Bill Bagwell Knives

It is called the king of Bowie and it is very difficult
to contact with him. It's really hard, I have not been able
to get in touch with him))

But I have a small knife 3.5 inches.
Very nice, very, similar to #11-3.25,
But it is even more for skinning work than Randall
due to a round tip, in this respect it is closer to Randall #22,
in my opinion.

I hope someday to find his knife, like the last picture
(This is now sale on ebay per ~ $ 1100)

where is Bagwell located?

I dont know

I went to Louisiana Tech University in the early 1960's and my then girlfriends neighbor was Bill Bagwell in the Shreveport area. Bill wouldgive me a lift on his black Harley (unusual back then). Many years later I saw his name in knife mags and wrote him a letter. I believe he was in Texarkana then. He built me a nice drop point 3 " with an Osage Orange handle. Again when I was down and out in the early 90's, I sold it to Rhett along with my Model 1 and my first Model 8. Of course when I was back in the chips, I called Rhett to buy them back, but he had flipped them and didn't keep a record of who he sold them to. Probably at a show. Sure wish I had hose 3 back.

Not sure if this is current location but according to one site he resides in Louisiana. The guy had quite a career.

I think, should make a light box, without it take a picture of a well-polished blade hard.

Bill lives and works in Texas. Still chugging at 1/4 throttle making knives after triple bypass (or stints or whatever, no doctor, I) and loss of energy, 72yrs old and still forging bowies and still backlogged several years. Will post a photo of my one knife he made for me as soon as I can remember where I put it.

Mike Sastre of River City sheaths still lists a good phone number for Bill, but would rather say that than post it here.

Before anyone goes crazy on the phone, let me mention a basic straight guard bowie now starts at $3000, and his Hell's Belle fighting guard bowie (a week to make the guard alone) is circa $4000. And then there is the 2yr or more backlog.

He is the only living cofounder of the ABS, as far as I know, certainly the only one still working.

Ignore any internet site claiming to be an exclusive dealer. They were charging $5000 or more for a basic knife and Bill cut them off after making a handful for them.

PS- IF Bill takes your order, he will want your physical particulars including height, weight, shoe and/or glove size to match the length, construction/balance to the buyer, as his knives are meant to be a carried weapon. If his sheath does not work for you, Mike Sastre's will. You might be suprised at the numbers of folk carrying 11+" Bagwell knives...concealed. The sort you would meet at a James Keating event/clinic or off to the sides at a SOF convention. They consider it without peer for close range even against a handgun, all things being equal such as one not already caught flatfooted against a gun already pointed at one's head, and even then a practiced knife draw faster than many can get a trigger finger moving while trying to assess the threat.

Excellent!
It is very, very useful information!
Thank you very much

As for the blades and guns - blade is really faster, but at a short distance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lk5c2mK2dc

as i see some studies - 21 feet or more = victory gun
if the distance is less, then there are many factors,
but usually knife faster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KJ1R2PCMM

Wow.... Lofty, that is the strongest tribute I've heard. Good to know they are still out there! Thank You! Amen Amen. Go Gettum Boy'z!

If you never knew Bo Randall and had him make a knife for you, if you delayed until Bill Moran famous and inaccessible and then passed away, if you baulked at $125 for a Bob Loveless in 1971 and found the same knife $2000 in 1978 and never got around to it and then Bob gone too, then Bill Bagwell would be your last bet of those early legends, and at his age and health condition, you are cutting things mighty close, AGAIN! This is your conscience speaking.

But seriously, it takes a serious buyer to gamble that sort of money this late in the game. Bill remains in my prayers that he comes back strong as ever, but at already 2yrs backorder and him running 1/4 throttle due to hitting the wall daily, those wait times may be very conservative and may not improve.

Careful, boy! You'll put your eye out with that thing!! (seriously)

Weight is only an ounce over a #14, less blade heavy than same, if you can believe that. But I never carry it anywhere and only use it for trenching in new waterlines, honest.

