What's in a Name?
And what's the story behind it?!
Yup, this too is a Bowie.
A very generous and knowledgeable viewer and Patron, Doug, recently sent me a knife called the Forrest Bowie.
To look at it though, the average knife guy or gal might not think the moniker corresponds with the blade shape.
The Forrest Bowie looks, at first glance, like a butcher knife with its straight spine and long straight cutting edge which terminates with a belly and spine-side tip. The knife also has no guard, using the width of the blade at the riccasso as the guard.
This knife has no clip point and no cross guard, so why is it a Bowie Knife?
Well, as the story goes, this is the design of the knife that Jim Bowie used during his storied Sandbar duel outside Natchez, Mississippi, in which Bowie was grievously injured (but you should have seen the other guy!)
Here comes the Forrest part.
Once the duel became a famous event and actor named Edwin Forrest produced a stage play on the subject. Jim Bowie gave him the knife to use on stage as a (very dangerous) prop.
Years later in the 1980s, the Sandbar Duel Bowie Knife was found at the Forrest Family Estate in Bryn Mawr, PA.
Hence, the Forrest Bowie.
Thank you Doug, for opening my eyes to this version of the Bowie and for sending one to me to bond with. I can't wait for my next duel!!
Knife Junkie Out!
