When best-selling author Paul Kirchner began research for what would become his book Dueling with the Sword and Pistol, he created a separate file on bowie knife fights. As his research deepened and he started accessing digitized archives he hadn’t been aware of before, he became intrigued by the sheer volume of incidents that involved a bowie knife, extending far beyond duels. He decided to set that material aside for a future book . . . and now it’s here.
At almost 400 pages, with some 500 footnotes and 50 original drawings (you may be familiar with Paul’s accomplished illustrations from the works of Jeff Cooper), Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques is as carefully researched and richly detailed as Paul’s previous Paladin books. He writes:
“A large part of my enthusiasm for this project came from the sense of unearthing a hidden part of American history. On my shelves I have nearly a dozen books that profile noted gunfighters of the Old West. But what about the knife fighters? They’ve been swept under the rug. How often do you see a character in a Western movie wearing a bowie knife? Rarely, unless he’s some designated knife fighter, undoubtedly a bad ’un. Yet a man wearing a bowie knife as well as a pistol was a sight commonly noted in the accounts from that period. In the 20th century, the practice of carrying a knife as a weapon became associated with the lowest sorts of dirt-bags—junkies, convicts, serial killers, gang members, and outlaw bikers. It’s hard for people to imagine that in the 19th century, congressmen wore bowie knives in the Capitol!”
The book is valuable not only to readers interested in the bowie knife and its unique history as one of the most iconic of American blades. Students of knife-related martial arts can glean much from the remarkably detailed accounts of men (and a few women) who used knives in brawls, duels, assaults, self-defense, and military combat.
Paul has started a fantastic blog dedicated to his latest release—what he labels “Everything I Couldn’t Fit in the Book.” Check it out for accounts of bowie knife incidents that didn’t make it into the book (only the best stuff did), plus Paul’s thoughts on its content, cover (“I got a few comments already on the lurid quality of my cover . . .”), and recent correspondence with such interesting characters as custom bowie knife maker and champion knife thrower Joe “Brokenfeather” Darrah.
