I believe this. Our late Dr Pat Wagner discovered the come and take it cannon also. I wish I had the money to go back and buy the relics he had. Like Doc Holliday's flask. It all went up for auction too. Proud to see people take care of these items that were just an every day carry on to these heroes. Jim was a hero, Doc was a hero and many more. God bless Texas and all of the USA
Very, very interesting!! Here's something that is interesting and to get people to checking out flea markets. I bought a knife at a flea market a couple of years ago. The dealer was about to leave for the day and since I bought a lot from him, he offered me some knifes for change. One was an ugly old heavy dagger that had engravings on the blade that said "Toledo spain", like they have on the reproductions of swords today. I used it at home for a letter opener and kept it in a magazine holder by my door for about two years. I was cleaning the blade and had the thought to look it up on Google. Maybe I could find something on it, (I was terrible with looking on Google.) I almost dropped the dagger, it turns out that it was made in the 1800's and is a very rare Spanish dagger worth about $800.00 ! The cost of the dagger covered EVERYTHING that I bought there. So there is one good reason to go and inspect flea markets and garage sales 😀.
Ok. I was skeptical about this until about ten minutes in. I now believe that this man is not just sincere, but is in possession of authentic pieces of history. If I had my way, his information and know would make him a celebrity lol
just a fantastic collection , i would love to see these knives in person some day … maybe you will bring them to a knife show close to me and i can … thx for doing the video ...
One has to wonder at the 3 (so far) individuals who disliked this video. Mr Larson offers a fine display and in the limited amount of time, gives very well researched and documented Provenance for the pieces shown in this video. For something that is that old, unless it has been retained in the same family & passed down to direct descendants since approximately 1827, I fail to see how it could be done more accurately. Mr. Larson mentions writing a book, and I've searched for it online, but have failed to come up with anything. I hope he does, or has written the book. I'd love to read it.
Terrific! Thanks for letting me know. I'm a Subscriber, and, if you will be kind enough to let us all know when the book is published, along with name and publisher, I would be most appreciative.
Hopefully, somewhere, likely in Mexico, there is a knife taken from Bowie's body after he was killed at The Alamo. Either that knife still exists today somewhere, or it was discarded, lost, or misplaced and is nothing more than a pile of rust now. I like to think that it still exists somewhere & one day will come to light. How could it be proven as the knife of James Bowie? I have no idea, but it would be one hell of a thing to witness. Excellent video & the blades are wondrous to see. I can only imagine the feeling that actually "handling" the Forrest Knife would give anyone who should be so lucky as to have that privilege.
Not gonna happen, because there would be absolutely no way to establish provenance. Whatever possessions Bowie had with him at the Alamo are lost to history.
I was at the Williamson auction in S.F. where the Forrest Bowie sold and was allowed to handle it as well as all of the other Bowie knives available. I ended up buying one of knives in the auction. That was a great day.
incredible work on the weight dsitrobution on the knife. I've seen old french chef's knives with similar taper scheme, similar overall shape as well! Looks like a smith upsides an old french made chefs knife
Dale mentioned with the case he said it was made in the 1820s (obviously he meant 1920s). also he has since learned that what he thought was an appraisal worksheet was actually a catalog sheet created by a part-time employee of the historical society of Pennsylvania, drawing information from both the 1913 and 1986 appraisals. needless to say, Dale keeps winning best over all and best educational display awards wherever he shows up and his book is now over 400 pages and nearly 1300 endnotes!
@@michaelsmith2733 Dale says The blade of the Forrest Knife is now 12 ¼ inches long, but the tip has been broken off, perhaps about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch. The handle is 4¾ inches. The Forrest Knife is slightly warped from the original tempering. And the blade was conserved by removing active rust. Joe Musso has been saying that the blade was originally silver plated and that Williamson had the plating removed. That is incorrect as the color photos Dale showed in the talk make perfectly clear.
Bark River Knives makes an "homage" "Edwin Forest Bowie" which I have one of and love it. They offer different handle materials, mine I chose micarta a slight upgrade to the original Edwin Forest Bowie. This is not only a beautiful knife but deceptively formidable, and I can see why this might have been carried for self defense, but also easily used in the kitchen as a "breaking knife ".
