All About Pocket Knives

A friend tells me he has an antique James Hawksley Bowie, which probably relates to G. & J. W. Hawksley, Ltd., a London gun implements supplier of the 19th Century.

Has anyone on here any knowledge of Bowies bearing that firm's mark?

correction: the friend says, JOSEPH Hawksley (not James).

I have not seen the knife; so I do not know how closely it hews to a "legitimate; traditional" Bowie pattern or if it is a Bowie variant, i.e., a Bowie-styled hunting knife.

Pictures please.

I now have photos to show.

Comments please -- good; bad or ugly, but preferably informed.

Thanks.

I don't know real or fake but it is a wonderful looking knife. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Interesting! Looks to have a hidden tang inside a nickel silver handle with stag slabs attached.Don't think I've ever seen that type of construction before. Far from being an expert on bowies(or anything else)but it looks original to me.and what appears to be the original sheath is a big plus.

Looked for Hawksley in Levine's 2nd & 4th plus Goin's 2nd Editions with no success. Looks to be a very formidable Bowie. I'm pretty limited on English knife-making reference books.

Thanks for the comments.

The owner believes the sheath to be original, but with the leather belt loop a more recent addition.

Just looking at that formidable piece of Sheffield steel the phrase does come to mind: "I'd rather take a bullet".




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Whatever the case may be... It's a phenomenal knife stump .
A person that knows how to use something like that, sure could do a lot of damage with it, that's for sure .
It looks more like a small sword to me, from where i'm sitting, then a bowie. Super cool anyway .
I don't know much about bowies either, or vintage Sheffield knives, but it looks very legit to me, construction/matching sheath/ageing.
Anyway, thank you for sharing .
Willy

I saw the knife today.

Knif7knut:

I note your point about the unusual handle constriction, with the cast nickel silver over what must be an internal steel tang, adorned with gnarly stag covers.

It looks like it took some effort to fashion, as the stag is accommodated by a recess in the nickel silver, fitted in such way as to suggest a cutler’s original work, however unorthodox.

1967redrider:

I see Joseph Hawksley cited twice in my copy of GOINs’, 1998 copyright, but with no more than one sentence of description, and no dating. So, we do not know if this weapon, with the big saber-ground blade, was made at a time when carrying a Bowie was practical, or, later, aspirational.