_The James Black Question_

[Darto]

(In 1996, James Black was inducted into the American Bladesmith Society Hall of Fame as an inauguree - wikipedia)

Bill Worthen, over 40 years director of the Historic Arkansas Museum. LIfe member, Antique Bowie Knife Association
The late Norman Flayderman, collector, dealer, author, legend. The Flayderman Guide to Antique Firearms first appeared 1954

So I finally found Flayderman's Bowie Knife book at a reasonable price and it's now being shipped to us. The reviews on Amazon use words like magnificent, monumental, astounding. I don't have a single Bowie knife. Searching around the net I found a .PDF file by Bill Worthen on the Arkansas Heritage Museum site . "The James Black Question".

https://www.amazon.com/Flaydermans-Antique-American-Firearms-Values/dp/089689455X

https://www.arkansasheritage.com/do...james-black-and-the-bowie-knife-revisited.pdf

 

[Darto]

Bill Worthen

 

[Rifleman1776]

In the Worthen study Darto posted, it said: " or, even, much evidence on Black himself."
As an Arkansan with some interest in the Bowie story, I have come across people and writings that doubt Black's existence. I don't know the truth and do not have a dog in that fight.
I once met Bill Worthen at a rendezvous at Old Washington, Arkansas where he spoke on the history of Bowie and the knife. I was also able to tour the original (?) shop where Black supposedly worked.
As to the story, I will relate one version I once read written by a friend and neighbor of the Bowie family. The author, whose name I have long forgotten, wrote in the language of a barely educated early Arkansan. For me that added credibility to his story as he had no motive to fabricate a falsehood. I read this in a booklet he published that was in the Baxter County library. I later went back to photocopy the work but it had been destroyed by the library. Anyhow, the story went like this: A brother of James Bowie, Rezin, seriously injured himself while slaughtering a hog using a knife with no cross guard. His hand slid down the blade causing the injury. Afterwards Rezin (not James) went to Black and had him design and build a knife with a cross guard for safety purposes on a working knife. That is only one version of the Bowie creation, I do not know what the real story is. I only repeat this for whatever interest or value it may have to others interested in the history of the Bowie knife. And, for what it is worth, I have a Bowie knife in the Historic Arkansas Museum I donated. It was part of the NMLRA Bicentennial rifle raffle package which I won in 1976. The knife was made by famed Arkansas bladesmith Jimmy Lile. It was a safe queen before I donated it. But, it now rests where it belongs for other Arkansans to see and enjoy. (I wanted to post a link to a pic of that knife but it seems no longer available)