James Black 1800 – 1872

[Shotgun Steve]

James Black was an Arkansas blacksmith and the creator of the original Bowie knife designed by Jim Bowie. Bowie was already famous for knife-fighting from his 1827 sandbar duel. But his killing of three assassins in Texas and his death at the Battle of the Alamo made him, and the blacksmith's knife, legends. Black's knives were known to be exceedingly tough yet flexible. Black kept his methods for creating the knife very secret and did all of his work behind a leather curtain. Many claim that Black rediscovered the secret to producing Damascus steel which is a type of steel used in Middle Eastern sword making from 1100 to 1700 that could cut through lesser quality European swords. The original techniques to make James Black's knife cannot be duplicated even today. Black died on 22 June 1872 in Washington, Arkansas.

Interesting Fact: In 1839 shortly after Black's wife's death, he was nearly blinded when his father-in-law and former partner broke into his home and attacked him with a club, having objected to his daughter having married Black years earlier. After the attack Black was no longer able to continue in his trade.

[Don Nix]

I live just  about 40 miles south and west of washinton and the Historic ark Blacks shop is there and many of the original buildings including the Tavern where the Bowie Huuston,crokett and many others stayed enroute to Texazs.Austin spent much time there as it was the last post before crossing the red River into Texas.
I have a good friend who is the  Chief Interpretor at the Park and I have done a lot of work there.
The premier knife making school in the country is located there. students come from all over the world to learn knifemaking.
Some of the work coming out of the forges there is unbelieveable.

[Josh Dabney]

Steve,

Interesting stuff you find !  Don't know how you do it .   I sure do enjoy it all though 

Don, 

I'm headin out to Old Washington in May for the 2 week Introduction to Bladesmithing class.   I'm  R-E-A-L-L-Y excited to be going and most likely to get the oppertunity to visit the museum. 

-Josh

[St. George]

A shame that these 'facts' are disputed.

Read 'The Bowie Knife' - by Norm Flayderman.

You'll find that things aren't always what one thinks they might be.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Books OToole]

I also reccomend Bowie Knife by Raymond Thorpe.


Books

[St. George]

Thorpe did more to muddy the waters with myth and romance than anything else - and the movie didn't help historians, either...

Flayderman goes into great detail in refuting Thorpe's opus.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Shotgun Steve]

What part of the 'facts' are disputed??? Some or all of them?? Curious to know myself.
I read several books on Bowie many years ago, so I don't recall all the stories and facts in detail
anymore.

Shotgun

[ChuckBurrows]

Steve - pretty much all of the facts..SG is right - the real documentation as known today (not just Flayderman) obviates most of the previous "mythology"  - Thorpe (and the movie the Iron Maiden, based on his book) were/are a good read/view but mostly have nothing in common with the facts - which some will dispute with "emotional" facts - but then most of those are descendants with only family hear say as facts...........the book SG was Talking about is the "Bowie Knife" by Norm Flayderman - $70.00 or so with shipping, but 520 pages of some of the best research and PHOTOS that will knock your socks off!

Give me a call mi amigo later in the week (late afternoon is best) and we'll talk about this and other things...........

[St. George]

Revisiting the James Black Question After the Flayderman Opus - Or, Do We Know Any More about the Origin of those Guardless Coffins?

Commentary on Relevant Sections of The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend by Norm Flayderman

Bill Worthen
Historic Arkansas Museum - Little Rock AR
Life member, Antique Bowie Knife Association

The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend (2004) by Norm Flayderman is and will remain for many years the most complete history of the bowie knife. Norm Flayderman is a legendary arms collector, dealer and historian and has done a remarkable job in this book, ferreting out innumerable sources, illustrating his fine collection of bowies, and using a keen skepticism to approach stories about the origins and use of the bowie knife.


One of the stories Flayderman analyzes is the role that James Black of Washington, Arkansas, played in the early years of the bowie knife. It is the conclusion of some students of the knife that Black was an early and important maker of bowie knives, and that his primary contribution rests in the production of singular guardless coffin knives - that is, bowie knives with coffin-shaped handles, but without crossguards. Flayderman is not convinced that Black played this role. He discusses most of the sources which underlay the James Black story and concludes that the issue "has yet to be resolved." Among these sources are two articles by me, Bill Worthen, Historic Arkansas Museum: "The Carrigan Knife: the Key to the James Black Mystery," in Knife World, December, 1992, and "Arkansas and the Toothpick State Image" in Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Summer 1994.

