If you are talking about the classic coffin handled "Bowie" with silver pins and silver wrap they seem to date to the late 1820s at the earliest, but it is anyone's guess. They appear during the Bowie knife craze and most date from the 1830s, especially Sheffield copies. There is argument over their origins. One school (including me) hold that they were 'invented' by a smith named James Black of Washington, Arkansas, perhaps in the 1820s-- and 1830s Sheffield copies are aften marked "Arkansas Toothpick". There are several such knives known that are attributed to Black, one of which is owned by my uncle Carrigan's family. The Carrigan's were early settlers of Washington, Ark. Copies were also made in Cinncinati and other places. These were guardless knives made in different blade lengths from 6" to 13". Some "experts" doubt this story, but to do so is to ignore period references and written family histories--it is their perogative to ignore information, but I had rather consider it. Black claimed to have made a knife for Jim Bowie and the biggest arguments are over that. There is a small coffin "Bowie" in a museum in north Arkansas inscribed as a gift to a fellow from Col. Bowie--but that could be Rezin Bowie, who was known to give knives to friends. The famous "Bowie No.1"--a 13" bladed coffin handled knife is in the Little Rock Territorial museum and debate continues over that appellation. I would hesitate to say that knife style dates much before 1820.