What Makes a Bowie Knife Different?

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What Makes a Bowie Knife Different?

Some knives are legendary. The daggers of Europe, the flint knives carried by Apache warriors and the knives carried into the battles of World War 2 all carry with them fearsome reputations, and justly so. Bowie knives are among those blades which have become the stuff of legend. Like a samurai's sword or a Spartan's spear tip, these Bowies have characteristics that make them easily identifiable and unfailingly deadly.

A Bowie knife is probably most defined by its blade shape. In fact, some knives sold as Bowies have nothing about them that qualifies them as Bowie knives other than a slightly clipped blade. In common parlance, a Bowie is any long-bladed, non-folding knife that has a clipped blade. Properly, however, there is more to it than that; much more, in fact.

A Bowie knife always has a hand guard. Traditionally, this guard had a forward-swept quillion on the top of the handle. Today, this hand guard may be modified somewhat, and the knife to which it is attached may still be called a Bowie. The famous Marine combat knife of World War 2 is clearly a Bowie-style knife, even though it has an essentially straight hand guard. The curved hand guard provides better protection in blade-to-blade combat and, thus, was favored by Bowie when he designed the original knives.

A Bowie knife is always a big knife. Subtlety cannot be said to be among their characteristics. These knives range from 6" to 12" in length, in most cases. There are longer models available, but they're generally designed more for looks than for practical use. Like most fighting knives, the longer variants of Bowies approach the length of some short swords. These knives are formidable in appearance and efficient weapons, but that was only part of their advantage.

Bowie knives have blades that are both thick and heavy. Properly used, they can perform in a similar fashion to machetes. The heavy blade of the knife ensures that it can deliver a solid blow, that the blade isn't prone to bending or breaking and that it is adequate to block another weapon, if needed. Like some other legendary blades, the Bowie knife is associated with a hero. Jim Bowie, an American frontiersman, was renowned for his fighting prowess and his fearlessness.