WOW .. just a fantastic piece of History.. this knife matches the exact description of the knife that jim Bowie's.. brother Reison described that he had the blacksmith make and then gave it to his brother Jim... A single-edged.. straight blade large butcher knife.. no guard no clip point.... I have no doubts that this knife belong to Jim Bowie.. it may or may have not been the original Sandbar knife? but it is most likely an exact copy of the original Sandbar knife
It's quite obvious the knife Bowie is holding in the portrait is the Juan Seguin Knife, the one Bowie supposedly gave Seguin when he left the Alamo before the battle to try and get reinforcements. That means Bowie had two knives with him in the Alamo? If he fought from his death bed like they said he did he certainly did have. What was the other one? Maybe the Bart Moore knife? Maybe not?
Now there is the "Sea of Mud" knife to consider as a possible backup that Bowie may have had on him at the Alamo (it had a six inch blade, which to me would make sense as a secondary knife rather than "THE" Bowie that everyone would have been drooling over). It fits the pattern of the known James Black knives perfectly, as knife maker and Bowie historian James Batson pointed out, making it less likely that it belonged to someone other than Bowie since there was a short window of time to have gotten one made by Black in Arkansas before he was blinded (or to have been gifted one) and just happen to show up in Texas, possibly a month after the Alamo and likely dropped by a Mexican soldier the day before the Battle of San Jacinto when crossing the West Bernard River. If the Sea of Mud knife is one owned by Bowie, that is incredible serendipity! Even just to find what is very likely a James Black made knife like that is incredible.
Contacted the Scottish Historical Society yrs. ago and one stated that if you have the name BOWIE you are related as only one family had that name from the Scottish Highlands.
It was not a British creation... There was a demand of knives that everyone would like to have a knife like bowie's....sheffield England Made good use of that, James Bowie's knife was a straight blade knife made in America, England took advantage of it and made fantastic knives
I THOUGHT JIM BOWIE CARRIED A SPYDERCO PARAMILITARY II - - - - - - - LMAO! VERY GOOD VIDEO - I HUNG ON EVERY WORD - I LOVE OLD THINGS AND I LOVE KNIVES, IMAGINE HAVING A KNIFE THAT JIM BOWIE GAVE ONE OF FRIENDS (COOOOOOOL!) - GOOD VIDEO - BRAVO!
This Forest knife resembles a Cold Steel Bowie Machete..I have a few,very functioning design for all around. I like the missing guard hilt,. Can choke up for small utility like skinning a deer
Ontario 1095 is primo blade but they need to start doing more charm in handles and charge more, become the next Union Cutlery ... Kabar in Olean must as well,get back to old school
Darryl: what thickness is the blade by the handle? Does it taper to a thinner point? I am wondering if a modern butcher knife would be thick enough to penetrate wool clothing worn in Bowie's day. All dimensions of the blade & handle would be greatly appreciated. I am 71, a lifelong knife collector and have 7 or 8 quality Bowies, but my turkey carving knife most closely resembles the Forrest Bowie shown.
Seems like a very intelligent fellow. Did some good research. A lot better than the provenance of the "Musso knife" for example. Not saying it couldnt be Bowie's, just saying Joe Musso hasnt come up w/ enough to convince me quite yet.
The musso bowie is a knife from the fifty to the seventys, it's not an old knife, the knife is cool though, it's became a myth because they made the story that way with the investigation about the metal and all... But the construction of the knife and the metal is not from the 1830 's
To me, a Bowie knife is the kind, the size, and the shape of the one Jim Bowie made famous. If his name is attached, I think it's silly to say any large knife from that perios, and from a hundred years past his death, is a Bowie knife.
Wow....this is probably legit. It fits exactly the Rezin Bowie description and the modern designs based on that description..not sure about the Spaniard story apaniards were some of the best knife ever. One thing is sure though. Jim Bowie was killed by a Mexican. Great historical accounts right here....👍👍👍👍💪💪💪
I love the aesthetics of the bowie design.. I've been thinking about buying one. Anybody have any suggestions that are not absurd? Never going to pay 3 grand for a Randall
i don't know who jim bowie was 1820s ? so he wasn't daniel boone or davy crockett or the kentucky guy . . how many times did bowie draw a knife ? how many fights ? how many he kill ? he would have wanted a fancy knife so accoutrements such as hexagonal washers under the pins might be used embellishments as the ricasso or spanish notch or even filework could all play a part. important is how the knife makes you feel, i once held a antler handled bowie with a 9-1/2'' blade i liked the grip but felt the blade could be a bit longer . i also had opportunity to use a 9-1/2'' blade of a much wider variety like the western w49 frontier knife - i could slip it in side my jeans and just have the litlle dangle loop outside to pull the sheath out - the wide blade is good for elk ribs
@@markhamilton3215 No reason to abort the idea of getting a finely made reproduction Bowie! Even the original Bowie brothers themselves had multiple knives, of various styles. Look up some pics of originals, such as the famous(and probably my favorite) Shively knife, and have a bespoke maker forge ya one! The knife the guy has in his display there might be old, but because it's old, it's also rusted, been repolished, rusted again(badly), and was repolished again. That last bout of active rust was severe enough that it left the blade permanently pitted! You won't have to worry about any of that with a fine, newly made blade!
