Confederate Bowie?

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Okay, guys. After reading all of your helpful comments, I do want the knife to be good for brush clearing and cutting sticks for firewood, maybe even batoning. I'd also want it to be good for fighting. So, do you think this would be a better blade for said tasks:

kni_11b.jpg

Also more like this:

4534a.jpg

I'm sure Mr. Brock hasn't forged my knife yet. Any and all input is appreciated so much everyone. I've never owned a Bowie knife, much less had one custom made for me!!
 
Yes, that's a more useful shape. I'd suggest not getting the D guard, though.

Something like this, but with less pronounced handle ridges, would be my choice in an oversized bowie:
1850_Coffin_Hilt_Bowie_Knife_401732s.jpg
 
JShirley said:
Yes, that's a more useful shape. I'd suggest not getting the D guard, though.
Click to expand...
Oh man... that's one compromise I'd not like to make! Looks too interesting and cool. I don't care if it gets in the way sometimes. I can't imagine it does too much.
 
A small point to consider about those portraits that survived the period of the young soldiers and officers.... Many were pretty much like old cowboy photos in that the weapons shown were actually props provided by the guy taking the photo.... I'd be pretty hesitant to believe that the weapons shown in those old carefully posed pics were ones those young men would actually be carrying into battle.... Food for thought.
 
The museum at Stone Mountain has numerous examples of such knives, noting that paths marched by Southern troops were littered with them.
 
Mid 1800's Photos

These posed photos were usually the actual weapons they carried into war.
Most were poor boys that could show only weapons they owned or could borrow.

The handguns and other firearms are augmented with Short Swords (Bowies).
Why ? Think of the period. Black powder that had to be kept dry. It wasn't always sunshine and blue skies. What if you had a misfire for any number of reasons (many) ? (Some of the firearms also looked puny).

War was not playtime. This was really fighting for your life !

Guns were very expensive then, but knives were cheaper.

Ergo the backup, that was always ready. Bowie, toothpick, short sword, dagger, or other type of blade!

I have some modern representatives of those shown, but no originals.
 
A friend has his ancestral D guard Confederate Bowie, still showing remnant file teeth on the rear of the blade flats. That makes one soldier who didn't discard his as useless weight. But it isn't any 14" long in the blade, either.

Consider that a 14" blade makes a serviceable machete.
 
Gun Master said:
These posed photos were usually the actual weapons they carried into war.
Most were poor boys that could show only weapons they owned or could borrow.

The handguns and other firearms are augmented with Short Swords (Bowies).
Why ? Think of the period. Black powder that had to be kept dry. It wasn't always sunshine and blue skies. What if you had a misfire for any number of reasons (many) ? (Some of the firearms also looked puny).

War was not playtime. This was really fighting for your life !

Guns were very expensive then, but knives were cheaper.

Ergo the backup, that was always ready. Bowie, toothpick, short sword, dagger, or other type of blade!

I have some modern representatives of those shown, but no originals.
Click to expand...
Yes, from what I have read this was especially true before the percussion revolvers came into wide use. Before that, you generally only had one shot from guns such as the Harpers Ferry percussion conversion (the gun I'm probably going to buy) so it was wise to have a large knife with you!

I've done a little research on Plowshare Forge. Looks like a great "operation", more like a lone blacksmith making these knives by hand, the traditional way. I am absolutely thrilled to be able to get my knife. Just to know that it was made by a REAL blacksmith, in the USA, to my specifications is quite an incredible feeling.

Quite frankly, I am stoked!

PS: I have decided to stick with my original plan of a double edged fighting bowie. I understand that it won't be as useful for camp chores with this blade style, but also have a hard time believing it won't be good enough for clearing paths on trails in the woods and things like that which is mostly what it will be used for. I have also settled on a 14" blade. Go big or go home!! :D
 
Jim Watson said:
A friend has his ancestral D guard Confederate Bowie, still showing remnant file teeth on the rear of the blade flats. That makes one soldier who didn't discard his as useless weight. But it isn't any 14" long in the blade, either.

Consider that a 14" blade makes a serviceable machete.
Click to expand...
That was probably a sword with a broken blade that was converted into a "D Guard Bowie".
 
A broken sword didn't have remanent file teeth on it.

