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Butcher Knives

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Niederlander:
Gentlemen, I know we think of custom made Bowies and such when we think of frontier knives, but would it have been common to carry a regular butcher knife or carving knife as a sheath knife?  I'm thinking I've read somewhere where natives often did this, but how about frontiersmen?

River City John:
Certainly buffalo hunters carried butcher and skinning knives.

1961MJS:
Hi Dale
Look up both Jantz Supply and Track of the Wolf for Russel Green River blades that you can glue nice Walnut Scales to.  You cal also buy completed knives at Track of the Wolf.
Later

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Abilene:
There was a large assortment of designs, many fancy.  But from what I've read the type we'd call a butcher knife was the most commonly used.

1961MJS:
Hi Dale
From what I've read in a book on Mountain Man equipment:

Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men: A Guide to the Equipment of the Trappers and Fur Traders Who Opened the Old West / Russell, Carl P.

and on Bowie knives:

Norm Flayderman's Bowie Knife book.

The Civil War (Revolvers were reliable) changed the usage of a man's knife carried everyday from an important weapon to an important tool concerning food preparation.  The Bowie knife we all know and love was a weapon that could be used to cut your food.  After the Civil War, the knife was a tool to cut your food and maybe people that upset you.

The Native Americans didn't seem to carry the knife for weapons as much (they have tomahawks, arrows, and those big old clubs).  I haven't STUDIED this part as much.
Later


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