For the shiny new knives forever crowd, do not expect perfection, less so than even Randall, a true one man shop each made to order from scratch not appreciably better as for machined perfection appearance than the handful of makers were doing in 1968. As an fyi, it is why he parted ways with organized knifemaking early on, and turned in his ABS Master stamp and resigned Secretary position. He was all about affordable as possible functional tools and weapons while the hi-zoot museum work of art only for incredibly wealthy crowd was chomping at the bit and seeing gold in them thar hills. If you think his price is high now, keep in mind this man makes how many knives a month? At his absolute peak he could make a normal bowie in one week and a Hell's Belle in two weeks, and self employed entire life including insurance and social security contributions all on him.

Here is a beauty!!
It is a beautiful tree on the handle - walnut?
You do not know from what steel's made this Damascus?

You have Randall #12-13 Raymond W. Thorp?
interesting to compare them, if you put next to each other


Unfortunately, I can not telephone call from Eastern Europe.
Plus, I really do not speak in English, my call just have no one understands.

Interesting, Bill Bagwell can made bowie without guard -
as Tahchee bowie from lithograph from the History of the Indian Tribes
of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall or as James Black Bowie?

Bill forges his own damascus and calls this favorite pattern Satan's Lace. That little bowie would seem easy for him to make, his are also based on Louisiana fighting bowies of the knife fighting academies of the 1800s in New Orleans and are historic true bowies. Bill has always been a Louisiana boy and revelled in local history.

Sorry.....added in the wood is cocobolo

Sorry again....keep noticing questions. I know Bill told me what steel he was currently using at the time and when I pro-forma asked.

And then was too busy feeling stupid about asking, and his answer went in one ear and out the other. Bill is the second person in the 20th century to make damascus/wootz in what was a lost art until that time.

I actually do not care one bit what steel he uses as he knows far more about the subject than I and certainly knows best what holds up to actual use with his bowies which still are taken to forward combat areas by folk who actually use them.

And I felt rock stupid for asking, as if I had any true knowledge to insert or true knowledge to contest his choice when all I was looking for was a real bowie which would hold up, and this one has. Still looks good! After dredging her out, shined her up and put on the makeup for the photo spread.

Many thanks!

The love of history, that's fine!

Well, yes, i agree with you completely, in the hands of the master
steel grade not matter, if in the end it works perfectly.

List of steel, included in this package Damascus,
for me has only reference interest. It is interesting to compare
with those steels, that utilize Damascus bladesmiths, that living
near me. Steel composition is only the initial condition,
an important but not the main. The end result will still be
on the skill bladesmith

Only the great masters made Damascus to be better mono-steel in propeties (for example, pure O-1 or 1095).

one other late answer....Currently I do not have a Thorpe, but the blade on this particular knife is 11.5". I will not draw any comparisons between the two except that Bill makes his knives to be true fighters, and that the welded wootz and Bill's zone hardening and annealing gives the owner a no-fear basher, including tip.

Thank you!
It was just interesting to look at proportion on live.
I have no doubt in quality Bill knives

I will put it this way as for comparison. The softer than blade ricasso and tang junction is a full 1/3 inch thick. Just really no comparison, a Thorpe is longer and thinner and O-1.

ADDENDUM: Length overall to the Thorpe is probably quite similar, while the Bagwell blade an inch and a half shorter. The handle on the Bagwell is LONG as comparison to the #14 above shows. With my hand against guard, over 2" sticks out. The mass of steel and wood in back makes a counterweight to blade while providing secure grip no matter how fast or how hard a hit.

If anyone reading this thread about Bill Bagwell, and has not (unlikely) seen his shop talk video on knife making while he makes his standard class spiel/sales pitch while making a blade, the following gives a little insight into his little primitive shop and blade making.

