Special Interests - Groups & Societies > The Cutting Edge
Joe Musso Bowie
KenH:
Here's another Bowie I made a couple (3?) years ago. It's a copy of what's known as the Joe Musso Bowie that really seems to be one of the many knives actually owned and carried by the famous (infamous?) Jim Bowie. There does seem to be some disagreement if this actually was one of Jim Bowie's knives, but it's still a neat knife. Here's the drawing made while knife was disassembled for lab analysis which I worked from.
This is blade after forging and grinding with brass nut for ferrule to show size of blade.
Chopping a tree
and still shaving leg
and displayed in case with flintlock pistol
Jake MacReedy:
Really nice Bowie! The provenance of the Musso Bowie is very much up for contention. Mr. Musso even employed a clairvoyant to try and prove this was Jim Bowie's favorite knife. Neat design, though!
KenH:
Thank you for nice words on the Bowie - it was a lot of work with all the forging 'n grinding. I'd not heard about the clairvoyant quest. For folks like me that puts a whole new "feeling" on the laboratory research he had done. The last I'd read Mr Musso said something along the lines of while he felt it was original, he could not say that for sure. Seems like there's a photo of Jim Bowie with the handle of a knife extending outside his coat that really looks like this Bowie. I figure it's like the Sandbar knife, we'll never know for sure what it was.
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Jake MacReedy:
Ken, you did an amazing job on that Bowie!!! Whether the "original" is an old bowie or not, it is a neat design! If you get an opportunity, find a copy of Norm Flayderman's "BOWIE" book. You'll really like seeing all the photos of original Bowies from the 19th Century in it!
Regards,
Jake, aka Ron
KenH:
Thank you for the nice words on the Bowie. I looked for Norm Flayderman's "BOWIE" book, and found it's $185 for a used book, and $249 for a new copy. I guess I'll have to pass on buying my own copy {g}. Here's a site with some good info and photos of the original Bowies, and thumbnail history of each:
https://relentlessknives.com/newsletter0411.html
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