>>1081609Original US frontiersman knives where Sheffield butcher knives that tended to be modified by the owners. In the case of Bowie, it was a cross between the mass and length of the original butcher's knife and the clip point of the Spanish Navaja which was also relatively common amongst sailors as a bit of a utility/self defence knife. Things like the larger guards or a D-guard came along later in the evolution of the Bowie, (probably long after the original) when areas US finally got their shit together enough to start up local manufacturing and where no longer importing as many from the UK.
Stuff like the pins in the handle (Coffin style above) was particular to early Sheffield knives where they run in parallel down the handle and adopted into the design as well.
Personally I'm not much of a fan of the Bowie style knife for outdoorsy stuff, its just a bit too big for most of the fiddly shit, the guard gets in the way more often than its of use and they're not usually robust enough to use as a machete. But they do a bit of everything so some people still like them
