Yea, I cant imagine a good reason for it being that way. Unless it slipped off and some knucklehead put it back on backwards and is using it for the photo prop. Believe it or not, there were knuckleheads back then just like today. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

I'm willing to hear other theories, but it better be good before I am convinced. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Maybe he was fighting with the knife upside down. Cutting up!

Cutting up. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//rolleyes.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rolleyes:' />

Ray, I still say there was a knucklehead involved with that Bowie. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

Maybe the guard spins on the blade.

Further than the guard appearing to be upside down....the quill is bent in the wrong direction too, it seems to me.

According to Palmer's book these are very common. Seems weird to ma as well.

Yeah, it makes me think there was a blacksmith that kinda knew the general idea, but then put it together wrong. I want to pretend it was the equivalent of sagging pantsin that time period. Everyone kind of knew it was a silly idea, but all the cool kids were doing it!

Matt, does the book give any thoughts behind it or just that it's common?

Maybe there was a formalized fighting system that used them like this? I feel like I've heard there were knife "fencing" schools of the period, but nothing about their specifications.

Many photographers back in those days used props in their pics,guns,knives,etc... I've seen many similar pictures in True West Magazine. Might just be a prop knife.

Bob

I think the idea was they are from a knife fighting style. I am away from home right now I check the book on Monday

It could very well be a prop, but something else I am paying attention to more in these old pictures from this period is whether the subject is posing or is at room temperature. A lot of photos like this where done by photographers who specialized in capturing images of the deceased in life like poses, and they even had all kinds of braces and apparatus to hold them in lifelike poses. I only mention it because of the subject's eyes. Two things that were difficult to deal with in those post mortem photos where the hands and the eyes, often resorting to painting eyes on the closed lids. But in this image the hands look pretty good so he may have just been on a bender and had a hard time focusing. (edited to add- oops, I have done some further research only to find that I may have ben the victim of an internet hoax regarding the extent of postmortem photography, as the look is more often the result of the time the subjects had to hold perfectly still to capture the image. Oh well, live and learn.)

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..Believe it or not, there were knuckleheads back then just like today. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />...

I agree Lin, there are a lot of odd or crude things on early American bowies that are taken as something intentional or special due to the reverence so many have for that genre, however I look at much of it as a blacksmith trying his best to be a cutler and falling a bit short. And of course I have seen clear evidence that in every age of man, there were wannabe hacks and masters, skilled craftsman and boneheads. I have cross sectioned Japanese swords that looked incredibly good inside and others that were absolutely terrible.

A lot of photos like this where done by photographers who specialized in capturing images of the deceased in life like poses, and they even had all kinds of braces and apparatus to hold them in lifelike poses. I only mention it because of the subject's eyes. Two things that were difficult to deal with in those post mortem photos where the hands and the eyes, often resorting to painting eyes on the closed lids. But in this image the hands look pretty good so he may have just been on a bender and had a hard time focusing.

I went back and looked at the photo after your comment Kevin. It's hard for me to tell but he looks alive to me. Barely, ...but alive.

It does make the point, though, that they were just like us. Some were skilled and some were hacks. And the rest were somewhere in the middle. As history buffs we sometimes will study an object of mediocre (or poor) craftsmanship and, because of our genuine respect for the old ways, try to justify why it was poorly made. But I would point out that not all objects were/are good examples of craftsmanship from a time given period. In some cases the problem is readily apparent as in the case of the D-guard above, assuming that is it indeed on backward. (I still think it is).

Somewhere I have a photo of a hatchet made in ____istan that has the handle installed backwards. Seriously. It was the advertisement photo, so it's there for all to see.

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I think the idea was they are from a knife fighting style. I am away from home right now I check the book on Monday

Gentlemen,

Take it with a grain of salt, but I believe I've heard this as well. Something to do with a focus on thrusts and cuts from a low angle. Hence the reversed blade that accommodates the fighting style. Or the knife was just as drunk as he was...

-Evan

Picture holding that knife with the hand reversed so the thumb is at the handle heel and the blade is closest to the pinkie finger. Now the whole arrangement makes perfect sense (to me at least).

This becomes a main-gauche of sorts where the spine of the blade is used to parry and the D-guard becomes brass knuckles and finger protection. It is specifically for a fighting style.

It would be similar to how the Scots used their Dirks in the shield hand holding the blade pointed downward with a small buckler or round shied. The shield strap is also held in the same hand.

When that knife was made most handles were attached by peening the tang. I believe that the handle on this one probably came loose as was previously stated and the photographer put it back together wrong. It reminds me of modern film directors who don't take the time to research their subject matter and film something that is obviously wrong to the knowledgeable viewer.