Nickel Knowledge - Knives On The Frontier

Fast Facts: Blade length: 9.4 in. ǀ Overall length: 14.4 in. ǀ Markings: On blade “Searles. Baton Rouge, LA.” ǀ Donors: Lt. Col. Richard T. Bowie and & Richard Bowie, Jr.

I am not a knife fanatic, but like every other kid, loved owning them. But when it came to adopting a frontier persona, I knew I needed to take a step backward, and looked for simpler, dare I save primitive, examples of carry cutlery. It seems buckskinners really love their knives, and their favorite designs could be linked to the likes of Jim Bowie and his brother Rezin, the famous knife fighter and the purported inventor of the famous knife, respectively.

Jim Bowie Theme Song

If you're old enough to know that Scott Forbes played Jim Bowie and can hum the theme song, you'll probably assume that the everyone carried a fancy double-guard knife with a 12" blade and was a proficient knife fighter. Probably not the case. If you were an itinerant long hunter or high plains fur trapper, you probably couldn't afford a knife crafted by the likes of Daniel Searles. So here's the dilemma: The Searles-style bowie knife is period correct based on its age. But how common would it be at Rendezvous?

If your persona runs in the same social circles as Sir William Drummond Stewart, you might feel entitled to your own copy of the Rezen Bowie. Replicas are available from Dixie Gun Works. After searching the web, I found several variations on the knife, and have seen them offered by Pedersoli and by Uberti. All versions sell for about $450.00 per copy. For all we know they are all be made at the same factory, as is the case with many Italian reproductions. For what it's worth, Pedersoli offers an optional silver-mounted scabbard similar to the one shown with the original Rezen.

Crazy Crow has an interesting post on the history of the Bowie Knife. Read it by clicking here. They carry a variety of inexpensive, reasonably accurate copies of period knives. Find one that matches your persona by clicking here.

Here's the Dixie reproduction of the Rezen Bowie knife. Notice that the sheath resembles a holster and lacks the stud of the original. The stud was designed to be used with a leather belt attachment called a "frog". I'll have more on this in another posting.

Going Primitive: Madison Grant's book "The Knife In Homespun America" presents the reader with a variety of antique knives fashioned during the early 18th century. A portion of the book was reproduced in the Book(s) Of Buckskinning (Scurlock Publications). Grant's chapter  shows that the working knives of the era were fashioned from whatever steel was available. In many cases, knives were made from worn-out files, hand forged to shape, and their tangs embedded in the crown portion of a deer's antler. I found somebody on You Tube who made a video summary of Grant's book. See it here.

My knife is an accurate re-interpretation of a blacksmith-made knife one might have encountered in the late 1700s. The handle is a piece of deer antler. The knife was assembled by boring (or burning) a hole in the antler, inserting the blade's tang therein, and filling the gap with molten pewter to bond the two pieces together. Definitely period correct and historically accurate, this knife looks truly "home spun".

Crazy Crow has an interesting post on the history of the Bowie Knife. Read it by clicking here. They carry a variety of inexpensive, reasonably accurate copies of period knives. Find one that matches your persona by clicking here.

From National Museum of American History collection. Original Posting can be found here.

If you interests lie in portraying a real mountain man with a little money, you might want to consider a knife similar in appearance to this Green River. These knives were originally made in Greenfield, Massachusetts by John Russell. The factory was started in 1832-34 to make butcher and kitchen knives. I suspect this knife would be period correct but harder to verify historically.

If you're experiencing angst from the possibility of being forced to give up on your classic Bowie knife, this double-guarded sample of a Green River knife might help you get through it. Dixie Gun Works sells a similar knife, the 1849 Ames Rifleman's Knife, for $75.00 at the time of posting. It does have the disadvantage of coming with a military-style black leather scabbard which would place it in the late 1850s. If you make your own sheath, you'll be perfect. Sorry for the poor quality - Image was taken from Dixie's web site.

I found this roach-belly knife at Track Of The Wolf for only $18.00. Like all things, you get what you pay for, and if you're willing to take a chance, you can order one by clicking here. This is probably much closer to what would have been available to trappers who bought their supplies from a big city dealer, since similar knives, sometimes called scalpers, were available at rendezvous and used by trappers and natives alike.

If you're a DIY kinda person, you can buy excellent knife blade blanks from a number of sources. I assembled a few myself, and if you have a belt sander and a drill press, the process becomes downright simple. I fudge a bit by attaching the scales (handle panels) using epoxy, but once the assembled, sanded, and stained, it easily passes the "eyeball primate" test. Jantz Knife Supply stocks this Green River blade, which you can also find at Track of the Wolf and Crazy Crow.