About the appearance of some knives
A gripping still from the GDR film "Sons of the Big Dipper" (1966): "the most important Indian of all times and peoples" Gojko Mitic, as Tokei Ito, fights with knives with the Siksika chief.
For before the grapes are gathered, when the blossoms have faded and the grapes have begun to ripen, he will cut off the branches with a knife and take them away and chop off the shoots.
Isaiah 18:5
Isaiah 18:5
History weapons. Our previous material (History of the Combat Knife), dedicated to the history of combat knives, we ended at a turning point – somewhere between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. This was a time when armor was being slowly abandoned, meaning the need for daggers with narrow, faceted blades was also fading. As a result, the last of the "old cold arms" with short blades were the daggers of the Landsknechts, which, incidentally, disappeared along with them. This was because in the armies of the "New Order," saturated with firearms, they were simply unnecessary. Thus, before the advent of the baguette, soldiers were armed with half-sabres and broadswords for hand-to-hand combat and household chores, and sailors on ships with boarding sabers, also not particularly long. Then, with the advent of the baguette, these became completely unnecessary. After all, a baguette, inserted with its handle into the barrel of a gun, could easily be used as a dagger.
Inuit stone knife. National Museum of the American Indian, New York.
Copper Inuit Iron Knife, 1878, National Museum of the American Indian, New York
Jaeger marksmen, armed with short rifled carbines, also received fairly long bayonets and daggers, which simply didn't require a knife. So it's no surprise that for a long time, no one anywhere developed new types of combat knives, except for the peoples of Asia and Africa—where all sorts of knives were invented at that time—as well as the North American Indians. The fact is, the knife had long been a part of their toolbox of work and warfare, even before the arrival of the Whites on their continent. The so-called "Yellow Knives"—a historical tribe whose territory lay north and northeast of Great Slave Lake in Canada—had long inhabited this region. They had access to native copper deposits and crafted beautiful copper jewelry and tools from it—piercers and knives—which they traded throughout virtually the entire northeastern United States and Canada.
But a copper knife is no match for a steel one! So, when North American Indians began actively trading with Europeans around the early 18th century, they began demanding knives, tomahawks—in short, things they found useful and necessary. Often, they simply bought strips of metal, but the Indians made knives from it themselves—for scalping, skinning bison, and other household needs. How did Indian knives differ from European ones in this regard? Here's how: they were typically single-edged and sharpened on only one side. In other words, they were sharpened like a chisel. However, this didn't stop them from being very sharp and deadly!
A "Yellow Knives" iron knife with a bone handle. National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
A Dakota Indian knife with colored leather knives. National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
Another Native American knife with beaded knives. National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
The Indians also made knives from strips of cavalry sabers—the "long knives" of American dragoons—by cutting them into pieces. In other words, they had everything in store when it came to knife weapons, and even more so—their knives, in their beautiful sheaths, were not averse to being used by American hunters and trappers. But someone was needed who would better understand the precise nature of the knife needed for successful frontier exploration. And... such a person was found in the United States! He turned out to be a certain James Bowie (1796-1836), born in Kentucky. However, he lived a significant part of his life in Louisiana, where he earned his living "honestly," trading land and slaves. The new type of knife, however, was invented not by him, but by his older brother Reason, a cattle rancher who needed a large knife for butchering beef.
Portrait of James Bowie by George Peter Healy (1813-1894). The only known oil portrait painted from life. Texas State Capitol.
His younger brother, James Bowie, spent most of his life in Louisiana, making a living reselling land and slaves from the famous Captain Jean Lafitte, who founded his own Republic of Campeche on the Texas island of Galveston. In 1826, "Lafitte's shop" was shut down, leaving Bowie out of work and, to make matters worse, getting into a fight with the sheriff of Rapides Parish, Louisiana. And not only did he give in, but he engaged in a full-blown duel, reminiscent of the one in Mayne Reid's novel "The Headless Horseman," where gunfire began and then bladed weapons came into play. And then, although wounded, Bowie stood his ground, using a large knife his brother had made and... killing not only the sheriff but also his second, who had tried to run him through with his sword!
Doctors present at the duel removed the bullets and stitched up Bowie's other wounds. News There weren't many of them at the time, so it's no surprise that newspapers immediately picked up the story, calling it the "Sandbar Brawl," and describing in great detail the entire fight, including who attacked whom, how, and who in it, Bowie's fighting prowess, and his knife of extraordinary size and shape. And since, according to all eyewitnesses, Bowie didn't attack first, and even managed to dispatch two armed men at once, he was considered a true hero. Orders for similar knives immediately poured in for the Bowie brothers and local gunsmiths. And so the Bowie knife became a very popular weapon in the United States!
