First Bowie Knife

[Rifleman1776]

Actually, Arkansas is the birthplace of the Bowie knife and still the repository of the best information on the history of it. As well as the best place to start debates on the subject.
Bill Worthen, administrator and curator of the State museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, is one of the country's foremost experts on the subject. Meaning at least a thousands other 'experts' disagree with him. For more info on the subject check out: http://www.historicarkansas.org/knife_gallery/

p.s. you might find a knife in the gallery donated by someone you recognize.

 

[LRB]

I would have to consider Louisianna as the birth place of the Bowie knife, since that's where the first one was made.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I would have to consider Louisianna as the birth place of the Bowie knife, since that's where the first one was made.

Uh-Oh! :shocked2: We are off and running. :wink:
The first Bowie knife was made by James Black in Washington (now Old Washington), Arkansas. The shop is still standing and in use as a school for knife forging. I have been in it and the ghosts of both Black and Bowie told me so.
The famous sandbar fight was held in Louisiana although some accounts put it in Texas.

 

[LaBonte]

Rezin P. Bowie, Planters Advocate: August 24, 1838:

The first Bowie knife was made by myself in the parish of Avoyelles, in this state (Louisiana), as a hunting knife, for which purpose, exclusively, it was used for many years”¦”¦The length of the blade was nine and one-quarters inches, its width one and one-half inches, single edged and not curved.

FWIW - Rezin was Jim's brother and had several bowies made by various makers.
As for the rest there is no real bonafide documentation for Black EVER making a knife or Jim Bowie ever making a trip there - all we have is supposition based on vague family history and later "historians" and politicians touting that Arkansas was the home of the Bowie (along with the ABS mafia that is....).

 

[BrownBear]

When you look at Bowie's long history of crooked land dealings and general skulldugery, I'm surprised Louisiana would claim him, much less Arkansas! :rotf:

 

[omarick1948]

Wouldn't it be funny, if history someday proved that Arkansas and Loiusiana are both wrong and the original Bowie came from Pakistan!

:rotf:

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Very interesting article and photos. I have seen the movie "Iron Mistress" a couple of times. I thought the knife or the story of the knife got lost in the script.

 

[LRB]

A great movie I thought, but it's Hollywood and not necessarily fact.

 

[LRB]

ABS mafia? I like that Chuck. Maybe we could just call it the Absmafia. I'll give them credit where it's due, after all the BS is cleaned away. A Herculean task if ever there was. As far as Bowie being crooked, I doubt he was any more crooked than those he dealt with.

 

[William O.]

Wouldn't it be funny, if history someday proved that Arkansas and Loiusiana are both wrong and the original Bowie came from Pakistan!:rotf:

:bow: :rotf:

 

[preston cook]

:slap: :shake:

 

[Rifleman1776]

ABS mafia?

I let that go the first time I saw it. I have met several ABS members and can state they invariably are fine folks. (most are from Arkansas, what else would you expect? :wink: )
They love to share their knowledge, like we are supposed to do here.
They are passionate about making high quality forged knives with an almost religious ferver.

 

[stormcrow]

Arkansas sure is the current capital of custom knifemaking IMO. Some of the best knifemakers in the world are based there (like Bob Dozier), not to mention AG Russell's operation. I'm going to get to the AGR show in Fayetteville one of these days.

 

[CrackStock]

Arkansas sure is the current capital of custom knifemaking IMO.

Well I guess that I should not annoy them by pointing out that the first Bowie knife was surely made in Mississippi... :stir:

CS

 

[smo]

I thought Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Territory :idunno: :stir:

 

[Rifleman1776]

I thought Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Territory :idunno: :stir:

Wuz until we got smart. Long before Black and Bowie. :blah:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

In the TV show starring Scot Forbes, the Bowie had a brass back to the blade so other knives couldn't slip down to the hand. In some old movie version I saw, the knife smith used a piece of meteorite to forge the blade. No matter what story and where, it has led to a million teenage buying overly large Chinese knives so they could be cool. My Brother just had to have one when he was 13. I was never that enthralled with them (preferred a light belt hatchet)

 

[Rifleman1776]

The brass strip on top was a blade stopper. I don't know if the knife used in the sandbar fight was his first or a later iteration. There are more Bowie variations than stars.

 

[LRB]

The knife Forbes used was the "IRON MISTRESS", from the Alan Ladd movie,also used By Richard Widmark in John Waynes "THE ALAMO", and it appeared in Disney's Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Maybe one or two others. It was designed by a prop man for "IRON MISTRESS" movie. Joe Musso owns it, unless he has sold it.