Knife too big ?

[Pete G]

It depends on whether you see a knife as a tool or weapon. As a tool for the modern hunter/camper a smaller size is much more convenient and useful, but something to be depended on as a last ditch weapon should probably be larger and heavier.


Trent/OH is right 10 feet is definitely a bit too long.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

That's a good point, and perhaps we should also note, that Jim Bowie, as well as the Texas gentleman who split that Knave from sternum to groin...., had their famous disputes in Town. While Jim Bowie fought with the famous knife on a sandbar, it was the continuation to an argument that started in town, not on the frontier.

So in those days, a well heeled man who was carrying a very large knife might have deterred assaults upon his person?

LD

 

[tenngun]

There was little to no police force. Almost everyone carriers some sort of weapon, women traveled in groups.
With a knife in hand I may or may not be a skilled fighter, but win or loose a criminal would get cut, maybe cut pretty bad. I can kill a hornet but I leave them alone.
We have to remember ol Jim kept low company.
I carry a gun, I have never drawn it except at the range or to clean. I don't go to places I might run in to trouble.
Back then Joe the Taylor or market grocer would spend his whole life like mine, never having to fight human monsters. Like me they avoided 'low places'. ( except for rendezvous).

 

[Black Hand]

Perhaps the adage that applies to guns should apply to knives.
Which is the best gun?
The one you shoot most accurately....

That said - I'll take a smaller, sharp, agile knife over a large heavy knife. A hatchet, axe or tomahawk work better for chopping.

 

[satx78247]

A few comments on carrying a Bowie's (or other large blade) knife in the 1830-1840 period:
1. The vast majority of firearms in 1830-1840 were flintlock rifles & shotguns. Pistols are seldom mentioned in period documents as "routinely carried openly".
(How many concealed pistols that were routinely carried "in town" is unknown/unknowable.)
2. Flintlock rifles & shotguns were unwieldy to carry "in town" & SLOW to reload after a maximum of 2 shots.
3. Bowie's knives, daggers, dirks & Arkansas toothpicks were routinely carried everywhere in Texas in the Revolution & Republic period, as most people regarded a man who was wearing a large blade as a "person to be left alone & to go about his private affairs, unmolested".
but
4. In New Orleans & in other cities other than in Texas, wearing a large/ornate blade in public MIGHT well expose the wearer to being "called out" to defend himself "in an affair of honor", according to THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE & ENQUIRER, "as it was presumed that such a gentleman was out looking for conflict in Our Fair City".

yours, satx

 

[Claude Mathis]

It depends on whether you see a knife as a tool or weapon.

Isn't that really the definitive answer to all this?

Comparing a large knife, carried for defense, to a small knife, carried for utility purposes, is comparing apples and oranges.

It's like asking, "What vehicle is better, a sports car or a pick up truck?

 

[satx78247]

EXACTLY SO.

yours, satx

 

[awebbersr]

I also have that Hibben Bowie, the scabberd has the star enclosed by a circle, a "Ranger" Star. The brass is supposed to be a blade catcher. I once read a book that was written by a relative that stated Jim's knife had a blade made from a meteor but also was with a D guard. His father had a broken saber and the length was reflective of that.

 

[tenngun]

Point 3 and 4 are real good. Were I to wear a large knife in public, and were you to have evil intent, would you be willing to find out if I knew how to use it?
On the other hand how wise could it be to display a large knife as a bluff? Or at least the real skill to use it.
'If you get an out fit you can be a cowboy too' wont work for a mano y mano fight.

 

[satx78247]

TRUE. = Trying a "bluff" doesn't work well at many poker games & even less often in a knife-fight.

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

Yup. I don't much care for hand guns, but practice to keep my hand and eye in, and think I could defend my self if needed. However I don't spend any time on the other side of the tracks, never go to the Rum and Meth bar and grill.
Today or back then I doubt if most people ever had to defend them selfs. One might just be wise to go to the sign of the four friends instead of the sign of the bucket of blood.

 

[Claude Mathis]

However I don't spend any time on the other side of the tracks, never go to the Rum and Meth bar and grill.
Today or back then I doubt if most people ever had to defend them selfs. One might just be wise to go to the sign of the four friends instead of the sign of the bucket of blood.