This is a broken sword I made into a fighting knife, and a brush & weed whacker!

MySwordBlade2.jpg

MySword3.jpg

Swords were not made from worn out files.

rc
 
Hopefully my bowie will serve as a brush and weed wacker too. I think it should do fine, if a machete can than I don't see why mine wouldn't. Just as much length with probably more weight in the blade.
 
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I have to agree with Jshirley that a coffin or coke bottle handle would be much better for the uses you have in mind. I think a straight profile with a D guard is going to tear your pinky finger up pretty quick if you try and do any serious chopping. There's nothing to index the handle with your hand and the guard is there as a pinch point when you slip.
 
it won't do to cut light brush and sticks for a camp fire
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It won't do as well because the point of balance and point of percussion will be off from where you want the "sweet spot" for hacking.

f a machete can than I don't see why mine wouldn't
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Sorry, but that's not how things work. The machete has a relatively thin somewhat whippy blade while your "bowie" will be much thicker and rigid. Also the hardness can be very different.

Just explain to your bladesmith that you want a reproduction bowie in the style of a confederate bowie that will allow you to perform specific tasks (not all tasks since no one knife does all tasks) that are important to you. If he knows his "stuff" he'll make a knife for you that will perform the way you want it to and look enough like what was made at the time to be quite passable for the real thing.
 
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rcmodel said:
A broken sword didn't have remanent file teeth on it.

This is a broken sword I made into a fighting knife, and a brush & weed whacker!

View attachment 215251

View attachment 215252

Swords were not made from worn out files.

rc
Click to expand...
Woooops! Missed that one.
Wonder if it was a rasp or riffler ?

Many broken swords were not thrown away, but used as knives with the D guards still attached.
 
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So a buddy of mine now retired from the USMC after a quarter century plus asked me for a knife suggestion when he was but a shaved tail 2LT.

I found a too pretty to think about Randall #2 in a local mall knife shop (where did all those go?) in about as big as Randall ever made them, I believe it may have been a foot of blade or more on that sucker. I mentioned it to him as a joke more than any thing else and he dashed off and bought it.

He found it extremely useful on his first Med cruise. As Beach landing Officer he had to deal a lot with the host nations. Spain, Italy, and Greece as it happens. He wore that #2 any time he was "Under Arms" and either a Colt or S&W 1917 revolver that was privately owned ( and sometimes all three). The military folks in all three countries were fascinated with the knife and all treated him well after fondling the thing.

Of course in the American Civil War troops did not have Assault Landing ships, hover craft, and helos to cart them from place to place........

-kBob
 
When I was a kid, in the 60's, I spent a lot of time with my Grandfather, in the woods and fields around Hanover County, Virginia, where both the Seven Day's and Cold Harbor campaigns were fought, with metal detectors in our hands. We did find a few of those big Bowie type knives. Well, we found knife shaped hunks of rust actually. Apparently some of them did make it into the field, or as others have said were thrown away along the route of march.

Let me tell you. Toting a metal detector through the woods in Virginia in June, July, and August was enough work for me. I was tempted a number of times to throw away first the belt pouch, then the digging hoe, then finally the metal detector...and I was wearing cut off jeans and a T-shirt, not a wool uniform.
 
I asked a few questions of my cutlery historian pal about the range of quality on these knives and he provided the following.

They were made by hundreds of different country artisans with differing skill sets, levels of skill, and knowledge of say metalworking -- and essentially none of them were trained cutlers. (The maker we know from here was a carpenter by trade.) So, it's a mixed bag to say the least. Now, collectors don't want to put hardness tester dots on their expensive collectibles to learn something they don't care about, but I've seen a lot more edges that were dented than chipped. As for differential hardness -- for some reason we never see temper lines. That said, I once refinished a blade (made by a surgical instrument maker, a highly skilled cutler) that had been poorly refinished by someone before me, and once I got to sanding a temper line jumped right out where it had not been visible before. So-- maybe more of that was done than we're aware of. But again, that was a cutler, and not a country blacksmith or what have you.
Click to expand...
 
Remember Cool, any actual questions posted here are used solely to initiate long and learned discussions amongst the cognoscenti and even the resultant posts that seem to be answers to the original question are, in fact, just entry points to rabbit holes measureless to man. Except mine.
 
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