It does not show him forging the wootz billet prior to blade forging, but gives a good idea as to what hides inside the handle, as well as how sophisticated the heat treat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FqUL6slhtA

Yes, I saw a great video

If anyone is interested, that is a good instructional video on Damascus smith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvN7F6LjoBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEvdLpi_F9Y

That's his job - http://www.arhangelskie.com/galer_l.html
On site has a good article about the production of Damascus
http://www.arhangelskie.com/stat_1.html

In the article there are such words:


With these words I fully agree.
Holding in hands this small Skinner and use it, i can say,
that him made a good man. Very good energy.
So it happened is with those Randall, that I have.
I had several knives, very old, due to some happened misfortune.
Maybe they have someone killed once, i don't know. But when I got rid of them,
then the soul has become easier, some relief...
But all this mystic and offtopic

Bill is simply one of the original masters and knows his metals as intimately as others know their children. He is very outspoken and would probably take blunt issue with mystic "stuff".

His knives are not only the result of intense study of manuscripts and drawings from old New Orleans knife fighting schools, medieval history and manuscripts etc, but also the result of input from modern knife fighting pros who get together for practice and clinics. He also knows how to be amusingly humble, such as the first time when he spoke to James Keating and told him what he proposed was impossible (in polite language), and James showed him verbally and by example that it was not (in polite language), while both learned a thing or three from each other and Bill freely admitting he learned a lot more than he taught.

Now, as for wild blue yonder spirit of the blade cosmology and guys doing near paranormal feats of mind over matter for crowds at a SOF convention, James Keating and the crowd he runs with would be your entree; simple stunts like jamming a steel rod through a forearm and then dragging a jeep using chains attached to rod...simple stuff.

But I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and Bill Bagwell straightforward country wisdom more my speed.

Not trying to hog the subject but it deeper than many suspect. On the early, what we know now as, Louisiana/Arkansas/Texas frontier, a man of any means was mounted with single shot pistols and a sabre. The cutting commenced as soon as the brace or three of pistols were discharged.

With the rise of settlements and towns, a shorter sabre was required for the dismounted man, and gave rise to the bowie which likely already was not uncommon and Jim Bowie one of many owners of such, although he also had his own specifications as did any owner approaching a smith.

But it maintained sabre characteristics for sabre tactics of land owners already well versed in same. Generous handle for extention on thrust, curve to spine and belly, and long swept hook clip for the nearly indefensible back cut, so superior that it was treated much as assault rifles today, thanks to southern tendency to duel/robbers armed with same/lurid press back east both true and false, and banned by national congress circa 1830 and not lifted until early 1950s, still illegal or regulated to some degree in most states until today, even if nobody remembers the reason for the ban. Guards initially of sabre type and then trimmed for daily concealment under the outer great coat when about town.

Same as with the sabre, there were various schools teaching the art of fighting with same, and one need only look at Von Tempsky of European training and legendary transition to bowie in California and prowess with same there, as well as Mexico, Central America, and in the Maori wars in New Zealand. A former trooper under his command was interviewed in 1900 ("old Von was a terror with his bowie"), and still possessed his broken and retipped knife which Von Tempsky provided his cadre, and described as still nearly a bayonet (bayonets of that era and British make being quite long)....no heavy cleaver would fit that description, although the knives were reputed to be circa 1/4" thick.

Obviously, the bowie made by Bo Randall is very close to such a knife and was noted so by Raymond Thorpe. The Bagwell, in addition, has the curved sabre down/up belly and spine from guard to tip design. Other features not immediately apparent would be the hand-specific handle (biased, actually, and still works great in opposite), which is more straight back from spine on top with a slight flair at rear, while curving down and deepening on the bottom, reinforced tip of knife dropped to centerline, handle designed for retention as well as heel of hand to pommel for increased reach in thrusts, while flats prevent twisting.

Of the "bowie" knives out there, the Thorpe and Bagwell seem to me to be as close as one might get.

PS- a true blade artist of the time, or any time, would also have had a dagger or toothpick in weak hand to guard the weak side, but that is a totally different story except in regards also to such knives being offered nowadays being also proper and correct, and not just a hollywood thing.

PPS-1842 NYC even

Lofty, thank you very much!
It is very interesting.