People always embellishes the facts, It's funny that all of the so called Bowie Knives being sold today are large bladed knives with straight or fancy curled guards. Where in all likelihood, the original Bowie Knife was what today we would consider just a large Butch Knife, nothing fancy about it.
I believe one fact is certain here: No one really knows WHAT knife Bowie had at the Alamo, or if he even had one there. He died on his cot, never fighting back, hence, his knife had no part in the battle.
@@joejones9520 The Bowie knifes are fake, no one knows how the originals looked like. YES, Mexican accounts show him crying for mercy before being bayonetted to death. Travis committed suicide at the north wall when he saw all was lost. Of course, we all know (the world) that Davy Crockett surrendered to the Mexican soldiery only to be executed moment later!
@@rogerborroel4707 youre treating speculation as fact in both cases. Do you understand how many insanely varying accounts of what happened at the Alamo we have? No one knows much for sure other than the basics.
i have bowie's original knife, someone took it to world war 2 and peened the name of the island of luzon into the blade but the real deal is his name scratched into the horn handle, and its not as big or heavy as the claims are
Where would one go to in order to identify such a knife, with little to no known history? Going purely off aging and design characteristics; who is credible that would be interested in taking a gander at any items of interest?
Send them my way! Or on my fakebook page "knives of note". Also the knives page or most of the knife pages have many knowledgeable people on there that can help narrow it down as well.
Jim Bowie was a land swindler, and the "reason" you can't find the original "Bowie" knife any more than you can find a valid Jim Bowie land grant is simple. Everyone looks with "star-spangled eyes" at Jim Bowie. They ought to be looking at *The other Bowie* Rezin had more to do with the Bowie legacy weapon than his "famous" Martyr of a Brother did. Rezin made it, but Jim sold it. Most people today couldn't tell you enough about Rezin to fill an el-cheapo Texas made fortune cookie. Now just why do you suppose that is? Because it's easier to add layers of mythos to a marble man like Jim Bowie than it is to "bother" going against the "convention" that sells so many knives each and every year, that's why.
@@derekstocker6661 Yeah, based on the origin of the surname. The same way we knew how certain words were pronounced in Latin based on what we know a about historical phonology. Cheers
They don't say it's the knife at the Alamo, because edwin forrest received it in 1829, the alamo was in 1836...the fact is that it is a or knife from James bowie
you hear how the interviewer speaks the name? he'll call him james bowie then call the knife boowie. you don't call a bow with arrows a boo with arrows you call it a bow, there is a way to spell bow and there is a way to spell boo and if the proper vocabulary we all learned in school is the second vowel capitalizes the first as in bOwIe then everyone who calls them boowie knives is wrong and has been wrong since day one and i honestly believe something should be done for once and for all
I used to call them bowie knives as well until specialists in the field corrected me as he used to pronounce his name "boo-wee". still spelled bowie though.
The Bowe family we're alleged slave traders using a complicated import loophole / discription of design by rise Bowie from a file (farrier rasp) and looked like a butcher knife / the heavy clip point skinning butcher knife were around before Bowie was born/ etching of blue beard the pirat has a clip point with s hand hard stuck in his belt
I believe that is the knife! He did his work and it adds up! Those who, dispute it. Are jealous plain and simple! I have heard every single collector that disputes it give there reasons why its not. And they just sound plain stupid to me. Jealousy is very much a real thing between some collectors! This guy had enough proof that only a idiot would deny it!
jim bowie was a brawler and drink. i don't know where you guys get your information but i suspect from glamour stories to sell papers . jim bowie was a womanizer and card cheat but he's your hero so you overlook the truth . you change out words to suit your wishes , words like modest generous kind honest do not describe jim bowie
Is there an appraisal, dollar value of this original? Im ALL the way NORTH Central B.C. Canada, and this knife, and Jim Bowie story is famous in CANADA.