James himself moved to Texas in 1830, where he married the daughter of the local lieutenant governor and later became a Mexican citizen. While searching for the lost San Sabo Mine, Bowie and several of his companions were attacked by a large band of Indians but managed to fight them off, earning them fame throughout Texas. At the height of his popularity, Bowie was promoted to colonel of the Texas Rangers.
When the Texans decided to fight for independence, it was Bowie who led the local militia and fought in several battles. In 1836, he also led the famous defense of the Alamo in San Antonio against General Santa Anna's forces. As is well known, all the defenders of the besieged fortress perished in that battle. Bowie, who had fallen ill the day before, was bedridden and unable to fight with the others, but, as legend has it, when Mexicans burst into the room where he lay, he managed to fire a pair of his pistols at them.
The Death of James Bowie. Illustration by Charles A. Stevens, from Montezuma's Lost Gold: The Story of the Alamo
The James Bowie statue in Texarkana, Texas, was sculpted by William M. McVeigh and erected for the Texas Centennial in 1936.
A recognizable feature of the Bowie knife is not only its size but also its distinctive blade shape with a beveled back—a clip point. In the United States, this knife has become a national symbol. It inspired, for example, the US Marine Corps knife and a number of military "survival knife" models. In popular culture, the Bowie knife is associated with the Wild West, gunfighters, cowboys, determination, and courage. In Russia, the classic Bowie knife, with a blade length over 150 mm and a beveled back for effective stabbing, can be considered a bladed weapon. However, there are models manufactured according to GOST standards that are not considered bladed weapons.
A Bowie knife from master craftsman Tim Lively
Interestingly, the first Bowie knives were made from old English steel files, making them extremely high quality. By the early 40s, the first schools teaching Bowie knife fighting began to appear in the United States. The most famous was the school of Don José "Pepe" Llull, who lived in New Orleans. His technique was based on French fencing techniques, adapted for a heavy, nearly 50-centimeter-long knife. The essence of the technique was to strike the opponent with the knife before the opponent could straighten the blade. Moreover, this technique has survived virtually unchanged through all the wars fought by the American army.
A Bowie-style knife of English manufacture with a stag antler handle. Blade length: 302 mm. Weight: 271 g. Royal Armouries, Leeds.
The Bowie knife's popularity reached its peak during the American Civil War, when many Confederate soldiers regarded it as their primary personal weapon. Hundreds of photographs survive today of Confederate soldiers holding it in their hands or with it tucked into their belts. A version of the Bowie knife with a D-shaped guard, which protected the fingers from blows and could be used as a knuckle duster, developed and became widespread.
Private Japhet Collins, Confederate States Army, ca. 1861. Private Photo Archive
Two Bowie knives, three Remington revolvers, a Springfield rifle—the guy was armed to the nines. Photo from a private archive.
An American Krag-Bowie bayonet marked US and dated 1900.
The most famous use of the Bowie knife during the Civil War occurred during a bridge skirmish in North Carolina. Noticing a group of Union soldiers attempting to destroy the bridge he was guarding, Confederate soldier James Kilham engaged them. He fired his pistol and then, knife in hand, charged the Union soldiers. He sustained two gunshot wounds, but nevertheless managed to kill four of his opponents, and reinforcements, arriving in the meantime, prevented the bridge from being destroyed. However, evidence suggests that the era of knife fighting had essentially passed by that time. According to casualty statistics compiled and analyzed in 1889 by William Fox, the total number of wounded on both sides in the 1861-1865 war was 246712, but only 922 of these were wounded by sabers, bayonets, cavalry lances, and... knives. And yet, the soldiers of the North and South most often used knives not to cut their enemies, but to cut each other during drunken fights!
Interestingly, sometimes inventing a new knife wasn't all that difficult. Bowie's example struck a chord. For example, here's how the "Welsh Knife" of the 9th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, came into being in 1917-1918. Lord Howard de Walden simply commissioned Felix Joubert, a fellow enthusiast of arms and armor, to develop a trench weapon for the battalion where he was second-in-command. According to surviving records, the battalion's soldiers emerged from the trenches at the Battle of Messines with Lewis machine guns far more often than with knives in hand. But... the commander gave the order—it had to be done. And so this unusual knife was born!
"Welsh Knife" of the 9th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. A broad, double-edged, leaf-shaped blade with a flattened central "comb" over the last 335 mm. The ricasso is engraved with the motto DROS URDDAS CYMRU ("FOR THE DIGNITY OF WALES"). Dimensions: blade length 448,0 mm, width 74,0 mm. Weight 1,03 kg. Royal Armouries, Leeds
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