JPK:
Early Bowie-style knives were made in America by local blacksmiths and bladesmiths. As the following article points out, they generally lacked the fit and finish of later bowies, many of which were mass-produced. A large number of the more refined Bowie knives that you mentioned were made in Europe by established knife-making companies like Sheffield in England. Most of these later knives were sold to those with the money to buy an expensive imported knife. Most American frontiersmen, hunters, and the common folk, generally used simpler handmade blades from domestic blacksmiths and bladesmiths. The following information, by Phil Spangenberger, provides more information on this topic.
Rusty Edwards
Fighting Blades of the Frontier (Extracted Paragraphs)
by Phil Spangenberger, August 12, 2014
At first, these so-called bowies were hand forged by local blacksmiths supposedly copying the original. These were large knives, from around nine to 15 inches or more in length, with heavy blades that ranged from around one to two inches or more in width. Though ruggedly constructed, they lacked the fine finish of later mass-produced bowies. Further, they were fitted with a simple cross-type guard, often with S-curved quillons or with an iron or brass plate, to keep an opponent’s blade from sliding onto the hand of the wielder. Sometimes a fighting notch would be added to the choil, to catch the blade of an opponent. (Some researchers contend the notch has a more mundane role, of assisting in sharpening the blade.) Grips were usually wood, bone or stag.
Knife makers of Sheffield, in Yorkshire region of England, who had been conducting business in America as far back as our colonial period, almost immediately recognized the popularization of the bowie knife in the U.S. and were quick to produce bowies as early as the 1830s. This entry of the British cutlers brought about a secondary and much more ornate breed of bowies. While many of these import blades carried the classic lines of the large-bladed, clip-point American bowies, other styles were introduced, such as the spear point, with blades ranging from six to 15 inches or more in length. Bowies later evolved from a false edge on the clipped point with a sharp cutting border, as found on the early American knives, to a vestigial beveled clip with a dulled edge—although some knives still included the sharpened clipped point.
Other variations, too, were incorporated into these newer bowies. They sported fancier hilts fashioned with German silver, brass, coin and sterling silver mountings, and fitted with one- and two-piece grips made from exotic materials such as horn, ebony, ivory, Mother of Pearl, tortoise shell and German silver. Decorated blades became de rigueur, featuring stamped or etched motifs, animals, patriotic emblems and mottos—some designs were even accented in richly blued or gilt finishes. Fanciful slogans featured on some of these knives included “California Knife,” “Self Defender,” “I’m a Real Ripper,” “Hunter’s Companion,” “I Can Dig Gold from Quartz,” “Texas Ranger” and “Genuine Arkansas Toothpick.”
