Bowie Knives
18" Unmarked Guardless Coffin Handle Bowie ca. 1830
Collectors have long been fascinated by the niche these knives have carved into American history. Bowie knives were carried and used by many famous and infamous Americans during a period when this country was undergoing severe growing pains of a small nation becoming great. American frontiersmen, buffalo hunters and soldiers all used these knives as tools of their trade and as a means of protection. Bowie knives were common in the sparsely settled frontier areas, the California gold Rush fields, the plains thick with buffalo and the battlefields of the Civil War. Many of these knives are not only treasures for their historical value, but for their great value as pieces of art.
-Classic Bowie Knives, by Robert Ables
-Classic Bowie Knives, by Robert Ables
17" Unmarked Louisiana Style Hunting Knife ca. 1830
On September 19, 1827, more than a dozen men on a Mississippi sandbar, degenerated into a violent melee over an affair of honor. Repeatedly wounded, Bowie resorted to his knife. He chased one adversary from the beach, repelled a second assailant with a painful slash to the abdomen and killed a third.
The altercation became famous as the Sandbar Fight. The knife became even more famous. The term "Bowie knife" soon became entrenched in the popular vocabulary, although it seems to have been loosely applied to a wide diversity of blade designs. The majority of these knives were produced by the great cutlery industry of Sheffield, England.
Jim Bowie's death in the heroic defense of the Alamo, March 6, 1836, furthered both his legend and that of his knife.
-The Riddle of the Original BOWIE KNIFE, J.R. Edmondson
The altercation became famous as the Sandbar Fight. The knife became even more famous. The term "Bowie knife" soon became entrenched in the popular vocabulary, although it seems to have been loosely applied to a wide diversity of blade designs. The majority of these knives were produced by the great cutlery industry of Sheffield, England.
Jim Bowie's death in the heroic defense of the Alamo, March 6, 1836, furthered both his legend and that of his knife.
-The Riddle of the Original BOWIE KNIFE, J.R. Edmondson
James Bowie
Rezin P. Bowie
Contemporary Bowies
Copy of the Alamo-Searles/Fowler- Bowie
Searles style knife, made by Judson J. Brennan. It was one of his 1st Damascus blades, made in 1977 with sterling silver mounts and Ebony handle with matching sheath.
Dog Bone Bowie
Dog Bone Style Bowie with a 10" blade, Overall Length 14" Silver mounts, Curly Maple handle with leather sheath. Top of Blade is signed
David Brennan # 1
David Brennan # 1
Guardless Coffin Bowie
Guardless Coffin Bowie with a 7 1/2" blade, Overall Length 11 3/4" Silver mounts, Curly maple handle. Top of Blade is signed David Brennan # 2
