Now that I am freshly retired from LEO-ing, and being a life-long resident of SE Texas, a nice large Bowie blade seems to be a fitting grail, for which to start a quest. A Bowie knife is bit of Excalibur, and more than a bit of Texas/Louisiana history/heritage; what’s not to like? The first maker entering my mind is Bill Bagwell, as I have one of his smaller blades, a bit over 7”, purchased pre-owned, and looking a bit used by its previous owner(s). For an actual carry Bowie, the Bagwell I have on hand may serve quite well enough. For reference, it is about the size of a Randall 1-7.
If I were to decide upon a high-end production blade, the Randall Raymond Thorp Bowie has my attention. I am not saying that the author, Raymond Thorp, necessarily wrote true history; historical fiction is probably more accurate. I am not interested in the brass-backed blade concept, whether it is historically accurate, or not. This model does seem to ber. Reasonable resemblance to some Bowies in historic photos. A big drawback is that it is quite heavy, though not as heavy as the Randall Smithsonian Bowie.
A more practical Bowie, from Randall, is the “12-9-14.” This is the Randall, Model 12, 9-inch blade, with the blade ground in the manner of the Randall Model 14.
A couple of other makers, who have been associated with Bill Bagwell, have made knives that really captured my attention, in the past, but I have not yet been able to confirm they are still making blades.