Hello everyone. Just thought I would let everyone know about the Bowie Knife Exhibit at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The exhibit opened Friday, April 1st, and will run until November 20th. I have a short review of the exhibit. There are about 30 antique knives ranging from Woodhead to Tillotson, and other Sheffield knives. You cannot coon finger them but you can look at them up close. The exhibit is primarily Sheffield with a few American types. The majority of the bowies are from the Flayderman collection. All are in good condition and most have the original sheaths. A few stood out to me. One being a Tillotson bowie that is in the Flayderman book and belonged to a Major Flournoy in the Arkansas militia. This is one of my favorite bowies and one I was hoping to see. It is a massive knife in spear point style, made my day. The Woodhead bowie they have is very nice and in really good shape. Another very interesting bowie is marked "Venture/Slater Brothers-Sheffield" and a long blade with frame handle and ivory grips, a rare bowie to see. Also a Tillotson half horse-half alligator pommel bowie, beautiful.
The exhibit also honors our founder BIll Moran with a 15 minute video showing Bill forging a knife and talking about the ABS and how it came to be. I already answered two of the security guards questions and told them more about the ABS. Very nice people. There were some areas I wish they had covered more, such as more American made knives, and more modern interpretations. They had a few modern interpretations, but not up to our standards. A Gucci bowie knife presented to John Wayne, not exactly pretty and I am being nice, as an example. I do wish they had put some of the custom bowies being made by our members on display as it would show that the bowies are not just from yesterday but are being made by artists today. I am nit-picking. All in all a worthwile exhibit to see and bowies you do not get to see everyday. Plus the museum itself is worth seeing. Plan on at least three to four hours to see the whole museum.
As an added note, two of our members will be doing demonstrations at the museum on forging knives on two separate weekends. One in May and one in July. We will be educating the public on what the ABS is and what we do. Hopefully we can get more people interested in the forged knife. I would say a thumbs up. Here is the link.
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
There will be two forging demonstrations conducted at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The American Bladesmith Society will be very well represented at the forging demonstrations in May and July which will be conducted by ABS Master Smiths Mike Williams and Brion Tomberlin. Congratulations to Mike and Brion for being selected to represent us at the Bowie Knife Exhibit!
The video of Bill Moran that was selected by the National Cowboy and Western Hertage Museum to play during the exhibit is one of the videos that are part of the ABS YouTube Channel. In the video which has been very popular on the ABS YouTube Channel, Bill Moran is shown demonstrating how to forge a Bowie knife and describing the founding of the American Bladesmith Society.
CLICK, below to view the video of Bill Moran:
[media] http://www.youtube.c...h?v=wUFEWHcSdiU [/media]
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
Thank you Dan for the mention. Another interesting note on the Tillotson bowie owned by Major Flournoy. Major Flournoy may be and probably is a relative of Master Smith Joe Flournoy. I think that is just really neat.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
Brion,
Thanks for the link. I really want to get over to the museum. I'm working on two bowies that are based on historic pieces. Flayderman's book and the Antique Bowie Book can open up a whole new world of design possiblities. Even if I cant get there for the event I'm in full support of you both. Take pictures. Lin