Our club always wears sheath knives when we ride. I prefer a 7 inch blade. (This may be off-topic, if we're only talking about knife size prior to 1866?)

 

[tenngun]

My point was that with or with out a big knife to be seen you don't have to fight if you stay away from places where fights are common.
I bet you never had a thought of fear or even discomfort in the gallent company of your long knifed friends. I know I feel salfest at 'voo'. My ears are up when I'm in the local mall, almost parinoid situational awareness.

 

[m-g willy]

I think a 10 foot blade is indeed too big.

:rotf: ,,,didn't catch that at first

 

[pondoro]

TRUE. = Trying a "bluff" doesn't work well at many poker games & even less often in a knife-fight.

yours, satx

It would truly be foolish to wear a large knife as a bluff and cause trouble. But if your strategy was to quietly stay out of trouble then a large knife prominently displayed on your hip might cause people to take thought. There were no antibiotics in those days. I think there were probably more evil people who wanted to rob and live to enjoy the proceeds than there were braggarts who felt called to challenge the guy with the big knife. But the braggarts who called people out and started fights for no reason got more attention in the papers and, later, the movies.

 

[crockett]

Getting back to pc times, I think the persona has a lot to do with what type of knife you carry. For example if you are at the Alamo a knife becomes a weapon to be used when there isn't time to reload the firearm. Your back is to the wall and you can't run away. What confused me was I assumed mountain men carried big fighting knives. A few did but a lot did not. The situation was different. Hostile NDN's were often after your equipment. If you simply ran away and left your gear you could often escape where as if you fought it out with a knife against many opponents you would surely be captured and killed.

 

[satx78247]

You make a good point W/O saying so. - Fighting Knives are generally a "weapon of last resort" in a "one on one"/"close quarters" battle.
NOT even COL Bowie would have taken on a group of Comanche warriors with his Bowie's knife, IF there was any other option.

At The Fall of The Alamo, even sick with TB, typhus (and likely with typhoid fever) & with a broken femur, he (according to a Mexican CPT, who saw the COL's last fight) killed at least a dozen Mexican soldiers & wounded several more, before finally dying from several bayonet wounds.

yours, satx

 

[Stophel]

Depends on the time period. In the 18th century, the common knife was a 6", 7", or 8" butcher knife (scalper)... that was about all there was available! One might come up with a "nicer" belt knife by taking a "case knife" (table knife) and grinding the tip into a point, making a neat 5" or 6" bladed knife (I have read one or two period references to the practice, and seen photos of a couple of knives so treated).

Big Bowie knives are basically short swords, and while some say they like theirs for general knife work, I would never be happy with such a monstrous thing.

Personally, I like a 5" bladed sheath knife. :wink:

 

[satx78247]

Frankly, I cannot imagine anyone using a large FIGHTING Bowie's Knife (especially one of the double-edged ones) for general use, except if the person had no other blade of another sort.
(ImVho, a Bowie's Knife has ONE purpose: a FIGHTING WEAPON for both slashing & stabbing.)

Note: The knife that COL Bowie used the most was a rather short "general purpose" hunting knife that he named "My Little Friend" & that a female relative gave him for Christmas about 1830.
(Btw, there is a period document that says that COL Bowie used both "Little Friend" AND his famous large fighting blade "to good effect" in the notorious ICEHOUSE FIGHT.)

As I've said elsewhere, my favorite blade is a (German-made) antique hunting knife & it has a carbon-steel blade about 3.25 inches long.
(I bought it in January 1970 at a "junk sale" in "K-town".)
I find it HANDY for "general cutting chores" & for skinning every thing from bushytails to big game.
(It holds a razor edge well & is NOT "that hard" to keep shaving sharp.)

Note: When I was active with A company, 10th LA Infantry Rgt, PACSA, I often carried a "fancy dirk" at WBTS reenactments,that was handled with a sterling silver handle that I took from an "orphan" 19th Century table-knife.
(A college chum forged me a 5" dagger blade with silver guard & fitted my handle to it.)

yours, satx

 

[palonghunter]

I occasionally carry a 7" butcher that I rehandled with a piece of deer antler. To be honest, most of the time I use a folding pocket knife with a ~3" blade for field dressing and most other tasks. My big knife rarely gets used in the field, although it's much better for skinning and butchering deer.