There were a number of *fencing schools* (and other martial arts) that taught as a part of their curriculum knife-fighting, but these schools were in some cases from very different backgrounds and traditions (Spanish, Italian, French, saber, etc). Given that during the time 'bowie' became the common idiom for any sort of big knife (sort of like Grosse Messer in German - pardon the lack of the umlautte), it is unlikely that they are teaching some specialized knife fighting specifically for what we would think of today as a classic bowie knife. Our definition of what one is(driven by modern colletion), is likely a stricter definition than what was used by the mid 19th century.