Edged Wpns Civil War Side/Bowie/Fighting Knife?

Bartman55

Private
Joined
May 18, 2019
Greetings to All!
Here is an old knife I picked up at the local flea market. The dealer said it may be civil war era. I’m a novice and will greatly appreciate any at helpful feedback from the community! Thank you for your interest and opinions!
Warm regards to all,
Bart

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Greetings to All!
Here is an old knife I picked up at the local flea market. The dealer said it may be civil war era. I’m a novice and will greatly appreciate any at helpful feedback from the community! Thank you for your interest and opinions!
Warm regards to all,
Bart

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Either civil war or not, it looks to be a nice flea market pickup.
 
Technically it is a Bowie, having a scalloped top edge on the blade. Without a hilt however it would be less useful as a combat knife. Perhaps it once had one considering the way the shank is shaped at the base. I'm getting the vibe of either a cook's or a trapper's knife.

Lots of knives were carried by soldiers in the CW. Most of them were not government pattern or issue so there's no obvious way to tie this knife to any army, let alone to a soldier, without some accompanying written provenance. I suppose you could have a metallurgical assessment performed that would give you a range of date for its manufacture, if that's worth it to you --- what did you pay for the knife?

At least this knife appears to meet CW reenactment standard, if that's of any value to you.
 
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Technically it is a Bowie, having a scalloped top edge on the blade. Without a hilt however it would be less useful as a combat knife. Perhaps it once had one considering the way the shank is shaped at the base. I'm getting the vibe of either a cook's or a trapper's knife.

Lots of knives were carried by soldiers in the CW. Most of them were not government pattern or issue so there's no obvious way to tie this knife to any army, let alone to a soldier, without some accompanying written provenance. I suppose you could have a metallurgical assessment performed that would give you a range of date for its manufacture, if that's worth it to you --- what did you pay for the knife?

At least this knife appears to meet CW reenactment standard, if that's of any value to you.

Hi Ed,
Thank you very much for taking the time to send me such a detailed and thoughtful message. greatly appreciate it!

You certainly raise all of the important issues regarding the knife. I paid only $20 for it so I can’t complain if it’s just an ordinary hunting or cooking knife. If I can find someone or someone lab to run an age test on the blade that isn’t cost prohibitive I’ll post the results.

Thank you again for your interest and expertise.
Best,
Bart
 
Living here in Louisiana and in region of where Bowie once lived, I understand from mere oral history is that the knife shown does fit the picture of a Bowie knife as I understand it. The original knife supposedly did not have a hilt guard on it and this one lacks it. I like the theory that the pirates of Jean Lafitte begun this pattern from a cut down version of a shorten cutless sword of theirs that was sold on the local trade stores. It is a historical record that the pirates did come to Jonesville, Louisiana (back then called Trinity) on the Black River mostly illegal slave trade but highly likely had other trade items perhaps those long knives who would eventually be named Bowie Knives. There was a fair number of Choctaws in the area also and they could have played a role.
 
Living here in Louisiana and in region of where Bowie once lived, I understand from mere oral history is that the knife shown does fit the picture of a Bowie knife as I understand it. The original knife supposedly did not have a hilt guard on it and this one lacks it. I like the theory that the pirates of Jean Lafitte begun this pattern from a cut down version of a shorten cutless sword of theirs that was sold on the local trade stores. It is a historical record that the pirates did come to Jonesville, Louisiana (back then called Trinity) on the Black River mostly illegal slave trade but highly likely had other trade items perhaps those long knives who would eventually be named Bowie Knives. There was a fair number of Choctaws in the area also and they could have played a role.

Thank you Jayhawker, I greatly appreciate your valuable input. It’s hard to see in the photo but the brass ring piece above the handle has a ship motif etched on both sides. So perhaps the knife is an earlier nautical version of the Bowie sold in trade stores, I will see if any of the local universities can run a metallurgical test on the blade to determine the age of manufacture. Thank you again!
Bart
 
If this item was sold at a trading post I would think the hilt had to be removed. The local yeomanry and Indians would used it as a skinning knife for game and livestock animals. The swine were usually shaved of it's hair leaving a smooth pig skin. The knife hilt would interfere with shaving I suppose. This knife would do very well at the tasks that I envision it being used. It would also be a nasty item in hand to hand combat to counter a bayonet thrush.
 
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