"Revisiting the James Black Question" is a review of and commentary on Flayderman's analysis of the James Black story. In it I take a look at Flayderman's conclusions point-by-point. I suggest that skepticism is an important tool for all historical analysis, but that someone needs to come up with an alternate theory which covers much of what the James Black theory explains. Without that, a strong argument still remains for considering Black a pioneer maker of the bowie knife.

James Black: Revisited. Click here to read the full article.

Revisiting the James Black Question After the Flayderman Opus – Or, Do We Know Any More about the Origin of those Guardless Coffins?

Commentary on Relevant Sections of The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend by Norm Flayderman

Bill Worthen
Historic Arkansas Museum
Life member, Antique Bowie Knife Association

James Black of Washington, Arkansas, has been a problem for knife collectors from the time that Raymond Thorp wrote the pioneering study Bowie Knife, first published in 1948. Thorp included the reminiscences of Daniel Webster Jones about Black making a knife for Jim Bowie, then going blind and eventually forgetting his own secret process for tempering steel. Fast on its heels of Bowie Knife came the book (1951), and then the movie, The Iron Mistress (1952), bringing James Black to the masses as a component of the Jim Bowie legend. In Bowie Knife Black was the inventor of the classic cross-guarded, clipped-pointed bowie, which he made for Jim Bowie. The Iron Mistress made this role cosmic by having Black forge the blade from a meteorite.

The problem for knife collectors rested in the lack of Black-made knives, or, even, much evidence on Black himself. In "The American Arms Collector," July, 1957, Ben Palmer performed a thoughtful analysis on the Daniel Webster Jones account (1903) of the James Black story. He pursued evidence for a silversmith in Philadelphia by the name of James Black, but concluded that the artisan listed in 1795 could not be the same person who was born, according to the Jones account, in 1800. He asked a series of questions, such as where are the knives that Black is supposed to have made? Would he have failed to mark his work? He concluded that Jones was not old enough to see Black work before his eyesight failed, and that Jones, a "wide eyed little boy" served as an eager audience to "the blind pauper playing the great man. Later, tales told by a senile old man. Of such stuff dreams are made, and all too often, History." Palmer left the question open, though, as he earlier stated "It is to be hoped that some documentation on Governor Jones' James Black dated prior to 1903 can be found. Without it, the whole tales hangs from a very frail thread indeed."

In articles on Black subtitled "A Man Born to Lose," (American Blade, December 1977/ January-February 1978) Williamson analyzed several Black-related sources, especially exposing problems in Raymond Thorp's conclusions about Black in Bowie Knife. (Thorp erroneously attributed the classic bowie with clipped point and cross guard to Black, ignoring some of his own evidence.) Williamson took the search for Black back a few more years, dismissing the William F. Pope account of James Black in Early Days in Arkansas (1895) as based on "very flimsy, if any evidence" and rejecting Black's 1872 obituary as being influenced by Jones. Williamson became the most influential of the bowie knife collectors, writing many articles and answering questions in a regular column in Blade Magazine. Williamson introduced several important knives and knife-makers to the collecting public in his writings, and he discovered the Edwin Forrest Bowie, which he claimed was given to Forrest by Jim Bowie himself.

Meanwhile, more evidence accumulated on James Black. Joe Musso, Jim Batson, BR Hughes and others found solid documentation that Black lived in Washington, Arkansas, that he married and fathered several children, that he worked as a blacksmith, and that he eventually became a ward of the county, a blind pauper with occasional bouts of insanity. Circumstantial evidence regarding his knife-making accumulated also. His obituaries from 1872 and the reminiscences of Sam Williams stated what appeared to be common knowledge in Washington, Arkansas, that he made bowie knives. Analysis of his estate inventory from 1839 by Batson showed that Black had all the tools and materials necessary for the production of knives – including 31 lbs. of cutlery-grade cast steel, material a conventional blacksmith would not have needed. A daguerreotype from a southwest Arkansas family close to Black was discovered, of two men and their weapons, including distinctive looking knives. A letter from Augustus Garland added information about Black's relationship with the local children, and discussed a specific knife made by Black and given to him by his stepfather Thomas Hubbard. Finally, an article from the 1841 Washington (AR) Telegraph directly attributed the "invention" of the bowie knife to James Black. I summarized these findings in a couple of articles: "The Carrigan Knife: the Key to the James Black Mystery" in Knife World, December 1992, and "Arkansas and the Toothpick State Image" in Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Summer 1994.

