Original Bowie Knife...Need ID help

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

I hahve recently acquired this knife and need to know what it is/ Please help. I particularly want to know 1. Animal Type? 2. Blade origin 3. Period and why ? 4. Knife origin? 5. Any other comments one might make?
Thanks
Hurricane

[Shovelbuck]

Pretty sure the antler is Roe deer. A smaller member of the deer family from Europe. Don't know anything else though. Cool knife.

[smokinbuck]

Hurricane,
Not certain about the Roe buck, but could very well be. The handle looks, to me, to be a replacement. The feril (sp) at the front of the antler and the condition of the antler do not reflect the same condition as the blade. Just my 2 cents.
Mark

[g.pennell]

I'll second the roe deer antler handle.  I spent a tour in Bavaria, and that's a fairly common way of hafting a hunting knife over there.  Not really a common German blade design, though, best I can recall...could have been done anywhere in Europe, though.  Nice Knife!

Greg

[Ky-Flinter]

That sure is a lot of bone below the crown of the antler.  I'm familiar with whitetails and on them, below the crown is some space for hide then the skull plate, which is nowhere near that thick.  Has a length of bone been added to this handle or are them roe deer's just thick skulled?

-Ron

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

I now have the knife in hand. Agree that there is much too much bone/horn/antler below the crown. The only picture of such an antler/ horn that I could find in many sources is the skull pictures and drawing of the pranghorn antelope ( Great Plains USA). That species has this feature of a long extension below the crown that seems to be an extension of the skull.
The unusual extension below the crown  is NOT added on.
Hurricane

[Randy Hedden]

Fred,

The blade looks Spanish/Mexican to me and probably sometime in the last half of the 19th century or in the 20th century.  But what do I know, just guessing.  Is there any marks/stamps on the blade?

Randy

[Shovelbuck]

I used to have some antlers / skulls of the different breeds of European deer in the collection but unfortunately have gotten rid of most of them. I did just go out and dig through a couple piles and found this Axis deer skull. There's a lot of base beneath the crown on it and from memory, Roe deer also have than amount.
Regardless, it's a cool knife.

[Ky-Flinter]

Shovelbuck,
That's interesting.  Thanks for the picture.  BTW, do you operate an Antlers-R-Us store?  There's gotta be a story behind all those antlers.

-Ron

[Shovelbuck]

There's gotta be a story behind all those antlers.

Just a lot of worn out shoe leather looking for shed antlers.

Back to the knife......I'm really wondering about all those "X"'s.  

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I now wondering what Shovelbuck is wondering about the "Xs"? Shovelbuck?

[Shovelbuck]

I imagine they are just decorative but they remind me of notches on a gun fighters pistol.