827 sandbar duel near Natchez.