Human beings are finite in all matters, and have finite ranges of motion, as well as finite ways of conducting personal combat. What works best for the human body spans the ages, and appears again and again. Proportions, angles, drop, balance, actual utility or no. Resistance is futile.

(that is a 1-8, and plain eerie how like they are in hand. Quality do tell.)

From what I remember from Bill Bagwell's demonstration of how to use a Bowie, one turns the knife opposite of the main blade and uses the top sharpened portion of the blade down on the enemy, as the first thrust. An interesting idea from the normal thinking.

Pap

Back cut aka "Bowie's deadly back cut". It can come from anywhere and go anywhere, independent of initial blade move, and too fast to counter. As fast as you can go from thumb up to thumb down, left or right, up or down. Three can be done in one thrust or parry. All the force of the blow is concentrated on very tip (razor sharp tip, or should be) which acts as a raking talon. At least, I am guessing that is what Bill was showing. And could be wrong as wrong can be.

PS- Was laughing after reading what I wrote. Was thinking of the Crocodile Dundee "now...THAT'S a knife" scene, and how unintentionally accurate the screen gag writers were in basic knife as well as the cuts to the mugger's jacket.

With this particular Bagwell, at only an ounce over a #14 while still 0.220" out at clip origin, a 1-8 might feel much as a dagger to many, the Bagwell a more pronounced knife feel, specifically a heavy butcher knife feel. And "large" always needs be put in perspective.



As anyone from Texas would confirm, the only real bowie knife of the lot would be the top one, while admitting it might run a wee light for Jim Bowie.

A little

A rare Bill Bagwell since he generally makes only Bowie knives. Very nice.

Pap

Studies have been done by certain police forces in the US. Conclusion is that, if a cop is approached by a guy with a knife, within a 21 foot distance, shooting him is righteous. Canadian courts support this .

21 feet would be a pretty good knife throw.

Got absolutely nothing to do with throwing a knife, from google:

The 21-foot rule was developed by Lt. John Tueller, a firearms instructor with the Salt Lake City Police Department. Back in 1983, Tueller set up a drill where he placed a "suspect" armed with an edged weapon 20 or so feet away from an officer with a holstered sidearm.

The Tueller drill is more or less a requirement in defensive pistol training.

Well, the thought seems to be that 21 feet represents about two seconds for a knife guy to get close enough to stab somebody, and that is the reaction time needed for a cop to,draw, and fire to defend himself. Sounded logical to me. And by the way, I grew up throwing knives at a distance of thirty feet or so. Twenty one feet is no challenge.

James Caan, as the character Mississippi, in the movie El Dorado, could unsheath his knife from behind his neck and get the bad guy before his gun could clear leather.
Yep!

James Coburn in the movie "Magnificent Seven" threw his knife before the other Cowboy could draw.

but, but, but.......Mississippi could not shoot. He ended up shooting John Wayne in the butt with a shotgun blast.
Seems odd with the hand-eye coordination necessary for the knife skills, but that is what makes it fun!

Did a couple more photos, then in nature in natural light.

Interestingly, the butt of handle has a slight twist. I also had it when I made a knife for myself. Very convenient actually.








bild hochladen

My bowie handle is nearly straight back on right side, flared to left and drops away to that side for my right hand, keeping knife centered in hold, and all quite intentional.

Nice to see a non-bowie.

photographed in the illumination of my favorite flashlight

That's a rare Bagwell. He has been exclusively making Bowies for the past 25 years.

Pap

Unfortunately, Bill Bagwell passed away. A note about this was published in the knifemagazine on February 19, 2021, I found out only now.

Got another one, it looks like Randall #Gambler and at the same time San Francisco bowies (Will & Finck, etc.), wood handle has a couple of cracks, leather sheath. It is well polished, the blade is oxidized, there is a feeling that it is Damascus, some reflections show it. It is rather difficult to capture the surface, as it is polished and black, so I took a few photos. For size comparison shown next to #10-5. The balance is good - on the front cut of the bolster.