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Bowies & Battle Blades pt. 2

6/18/2017

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Picture
Some time ago (geez, almost a year ago?!) I posted a blog entry about my bowie knives, promising to cover the group individually in some detail.  So here we go with the second installment as I go through my “collection” (I can’t bring myself to call it that without the ironic quotations), beginning with the most “frontier” of my knives.

Firstly is the largest of the group, a semi-custom by Plowshare Forge.  I say “semi-custom” because it’s a standard catalog item for the maker, but it’s also a handmade item that isn’t made until you order it, and you can make specific requests, so in that respect it’s custom. Plowshare Forge specializes in the rough and tumble world of “frontier” blades, blades that recreate the knives that our cowboys, or our doughboys and GIs would have had made for them by local smiths and actually carried into battle.  No high polish sheen here; these are hard core working blades, and he intends them to look the part.

This knife is a Musso Bowie, so named because the original upon which this is based was owned by a Joseph Musso.  He claimed this knife was THE knife owned by Bowie himself, which nearly all scholars dispute, but it’s still a super cool knife, which, in the world of Bowie knives, counts for at least as much as historical authenticity.  As they say in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”  The Musso bowie is almost certainly not the blade that James Bowie actually carried in his famous Sandbar Duel . . . but it’s what he should have had.

For those of you keeping score, this is the knife Emmett carries in my novel The Ballad of the Laurie Swain.  It’s big and bold, just like Emmett himself.  The blade is nearly 13 inches long, and almost 3 inches wide.  It has a large “S” guard and a strip of brass which runs almost the full length of the spine of the blade.  This brass strip has been the subject of some discussion in Bowie circles; I originally heard that it was supposed to be for parrying in knife dueling, with the idea that the soft brass would “catch” the opponent’s blade and open him up to a counter attack.  I don’t buy the “blade catcher” story, but I do think the brass strip is designed for parrying; the softer brass would absorb the shock of the blow and protect the more brittle (and more expensive) steel beneath.  Higher end knives often have a differential temper, in which the spine is softer than the edge, to accomplish the same thing, but that’s an awful lot to expect of a frontier blacksmith.

Do you remember the Bowie quote about what his knife should do?  Sharp enough to shave, broad enough to use as a paddle, heavy enough to chop like an ax, long enough to cut like a sword . . .  when one thinks of all those requirements, this knife embodies it all.

This blade is impressive.  It’s large and feels heavy.  The blade is not unduly thick, but the point of balance is far forward, about a solid 3 inches from the crossguard. This balance point makes the knife feel very blade-heavy, and it handles like a saber in the hand.  This is neither good nor bad, just an idiosyncrasy of the blade that differentiates it from others.   As a woods blade, a frontier knife depended upon to do camp chores (or row a small boat!) such a weight forward balance is an asset - it makes the knife a better chopper for cutting kindling or even making a shelter - this is the chopping like an ax part of Bowie’s famous recipe.  As for a fighting knife . . . well, such a forward balance point makes it slower in the hand.  Whether or not that would be a liability would depend heavily on what sort of weapon one were facing. If it were a saber, spear or lance, then not so much.  If it were a lighter, faster knife, it could be a problem.

One issue I have with the design is the tip.  It is SO thin and narrow! In some respects this is perhaps not a problem, and it is certainly an intentional design.  The tip has a dramatic upward sweep the terminates in a narrow tip that rises above the center line.  Combatively, this is designed to facilitate a back cut, as the top swedge of the blade is sharpened.  This is purely a combat feature; not only is not necessary in a field knife, but it could actually be a liability, as it creates an additional edge that can cut the user if one is inattentive.  Small, fine woodcraft cutting tasks become more complicated when the upper edge is sharp.  Also from a combative perspective, the tip is swept too far up to make an effective thrusting design; the actual tip only works when thrust along an arcing line, as in a back cut. In a straight thrust the point doesn’t pierce as effectively as it could, leaving it to the belly of the blade to cut its way in.  It’s certainly capable of a straight thrust, but this would force the knife to work against its own natural edge geometry and it wouldn’t pierce with nearly the efficacy that it could if the tip were positioned differently.

So my beef with this design centers on that narrow, narrow tip.  It is, in my opinion, structurally weak. While such a narrow tip ought to be good for thrusting, this one really isn’t because the tip is pointing up and off the center line. And  I can’t imagine trusting this skinny tip to hold up under any sort of hard use, especially lateral forces on the tip, whether that force is from prying dead wood from a log for kindling, or getting one’s tip stuck in the ribs of a human adversary (not that this is an issue for me).

For fans, this pattern of  knife is offered under the general title “primitive bowie” from places like Atlanta Cutlery and its ilk.  More recently, a highly polished version of this knife is featured in the film series The Expendables.  It is thrown to great combative effectiveness (don’t even get me started… perhaps I’ll write a separate blog just about throwing knives).  Still, this knife represents what a combat blade ought to be to a large percentage of the (probably male) viewership, and it certainly represents the epitome of a large frontier bowie knife.