In the marketplace of ideas folks exchange information and interpretations to further understanding of one issue or another. While there have been a few critical letters and comments regarding James Black, there have also been informative articles from Jack Edmundson, Bill Wright and Jim Batson. Then Norm Flayderman produced his monumental study of the bowie knife. The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend (2004) is the most comprehensive documentation of the bowie knife ever presented. It seems that Flayderman followed up on every published citation regarding the bowie, and found a bunch more. He also brought an engaging writing style – an appropriate vehicle for his healthy skepticism, born, I'm sure, of his experience as an antique arms dealer as well as a scholar of the knife. Knife collectors are always advised to buy the knife, not the story. Flayderman has heard more than his share of stories (and, perhaps, has sold a few!) and has learned to be cynical in the process. Flayderman's skepticism takes on Lucy Leigh Bowie, the Edwin Forrest knife, the Bart Moore knife, James Black and other targets. He spends several pages on Black.

In the wake of this landmark study seems to be the right time to revisit the James Black question. But first I'd like to acknowledge that for some folks this is an exercise of wasted time and energy. Either they have made up their mind for good – one way or the other – or they have decided that the issue is irrelevant to the modern world – who really cares? I have the most sympathy with the latter category, and urge those therein who have gotten this far in this little treatise to stop and find something else better to do! For those who wish to persist, thank you for your patience. I'd like to delineate the elements of Flayderman's critique of Black and see if we can draw any conclusions.

1. The assertion that James Black invented the bowie knife is easily refuted by content early in Flayderman's book which notes that the "first bowie knife" – the one used at the Sandbar Duel – was "made by" Rezin Bowie. (68)

2. Flayderman quotes a story in the Washington Telegraph, of December 8, 1841, attributing the invention of the bowie knife to Black. "The Telegraph was the first newspaper in Washington, Arkansas, established the previous year, 1840. It is unreasonable to believe that it took possibly as long as thirteen years (since the Sandbar affair) or at a bare minimum, five years (since Black was declared incompetent), for a small community, as Washington, to recognize the local blacksmith's fame. Nor has yet been found that any other Arkansas newspaper or publication printed in 1841 or earlier acknowledged James Black for his association with so illustrious a name and fame as James Bowie and the Bowie knife. Read in that context, the Telegraph story does not carry the weight or certainty or reliability." (444-445)

3. Flayderman suggests that Black's mental illness is the key to Black's bowie knife story. "...there is the strong possibility that the entire saga may have originated from the mentally deranged blacksmith himself, conceived and fantasized during all those unfortunate years as a ward of the state." (445)

4. Flayderman notes the absence of marked knives. "...to this day there is no known knife bearing his name that is proven authentic, nor positively identified as the work of James Black. Neither is it proven beyond doubt that he even made a knife of any type!" (445,447)

5. Flayderman summarizes that William F. Pope "...added wearily to the growing storehouse of unfounded, often senseless, Bowie lore." (447)

6. Flayderman takes on the Daniel Webster Jones account, which is the most quoted story of Black: "Most of it does not square with the known facts, and was obviously hearsay, very likely told to him by Black himself, who, in all likelihood, continued suffering from severe dementia." Jones was only three when Black joined his household, his own children did not return to care for him, Black became a "master yarn spinner" and the "centerpiece of this magnum opus/mother of all Bowie knife tales, was the promise to relate to them, one day, his 'secret of tempering steel.'" (447-448)

7. Flayderman critiques the Augustus Garland account: "When read in its entirety, the narrative becomes less convincing. Not only are many established facts, such as Jim Bowie's physical size, his family background, the cause of Black's blindness, and the like, misrepresented by Garland, but only by the furthest stretch of the imagination could other anecdotes be believed." (450)

8. Flayderman discusses the group of coffin-handled knives: "Much of the strength of their [the group of coffin-handled knives often attributed to Black] origins as the product of the Arkansas blacksmith rests on the Jones and Garland accounts. Both should be read in their entirety and logically reasoned for believability....Although claimed by some that the facts are irrefutable, the issue has yet to be resolved." (450-451)

As does any good polemicist, Flayderman shrouds the objects of his skepticism with qualifiers of doubt and uncertainty. He includes comments and asides questioning the veracity of sources on Black, and on the believability of Black himself – "dimmed memory," "legend and myth," "questionable," "lack probability and plausibility," "outrageous saga," "groundless anecdotes," etc., often grouping all sources in the same unreliable category. But the above points seem to be a reasonable summary of the substance of Flayderman's argument, and each source on Black had an agenda and access to information that can be considered individually.

