In Honor of James Bowie -- post 'em!

crsides said:
The Iron Lady, a 12-8 Randall IIRC. Sold it way too cheap.




Charlie
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About 1981 I bought a Randal with the same blade and hand guard but handled the way that blade usually is, with stacked leather compressed between a butt cap and the guard. Randal called mine their Big Bear Bowie. I have not seen any other Randals with a model name stamped on them. Are you sure it was Randal who stamped IRON LADY on yours?

Do not feel too bad about selling yours at under their present price. I bought mine new in a retail knife store in a large city's most prominent shopping mall for $200. After a few years and the realization that I would never be willing to use such an expensive knife I sold it back to them for $150. They did buy back the stag Randal 7" #1 for the full price I paid them, ~ $175. I wish that I hung onto the Randal I actually used, a stag 6" Little Bear Bowie. Since it was not in as new condition the store would not buy it back. It was ~ $150 new. Fortunately I do not remember what I was able to get out of it at a gun show. Notice there was no waiting to buy them. The store had plenty of Randals on the shelf.
 
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I grew up in TX, and have been to the Alamo twice. As I am quite fond of the bowie style knives, I collect them. I prefer one of those to the rifles of the time. I recently watched a movie, The Iron Mistress, starring Alan Ladd. At the end he throws his specially made Bowie knife off of a river boat, when we all know he used it at the Battle of the Alamo. Awesome photos of some fine bowie knives, thanks for sharing.
 
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k22fan said:
About 1981 I bought a Randal with the same blade and hand guard but handled the way that blade usually is, with stacked leather compressed between a butt cap and the guard. Randal called mine their Big Bear Bowie. I have not seen any other Randals with a model name stamped on them. Are you sure it was Randal who stamped IRON LADY on yours?

Do not feel too bad about selling yours at under their present price. I bought mine new in a retail knife store in a large city's most prominent shopping mall for $200. After a few years and the realization that I would never be willing to use such an expensive knife I sold it back to them for $150. They did buy back the stag Randal 7" #1 for the full price I paid them, ~ $175. I wish that I hung onto the Randal I actually used, a stag 6" Little Bear Bowie. Since it was not in as new condition the store would not buy it back. It was ~ $150 new. Fortunately I do not remember what I was able to get out of it at a gun show. Notice there was no waiting to buy them. The store had plenty of Randals on the shelf.
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The Randall shop stamp is on the left side of the blade. Randall would stamp your name or whatever you wanted on the right. Someone ordered this one with IRON LADY instead of their name. Not a model name. The above was a 12-8 Sportsman Bowie.

Here's a more typical stamping on a #1-7 fighter.


Charlie
 
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crsides said:
The Randall shop stamp is on the left side of the blade. Randall would stamp your name or whatever you wanted on the right. Someone ordered this one with IRON LADY instead of their name. Not a model name. The above was a 12-8 Sportsman Bowie.

Here's a more typical stamping on a #1-7 fighter.


Charlie
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When ordered, that knife probably cost Airman Reider a full month's pay...

I think the Commando handle was an option, but the brass lugged hilt/guard was extra. I prefer the usual hilt on Model 1, but Reider probably liked the heavier, more dramatic guard.

Judging from his service number, he probably entered the USAF within a year or so of when I did. I suspect he was a year or two older than me. I joined about 6 months after graduating HS.
 
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jtcarm said:
A lot of these need to show up in the next bear thread.
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You jest, but W.D. Randall told me that he designed the Bear sub-type of Model 12 for a college student who wanted a knife that'd kill a bear.

Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton supposedly did stab some bears with Bowie knives.

R.W. Loveless made a Big Bear model, but I think he was being humorous in naming it. And maybe, a bit facetious...

But a guy in Alaska did use his Model 110 Buck folder to disable a brown bear that attacked as he was cleaning a Sitka deer he'd shot. Chuck Buck was sent the knife, bear blood still on it, and framed it in his office.
 
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Goblin said:
Isn’t it fascinating how some designs withstand the test of time, with many variations on the same theme? Just like the 1911 or the swing-out revolver.
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Have you compared the shape of the daggers found in King Tut's tomb to Randall Model 2?
 
In the center here is a copy of the famous "Musso" Bowie. One candidate as being the knife Bowie carried at the Alamo. I think the blade is 13". This version was carried by Jason Patric as "Bowie" in the latest "The Alamo" movie. Mine's the inexpensive Dixie version. There are very expensive custom ones as well. We aged the blade on mine.

DSCN2692.jpg
 
Surfing the TV this morning I came across an old movie that turned out
to be semi-interesting. THE IRON MISTRESS, made in 1952 starring
Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie, with Virginia Mayo and Phyllis Kirk as his love
interests. Fictional adaptations of his duels and the making of the famous
Bowie knife aka "Iron Mistress". Not a must see, but better than twiddling
your thumbs. (How's that for a recommendation?)
 
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crazyphil said:
Surfing the TV this morning I came across an old movie that turned out
to be semi-interesting. THE IRON MISTRESS, made in 1952 starring
Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie, with Virginia Mayo and Phyllis Kirk as his love
interests. Fictional adaptations of his duels and the making of the famous
Bowie knife aka "Iron Mistress". Not a must see, but better than twiddling
your thumbs. (How's that for a recommendation?)
Click to expand...
I always liked it because of the various duels. It's pretty hokey and over dramatic but I don't mind. Commenting on this movie once in a bowie article, someone said a meteorite would actually make a weaker blade than a stronger one like here. Here's one of the duels...


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOQ5yAahwr8[/ame]
 
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Wyatt Burp said:
I always liked it because of the various duels. It's pretty hokey and over dramatic but I don't mind. Commenting on this movie once in a bowie article, someone said a meteorite would actually make a weaker blade than a stronger one like here. Here's one of the duels...


The Iron Mistress: Rapier vs Knife - YouTube
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It was a dark and stormy night...:D

The knife here looks more like what Rezin Bowie described and had made for friends than the Iron Mistress model seen in the movie, which I liked a lot.

Also read the book, by Paul Wellman. Pretty good.

The Iron Mistress knife was used in other movies about Bowie and I think, used in the Jim Bowie TV series.

None of the actors playing Bowie has looked much like his known portrait.
 
Here's the only photo I could find of my Rogue Bowie – Bark River's take on an early guardless coffin pattern (the "Carrigan Knife", I presume). The knife below it is a Bark River Bravo 1, which is probably my overall favorite knife in my collection and the one that gets used the most of my larger knives.

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