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Confirming identity of this Bowie

Hi team,

Hoping someone could confirm if this is a Ursa Musso Bowie I was gifted this Knife from a very old collector but I am struggling to get an exact match? Cheers Adam

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin D on October 5, 2025 at 19:32

I( don't trust these brass backed bowies for anything. I am certain that some are real, but there are so many documented fakes out there, that I have no way of being able to tell the difference. I would just be asking for trouble.

Being as yours came from a known, old, collector, I would have a higher degree of confidence in that one. :)

Hope you are able to find the information you are looking for!

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Permalink Reply by Adam on October 5, 2025 at 19:57

Thanks for the feedback, this knife intrigues me as it’s very worn and old and doesn’t appear to have any modern or factory markings I can see at this stage..

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Permalink Reply by Lars on October 5, 2025 at 21:56

Hi Adam - welcome to iKC! We're glad you're here.

I tend to agree in principle with Kevin here regarding the brass backed Bowie. Gil Hibben produces one similar to yours, and the Carvel Commenoritive is almost identical to yours. However both those makers mark theirs accordingly.

When comparing the Carvel to yours, however, it has all the featurs your knife has - down to the stars on the quillons. So is the Carvel commemorting your bowie, or is yours another commemoritve version made by someone else? Hard to say. Regardless, the original design had to come from somewhere.

The Carvel bowie is also satinless steel, whereas your blade looks like carbon steel. When you have some time, Google "Carvel Bowie" and you'll see what I mean. One thing for sure, we know what it is not - yours is not a Carvel or a Hibben knife. So until we know what it is - it's a good looking bowie worth displaying for sure!

I hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Adam on October 5, 2025 at 22:30

Thank-you for the information this is much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Adam on October 6, 2025 at 18:51

I have not been able to find any knives on line with the brass plate in the handle and the absence of any makers marks accept 6 point stars on the brass quillons.Although hard to tell from a very old sketch the closest is a description from a William O Sweet collection picture referencing a “classical Bowie”

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Permalink Reply by Kevin D on October 6, 2025 at 20:59

Some information that I dug up...

With the handle design as it is, I do believe this is from the 'blueprints' that Joseph Musso provided us.

Now 'The Musso Bowie' (Jim Bowie's personal knife) is arguably the most controversial knife in the world. It is not my intent to discuss the validity of this knife here.

BUT. Based on the design of that knife, Musso provided a fairly detailed, dimensioned 'blueprint' of it. Many makers have since made bowie knives based upon those dimensions. To me, the handle design is rather distinctive and can only be found on wooden handled knives. The 'blueprints' that I have been able to come across are consistent in that the wood used was oak. Yes, there are many species of oak, and I found absolutely no information to further define the wood other than 'oak'.

Ursa is but one knifemaker that has made many knives following this "1830-1840" design that Musso shared.

So I do believe this is based on the Musso design, but I cannot offer anything in the way of a knife maker.