There's more to this at www.historicarkansas.org - Worthen plays 'Devil's Advocate' well.

Reading the actual book gives a far greater understanding of the Bowie Knife, it's makers and fakers.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[ChuckBurrows]

was "made by" Rezin Bowie.

Most likely made for Rezin (pronounced reason) by his plantation blacksmith........ALL of the earliest Bowies with bona fide documentation are of the Spanish/French style - similar to what most will know as the French chef's knife - a common late medieval using knife style - Rezin Bowie described the knife his brother Jim used at the Sandbar fight thusly:
"The length of the blade was nine and one-quarters inches, its width one and one-half inches, single edged and not curved"

On the other hand there is an early (circa 1835) image of Jim by A. J . Miller with a coffin handled knife in his belt much like those attributed to Black - - unfortunately the blade is indistinguishable.......

BTW - the whole Bowie phenomenen is an interesting one, but filled with many potholes i.e. fraught with many "dangers" - check out Dr. Jim Batson's site - he's handled and written about many of the bonafide originals..

[Shotgun Steve]

Thanks for posting the above information. I will definately be doing some reading on the subject.
Lots of folk lore out there and weeding out the truth takes a lot of time and dedication. Interesting
information though. Thanks again.

Shotgun Steve

[St. George]

As an aside to all:

The one thing that never loses value are good reference books.

As Collector/Historians, we're lucky, today - much more research is being done, than in past years - because folks are far better-versed in ferreting out solid, verifiable information, and they're publishing all manner of things, from books on Bowie Knives to books on Victorian Matchsafes, and everything in-between.

The drawback is that these new books are more expensive - but an up-side is that they're also better illustrated, so I suppose it's a toss-up.

At any rate - if you're thinking of increasing your knowledge on a topic, or on collecting something - before you do anything else, buy a book on the subject, and read it, don't just look at the pretty pictures.

You'll be money ahead, and can add arcane knowledge to any conversation, besides...

Sometimes, cost is prohibitive because of financial situations - so don't forget this bit of advice - Your Public Library Is Your Friend - and a good Librarian 'will' find the references sought, and 'will' acquire them via an Inter-Library Loan for perusal.

Knowing a good used-book dealer doesn't hurt, either - and patronizing small, independent booksellers pays off.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[rebsr52339]

Very well said ST George. I had forgotten about a lot of the references you mentioned. Guess my memory "is" really fading some. It has been a wonderful journey with knife in hand these past decades. Will you be at Richmond VA this year?

[St. George]

There's a good chance - 'if' I'm not OCONUS again.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[The Elderly Kid]

To clarify a couple of points:
Raymond Thorpe wrote "Bowie Knife" c 1949 Univ. of New Mexico Press.
Paul I. Wellman wrote "The Iron Mistress" c. 1951 Doubleday, drawing heavily on thorpe's book. Wellman wrote many fiction and nonfiction books about the West and the Old South during that era. I knew his brother, famed fantasy author Manly Wade Wellman, laet in the latter's life.
Here's the hardest fact to swallow: the Sandbar Fight is the only documented occasion in which Bowie used a knife in a fight. In all his other fights he used a rifle, his fists or, on one memorable occasion, his teeth. Newspaper accounts of the time describe the knife he used at the sandbar only as "a large knife" or "a large butcher knife." Bowie lived for another 9 years after the Sandbar Fight. His knife must have been seen by hundreds if not thousands of people, yet not a single one of them thought to remark on it or describe it. Only after his heroic death at the Alamo catapulted him to national attention did all sorts of people suddenly "remember" the many times he had fought with a knife or showed it to these "eyewitnesses." All of this was much abetted by the Sheffield cutlery industry, which knew a marketeable fad when it saw one. Such is the origin of most legends.