To get your own:
Plowshare Forge:
http://plowshareforgeknives.blogspot.com/2009/07/musso-bowie.html
 
Expendables Bowie:
http://www.budk.com/Gil-Hibben-Expendables-Bowie-Knife-with-Sheath-16631
 


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Bowies and Battle Blades, pt. 1

7/15/2016

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PictureA "family" of Bowie knives
Those who know me understand that I have an affinity for big knives.  Far beyond their utility or practical use, I love me a big ol’e knife, especially when in the field.  The original idea, in a quote attributed to James Bowie, was that the bowie knife “had to be sharp enough to use as a razor, heavy enough to use as a hatchet, long enough to use as a sword, and broad enough to use as a paddle.”
 
I confess I have never shaved with one of my bowies, nor have I paddled with one; however, their broad utility is one of the things I love most about them.  They seem a perfect woods companion, and in some circles, a perfect everyday companion, otherwise known as an EDC (Every Day Carry).
 
The Bowie knife takes its name from the famed frontiersman Jim Bowie, who used a knife to defend himself at what became known as the Vidalia Sandbar Fight.  This began as a duel between a Samuel Wells and a Dr. Thomas Maddox, and Bowie was a member of the Wells party was Jim Bowie, armed with a blade very different from what later became known as the bowie pattern. This duel, as happened with so many others, got chaotic, and Bowie had to defend himself again a member of the rival party, who was armed with a sword cane. Yes, a sword cane! This was a pitched battle, and it got pretty dicey before Bowie finally prevailed upon his rival. 
 
From this fight, word of the success of “Bowie’s knife” began to get around, and soon everyone wanted a knife like Bowie’s.  Knife scholars (yes, there are such things) seem to agree that the knife Bowie actually carried during the Sandbar Fight looked suspiciously like an ordinary butcher’s knife, although many also agree that it may have looked like this early Bowie knife made by Texas blacksmith James Black. 
 
The important points on this knife are its single edge design and simple guard. Later designs would formalize the iconic design elements:  large blade, slightly upswept clip point blade, typically a sharpened clip and other elements which varied from knife to knife, such as a “Spanish notch,” and a larger guard to protect the hand in knife to knife combat.  Bowies became so popular that they were often specifically singled out in legislation banning their carry and use because they seemed so fearsome and deadly (sound familiar?).
 
So, to my knives.  I realize that over several years, I have begun what amounts to a small collection of Bowie knives.  To the untutored eye they all look alike, and I can imagine many of my friends and acquaintances wondering why I would pay good money for another, when it's so very like one I already have. To them I would say that this little edged family represents a broad spectrum of the Bowie design, and covers the history of this peculiarly American blade.

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The 21 Foot "Rule"

9/28/2015

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PictureRaylan prepares to test the 21 Foot Rule with Danny Crowe (nerdcoremovement.com)
My friend, owner and sensei of Battle School in Scottsdale, AZ  (http://www.azbattleschool.com), posted a scenario on Facebook the other day asking readers about distances with an enraged person, and asking how one handles it – this made me think about the 21 foot rule, which is a staple in defensive combat circles.

What, you ask, is a “21 Foot rule”?  This “rule” was developed first by Dennis Tueller to explain the phenomenon of police officers being killed by knifemen without their even being able to present a weapon in defense.  What they discovered was that an average man can cross 21 feet (7 yards) in 1.5 seconds … this is problematic since the average man’s reaction time is also 1.5 seconds, which means that a determined attacker can be on top of his victim, even an armed victim, before they realize they’re even being attacked, even from as far as 21 feet away.  Hence the rule’s name.  Generally, distance favors the shooter, but inside 21 feet, the presumed advantage of a gun virtually disappears.

The 21 Foot Rule has been a buzz for some time in defensive shooting circles, and even made an appearance on the hit television show Justified, in which Danny Crowe (A.J. Buckley) dispatches one of his fellow bad guys, and finally challenges the lead character Raylan Givens, using the rule.  The outcome is predictable, and yet the way it ends defies expectation.  But, as with any fictional interpretation of real combat principles, the 21 foot rule a’la Justified was fraught with problems.  The “rule” assumes an unwary target, first and foremost – once Raylan knows that Crowe is going to attack with a blade (regardless of the distance), the jig is up and the specifications of the 21 foot window are moot.  Especially if the target is an accomplished pistoleer, as Raylon is in Justified.  The “rule” of 21 feet is all about reaction time, not distance, and if one expects a given action, one’s reaction time to it will be significantly shorter.
​
This brings up another wrinkle in the 21 Foot Continuum, that being that everyone’s 21 feet is different.  21 feet is an average, and all things being equal, nothing ever is.  The “rule,”  (it’s really a guideline, at best), states that the average man can cross 21 feet in the same time as another average man’s reaction time.  Sadly, reaction times vary considerably and decline with age; my reaction time pushing 50 is not what it was twenty years ago, and so my 21 feet is really more like 27.  

I know this from doing a drill on the range.  Facing the target, a buddy stood beside me facing away from me.  At the bell, I drew and fired as he ran like hell toward the back of the range.  At the sound of my shot, he stopped, and we measured how far away from me he was able to run (remember, he was running away from the direction I was shooting) before I was able to present my weapon and fire.  In multiple attempts, and knowing that I was being tested on the 21 Foot Rule, I never made 21 feet. 

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